iray ActiveShade

Command entry:Main toolbar

Render flyout

(ActiveShade)

Command entry:Keyboard

Shift+Q (Uses the Render mode currently active on the toolbar: either Production or ActiveShade)

You can choose the iray renderer to be the ActiveShade renderer.

An iray ActiveShade rendering appears in the ActiveShade Floater window. You cannot display an iray ActiveShade rendering in a viewport. While the iray renderer is assigned to ActiveShade, 3ds Max ignores the ActiveShade choice on the Point-Of-View (POV) viewport label menu.

Viewport being rendered in an iray ActiveShade Floater

NoteWhile an iray ActiveShade Floater is open, you can't start a Production rendering. Because of this restriction, sample slots and material/map previews in the Material Editor, and the Exposure Control

Render Preview window don't render while the ActiveShade Floater is open, either.

To resume using the Production renderer, close the ActiveShade Floater and then use the Render flyout to choose (Render Production).

Resource Allocation

You can use the Hardware Resources rollout to specify how many CPUs (Central Processing Units) and GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) are used by iray ActiveShade rendering.

What iray ActiveShade Does and Doesn't Do

The iray ActiveShade Floater updates interactively to show the following kinds of changes to the scene:

Moving an object
Moving a camera, including adjusting the viewpoint of a Camera view
Moving a light, with the exception of Daylight
Modifying the settings of a material, including its maps or sub-materials
Creating or deleting an object

The iray ActiveShade Floater does not update to show the following kinds of changes to the scene:

Creating or deleting a light or a camera
Modifying Daylight settings, including the time of day
Modifying a camera setting (for example, the Field Of View)
Modifying a setting on the Render Setup or Environment dialogs (for example, the background, exposure control, or Depth-Of-Field)
Modifying a light setting (such as color or intensity)
Modifying an object parameter (such as the radius of a geometric primitive, applying or removing a modifier, or changing the settings of a modifier)

To see these kinds of changes, you need to restart ActiveShade. Close the ActiveShade floater, then on the main toolbar click (ActiveShade) once more. Or if the Render Setup dialog is open, you can restart ActiveShade by clicking the ActiveShade button.

Lighting levels, shadows, and reflections are physically accurate, provided the scene uses physically based materials and photometric lighting. This is always the case with the iray renderer.

NoteWhen you draw an area to render (right-click the window of the ActiveShade Floater and choose Draw Region), the iray renderer renders only that region, but it doesn't clear the rest of the window the way the scanline renderer does.

Draw Region with iray ActiveShade

Only the Water - Pool material has changed.

Procedures

To use the iray renderer as the ActiveShade renderer:

On the main toolbar, click (Render Setup).
On the Common panel Assign Renderer rollout, click the (Choose Renderer) button for the ActiveShade renderer.
On the Choose Renderer dialog, click to highlight "iray Renderer," and then click OK.

Now ActiveShade rendering uses the iray renderer.

To create an iray ActiveShade rendering:

On the main toolbar, choose (ActiveShade) from the Render flyout; or if this button is already active but the ActiveShade Floater is not open, simply click the button.
3ds Max opens the ActiveShade Floater and renders the active viewport.

NoteWhile an iray ActiveShade floater is open, you can't start a Production rendering. Close the ActiveShade Floater and then use the Render flyout to choose (Render Production).