ProRender Settings and Limitations

ProRender has a dedicated Preferences section, and you can also edit the Render item's ProRender settings in the Properties tab.

While ProRender supports most of the Modo Shader Tree items, geometry, instances, replicators, cameras, and lights, some features are not supported. For a list of not, or not fully supported features, see Features Not Supported.

ProRender Preferences

The ProRender preferences determine the rendering behavior of Modo.

To access the ProRender preferences:

On Windows, open System > Preferences, expand Rendering, and click ProRender Beta.

On macOS, open Menu > Preferences, expand Rendering, and click ProRender Beta.

The ProRender Beta preferences.

You can:

Enable Metal implementation on MacOS only (10.13.5+ is required).

Enable/disable detected devices.

Set the maximum number of CPU threads used by ProRender.

Enable debug tracing (useful information for the AMD development team).

Render Settings

You can find the render settings in the ProRender Beta tab on the Render Item.

To access the ProRender render settings, open the Shader Tree on the right panel, click Render, and open the ProRender Beta tab in the Properties viewport.

You can:

Set output type (GI/No GI, Wireframe, etc.).

Set the maximum number of iterations and render time.

Refresh interval (in milliseconds) it allows ProRender to utilize more GPU resource prior sending the rendering data to PView viewport.

Set ray depths for certain rendering effects.

Render Devices

Render devices are detected on Modo startup. For each render device ProRender creates a GPU kernel cache directory and cached files.

Although ProRender can use multiple GPUs to render, for interactivity, it is recommended to use a fast graphics processing unit. Since multiple GPUs take more time to initialize the data and compile the GPU kernels (programs), more CPU resources are required.

Note:  CPU is not used as a rendering device. Only GPU devices are supported.

Features Not Supported

ProRender supports most of the Modo Shader Tree items, geometry, instances, replicators, cameras, and lights. The following table lists the features currently not or not fully supported by ProRender, and provides additional information where relevant.

Geometry Items

Basic

Fur Material Cylinder

Not supported

 

RPC Mesh

Not supported

Deprecated in Modo 16.1

Volumes

Blob

Not supported

 

Ground Plane

Not supported

 

Render Boolean

Not supported

 

Sprite

Not supported

 

Volume

Not supported

 

Light Items

Light Types

Area

Partially supported

Shape settings are not working.

Cylinder

Not supported

 

Dome

Not supported

 

Photometric

Not supported

 

Point

Partially supported

Works, but does not respond to radius settings, which significantly affects shadow falloff.

Portal

Not supported

Portals don't actually produce light. They direct rays through openings like windows to improve renders. Low priority.

Spot

Partially supported

Basics of the light work. Cone angle and soft edge work, however soft edge gives different results.

Common Light Channels

Render

Not supported

Visibility can be enabled/disabled as an alternative.

Dissolve

Not supported

 

Radiant Intensity

Partially supported

Slightly different results between ProRender and Modo's renderer.

Falloff Type

Not supported

Behavior difference.

Shadow Type

Not supported

 

Samples

Not supported

Samples only apply to Modo's Raytrace renderer.

Importance

Not supported

Importance only applies to Modo's Raytrace renderer.

Visible to Reflection Rays

Partially supported

Always visible in ProRender.

Visible to Refraction Rays

Partially supported

Visibility in ProRender depends on visibility to camera.

Area Light Channels

Not supported

 

Shape

Not supported

 

Cylinder Light Channels

Directional Light Channels

Not supported

 

Shadow/Photon size

Not supported

 

Spread Angle

Partially supported

Works, but only after changing the channel value. The initial load shows no spread.

Physical Sun

Partially supported

The direction matches, but the color doesn't.

Haze

Not supported

Not working for light. Behavior is different when used in conjunction with an environment.

Clamp Intensity

Not supported

Not working for light. Behavior is different when used in conjunction with an environment.

Gamma

Not supported

 

Photometric Light Channels

Not supported

 

Point Light Channels

Not supported

 

Portal Light Channels

Not supported

 

Spot Light Channels

Not supported

 

Radius

Not supported

Affects softness in conjunction with a Cone Angle. Soft Edge can confuse this, as it perceptually has a similar effect but isn’t physically accurate.

Soft Edge

Partially supported

Produces a different result to the Modo renderer.

Light Material Channels

Shadow Color

Not supported

 

Affect Diffuse

Not supported

 

Affect Specular

Not supported

 

Affect Caustics

Not supported

 

Affect Subsurface

Not supported

 

Volumetrics

Not supported

 

Geometry and Light Visibility

Geometry and Light

Render Channel on Mesh/Light

Partially supported

Works on meshes, but not on lights.

Dissolve Channel on Light

Not supported

 

Environment

Environment Item

Visible to Camera

Partially supported

Toggles environment, but also affects Visible to Indirect Rays.

Visible to Indirect Rays (Diffuse Only)

Partially supported

Has no effect.

Visible to Reflection Rays

Partially supported

Has no effect.

Visible to Refraction Rays

Partially supported

Has no effect.

Environment Material

Invert

Not supported

 

Blend Mode

Not supported

 

Opacity

Not supported

 

Sun Light

Partially supported

Works when the light is selected, but doesn't work when light is set to none.

