Overview#

omni.iray.libs provides the core binary libraries required for the Iray Renderer and MDL material system. This extension delivers the essential native components that power physically-based rendering and material processing capabilities within the Omniverse ecosystem.

Key Components#

Iray Renderer Libraries#

The extension includes the fundamental Iray rendering engine libraries that enable GPU-accelerated photorealistic rendering. These libraries provide the core computational framework for ray tracing, global illumination, and physically-based material evaluation.

Neuray Framework#

The Neuray component serves as the foundational framework for the Iray system, managing scene data structures, material definitions, and rendering pipeline coordination. It acts as the bridge between USD scene descriptions and the underlying Iray rendering engine.

MDL Material Distiller#

The MDL distiller libraries handle material optimization and level-of-detail generation for complex material networks. These components automatically simplify material expressions while preserving visual fidelity, enabling efficient rendering performance across different hardware configurations.

Platform-Specific Components#

The extension provides specialized libraries tailored for different operating systems. On Windows systems, it includes additional components for image format support, video decoding capabilities, and bridge client functionality that enables communication with external Iray instances.

OptiX Integration#

For Linux platforms, the extension includes OptiX Prime libraries that leverage NVIDIA GPU hardware acceleration for ray tracing operations. This integration provides optimized performance for rendering workloads on supported graphics hardware.

Functionality#

The binary libraries work together to enable comprehensive material-based rendering workflows. The Iray components handle the mathematical computation of light transport, while the MDL distiller optimizes material complexity for real-time and offline rendering scenarios. The Neuray framework coordinates between these systems and the broader USD pipeline.

Platform-specific libraries extend functionality with format support for DDS textures, OpenImageIO integration for diverse image formats, and video decoding capabilities for texture streaming applications.