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title: "How to Create Fog Effect in Solaris"
canonical: "https://documentation.chaos.com/space/VRAYHOUDINI/113280397/How%20to%20Create%20Fog%20Effect%20in%20Solaris"
format: markdown
---
This tutorial shows you how to create an environment fog effect in Solaris using V-Ray. For information on how to simulate fog effects in Houdini, see the  How to Create Fog Effect in Houdini  and  God Rays Effect  tutorials. Overview V-Ray provides tools for creating an atmospheric effect simulating particulate media, such as fog, atmospheric dust, and so forth. The tools can be used both in Houdini and Solaris. In this tutorial, you will learn the workflow in Solaris. The scene used is very simple in order to quickly and easily teach you the basics. To download scene files:  Want to follow along but don’t have a license?:  Workflow Add a  SOP Create  node and, within it, create a geometry to serve as a container for the fog. Adjust the container's size and position if needed. For this tutorial, a simple box is used as the container. Next, create a  Material Library LOP , and dive inside it. There, create a  V-Ray Material Builder  to act as the fog's material. This can be done by right-clicking and selecting V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Material Builder. Name the material accordingly, e.g.,  Fog material . In scenarios involving more complex scenes with multiple materials, proper naming will significantly facilitate navigation and management. Inside the V-Ray Material Builder node, both a V-Ray Material and V-Ray Output nodes are automatically created. The V-Ray Output node helps you control which materials inside the builder are to be rendered at the end. Create a  V-Ray Single  material by right-clicking and selecting V-Ray > Material > V-Ray Single. Place it between the V-Ray Material and the V-Ray Output, ensuring that the  BRDF input  of the V-Ray Single material is connected to the  output slot  of the V-Ray Material, and its  output slot  is connected to the  material slot  of the V-Ray Output. The V-Ray Single material is needed to treat the fog as an environment fog in Solaris/USD. Its  Env. Fog. Mode (USD)  option must be set to  Environment Fog . Reduce the  opacity  of the V-Ray Material  to   0 ; this parameter can be found in the material’s Diffuse tab. Add a  V-Ray Fog Effect  node by selecting V-Ray > Effects > V-Ray Fog Effect. Connect the node to the  use_env_fog input  of the V-Ray Single material. You can add textures for a more complex fog effect look, e.g., V-Ray Checker or V-Ray Noise, or keep it simple. Exit the Material Library LOP and create an  Assign Material LOP . Assign the fog material to the box geometry. To do this, drag the  sopcreate1  into the  Primitives  field of the Assign Material parameters, and drag the  Fog material  to the  Material Path  field of the Assign Material parameters. Alternatively, use the Select primitives button on the right of each field or directly type the paths. More information on material assignments is available on the  Working with Solaris Materials  page. Return back to the Fog Effect parameters inside the Material Library LOP. There, you might need to adjust the  Distance  a bit. Configure the rest of the parameters to your liking. You can find information on each parameter and its effect on the fog on the  V-Ray Fog Effect  page. In this tutorial, the following V-Ray Fog Effect parameters are tweaked: Color is green, Phase Function is -0.185, Distance is 0.5, and Density is 0.45. Select V-Ray as the renderer in Solaris. See an example rendered image on the right.