How to edit vray sphere

arail1 · 2 Nov 2011, 01:20

I'm making a chandelier using vray spheres. Normally, to edit a vray light I right click and then click on V-Ray for SketchUp at the bottom of the right click list. But that line doesn't show up when I click on the spheres. I think I'm using 1.49.

Thanks in advance for any help ya got.

thomthom · 2 Nov 2011, 07:37

The V-Ray Sphere is not a light, it is just a sphere.

arail1 · 2 Nov 2011, 11:15

Well that's weird. I assumed anything V-Ray gave me in that category was a light. Why do they have a sphere? What's it's purpose? If a sphere, why not a cube? I had to make a chandelier with 120 bulbs. I thought the V-Ray spheres were meant to be bulbs.

Not really a problem. I can do a white glow in post.

Thanks, as always, for your reply(ies).

thomthom · 2 Nov 2011, 12:03

You have Rectangular Lights, Spot Lights, IES and Omni Lights. Rectangular Lights are the only ones which you can see in the render. The others just emit light from their point of origin.

To give the illusion of a glowing object add an Emmisive layer to it's material - but note that the emmisive layer is just for visual effect. They don't work well for providing illumination to the scene.

Besides the Sphere you also have the Infinite Plane which is a special geometric object and not a light source.

thomthom · 2 Nov 2011, 12:04

I think the sphere where originally added as a way to quickly add a round smooth object for test renders. Now it's just stuck there as people would probably complain if it was removed. Kind of like the Utah Teapot, or the Blender Monkey Susan - just a lot simpler.

valerostudio · 2 Nov 2011, 15:40

I know that Fernando uses a sphere with a mirror material to help align HDRI images, so maybe its in there for that too. I dont like the Vray sphere because it is pretty low poly. When I need a sphere I use the 3D Shapes Tool plug-in which can be found on SketchUcation.