---
title: "Voxel Shader"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/PHX4MAYA/125768009/Voxel%20Shader"
format: markdown
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## **Overview**

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## **Rendering**

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## > Macro (anchor)

**Surface**

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## **Render Cutter**

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## **Displacement**

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## **Volumetric**

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## **Fire**

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## **Color Gradient and Intensity/Opacity Curve**

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> Macro (ui-text-box)
> 
> You can use the following controls in the color gradients and diagrams:
> 
> **Double click** – Creates a new point or changes an existing one.   
> **Left button drag over a point** – Moves the point. If several points were selected beforehand, they will move the same amount.  
> **Left button drag over several points** – Selects several points.   
> **Middle button drag over the background** – Drags the visible area. If the Shift key is pressed, scales the diagram in the corresponding direction.   
> **Mouse wheel** – Zooms in/out.  
> **Mouse wheel near the borders of the control** – Zooms in/out only along X or only along Y.  
> **Right-click** – Displays a drop-down menu where you can add a point, edit or delete a selected point, and fit the entire diagram or gradient into the view. If multiple points are selected, they can be edited simultaneously. Multiple selected points can also be scaled and flipped with the Scale Selection option as seen below.
> 
> ![image](media://44d2a44d-9b9c-4423-88c3-bd527b0d0458)

## **Fire Lights**

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> Macro (ui-text-box)
> 
> When using Global Illumination (GI), the fire will illuminate everything (scene objects as well as the Simulator's own Smoke) automatically but the rendering will take longer. Turning on Create Fire Lights simulates GI by placing light sources in the bright parts of the fire, which gives similar results and renders much faster. The color and power of these lights are adjusted automatically but can be overridden.
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> <span style="color: #305f7a"> </span>The smoke illumination caused by the Simulator's own fire can be controlled with the Self Shadowing option. If enabled, the smoke will obstruct the path of light from the fire, creating a much more realistic look but decreasing rendering performance. To gain back the rendering speed, set Self Shadowing to Grid-based and decrease the Light Grid Resolution (%) parameter to reduce the number of generated lights.

> Macro (ui-text-box)
> 
> All Fire Lights options are ignored when rendering with V-Ray GPU. Enable Global Illumination from the V-Ray Settings if you need the Smoke and/or the scene to be illuminated by the fire.

## **Smoke Color**

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> Macro (ui-text-box)
> 
> The diffuse color needs external light to become visible if GI is enabled in the V-Ray Render Settings in Maya.

## **Smoke Opacity**

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> Macro (ui-text-box)
> 
> The Smoke Opacity settings below will affect the rendering of Fire if the Fire Opacity Mode in the [Fire](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PHX4MAYA/pages/125996126) rollout is set to Use Smoke Opacity.