Common tab

Output size
1500 x 1000 image size. Lock Image aspect ratio, 1.5
Set width to 1000 for quick low res tests.

Vray global switches

Right Click ‘Basic’ and select switch all to expert
Un-tick hidden lights
Un-tick probabilistic lights

Image Sampler (Anti-Aliasing)

Type: Adaptive
Un-tick image filter
Min Subdivs 1, Max Subdivs 4
Use DMC sampler threshold

Global DMC

Adaptive amount 0.85
Min samples 8
Noise Threshold: 0.01
Global Subdivs multi 1.0

Colour Mapping

Type: Reinhard
Gamma: 2.2
Muliplier: 1.0
Burn value: 1 to 0.5 (to reduce burnouts)
1.0 is linear multiply, 0 is exponential
Colour mapping only (no gamma)

Global Illumination

Tick Enable GI
Irradiance map / light cache
Irradiance:
tick show calc. phase
tick Show direct light
Subdivisions: 50
Interp. samples: 20
Min rate -3, Max rate -1

If you want really fast but bad GI set, for 1000px width set to -3 -3, it won’t be adaptive but it’ll be a rough estimate. For 1500px -4 -3

Light Cache

Subdivs 600
sample size 0.02
Scale: screen
tick Use for glossy Rays
tick re trace
tick show calc. phase

Settings

Bucket size: 16
Render bucket sequence: top to bottom
Ram: 16000 (16gig)
Turn in embree
Tick low thread priority
Render and make sure gamma preview is ticked in the vray frame buffer

Common tab

Output size:
4000px as the largest dimension
(Depending on job requirements)

Typically, 6k will be more than enough for any situation

Vray Frame Buffer

Set your frame render location and file type.
Tick Separate Render Channels
tick Save RGB
tick Save Alpha

Image Sampler (Anti-Aliasing)

Tick Image filter
Catmull-Rom

Adaptive image sampler

Min subdivs: 1
Max subdivs: 6-12

Global DMC

Adaptive amount 0.85
Noise Threshold: .005 to .002
Min subdivs: 16
Global subdiv multiplier: 1.5 – 2.0

Irradiance Map

Min rate -5
Max rate -2

Subdivisions:
50-60 exterior
80-100 interior
Interp samples: 40% of your sub div figure

Light Cache

Subdivisions: 1200 – 2000
Sample size .02
Scale: Screen
tick Use for glossy rays
tick retrace
tick pre filter

Settings

Bucket width: 16
Sequence: Top-> bottom
Dynamic memory limit, mb: 24000
tick use Embree
tick Distributed rendering if needed

Notes on Global DMC

Adaptive amount: 0.85 –
Lower values will increase the quality by not allowing Vray to lower the subdivisions for materials and lights deemed low importance, (distant lights and objects, darker objects)

Noise Threshold: .005 to .002
This is the maximum allowed difference in pixel value on a floating point scale.
See it as a 1/1000 contrast ratio.
Inputting .002 is telling Vray to keep shooting more samples and sub divide pixels until adjacent pixels are within this range.
This is why Vray has a tough time with very high changes in brightness because it will never achieve this tolerance.
That is where the maximum image sample limit kicks in and stops it from endlessly sampling.

Min subdivs: 16
A quick way to raise the lowest quality areas.

Global subdiv multiplier: 1.5 – 2.0
An easy way to increase the quality of lights and glossy reflections in your scene.
In simple scenes you can really ramp this number up, assuming your materials and lights have a low subdivision figure (8-16 or so).
Just remember that the Irradiance map subdivisions will also multiply.

Notes on Irradiance Map

Max Rate: The maximum resolution of the irradiance map.
Zero is full resolution, so 4000 pixels in this case.
We are looking for a resolution equivalent to about 1500 – 2000 pixels.
So for a 4000px image:
Zero = 4000px,
-1 = 2000px,
-2 = 1000px.
Set to -2 and raise to -1 if you need better definition in the shadows.

Min Rate: The lowest resolution of the Irradiance map.
Aim for 3 passes, so if you choose -2, choose -5 for min.

Subdivisions: 50 – 60 exterior, 80 – 100 interior
When a GI ray hits a surface, rays are bounced in all directions from that point.
They then hit other objects in the scene and record the light and colour information at that point.
The rays then return along their original path and transfer the information to a hemisphere above the GI point.
This light and colour information is averaged and returned to the camera. The more Primary rays generated, the more accurate the indirect lighting estimate is. The number of samples is the square of this figure.

Interp samples: 40% of your sub div figure.
This is render time process.
higher will blur more samples.
Fewer will give noticeable splotches.
Higher will slow the rendering as more samples need to be interpolated.