V-Ray Tip: Physically Accurate Water Setup for V-Ray

Realistic water hinges on physically correct shading, scale-aware wave detail, and well-tuned caustics. Below is a compact, production-proven setup you can drop into most scenes.

Physically-correct water shader (VRayMtl)

• Base/Albedo: near black (water is largely reflective; color comes from absorption).
• Reflection: white; Fresnel on; IOR 1.333 (freshwater), 1.34–1.35 (saltwater).
• Roughness: 0.02–0.08 for calm water; 0.1–0.2 for windier surfaces (GGX).
• Refraction: color white; IOR matches reflection; enable “Affect Channels: Color+Alpha”.
• Absorption: use Fog color (slightly teal/green) and Fog multiplier to control depth attenuation (think real meters).
• Shadows: disable “Affect Shadows” on refractive objects if you plan to render true caustics.

Waves and microstructure

• Mid/far water: use stacked normal maps (multi-scale). Drive at least two normal layers at different tiling and scrolling speeds via VRayNormalMap.
• Hero water: add displacement (ocean spectrum, noise-based, or simulation). Prefer 2D displacement on large planes; set Edge length around 2–4 px for crisp silhouettes.
• Avoid overdriving bump/normal; aim for energy-preserving highlights rather than “sparkly” fireflies.

Lighting for believable sparkle

• Use a 32-bit HDRI Dome Light or V-Ray Sun & Sky. Low sun angles intensify caustics and grazing reflections.
• Keep textures unclamped; render to 16/32-bit EXR to preserve highlight energy.
• Interior pools: add an Area/Rect light to emulate skylight bounces if needed; enable “Affect Specular” for brighter highlights.

Caustics: crisp, artifact-free

• Enable Caustics in Render Settings. Ensure lights “Generate Caustics”; water “Cast Caustics”; receiving surfaces “Receive Caustics”.
• Start point: photon count in the low millions; refine with Search Distance ≈ 2–5% of the pool size for sharp patterns; increase if blotchy.
• Disable “Affect Shadows” on refractive materials to avoid fake light transmission that kills caustics.
• Use the VRayCaustics render element for grading control; avoid heavy denoising on caustics to keep detail.

Shallow water, color and foam

• Depth color: drive Fog multiplier by real scale; shallow = lighter/turquoise, deep = saturated/green-blue.
• Shoreline foam: use VRayDistanceTex from water to collision geometry as a mask in a VRayBlendMtl to mix a white, slightly rough layer; animate DistanceTex or scroll noise for motion.
• Sand/ground visibility: blend subtle albedo/normal detail beneath water via thin geometry or projected textures; keep roughness low to let reflections dominate.

Performance and stability

• Adaptive sampler threshold: 0.01–0.03 for finals; raise for previews.
• Clamp extreme fireflies with Max Ray Intensity ≈ 10–20 (use judiciously to avoid dulling highlights).
• Use Region/Mask renders to iterate caustic sharpness and roughness without re-rendering the whole frame.

Compositing workflow

• Export VRayCaustics, Reflection, Refraction, Cryptomatte, and Z-Depth. Keep caustics in their own pass for selective contrast/grade.
• Work in ACES or sRGB with consistent VFB LUTs; avoid clamping before export.

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