---
title: "Render Elements"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VC4D/116855112/Render%20Elements"
format: markdown
---
This page provides information about the V-Ray Render Elements in Cinema 4D.


## **Overview**

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> Macro (anchor)



## **Context Menu**

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## **Render Elements Manager**

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## **How to manage Render Elements**

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## **Categories**

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## **Presets Options**

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## **Supported Render Elements**

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V-Ray supports the following render elements. All render elements support native V-Ray materials.

> ℹ️ In order to render a correct **Raw** render pass, you need to also render the corresponding main element and filter. For example, **Raw Reflection** will require you to render the **Reflection** and **Reflection filter**. For **Raw GI**, you need **GI** and **Diffuse**, etc.


### Beauty

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Background](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855412) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Image background, such as any Background Texture specified in the [Environment overrides](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856808). |
| [Lighting](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853242) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Diffuse direct surface lighting. |
| [Global Illumination (GI) ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855432) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | The diffuse surface global illumination. Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
| [Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853238) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">All indirect reflections from a surface.</span> |
| [Refraction](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855496) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Refractions through a surface. |
| [Specular](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853051) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">All direct specular highlights coming from a surface.</span> |
| [SSS](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855526) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Renders just the subsurface part of the VRaySSS2 material on a separate layer. |
| [Self Illumination ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853045) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Self-illumination of the surface. |
| [Caustics](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853252) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | The caustics on the material. These caustics are present only when the [Caustics](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853270) option of V-Ray is enabled. This channel does not include GI caustics. |
| [Atmospheric Effects](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855403) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Atmospheric effects, such as [Environment Fog](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116854376). |

### Advanced

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Diffuse](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855424) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Pure diffuse surface color. |
| [Shadow](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856782) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Diffuse light that is blocked by other objects. |
| [Total Light](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856171) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Total lighting in the scene, both direct and indirect. |
| [Reflection Filter](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856143) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Reflection filter (the color by which the raw reflections are multiplied to give the final surface reflection). This may be considered an alpha channel for reflections. |
| [Refraction Filter ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853055) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | The refraction filter mitigates the raw refraction layer. This render element returns the color by which the raw refractions are multiplied to give the final surface refraction. This may be considered an alpha channel for refractions. |
| [Light Mix](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855114) |  | Provides adjustment control to the lights in the scene from inside the V-Ray Frame Buffer. |
| [Light Select ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855148) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Extracts the contribution of a user-defined light or a set of lights in the scene as a separate render element. |
| [Reflection IOR](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853041) |  | Used to enhance or reduce Fresnel IOR effects in the final composite. |
| [Reflection Glossiness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856786) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Returns a float value that corresponds with the Reflection Glossiness value of an object's material. |
| [Refraction Glossiness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855976) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Returns a float value that corresponds to the Refraction Glossiness value of an object's material. |
| [Reflection Highlight Glossiness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856886) |  | Returns a grayscale image that corresponds to the value in the Highlight Glossiness of the materials in the scene. |
| [Metalness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856567) | 16bit/32bit | Returns a grayscale image that corresponds to the metalness values of the materials in the scene. |
| [Coat ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855426) | 16bit/32bit | Isolates the reflected light in the scene. |
| [Coat Filter](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116857125) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Reflection filter for V-Ray Material Coat layer.</span> |
| [Coat Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853776) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Indirect reflections coming from the Coat layers of the V-Ray Material used in the scene.</span> |
| [Coat Glossiness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856653) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Returns a float value that corresponds with the Coat Glossiness value of the V-Ray Material Coat layer.</span> |
| [Sheen](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853788) | 16bit/32bit | Isolates the reflected light in the scene. |
| [Sheen Filter](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853784) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Reflection filter for V-Ray Material Sheen layer.</span> |
| [Sheen Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853786) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Indirect reflections coming from the Sheen layer(s) of V-Ray Material used in the scene.</span> |
| [Sheen Glossiness](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856918) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Returns a float value that corresponds with the Sheen Glossiness value of the V-Ray Material Sheen layer.</span> |
| [Toon](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855948) | 16bit/32bit | Creates a toon-like effect on the render. |
| [Toon Lighting](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855706) | 16bit/32bit | Stores direct lighting information from lights in the scene that hit the Toon Material and Toon Material Node. |
| [Toon Specular](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856491) | 16bit/32bit | Stores Toon Specular reflection (highlights) information calculated from the Toon Material and Toon Material Node |

