Universal Material Preparation and Distillation Pipeline


DCC Importer converts complex high-fidelity render models into universal-format assets with flattened PBR materials, for better interoperability between editing applications, and ready to compress for real-time AR/VR/web use.


Our conversion system always attempts to preserve the artist's original intent, and converts material values directly wherever possible. A material classification system allows the conversion to run quickly, only incurring slower baking operations when they are strictly necessary. When an asset contains more complex blending operators, the system will render the material into its component passes, combining these together to produce PBR-compliant textures and materials. 


This conversion allows your 3D model and materials to be universally compatible with Unreal Engine, Unity, Blender, Substance, or web based 3D viewers like Babylon and Three.js.


It is important to note that outputs from DCC Importer can be very large, as these files are uncompressed to allow for manual editing and lossless importing into digital content creation (DCC) or compression tools. To create final optimized versions of files we recommend using a suitable tool like RapidCompact.

Conversion from V-Ray to PBR is nearly indistinguishable in most cases. 



Complex material node graphs can be condensed into PBR-standard materials. 



Supported Software

DCC Importer currently supports 3ds Max and V-Ray; support for other DCCs and material systems are planned.
  • 3ds Max 2023+ 
  • V-Ray 6+


Note: .MAX files must be saved in 3ds Max 2023 or lower and using V-Ray 6 or lower. This is because the cloud currently uses these versions. However, if you wish to deploy DCC Importer on-premise, it supports the use of later versions of 3ds Max & V-Ray.


Geometry Support

3ds Max nodes are converted into triangulated meshes. 

  • Editable Meshes, Polys, Patches, Shapes.
  • Standard Primitives
  • Extended Primitives
  • Patch Grid Primitives
  • Door Primitives
  • Windows Primitives
  • Dynamics Objects Primitives
  • Stairs Primitives
  • NURBS Surfaces
  • Hair & Fur - This is partially supported, hairs are converted to mesh data, and only the diffuse color is exported for the material.
  • VRayDisplacementMod - Displacement can be baked into normal maps, or optionally baked into mesh.

Unsupported Input Geometry

Unsupported geometry objects are removed during DCC Importer scene preprocessing.
  • Particle System Primitives
  • AEC Extended Primitives
  • PointCloud Primitives
  • Compound Objects
  • Body Objects
  • Fluid Primitives
  • All V-Ray specific geometry is unsupported, such as VRayFur, VRayPlane, VRayClipper, VRayProxy, etc.
  • All Chaos Scatter specific geometry is unsupported.
  • All Corona specific geometry and modifiers are unsupported.
  • All Arnold specific geometry and modifiers are unsupported.
  • Camera Map Modifier
  • Camera Map Modifier
  • (WSM)Free-Form Deformation
  • (FFD) Modifiers
  • cylMorpherPathDeform
  • PatchDeform
  • PathDeform (WSM)
  • PatchDeform (WSM)
  • Point Cache
  • Point Cache (WSM)
  • Physique
  • Skin
  • Skin Wrap
  • Skin Morph
  • Skin Morph Patch
  • Particle Skinner
  • PFlow Collision
  • Particle Face Creator
  • PFlow Collision (WSM)
  • VRayHairFarmMod

Material Support

V-Ray Input Materials

  • VRayMtl 
    • Diffuse Roughness is unsupported, as the effect is view-dependent.
    • Thin-film, Clear Coat, Sheen, Anisotropy support to be developed.
    • SSS is unsupported, support pending once respective Khronos extensions are ratified.
  • VRayBumpMtl, VRayLightMtl, VRayWrapperMtl, VRayOverrideMtl 
    • These are replaced by the base material.
  • VRayHairNextMtl 
    • Very rough conversion to VRayMtl to preserve overall color.
  • VRay2SidedMtl
    • Partiallly supported.
  • VRayBlendMtl
    • Partially supported. Additive displacement or shellac are currently not supported.
  • VRayFastSSS2
    • Partially supported. SSS support pending Khronos extension release. Diffuse and Specular components are supported properly.

3ds Max Materials

  • 3ds Max Physical Material, Standard Material - These are currently auto-converted to VRayMtl before processing.
  • 3ds Max Blend Material - Partially supported.

