Render OpenVDB volumes directly in Nuke.
Physically-based ray marching, deep output, lighting, AOVs — all in a single node.
VDB Render V3
First submitted: 24 March 2026
Updated: 30 March 2026
Author: Marty Blumen
Website: https://www.martyblumen.com/
Compatible Nuke versions: 17.0 or later
Compatibility: Source
VDBRender — OpenVDB Volume Ray Marcher
Render OpenVDB volumes directly in Nuke — no external renderer, no round-tripping. Load a .vdb, connect a camera, pick a preset.
A single C++ NDK node that ray marches density, temperature, flame, velocity, and colour with physically-based lighting, deep output, emission, motion blur, and AOVs. Includes built-in sun/sky + studio lighting for instant results.
What's new in v3
Per-light AOVs — separate RGB contribution for up to 4 lights (vdb_light0–vdb_light3), useful for relighting in comp.
ReSTIR environment sampling — weighted reservoir sampling picks one shadow-traced direction per step instead of looping all env directions. Same quality, fewer shadow rays.
Point cloud rendering — PointDataGrid support with per-particle colour, configurable radius, and light integration. Composited over the volume in a single pass.
Dual VDB layers — blend a second VDB density grid on top of the primary, for layering dust over fire or combining sim passes.
Shading — Dual-lobe Henyey-Greenstein phase function, powder effect (Schneider & Vos 2015), analytical multiple scattering (Wrenninge 2017), approximate Mie phase (Jendersie & d'Eon 2023), chromatic extinction, ray jitter, and procedural fBm detail noise. The Cumulus Cloud preset now enables gradient-normal blending by default.
Shadow performance — HDDA empty-space skipping on shadow rays is always active. An optional precomputed transmittance cache (Quality tab) reduces shadow cost from O(steps) to O(1) per sample — enable it for a 5–10x speedup on directional lights.
Environment lighting — HDRI is projected to L2 spherical harmonics at load time. Runtime evaluation drops from 26 directions × 16 shadow steps to 6 HDDA-shadowed directions — 10–20x faster for clouds. The brightest env map peaks are extracted as virtual directional lights that cast proper self-shadows and benefit from the transmittance cache.
Blackbody — replaced with a CIE 1931 chromaticity path, accurate from 500K to 40000K.
Features v2.1 - intial release
Physically-based rendering (Beer–Lambert, Henyey–Greenstein)
Fast sparse volumes (HDDA empty-space skipping)
Emission + multiple scattering (1–4 bounces)
Sun/sky + studio lighting presets with mix controls
Deep output + AOVs (Density, Emission, Shadow, Depth)
Velocity motion blur
9 scene presets (Smoke, Fire, Clouds, Explosion, etc.)
Auto grid detection + sequence handling
Viewport preview (bbox + point cloud)
Optimised (AVX2/FMA, early-out, pooled accessors)
Render Modes
Lit, Greyscale, Heat, Cool, Blackbody, Gradient, Explosion
Grids
Density, Temperature, Flames, Velocity, Colour (auto-detected naming)
Compatibility
Nuke 17, Windows (Linux/Mac untested)
Quick Start
Create node → set VDB → connect Camera → render
Use Scene Presets and Discover Grids for fast setup
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2026 Marten Blumen
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
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