### Matte

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Material ID ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856105) | <span style="color: #999999">–</span> | Material ID of scene objects. |
| [Material Select ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856715) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Renders only the object(s) assigned to a user-specified V-Ray compatible material. The material can be a top-level material or a sub-material of a [VRayBlendMtl](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856705). |
| [Multi Matte](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856641) |  | Uses a single R, G, or B channel to create a matte. |
| [Multi Matte ID](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856774) |  | Isolates objects with specific Multi Matte IDs for compositing purposes. |
| [Object ID ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856503) | <span style="color: #999999">–</span> | Returns solid un-shaded colors to represent numerical identifiers set through that object's Attributes, Object Property, or assigned material. Useful for selection masks. *EXR*s and *.vrimg* formats are stored as integer values. |
| [Object Select](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855458) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Renders only the object(s) called out with a specific Object or Material ID. This effect is reversible to create a render element that excludes a particular object or objects according to Object or Material ID. |
| [Render ID ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855510) | <span style="color: #999999">–</span> | Node render ID of the object that contributes most to the pixel value. |
| [Cryptomatte](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853035) | <span style="color: #202124">forced 32bit (</span><span style="color: #172b4d">for multi-channel files)</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Uses the Cryptomatte convention by Psypop to encode mattes into multichannel OpenEXRs.</span> |
| [Matte Shadow ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856133) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | The matte shadow part of the image. |

### Geometry

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Normals](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856527) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Surface normals in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). |
| [Bump Normals ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856050) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Normals generated by bump maps in screen space (which is not the same as camera space). Use the VRaySamplerInfo utility texture node to get the normals in camera, world, or object space. |
| [Z-depth ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853043) | <span style="color: #202124">forced 32bit (</span><span style="color: #172b4d">for multi-channel files)</span> | Z-depth of surfaces in the scene. |
| [Velocity](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855516) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Surface velocity of an object. This render element is useful for generating motion blur in post-production. |


### Utility

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Enhancer Data](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/377094168) | 16bit/32bit | Contains three render channels: MaterialID, ObjectID, and depth. These channels are automatically generated and are necessary for accurate AI-based image enhancement using the [Chaos AI Enhancer tool](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VCLOUD/pages/126075881). |
| [Sample Rate ](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853039) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Shows an image where the pixel brightness is directly proportional to the number of samples taken at that pixel. |
| [Extra Tex(ture)](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855428) | <span style="color: #202124">forced 32bit </span><span style="color: #172b4d">(optional for multi-channel files)</span> | Renders the entire scene with a single defined texture mapped on all objects. |
| [Lighting Analysis](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/377323678) | 16bit/32bit | Provides а visual representation of the lighting intensity within a rendered frame. |
| [Coverage](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856900) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | For each pixel, the final values for the render element are taken from the object that makes the largest contribution to that pixel. |
| [Sampler Info](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856738) | forced 32bit (for multi-channel files) | Provides information about various aspects of the shaded points - position, normal, bump normal, reflection/refraction vectors, and UVW coordinates. Can be used for world position passes or normal passes. |
| [DR Bucket](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855140) | 16bit/32bit | Displays the machine that rendered each bucket when using distributed rendering with the [Bucket Image Sampler](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855825). |


### Raw

| **Render element** | **Color Depth of EXR floating-point channels** | **Description** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Raw Lighting](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856762) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Raw diffuse direct illumination before it's multiplied by the diffuse surface color. |
| [Raw GI](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856758) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Raw diffuse global illumination (not multiplied by the diffuse surface color). Only present if Global illumination is enabled. |
| [Raw Total Light](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856726) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | The sum of all raw lighting, both direct and indirect. |
| [Raw Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855472) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Pure surface indirect reflection before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color.</span> |
| [Raw Refraction](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856766) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Pure surface refraction before it is multiplied by the refraction filter color. |
| [Raw Coat Filter](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856750) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Creates a solid mask showing the areas of reflection in the Coat layer without being affected by Fresnel. |
| [Raw Coat Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116853778) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | <span style="color: #000000">Pure surface indirect reflection from a V-Ray Material Coat layer before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color.</span> |
| [Raw Sheen Filter](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856770) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Holds information similar to Sheen Filter RE, but without being affected by Fresnel. |
| [Raw Shadow](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116855478) | <span style="color: #202124">16bit/32bit</span> | Raw light that is blocked by other objects. |
| [Raw Sheen Reflection](https://docs-chaos.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/VC4D/pages/116856730) | 16bit/32bit | Pure surface indirect reflection from a V-Ray Material Sheen layer before it is multiplied by the reflection filter color. |