Unsupported Input Materials

  • 3ds Max Materials

    • PBR and External Format Materials
    • PBR Material (Metal/Rough)
    • PBR Material (Spec/Gloss)
    • glTF Material
    • USD Preview Surface

  • V-Ray Materials

    • VRayToonMtl

    • VRayALSurfaceMtl 
    • VRayCarPaintMtl
    • VRayCarPaintMtl2
    • VRayFlakesMtl
    • VRayFlakesMtl2
    • VRayStochasticFlakesMtl
    • VRayScatterVolumeMtl
    • VRayVectorDisplBake
    • VRayGLSLMtl
    • VRayMDLMtl
    • VRayOSLMtl
    • VRayPointParticleMtl
    • VRayPluginNodeMtl
    • VRayVRMatMtl
    • VRayScannedMtl
  • Corona - All Corona-specific materials, such as CoronaPhysicalMtl, are temporary unsupported.
  • Arnold - All Arnold-specific materials, such as Standard Surface, are currently unsupported.

Texture Node Support

  • 3ds Max Non-Procedural Textures
    • Bitmap 
    • Color Correction 
    • ColorMap 
    • Composite 
    • Mix 
    • NormalBump 
    • Output 
    • RGB Multiply
  • 3ds Max Procedural Textures
    • Advanced Wood 
    • Cellular 
    • Checker 
    • Dent 
    • Falloff - PBR output materials cannot support view-dependent effects in arbitrary material inputs, so Falloff nodes are flattened. Alternatively, if VRayMtl Sheen parameters are present, this is converted into KHR_materials_sheen for use with glTF output.
    • Gradient 
    • Gradient Ramp 
    • Marble 
    • Noise 
    • Perlin 
    • Marble 
    • Smoke 
    • Speckle 
    • Splat 
    • Stucco 
    • VertexColor 
    • Waves
  • V-Ray Non-Procedural Texture Nodes
    • VRayBitmap 
    • VRayColor 
    • VRayCompTex 
    • VRayNormalMap
    • VRayColor2Bump
    • VRayBump2Normal
  • V-Ray Procedural Texture Nodes
    • VRayDirt 
    • VRayCurvature 
    • VRayDistanceTex 
    • VRayEdgeTex 
    • VRayMultiSubTex 
    • VRayNoiseTex 
    • VRayUVWRandomizer
  • Unsupported Texture Nodes - Unsupported texture nodes are removed or skipped during DCC Importer scene preprocessing.
    • VRayHairInfoTex
  • Unverified Input Texture Nodes - If an unverified node is found, it forces the material to be baked as a fallback.
    • BlendedBoxMap 
    • Camera Map 
    • Per Pixel Map
    • Output Selector Mask 
    • OSL Map 
    • MultiTile 
    • Particle Age 
    • Raytrace 
    • ShapeMap 
    • Substance 
    • TextMap 
    • TextureObjectMask 
    • VectorDisplacement 
    • Vector Map 
    • RGB Tint 
    • Swirl 
    • Tiles
    • VRayLut
    • VRayGLSLTex
    • VRayOCIO
    • VRayOSLTex
    • VRayOSLOutputSelector
    • VRayParticleTex
    • VRayPtex
    • VRaySky
    • VRaySamplerInfoTex
    • VRayPluginNodeTex
    • VRayPointCloudColor
    • VRaySoftBox
    • VRayTriplanarTex
    • VRayUserColor
    • VRayUserScalar
    • Arnold texture nodes
    • OSL texture nodes

glTF Extension Output Support

  • KHR_materials_emissive_strength - VRayMtl selfIlluminationMultiplier parameter is converted into emissiveStrength. 
  • KHR_materials_ior - glTF supports only a single shared IOR value for both reflection and transmission/refraction.
  • KHR_materials_specular
  • KHR_materials_transmission
  • KHR_materials_volume
  • KHR_texture_transform

Future glTF Extension Support

In order to provide translations to a broader variety of material properties, we intend to support additional extensions.
  • Ratified extensions:
    • KHR_materials_clearcoat
    • KHR_materials_iridescence
    • KHR_materials_sheen
    • KHR_materials_anisotropy
  • Extensions in development:
    • KHR_materials_diffuse_transmission
    • KHR_materials_subsurface

Unsupported glTF Output Features

  • Animation 
  • Cameras 
  • Lights
  • Vertex color
  • KHR_lights_punctual 
  • KHR_materials_unlit 
  • KHR_materials_variants

V-Ray glTF Offline Rendering

V-Ray renderings of glTF materials when using the Volumetric and Transmissive extensions might have color issues. 
Material Editor previews of glTF materials generated by V-Ray have artifacts when using normal maps. 
Some Camera settings from the input scenes might not be supported.