Installation files and operating systems
Kray3 for LightWave comes in a .zip file kray3_lw.zip. After unpacking is you will see following folders:
-
Common contains plugin GUI files. These are .ls and .lsh LScript text files shared for all supported platforms.
-
MacOs contains plugin core and Kray3 engine files for MacOs. There are .plugin files for various LightWave versions .dylib files with Kray3 rendering engine and its kray3_rsrc.ka resource.
-
Windows contains plugin core and Kray3 engine files for Windows. There are .p files for various LightWave versions .dll files with Kray3 rendering engine and its kray3_rsrc.ka resource.
For Kray3 installation you need all files from Common folder and all files from MacOs or Windows folder depending on operating system you are using.
LightWave versions and requirements
Different versions of LightWave uses different rendering SDK/API and they need proper versions of Kray3 to cooperate. When adding Kray3 plugin (.p file under Windows or .plugin for MacOs) to LightWave plugins, choose latest version that fits your LightWave installation. For example plugin core folder (MacOs or Windows folder) contains following .p/.plugin
-
kray3_lw11_6 this is plugin file for LightWave 11.6 or later. Use it with LightWave 11.6 and LightWave 2015
-
kray3_lw2018 this is plugin file for LightWave 2018 or later. Use it with LightWave 2018 and LightWave 2019
Windows versions can contain _32_ or _64_ prefixes before LightWave version. These are for 32bit (legacy) and 64bit (current) versions of LightWave.
Installation
-
Unpack kray3_lw.zip to folder where you store all your LightWave plugins (LightWaveInstallDir/support/plugins is most common choice).
-
Start LightWave Layout
-
In upper left screen corner choose from File menu Edit/Edit plugins (or press RightAlt+F11). Edit Plug-ins window will appear.
-
Click Add Plug-ins. File select window will pop up. Navigate and pick .p/.plugin file that corresponds your operating system and LightWave version (see previous sections for details)
-
Click Add Plug-ins once again. Navigate and select all .ls files from Common folder.
-
Installation is done. You can
-
go to upper left screen corner Editors/More Windows/Master Plugins (or press Control+Q) select Kray3Settings from Add Layout or Scene Master or
-
go to upper left screen corner Editors/More Windows/Render Properties (or press Control+P) then Render tab and select Kray3Renderer from renderes list and click Render Options
-
go to upper left screen corner Edit/Edit Menu Layout (or press RightAlt+F10) and configure your Layout menus with Kray3 buttons (they are under Command/Plug-ins.
-
go to upper left screen corner Edit/Edit Keyboard Shortcuts (or press RightAlt+F9) and configure your Layout keyboard shortcuts with Kray3 plugins (they are under Command/Plug-ins). Note that Kray3 settings has its own key shortcuts, but they work only when Kray3 GUI windows are open.
-
When you try to render with Kray for the first time and have no Kray license installed already. License window will show. It will redirect you to Kray license and downloads page where you need to copy Unlock code from web page and paste it to Kray3 license window.
Additional installations
Since version 3.033 Kray can take advantage of Open Image Denoise library. To make it work with Kray you need to download it and put binary files (.dll or .dylib files from bin folder) to Kray3 binaries folder (where Kray3 .dll or .dylib files are stored).
Under Windows updating Threading Building Blocks library (tbb.dll) that Layout uses may be required (it is also required by Open Image Denoiser). Do do so simply replace tbb.dll in LightWaveInstallDir/bin with the one supplied with Open Image Denoiser. We recommand to keep previous version of tbb.dll file in case of issues with LightWave it may cause.