V-Ray Tip: Selecting Progressive or Bucket Rendering in V-Ray

Choosing between Progressive and Bucket rendering in V-Ray directly impacts iteration speed, quality control, and render farm efficiency. Here’s how to decide quickly and set each mode up for success.

When to choose Progressive

• Look development and lighting exploration where feedback speed matters.
• Interactive adjustments with IPR and VFB Light Mix for rapid client reviews.
• Drafts and previs under strict time caps (stop on time or noise limit).
• Scenes with evolving assets where deterministic tile times are less critical.
• On-the-fly denoised previews using OptiX or OIDN to gauge lighting and materials.

When to choose Bucket

• Final-quality stills and high-res print frames where predictability is key.
• Heavy scenes (displacement, volumes, large textures) benefiting from tiled memory usage.
• Farm and network rendering with Distributed Bucket Rendering for consistent throughput.
• Shots with depth of field and motion blur where sampling needs to be deterministic.
• Deep or multi-channel EXR pipelines with many render elements for compositing.

Practical settings that just work

• Progressive
  • Noise threshold: 0.03–0.05 for drafts; 0.01–0.02 for approvals.
  • Stop conditions: use a Max render time (1–3 minutes for lookdev) or a solid Noise threshold for finals.
  • Denoising: OptiX/Intel OIDN for speed during lookdev; switch to V-Ray Denoiser for more consistent final passes.
  • Stability: enable clamping to reduce fireflies in aggressive lighting tests.
• Bucket
  • Noise threshold: 0.005–0.015 for print stills; 0.01–0.02 for animation.
  • Bucket size: 32–64 px on CPU; 128–256 px on powerful GPUs for better utilization.
  • Leverage Distributed Rendering; ensure all nodes share synchronized assets and plugins.
  • Output: multi-layer EXR with key render elements (incl. Cryptomatte) for flexible comp.

Speed vs quality trade-offs

• Progressive prioritizes quick feedback; denoisers can mask early noise but validate without denoise before final submission.
• Bucket provides consistent tile-by-tile convergence; great for predictable farm estimates and repeatable results.
• Both modes respect your Noise threshold—establish a studio baseline and stick to it for reliable time forecasts.

Workflow pattern that saves hours

• Start all shots in Progressive for lighting/materials sign-off.
• Lock assets, then switch to Bucket for finals and farm runs.
• Test a 1:1 region at final resolution to validate time and grain before full frames.
• Use VFB’s Noise Level and History to compare tweaks objectively.

Common pitfalls

• Don’t chase ultra-low noise early; you’ll re-render anyway. Set realistic thresholds per phase.
• Avoid oversized buckets on CPUs—they can stall cores on complex tiles.
• Keep GI engine choices consistent when switching samplers to prevent look shifts.

Need help choosing settings for your pipeline, farm, or hardware? Talk to the specialists at NOVEDGE, and explore current V-Ray offerings and upgrades on NOVEDGE’s Chaos collection. For tailored licensing and deployment guidance, contact NOVEDGE.

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