---
name: "vdb_render"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "libopenvdb-tools"
version: "10.0.1-2.3+b1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/vdb_render"
---

# vdb\_render(1)

ray-traces OpenVDB volumes

## NAME

vdb\_render - ray-traces OpenVDB volumes

## SYNOPSIS

**vdb\_render** *in.vdb out.{ppm,exr,png}* \[*options*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Which: ray-traces OpenVDB volumes Options:

- **-aperture** F

  perspective camera aperture in mm (default: 41.2)

- **-camera** S

  camera type; either "persp\[ective\]" or "ortho\[graphic\]" (default: perspective)

- **-compression** S

  EXR compression scheme; either "none" (uncompressed), "rle" or "zip" (default: zip)

- **-cpus** N

  number of rendering threads, or 1 to disable threading, or 0 to use all available CPUs (default: 0)

- **-far** F

  camera far plane depth (default: 3.4e+38)

- **-focal** F

  perspective camera focal length in mm (default: 50)

- **-fov** F

  perspective camera field of view in degrees (default: 44.8)

- **-frame** F

  ortho camera frame width in world units (default: 1)

- **-lookat** X,Y,Z

  rotate the camera to point to (X, Y, Z)

- **-name** S

  name of the volume to be rendered (default: render the first floating-point volume found in in.vdb)

- **-near** F

  camera near plane depth (default: 0.001)

- **-res** WxH

  image dimensions in pixels (default: 1920x1080)

**-r** X,Y,Z

- **-rotate** X,Y,Z

  camera rotation in degrees (default: look at the center of the volume)

**-t** X,Y,Z

- **-translate** X,Y,Z

  camera translation

- **-up** X,Y,Z

  vector that should point up after rotation with **-lookat** (default: \[0, 1, 0\])

- **-v**

  verbose (print timing and diagnostics)

- **-version**

  print version information and exit

- **-h**, **-help**

  print this usage message and exit

### Level set options:

- **-color** S

  name of a vec3s volume to be used to set material colors

- **-isovalue** F

  isovalue in world units for level set ray intersection (default: 0)

- **-samples** N

  number of samples (rays) per pixel (default: 1)

- **-shader** S

  shader name; either "diffuse", "matte", "normal" or "position" (default: diffuse)

### Dense volume options:

- **-absorb** R,G,B

  absorption coefficients (default: \[0.1, 0.1, 0.1\])

- **-cutoff** F

  density and transmittance cutoff value (default: 0.005)

- **-gain** F

  amount of scatter along the shadow ray (default: 0.2)

- **-light** X,Y,Z\[,R,G,B\]

  light source direction and optional color (default: \[0.3, 0.3, 0, 0.7, 0.7, 0.7\])

- **-scatter** R,G,B

  scattering coefficients (default: \[1.5, 1.5, 1.5\])

- **-shadowstep** F

  step size in voxels for integration along the shadow ray (default: 3)

- **-step** F

  step size in voxels for integration along the primary ray (default: 1)

## EXAMPLES

-

  vdb\_render crawler.vdb crawler.{ppm,exr,png} -shader diffuse -res 1920x1080 \\

\-focal 35 -samples 4 -translate 0,210.5,400 -compression rle -v

-

  vdb\_render bunny\_cloud.vdb bunny\_cloud.{ppm,exr,png} -res 1920x1080 \\

\-translate 0,0,110 -absorb 0.4,0.2,0.1 -gain 0.2 -v

### Warning:

-

  This is not (and is not intended to be) a production-quality renderer. Use it for fast previewing or simply as a reference implementation for integration into existing ray tracers.

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Mathieu Malaterre \<malat@debian.org\> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).