Portable Installation

This page provides information about the portable installation of V-Ray for Maya.

Overview

The V-Ray installer can be unpacked and used as a portable version. Creating a Portable Installation provides several advantages over the regular installer:

• The Portable installation allows for setting a custom environment when starting each Maya instance. To compare, running the regular installation multiple times overwrites the V-Ray environment variables.
• The Portable installation can be used to run V-Ray for Maya and V-Ray Standalone from any location or even a network drive. That way, multiple users can start Maya along with V-Ray using just a script that sets up the environment variables without the need to run local installations.
• Upgrading a Portable installation is a lot easier, as you don't need to run the installer on every user's computer.
• The Portable installation allows for quick switching between different V-Ray versions without reinstalling it.

Note that Chaos Cosmos is not included in the V-Ray for Maya Portable installation file. You can download and install Chaos Cosmos separately.

To use the Chaos Unified Login (a single login into whichever Chaos application grants access to all Chaos applications) with the V-Ray portable installation, download and install it separately.

When using V-Ray from a Portable installation, the EULA and the Chaos Global Consumer Privacy Policy need to be accepted to start a render.

Required steps to run V-Ray

To create a Portable installation, you need to:

1. Download V-Ray. Download V-Ray for Maya

2. Unpack the installation file. See the Unpack the installation file section of this page for more information.

3. Set up the environment variables needed to run V-Ray for Maya / V-Ray Standalone. See the Environment setup section of this page for more information.

4. Set up your license. Visit the Licensing page to find out how.

5. Run Maya or V-Ray Standalone.

Unpacking the installation file

Unpack the installation to a suitable location that you can later use to run V-Ray on any computer. Here is a detailed step-by-step guide:

Windows

Linux

macOS

1. Download the V-Ray installer executable (.exe).
2. Open a Command Prompt. Type out: the location of the installer that you just downloaded -unpackInstall= location where you wish to unpack. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the installer and a target folder for unpacking into the Command Prompt to insert their directories. Press Enter to run the command. As an example, you can create a new folder called vray_builds to hold all portable V-Ray builds. Then, you can create other sub-folders and name them according to the V-Ray build version, for example, vray_60002_maya2023. It should look something like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">D:\Downloads\vray_adv_60002_maya2023_x64.exe -unpackInstall=D:\vray_builds\vray_60002_maya2023</span></code>After unpacking the installation, your folder structure should look like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">D:\vray_builds\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>Here is an example with two different V-Ray 6 builds for Maya 2023 - each can be deployed with its own shell script and environment.<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">D:\vray_builds\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60010_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>

1. Set the necessary environment variables in a new Command Prompt and run V-Ray for Maya or V-Ray Standalone.
2. Download the V-Ray installer.
3. Open a Terminal. Type out: the location of the installer that you just downloaded -unpackInstall= location where you wish to unpack. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the installer and a target folder for unpacking into the Terminal to insert their directories. Press Enter to run the command. As an example, you can create a new folder called vray_builds to hold all portable V-Ray builds. Then you can make other sub-folders and name them according to the V-Ray build version, for example, vray_60002_maya2023. It should look something like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/home/user/Downloads/vray_adv_60002_maya2023_centos7 -unpackInstall=/opt/vray_builds</span></code>After unpacking the installation, your folder structure should look like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/opt/vray_builds/</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>Here is an example with two different V-Ray 6 builds for Maya 2023 - each can be deployed with its own shell script and environment.<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/opt/vray_builds/</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60010_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>

1. Set the necessary environment variables in a new Terminal and run V-Ray for Maya or V-Ray Standalone.
2. Download the V-Ray installer .dmg file, then double-click it to mount it. By default, it mounts to /Volumes.
3. Open a Terminal and type out /path/to/run_installer -unpackInstall=</unpack/target/location>.
   For example, you can create a new folder called vray_builds in your root directory to hold all portable V-Ray builds. Then you can make other sub-folders and name them according to the V-Ray build version, for example, vray_60002_maya2023. An example unpacking command should look like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/Volumes/V-Ray\ for\ Maya\ 2023/vray_adv_60002_maya2023_mavericks_x64.app/Contents/MacOS/run_installer -unpackInstall=/vray_builds/vray_60002_maya2023</span></code>After unpacking the installation, your folder structure should look like this:<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/vray_builds/</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>Here is an example with two different V-Ray 6 builds for Maya 2023 - each can be deployed with its own shell script and environment.<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/vray_builds/</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60002_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">├── vray_60010_maya2023\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_root\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ ├── maya_vray\</span><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">│ └── vray\</span></code>

1. Set the necessary environment variables in a new Terminal and run V-Ray for Maya or V-Ray Standalone.

Setup for Maya

The easiest way to deploy V-Ray is to use the V-Ray module file that comes with the Portable Installation.

