---
title: "V-Ray Standalone Rendering"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/PHX4MAX/125311506/V-Ray%20Standalone%20Rendering"
format: markdown
---
# This page provides information on Rendering Chaos Phoenix using V-Ray Standalone.


## **Overview**

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[V-Ray Standalone](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VNS) is full-featured and programmable command-line renderer that allows you to render scenes exported in V-Ray’s native .vrscene file format.

V-Ray Standalone supports V-Ray's complete feature set including CPU & GPU rendering capabilities.


When rendering Phoenix volumes ( such as smoke and fire, Phoenix meshed liquids or Phoenix particle systems such as Foam, Splash and Mist or any of the Phoenix [textures](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAX/pages/124394618)) on a machine that will be used only as a render node, but will not simulate - Phoenix will not require a license for rendering - you just need Phoenix installed on the machine which will render the data.

## **Setting up Phoenix Rendering using V-Ray Standalone**

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For more information on installing V-Ray Standalone, see the [V-Ray Standalone Installation Guide](https://docs.chaos.com/display/VNS/Installation+Guide) page.


Installing Chaos Phoenix on a machine which will be used only as a render node, where there is no DCC application installed (such as 3ds Max) is straightforward  - just follow the steps in the [Phoenix Setup and Installation](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAX/pages/124659068) page.

Alternatively after running the Phoenix installer, you could append the **C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\Phoenix FD\3ds Max 20xx for x64\vray6plugins** path to the **VRAY_PLUGINS** environment variable, but please note that this would affect **all installed V-Ray Standalone versions**.

Another alternative and the official way to do this for V-Ray versions older than **V-Ray 6** would be to copy all files from **C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\Phoenix FD\3ds Max 20xx for x64\vray5plugins** to the V-Ray Standalone plugins folder **C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\Standalone for x64\bin\plugins**

## **Troubleshooting**

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If the Phoenix fluid is missing when rendering with V-Ray Standalone or you get any errors in the console, please try the following:

- Try using the latest versions of Phoenix and V-Ray.
- Confirm that the versions of Phoenix and V-Ray are matching. Phoenix has different installers for V-Ray Next, V-Ray 5 and V-Ray 6.
- If you're doing a DR render - make sure the simulation caches are shared on a network location that all the machines can see. Note: They all must have permissions to access this network folder. *For more details, see **[Distributed Rendering of Fluid Caches for Phoenix](https://docs.chaos.com/display/PHX3MAX4EDIT/Distributed+Rendering#DistributedRendering-drCaches)**.*