How to texture in 3dsMax using Vray materials and lighting
- beginner tutorial
- bump, displace, vray lights settings, vray render settings
1. Creating the objects
Set the correct units: Customize - Unit setup - Centimeters (that's what I use in this scene).
First create a teapot  and a plane.
At teapot parameters set about 15 segments and "smooth" checkbox.
2. Creating a vray material
In the material editor, click the Standard button and select from the list - VRayMtl

Click on the grey square on the right of Diffuse tab. Select Bitmap from the list

Choose a tileable texture.
Select the teapot from the scene.
Click on "Assign material to selection"

Using F3 key will alternate through different types of views. if you don't see the texture on the object, click on the "Show standard map in viewport" button.

Now we have to correct the texture on the object, using UVW Map.
In the Modify tab, on the right panel, you have a drop down list and at the bottom you'll find UVW Map.

I choose a Box parameter and equal values for the Lenght, Width and Height.

4. Setting the lights
In the Create tab on the right, select Lights - Vray Lights

Create a square vray light with the parameters shown in the picture below.

Press F10 and RENDER.

Obvious, doesn't look too realistic.

Now we'll add a bump map to our texture and set some parameters of V-Ray rendering engine.
5. Bump map, displace map
First, create a white vray material for the plane and assign it to the plane.
now return to the first material.
In the Maps tab, click on the Bump button on the right (the one with "None") and select Bitmap.
here you must choose a bump map of the selected material.

Press F10 and RENDER.
It's a slighty improvement of the image. The texture it's more "alive".

Simply drag'n'drop the bump map to the displace map below, select Instance,  and set a small value (I use 3), depending of the used texture.
F10 - RENDER (the render will last a little bit longer)
You should obtain something like this:

6. Setting V-Ray render engine
In the Image Sampler (Antialising) tab use Mitchell - Netravali with 0.1 settings.
In the Environment tab check all those 3 boxes, becouse we'll use HDRI images to illuminate the environment and for reflection.
In the Refraction environment override tab we'll choose white color.

Click on the long button with "None" and choose Vray HDRI.

Open the Material Editor and simply drag'n'drop the Map with HDRI into an empty material slot and select Instance.
Do the same with the reflection HDRI.

Now choose a HDRI file. I choose a free HDRI image downloaded from http://www.aversis.be/hdri/free-hdri-003.htm

Set the Color mapping parameters.

At the Indirect illumination tab set the GI "On", select Light Cache for the Secondary bounces.
In the Irradiance tab check the Show calc phase button (on the right) and Detail enhancement (on the left).
In the Light cache tab (scroll down and you'll find it) check the Show calc. phase button in the right.

F10 - RENDER
You'll notice a big improvement.

We have assigned a HDRI for reflection. Now we'll make a reflective material, so that we can see some reflection in the render.
In the material slot, create a new Vray material.
Choose a dark color in the Diffuse tab.
Click on the Reflection color and choose 166 values for all color chanels R,G,B.
For the Reflect Glossiness choose a value of 0.9 (towards 0, the surface is more blurred, towards 1 became a clear mirror).
F10 - RENDER
You can see the effect of the HDRI for reflection.