The V-Ray module is located in <unpacked location>/maya_root/modules. It contains all the variables needed to run V-Ray for Maya. It also has a README part with instructions on how to set the environment using a module file. It can be set using one of two ways:

• Recommended: Extend the MAYA_MODULE_PATH variable to contain the folder with the module file. Open Command Prompt or Terminal and type.

Windows

Linux

macOS

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">set MAYA_MODULE_PATH=D:\vray_builds\vray_60002_maya2023\maya_root\modules;%MAYA_MODULE_PATH%</span></code>

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">export MAYA_MODULE_PATH=/opt/vray_builds/vray_60002_maya2023/maya_root/modules:$MAYA_MODULE_PATH</span></code>

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">export MAYA_MODULE_PATH=/vray_builds/vray_60002_maya2023/maya_root/modules:$MAYA_MODULE_PATH</span></code>

• Alternative: Move the module file to Maya's module folders.
  • You will need to edit the file to replace "../../maya_vray" with the full path to the maya_vray directory.
  • Then move the module file to the respective Maya versions' modules location. Here are the locations for Maya 2023:

Windows

Linux

macOS

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Modules\Maya\2023</span></code>

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/usr/autodesk/modules/maya/2023</span></code>

<code data-v-c2b1f83f=""><span data-v-c2b1f83f="" class="line">/Users/Shared/Autodesk/modules/maya/2023</span></code>

License setup

1. Before you run V-Ray, make sure it can find a valid license.

You can set up your license using the Change License Settings tool to set or change your license settings.

Alternatively, you can use the VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH* environment variable and point it to the folder containing a vrlclient.xml file that holds the V-Ray license server settings (IP address and port number).

If you use the VRAY_AUTH_CLIENT_FILE_PATH environment variable and need to create the vrlclient.xml file manually, use the following example as a reference:

Example: vrlclient.xml

Setup for V-Ray Standalone

Environment variables

The portable install can also be used to run only V-Ray Standalone without running V-Ray for Maya. In this case, the number of environment variables to set is reduced.

The list of variables to set requires unpacking the same installation build. Read the Unpacking the installation file section for more details.

Before you run V-Ray, make sure that it can find a license. See the License setup section of this page.

Windows

Linux

macOS

The example directory and version names below are for V-Ray 6 for Maya 2023 on Windows where vray_adv_60002_maya2023_x64.exe has been unpacked into D:\vray_builds\vray_60002_maya2023\.

Here is a list of the environment variables and their descriptions and examples. An example of a complete setup is provided below.

Legacy Variables for versions prior to V-Ray 6, update 1

If you are using a V-Ray version older than V-Ray 6, update 1, you also need to set the following variables

The example directory and version names below are for V-Ray 6 for Maya 2023 on Linux where vray_adv_60002_maya2023_centos7 has been unpacked into /opt/vray_builds/vray_60002_maya2023/.

Here is a list of the environment variables and their descriptions and examples. An example of a complete setup is provided below.

Legacy Variables for versions prior to V-Ray 6, update 1

If you are using a V-Ray version older than V-Ray 6, update 1, you also need to set the following variables:

The example directory and version names below are for V-Ray 6 for Maya 2023 on macOS where vray_adv_60002_maya2023_mavericks_x64.app has been unpacked into /vray_builds/vray_60002_maya2023/.

Here is a list of the environment variables and their descriptions and examples. An example of a complete setup is provided below.

Legacy Variables for versions prior to V-Ray 6, update 1

If you are using a V-Ray version older than V-Ray 6, update 1, you also need to set the following variables:

Tags

The [STDROOT] and [PLUGINS] tags in the script are typically replaced by the V-Ray installer with their respective directories. However, if you are using a version earlier than V-Ray 6, update 1, and performing a portable installation, you need to manually replace these tags. The [STDROOT] tag needs to be replaced with the full path to the vray folder in the portable file. The [PLUGINS] tag needs to be replaced with the full path to the maya_vray folder in the portable file. The tags are located in the following files:

Linux and macOS:

maya_vray/vray/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vray.bin

maya_vray/vray/VRay.app/Contents/MacOS/vrayserver

vray/vray_netinstall_client_setup.sh

vray/samples/appsdk/setenv39.sh

vray/bin/vraymayaserver.conf

vray/bin/registerVRayServerDaemon

vray/bin/initVRayServerDaemon

vray/bin/vraymayaserver.service

maya_vray/bin/plgparamsdata

Windows:

maya_vray/bin/plgparamsdata

If you want to use any additional tools, such as the standalone denoiser or the VRIMG to OpenEXR converter, add <unpacked_location>/vray/bin to the PATH environment variable.