--- title: "Material Output" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VBLD/117638221/Material%20Output" format: markdown --- This page provides information about the Material Output Node in V-Ray for Blender. Overview The Material Output node connects all nodes in the V-Ray Shader Node Tree to the scene. Any nodes not connected in any way to the Material Output are not reflected in the scene. UI Path:  ||V-Ray Node Editor|| >  Shader > Add > V-Ray Material Output Only one Material Output node can affect the same material. If you have two nodes in your Shader Node tree, only one of them is active. Properties Don't Override – This option disables the Material Override ( if any is applied to the scene) for the current material. Material ID Material ID – Enable this option to set a custom Material ID for the entire material, overriding any Material IDs already present in the setup. Multimatte ID – Enable this option to set a custom Multimatte ID for the entire material, overriding any Multimatte IDs already present in the setup. Render Stats Render Stats – Enable to specify additional settings for the entire material. These settings override any existing settings for the individual components of the material. Primary Visibility – Specifies whether the material is seen by the camera rays. Visible In Reflections – Determines whether the material is visible in reflections. Visible In Refractions – Determines whether the material is visible in refractions. Casts Shadows – Determines whether the material casts shadows in the scene. Receives Shadows – Determines whether shadows cast by other objects in the scene are visible on the material. Example: Primary Visibility This example shows the effect of the  Primary Visibility  parameter. The V-Ray Render Stats material is applied to the glass owl figurine. When Primary Visibility is disabled, the glass owl figurine is not visible to the camera, but it is still visible in reflections and refractions and continues to cast shadows. Off On Example: Cast Shadows This example shows the effect of the  Cast Shadows parameter. The V-Ray Render Stats material is applied to the metallic owl figurine. On Off Example: Visible in Reflections/Refractions This example shows the effect of the  Visible In Reflections  and  Visible In Refractions  parameters. The V-Ray Render Stats material is applied to the metallic owl figurine. When Visible In Reflections is off, the metallic owl is transparent to reflection rays, and respectively when the Visible In Refraction is off, the metallic owl is transparent to refraction rays. When both options are off, the metallic owl is neither visible in the mirror plane nor in the glass owl figurine. Visible In Reflections and Visible In Refractions are on Visible In Reflections is off, Visible In Refractions is on Visible In Reflections is on, Visible In Refractions is off Visible In Reflections and Visible In Refractions are off Wrapper Wrapper – Enable to override the material and use a Mtl Wrapper material instead. This option is useful for debugging and testing. Matte properties Matte Surface – Makes the material appear as a matte material, which shows the background instead of the base material when viewed directly. Note that the base material is still used for things like GI, caustics, reflections, etc. Alpha Contribution  – Determines the appearance of the object in the alpha channel of the rendered image. A value of 1.0 means the alpha channel is derived from the transparency of the base material. A value of 0.0 means the object does not appear in the alpha channel at all and shows the alpha of the objects behind it. A value of -1.0 means that the transparency of the base material cuts out from the alpha of the objects behind. Matte objects are typically given an alpha contribution of -1.0. Note that this option is independent of the Matte surface option (i.e. a surface can have an alpha contribution of -1.0 without being a matte surface). V-Ray GPU works with a value of either 1 or -1. Shadows  – When enabled, makes shadow visible on the matte surface. Affect Alpha – When enabled, makes shadows affect the alpha contribution of the matte surface. Areas in perfect shadow produce white alpha, while completely unoccluded areas produce black alpha. Note that GI shadows (from skylight) are also computed, however, GI shadows on matte objects are not supported by the light cache GI engine, when used as the primary engine. You can safely use it with matte surfaces as secondary engines. Shadow Tint Color  – An optional tint for the shadows on the matte surface. Shadow Brightness – An optional brightness parameter for the shadows on the matte surface. A value of 0.0 makes the shadows completely invisible, while a value of 1.0 shows the full shadows. Reflection Amount  – Shows the reflections from the base material.  V-Ray GPU always renders this parameter with a value of 1.  Refraction Amount  – Shows the refractions from the base material.  V-Ray GPU always renders this parameter with a value of 1.  GI Amount  – Determines the amount of GI shadows. V-Ray GPU always renders this parameter with a value of 0. No GI On Other Mattes  – Causes the object to appear as a matte object in reflections, refractions, GI etc for other matte objects. Note that if this is on, refractions for the matte object might not be calculated (the object appears a matte object to itself and is not able to "see" the refractions on the other side).  Not available with V-Ray GPU. Matte For Sec. Rays – Normally, the base material is used when an object with a Mtl Wrapper is seen through reflections/refractions. Turn this option on if you want the V-Ray Mtl Wrapper to show the environment when seen through reflections/refractions. V-Ray can also do projection mapping to increase the realism. Additional surface properties The options from this rollout are not supported on V-Ray GPU. Generate GI  – Controls the GI generated by the material. Generate GI Mul t. – A multiplier for the amount of GI generated by the material. Receive GI  – Controls the GI received by the material. Receive   GI Mult.  – A multiplier for the amount GI received by the material. Generate Caustics  – When disabled, the material does not generate caustics. Generated Caustics Mult. – A multiplier for the caustics generated by the material. Receive Caustics  – When disabled, the material does not receive caustics. Received Caustics Mult. – A multiplier for the received caustics by the material. Miscellaneous GI Surface ID – This number can prevent the blending of light cache samples across different surfaces. If two objects have different  GI Surface IDs , the light cache samples of the two objects are not blended. This can be useful for preventing light leaks between objects of vastly different illumination. Round Edges Round Edges – Enable to apply a round edges effect to the entire material. Radius – Specifies a radius for the round edges effect. Since the actual geometry is not being changed and only the normals of the faces are affected large values here may produce undesirable effects. Consider Same Object Only – When enabled, the rounded corners are produced only along edges that belong to the same object that has the attribute applied. When disabled, rounded corners are produced along edges formed when the object with the attribute intersects other objects in the scene. Corners – Chooses which edges are considered in the calculation. Possible options are: Convex and Concave – Considers all edges. Convex Only – Only applies Round Edges effect to edges with convex angles.  Concave Only – Only applies Round Edges effect to edges with concave angles.