--- title: "Lens Effects Layer" canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VMAX/113587016/Lens%20Effects%20Layer" format: markdown --- This page provides information on the Lens Effects layer found in the V-Ray Frame Buffer (VFB). Overview V-Ray Lens Effects simulate real-world camera lens effects such as bloom and glare. The plug-in uses a fast multi-threaded technique to compute the result and provide an immediate update in the VFB. V-Ray Lens Effects are applied in the effectsResult channel together with other post effects executed over the RGB rendered image. Learn more about the V-Ray Lens Effects in the The Lights Touch article. The V-Ray Lens Effects can also be refined via V-Ray masks. Learn more on the Masks page. The Lens Effects layer is accessible from the Layers panel in the VFB and becomes active when the lens effects are enabled. It can be blended with the rest of the layers in the VFB. The Lens Effects layer can be disabled from the visibility icon ( ). Disabled layers are indicated by the icon. ||V-Ray Frame Buffer|| >  Layers Lens FX controls Opacity – Controls the weight of the layer. A value of 0 means no effect and a value of 1.0 means full effect. Enable bloom/glare – Enables the V-Ray Lens Effects. Size – Specifies the size of the filter as percentage of the image's diagonal. See the Size example . Intensity – Multiplier for the bloom/glare source bright pixels. Increasing the value can boost the effect by simulating up to 20 times brighter source. Values lower than 1 can be used to produce subtle bloom/glare from overbright sources. See the  Intensity example . Bloom  – Controls the blend between bloom and glare. A value of 1 forces bloom to be applied to full extent and without any glare. A value of 0 removes the bloom completely and applies only glare. Values in-between blend the two effects proportionally.  See the  Bloom/Glare example . Threshold  – Sets a minimum value for the rendered pixels to be considered as lens effects source. The  Bloom/Glare effect  is generated only regarding pixels with larger value than the specified threshold. Rotation  – Rotates the final result, whether it is a filtered image or a procedural one. Saturation – When the value is set to 0, the effects use the original hue of the bright pixels to create bloom and glare. Larger values intensify the hue set with the Cold/Warm  option.  See the  Cold/Warm & Saturation examples . Hardware Accelerated – When enabled, calculates lens effects on the GPU. When multiple devices are present, V-Ray prioritizes the best one available. Cold/Warm  – When enabled, the  Bloom/Glare effect is toned to cold hues. When disabled, the effects receive warm hue. The hue shift requires  Saturation  values larger than 0.  See the  Cold/Warm & Saturation examples . Interactive  – When enabled, the Bloom/Glare effect is automatically recalculated and applied after any V-Ray lens effects parameter change. Save Glare channel – When enabled, writes the glare channel to a file when writing all channels. Update – Manually forces the recalculation of the bloom/glare effects. Bake intensity – When enabled, the intensity is baked in the Glare channel. Otherwise, a default intensity of 1.0 is saved so that it can be adjusted via post-processing. Create effectsResult channel  – When enabled, it generates an effectsResult channel without needing the  Denoiser  render element to be active. Otherwise, the lens effects are applied to the RGB channel instead. You can modify the frequency at which the lens effects are updated during progressive rendering via the Post effect rate parameter. It is located in the V-Ray Settings > System rollout. Increase the value if you want to see the lens effects updated more often during IPR with V-Ray and V-Ray GPU. However, note that using large values is only useful in IPR and is not recommended for the final rendering. Example: Size Size  = 1 Intensity (constant) = 1.00 Size = 50 Intensity (constant) = 1.00 Size = 100 Intensity (constant) = 1.00 Example: Bloom / Glare Bloom = 0.0 Streak blur (constant) = 0.20 Bloom = 0.5 Streak blur (constant) = 0.20 Bloom = 1.0 Streak blur (constant) = 0.20 Example: Intensity Intensity = 0 Size (constant) = 50 Intensity = 5 Size (constant) = 50 Intensity = 10 Size (constant) = 50 Example: Cold/Warm & Saturation Saturation = 1.5 Cold/Warm On Lights shaded with pure white color Saturation = 0.0 Cold/Warm On Lights shaded with pure white color Saturation = 1.5 Cold/Warm Off Lights shaded with pure white color Aperture Shape Clicking the button displays/hides the parameters of the rollout. Blades  – Enables the Blades effect. Sides  – Sets the custom camera aperture blades number to be considered for the lens effects. This parameter directly controls the number of "rays" of the glare. Blades rotation  –   Controls the rotation of the camera aperture and blades. Streak blur  – Determines the width of the angle at which glare rays spread. The larger the value, the wider the spread. If set to 0, rays are directional; if set to 1, glare rays spread out and completely blend together.  Observe in the  Streak blur example how values in-between change the glare rays appearance. Peripheral grating  – Enables grating along the sides of the aperture shape.  