Solar Disc Size

Not supported

 

Haze Amount

Partially supported

Incorrect behavior.

Clamp Sky Brightness

Not supported

 

Sky Gamma

Not supported

 

Disc In-scatter

Not supported

 

Environment Fog

Not supported

 

Camera

Camera View Tab

Projection Type

Orthographic

Not supported

 

Cylindrical Map

Partially supported

Render very different from Modo Preview.

Cylindrical VR

Not supported

 

Spherical Map

Partially supported

Works, but it's rotated 90 degrees.

Spherical VR

Partially supported

Works, but defaults to Over Under despite stereoscopic options not being enabled.

Other Channels

Lens Distortion

Not supported

 

Override Render Resolution

Not supported

 

Foreground Image

Not supported

 

Background Image

Not supported

 

Camera Effects Tab - Depth of Field

Iris Blades

Not supported

 

Iris Rotation

Not supported

 

Edge Weighting

Not supported

 

 

Camera Effects Tab - Motion Blur

Not supported

 

Camera Effects Tab - Stereoscopic

Not supported

 

Camera Effects Tab - Clipping Plane

Not supported

 

Shader Tree

Masking with

Replicator

Not supported

 

Special Texture Effects

Not supported

 

Shader Control Effects

Not supported

 

Surface Shading Effects

Clear-coat Bump

Partially supported

 

Displacement

Partially supported

 

Rounded Edge Width

Not supported

 

Vector Displacement

Not supported

 

Nodal Shading

Not supported.

Note:  Channel modifier items and Shader Input items that are not explicitly mentioned are not supported. Some Channel modifiers can still be used as long as their values are constant for all shading samples.

Materials and Shader Items

Material Ref - Diffuse and Specular

Refractive Index

Partially supported

Render different from Modo Renderer.

Roughness

Partially supported

0% roughness does not produce a bright specular highlight on a sphere, but 0.1% does.

Anisotropy

Not supported

 

Anisotropy Map

Not supported

 

Match Specular

Not supported

 

Reflection Type

Partially supported

Full scene reflection works but Environment only doesn't.

Clearcoat Bump

Not supported

 

Material Ref - Surface Normal

Smoothing

Partially supported

 

Smoothing Angle

Partially supported

 

Double Sided

Not supported

 

Rounded Edge Width

Not supported

 

Round Same Surface Only

Not supported

 

Material Trans - Transparency

Transparent Amount

Partially supported

Render different from Modo renderer.

Absorption distance

Not supported

 

Refractive Index

Partially supported

Incorrect results.

Dispersion

Not supported

 

Refraction Roughness

Not supported

 

Refraction Rays

Not supported

 

Material Trans - Sub-surface Scattering

Subsurface Amount

Partially supported

Works, but having a bright sub-surface color, and a high amount shows visible differences to Modo preview.

Scattering Distance

Partially supported

A Scattering Distance of 0 produces a significantly different render, as do large distances.

Maximum Depth

Partially supported

A very shallow depth shows subtle differences (Modo preview has no sign of SSS, but RPR does).

Front Weighting

Not supported

 

Samples

Not supported

 

Same Surface Only

Not supported

 

Material Rays - Ray Tracing

Not supported

 

Material Rays - Volumetrics

Not supported

 

Unreal Material

Not supported.

Unity Material

Not supported.

Shader Item

Not supported.

Image Map

Image Map Types

Layered

Not supported

 

Sequence

Not supported

 

UDIM

Not supported

 

Substance

Partially supported

Works, but enabling Height Output causes Modo to crash.

Image Still Channels

UDIM

Not supported

 

Color-space

Partially supported

 

Image Map Channels

Anti-aliasing

Not supported

 

Anti-aliasing Strength

Not supported

 

Minimum Spot

Not supported

 

Low/High Value

Not supported

 

Brightness

Not supported

 

Contrast

Not supported

 

Clamp

Not supported

 

Invert Red/Green/Blue

Not supported

 

Swizzling

Not supported

 

Textures

Processing Sub-menu

Gradient

Not supported

 

Occlusion

Not supported

 

Process

Not supported

 

Tension Texture

Not supported

 

Variation Texture

Not supported

 

Weigth Map Texture

Not supported

 

Gradient Texture Supported Inputs Not supported  
Variation Texture Supported Inputs Not supported  

Texture Locator

Solid

Not supported

 

Planar

Not supported

 

Cylindrical

Not supported

 

Spherical

Not supported

 

Cubic

Not supported

 

Front Projection

Not supported

 

Light Probe

Not supported

 

Implicit UV

Not supported

 

Box

Not supported

 

Other Options

Transform channels

Not supported

 

World Transforms

Not supported

 

World Coordinates

Not supported

 

Front Culling

Not supported

 

Projection Axis

Not supported

 

Use Clip UDIM

Not supported

 

U/V Tile Offset

Not supported

 

Horizontal/Vertical Repeat

Not supported

 

UV Rotation

Not supported

 

Random Texture Offsets

Not supported

 

Texture Offset Amplitude

Not supported