--- title: "VRayDirt" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VMAX/113575816/VRayDirt" format: markdown --- This page provides information on the Occlusion or Dirt Map. Overview VRayDirt is a texture map that can be used to simulate a variety of effects: for example, dirt around the crevices of an object, or to produce an ambient occlusion pass. ||Material Editor|| > Material > Map Browser > Maps > V-Ray > VRayDirt Parameters Radius – Determines the amount of area (in scene units) where the VRayDirt effect is produced. You can also use a texture to control the radius. The texture intensity is multiplied by the radius to calculate the final radius at a given surface point. If the texture is white at a given surface point, the full radius value is used. If the texture is black, a radius of 0.0 is used. For more information, see Radius Parameter example or the Texmap Radius example . Occluded color – Specifies the color to be returned by the texture for occluded areas. You can also use a texture map for this parameter. Unoccluded color – Specifies the color to be returned by the texture for unoccluded areas. You can also use a texture map for this parameter. Distribution – Forces the rays to gather closer to the surface normal. The effect is that the dirt area is being narrowed closer to the contact edges. The Distribution parameter works with Inner occlusion , Ambient occlusion , and Ambient + inner occlusion modes. For ambient occlusion, set this parameter to 1.0 to get distribution similar to the ambient lighting on a diffuse surface. For more information, see the Distribution Parameter example . Falloff – Controls the speed of the transition between occluded and unoccluded areas. For more information, see the  Falloff Parameter example . Subdivs  – Controls the number of samples that V-Ray takes to calculate the dirt effect. Lower values render faster but produce a more noisy result. Low  Noise threshold  values in the  Image Sampler clean the result further.  For more information, see the   Subdivision Parameter example . Bias (X,Y,Z)  – These parameters bias the normals to the (X, Y, Z) axes, so that the dirt effect is forced to those directions. Consider that these parameters can also take negative values for inverting the direction of the effect.  For more information, see the   Bias example . Affect alpha  – When enabled, the texture automatically receives an alpha component from the generated dirt distribution and this way makes the unoccluded area of the VRayDirt map transparent. When disabled, the alpha values from the maps used in Occluded  and Unoccluded color  slots are applied.  Ignore for GI  – Ignores the dirt effect in GI calculations.  For more information, see  Ignore for GI example . Ignore bump – Excludes bump maps from VRayDirt computations. The option is useful, when the bump effect is too strong and may produce undesirable effects such as holes. For more information, see Ignore bump example . Ignore self occlusion – When enabled, the object does not occlude itself. It is occluded only by other objects in the scene. Currently, Ignore self occlusion is not supported with V-Ray GPU. Consider same object only  – When enabled, the dirt affects only the objects themselves, without including contact surfaces and edges. If off, the entire scene geometry is participating for the final result.  For more information, see  Consider Same Object Only example . Double sided  – When enabled, rays are traced both in the direction of the normal and in the opposite direction. This creates an effect where both crevices and edges are occluded.  Ignore invisible objects  – When enabled, VRayDirt takes into account the opacity of the occluding objects. This can be used, for example, if you want to calculate ambient occlusion from opacity-mapped trees etc. When disabled (by default), occluding objects are always assumed to be opaque. Note that working with correct opacity is slower, since, in that case, VRayDirt must examine and evaluate the material on the occluding objects. If the renderer is set to V-Ray GPU renderer ,   Ignore invisible objects only applies to the invisible lights in the scene. Enabling the Ignore invisible objects option also respects the Invisible parameter of V-Ray lights, causing them to be excluded from the rendering calculations. Environment occlusion  – Includes environment contribution to the shading of unoccluded areas. Thin mode – Enhances the look of thin surfaces by casting less dirt on them. It is available only for Inner occlusion mode . For more information, see Thin mode example . Mode  – Specifies the mode in which the dirt map is going to be calculated. Ambient occlusion  – Normal ambient occlusion is calculated. Reflection occlusion (Phong, Blinn, Ward)  – Reflection occlusion is used. The difference between ambient and reflection occlusion is basically in the direction in which rays are traced. With ambient occlusion rays are traced in all directions uniformly while with reflection occlusion the direction depends on the viewing direction (just as when calculating reflections) and the spread of the rays depends on the Reflection glossiness and BRDF type used. Inner occlusion  – Inverts the effect with respect to surface normals - e.g. instead of crevices, open corners are shaded with the occluded color. This mode changes the direction of tracing the rays. When this mode is selected, the rays are traced inside the surface, otherwise, they are traced outside the surface.  