Density  – Controls the density of the grating effect in percent, where 100 is fully black. Length  – Controls the length of the grate lines. Zoom  – Controls the size of the halo around the lights. Slope  – Controls the direction of the lines. Strength  – Controls the strength of the blades effects. Occlusion  – When enabled, it controls the aperture shape by occluding part of it. Symmetric  – Enables symmetric occlusion of the shape. When disabled, the occlusion appears only on one side of the shape. Percent  – Controls how much of the shape is occluded. Rotation  – Determines the position of the occlusion over the shape by rotation. Arc  – Controls the arc of the occlusion. A value of 0 sets a straight line, while a value of 100 makes an arc.     Example: Streak blur Streak blur = 0.0 Bloom (constant) = 0 Streak blur = 0.5 Bloom (constant) = 0 Streak blur = 1.0 Bloom (constant) = 0 Lens Scratches Lens scratches – Enables the lens scratches effect. Symmetric – When enabled, creates a symmetric pattern of the scratches. This option is available only when Pattern  is  Random . Pattern  – Specifies  Random ,  Stripes ,  Square  or  Hexagonal  type of pattern for the scratches. Streaks  – Specifies the number of streaks that are clustered together. If Symmetric is enabled, the streaks are stemming from one point with equal angles. If Symmetric is disabled, the streaks are scattered from random angles. Density  – Controls the density of the scratches effect in percent, where 100 is fully black. Length  – Controls the length of the scratches. Slope variance  – Randomizes the direction of the scratches. Width variance  – Randomizes the width of the scratches. Seed  – Specifies a seed parameter to introduce variance in the randomization. Zoom  – Controls the size of the pattern. Rotation  – Determines the position of the scratches by rotation. Strength  – Controls the strength of the effect. Lens Dust Lens dust  – Enables the lens dust effect. Pattern  – Specifies the  Random ,  Square , or  Hexagonal  type of pattern for the dust. Density  – Controls the density of the dust effect in percent, where 100 is fully black. Radius variance  – Specifies a variance in the radii of the dust dots. A value of 0 makes the dust dots uniform. Jitter  – Controls randomization of the position of the dots. Zoom  –  Controls the size of the dust dots. Rotation  – Determines the position of the dust dots by rotation. Strength  – Controls the strength of the effect. Obstacle Image Obstacle image – When enabled, an obstacle image can be specified. The image diffracts the wave light when it goes through the small imperfections produced by the image. The file format can be HDR, PNG, etc. See how this changes the lens effects in the Obstacle Image example . Load Obstacle Image  – Loads an obstacle image. Browse – Opens a browser to search for an obstacle image. Recent – Shows a list of recently used obstacle images. Zoom  – Controls the size of the obstacle image.  Rotation  – Rotates the obstacle image.  Strength  – Controls the strength of the effect. Example: Obstacle Images Obstacle images used Size (constant) = 50 Bloom (constant) = 0.5 Filter Image Enabling this rollout disables the controls for the generated filter: Filter image – Enables a custom filter image that has central dispersion. Uses an HDR image as an input, that has a center point of scattering. It can be generated with different external applications. Load Filter – Specifies the path to custom bitmap image (in HDR format) to use as filter. Browse – Opens a browser to search for a filter image. Recent – Shows a list of recently used filter images. Example: Filter Image Chromatic Aberration Chromatic aberration – Enables chromatic aberration, an effect that simulates lens color distortion and gives realism to the render. The chromatic aberration is a phenomenon where the edge of a convex lens splits the white light into different wavelengths onto a sensor of a camera, so the image shows a presence of red and blue light. Mostly visible on the sides of the image. Strength – Controls the strength of the effect. See the Strength example . Example: Chromatic Aberration Strength Depending on the  Strength  of the chromatic aberration, you can create different looks in your scene. You can imitate the effect of a real camera with subtle aberration, or, if you wish to achieve an artistic effect, consider increasing the Strength parameter, as in the example. Strength = Off Strength = 0.25 Strength = 0.5 Aperture Preview The Aperture Preview panel is loaded by default, but can be minimized like the other Aperture groups. The aperture shape shows the result of the applied lens effects. File Names of Saved Channels As expected, channels will keep their names as displayed in the VFB when saving them to a single .vrimg or  .exr  file (using the  V-Ray raw image file  option from the Frame buffer rollout or the  Save all image channels to single file  VFB button). The same channel names will be appended to the files when you use the VFB button  Save all image channels to separate files . Notes When using Deadline for network rendering in combination with V-Ray Lens Effects, make sure to disable the Local Rendering option when submitting to Deadline. Otherwise, Deadline is not able to save your bloom/glare effects.