For more information, see Inner Occlusion example . Ambient + inner occlusion – A combination of Ambient occlusion and Inner occlusion modes used for enhanced weathering effect. Streaks ambient – Draws streaks across dirt effect respective to ambient occlusion. For more information, see the Streak Ambient example . Streaks inner – Draws streaks across dirt effect respective to inner occlusion. Streaks blur – Gives ability to blur the streaks. Bare in mind that new algorithm is calculating this effect, and the visual representation of the streaks is different. For more information, see the Streak Blur example . Blur – Controls the amount of the blur of the streaks. The Blur effect of streaks is currently not supported for GPU rendering. Streaks size – Controls the thickness of all streaks. For more information, see the Streak Size example . Streaks density – Controls the density of the streaks. This option is not supported on V-Ray GPU. For more information, see the Streak Density example . Reflection glossiness  – Controls the spread of the rays traced for Reflection Occlusion. A value of 1 means that just a single ray is traced (just like when tracing clear reflections), smaller values cause multiple rays to be traced in the approximate reflection direction. Affect reflection elements  – When enabled, the ambient reflection affects the reflection render elements. This can be used to create reflection mask. Exclude  – Disables the calculation of the VRayDirt map for specific objects. Excluded object are not shaded by the VRayDirt map. Affected by  – Specifies a list of objects that affect the calculation of the VRayDirt map. Excluded objects are considered "invisible" for the calculations of the VRayDirt map - they don't produce the effect over other objects. Output Settings Invert – Reverses the hues of the map. Clamp – Limits the values of the colors to equal or less than 1.0. Use this option when increasing the RGB Level , to prevent the map from looking self-illuminated. Note that when Clamp is on and the value of RGB Offset is above 1.0, all colors become white. Alpha from RGB Intensity – When enabled, an alpha channel is generated based on the intensity of the RGB channels in the map. Enable Color Map – Enables the use of the Color Map. Output Amount – Controls the amount of the map that is being mixed into a composite material. This parameter affects the map's saturation and alpha values. RGB Offset – Adds colors to the RGB values of the map based on the amount set by the spinner, which affects the tonal value of the colors. RGB Level – Multiplies the RGB values of the map colors by the amount set by the spinner, which affects the saturation of the colors. Bump Amount – Adjusts the bumpiness amount when the map is used as a bump map. Example: Radius Parameter   This parameter determines the amount of area (in units) where the VRayDirt effect is produced. The Dirt color has been tinted red to clarify the effect. The scene used for these examples is a small paper 1/100th scale-model of the architecture. Simple VRayMtl - no Dirt effect Radius = 1 cm Radius = 4 cm Example: Texmap Radius In the next example, a bitmap is used in the Radius texture map slot. Notice that the main Radius parameter still has effect - it determines the amount of area where the bitmap would blend. In the first image, the Radius parameter is set to 1 cm, and in the second image it is set to 4 cm. Radius = 1 cm Radius = 4 cm Example: Distribution Parameter The Distribution parameter forces the rays to gather closer. The effect is that the dirt area is being narrowed closer to the contact edges. Rays distribution (X,Y,Z) axis Equal angle between rays distribution Distribution parameter = 0.0 Rays distribution (X,Y,Z) axis Different angle between rays distribution Distribution parameter > 0.0 Distribution = 1.0 Distribution = 3.0 Distribution = 10.0 Example: Falloff Parameter Falloff = 0.0 Falloff = 3.0 Falloff = 5.0 Example: Subdivisions Parameter   To better illustrate the Subdivs parameter, the VRayDirt material has been assigned as a diffuse map to VRayMtl. The Diffuse Filter Render Element has been rendered to clearly display the diffuse effect. The Noise threshold in the Image sampler has been set to 0.15 for this example. Lower values, such as 0.01 automatically clean up the result. Subdivs = 1 Subdivs = 5 Subdivs = 20 Example: Bias This parameter biases the normals so that the dirt effect is forced to some of the axis(es). Bias_X = 100.0 Bias_Y = 100.0 Bias_Z = 100.0 Example: Ignore for GI   When Ignore for GI is enabled, the dirt effect doesn't contribute to the global illumination and so it's invisible during the GI calculation. Note that the examples show the calculation of the GI (during Light cache calculations), hence the noise. On Off Example: Ignore bump When enabled, this option excludes bump effects from the VrayDirt computations. Off On   Example: Inner Occlusion The Inner Occlusion allows the user to invert the effect with respect to surface normals - e.g., instead of crevices, open corners are shaded with the occluded color. Off On Example: Consider Same Object Only Off On Example: Thin mode Enhances the look of thin surfaces by casting less dirt on them. Available only for Inner occlusion mode. Off On Example: Streaks Ambient For this example the Streaks Ambient parameter is enabled and the Mode is set to Ambient occlusion . Depending on the values of  X and Y axes, the streaks change. In the first render, the X axis is set to 0 and the Y axis is set to -15 . In the second render, the X axis is set to 0 and the Y axis is set to -7 . In the third image, the X axis gets a value of 10 and the Y axis is set to -7. The Z axis has a value of 30 for both renders. X = 0 , Y = -15 , Z = 30 X = 0 , Y = -7 , Z = 30 X = 10 , Y = -7 , Z = 30 Example: Streaks Size For this example, the  Streaks Ambient  parameter is enabled and the  Mode  is set to  Ambient Оcclusion . The  Streaks Size controls the thickness of all streaks. Streaks Size = 1 Streaks Size = 2 Streaks Size = 5   Example: Streaks Blur For this example, Streaks Blur is enabled and higher values increase the blur effect. Streaks Blur = 0 Streaks Blur = 0.5 Streaks Blur = 1 Example: Streaks Density For this example, Streaks Density is enabled and it controls the density of the streaks. Streaks Density = 0.3 Streaks Density = 0.5 Streaks Density = 1 Notes If you want to exclude V-Ray Lights from the calculations done by the V-Ray Dirt texture, enable Ignore invisible objects parameter to get it to respect the Invisible setting on the lights. VRayDirt and VRayCurvature have their own Subdivs parameters which work independently from the Adaptive sampling settings.