V-Ray & Corona → Redshift: change renderer and app in one step
Most converters make you keep the renderer you started with. MAX2C4D will rebuild a 3ds Max V-Ray or Corona scene as a native Redshift node graph in Cinema 4D — so you migrate application and engine together, not twice.
Why convert the renderer at the same time
Two migrations in one pass, and no second renderer licence at the end of it.
Studios leaving 3ds Max rarely want to change only the application. Cinema 4D includes Redshift in every licence since 2023, which makes it the obvious house engine once you are there — no extra seats, no extra renewals, GPU rendering out of the box. But converting a library to Corona or V-Ray for C4D first and to Redshift later means touching every scene twice.
Setting the target to Redshift collapses that into a single conversion. Your VRayMtl and CoronaPhysicalMtl graphs are rebuilt with real Redshift nodes — RS Standard Material, RS Texture, RS Color Correct, RS AO — rather than flattened into a diffuse colour.
Cross-renderer conversion is the part other Max-to-C4D converters do not attempt: the target has to match the source. MAX2C4D also converts V-Ray to Corona, and now V-Ray or Corona to Redshift. Compare the options on the MAX2C4D vs MaxToC4D page.
How to trigger it
Export from 3ds Max as usual — nothing changes on that side. In the Cinema 4D import dialog, set Renderer to Redshift. That is the whole step. Your choice is remembered between sessions, and the entry appears whenever your Cinema 4D is 2024.4 or newer.
Even on Auto, Redshift steps in when the scene's own renderer is missing on the C4D side. A Corona scene with no Corona for C4D installed, or a V-Ray scene with neither V-Ray nor Corona, converts to native Redshift instead of collapsing to plain Standard materials — because Redshift is always present. The log states plainly when this happens.
V-Ray → Redshift mapping
All 41 V-Ray classes are routed to a Redshift target — none of them falls back silently. Eight carry a documented approximation, and each of those writes a named line to the conversion log so you know exactly which material to check.
| V-Ray (source) | Redshift (target) |
|---|---|
| VRayMtl | RS Standard Material |
| VRayBlendMtl | RS Material Blender |
| VRayLightMtl | RS Incandescent |
| VRayFastSSS2 | RS Standard + subsurface |
| VRaySkinMtl | RS Skin |
| VRayCarPaintMtl | RS Car Paint |
| VRayToonMtl | RS Toon Material |
| VRayFlakesMtl | RS Standard + RS Flakes |
| VRay2SidedMtl | RS Ray Switch (front/back) |
| VRayBumpMtl | RS Standard + bump input |
| VRayBitmap | RS Texture |
| VRayNormalMap | RS Normal Map |
| VRayDirt | RS AO |
| VRayTriplanarTex | RS TriPlanar |
| VRayEdgesTex | RS Round Corners / RS Wireframe |
| VRayDistanceTex | RS Distance |
| VRayCurvature | RS Curvature |
| VRayLight | RS Physical Light |
| skylightPortal | RS Portal Light |
| VRaySun / VRaySky | RS Sun & Sky |
Corona → Redshift mapping
Corona materials and shaders map to their Redshift counterparts the same way. Several builders are shared with the V-Ray pipeline rather than duplicated — the distance, ray-switch and skin/toon adapters are the same code, which is why they behave identically from either source.
| Corona (source) | Redshift (target) |
|---|---|
| CoronaPhysicalMtl | RS Standard Material |
| CoronaMtl (legacy) | RS Standard Material |
| CoronaLayeredMtl | RS Material Blender |
| CoronaLightMtl | RS Incandescent |
| CoronaShadowCatcherMtl | RS Matte / Shadow Catcher |
| CoronaSkinMtl | RS Skin |
| CoronaHairMtl | RS Hair |
| CoronaToonMtl | RS Toon Material |
| CoronaVolumeMtl | RS Standard Volume |
| CoronaBitmap | RS Texture |
| CoronaColor | RS Color Constant |
| CoronaColorCorrect | RS Color Correct |
| CoronaMultiMap | RS Shader Switch |
| CoronaMix | RS Color Mix |
| CoronaAO | RS AO |
| CoronaTriplanar | RS TriPlanar |
| CoronaNormal | RS Normal Map |
| CoronaRoundEdges | RS Round Corners |
| CoronaFrontBack | RS Ray Switch |
| CoronaLight / CoronaSun | RS Physical Light / RS Sun & Sky |
Lights, sun, environment and proxies
Area lights map to RS Physical Light with the correct shape and the correct size convention. This matters more than it sounds: Redshift treats all three of its Size fields as diameters, so a radius-based Corona sphere light is doubled and a V-Ray light is no longer halved — an area light that arrives at half or double its real size changes your whole exposure.
IES lights become RS IES with their intensity units converted from the source renderer's scale. V-Ray skylight portals become RS Portal Lights. Mesh lights become an RS Incandescent material applied to the mesh, because Redshift has no mesh-light object.
Sun and sky: VRaySun, VRaySky and CoronaSun all become an RS Sun & Sky object. HDRI environments become an RS Dome Light with the multiplier and rotation carried over.
Proxies are baked into real geometry, since Redshift reads neither .vrmesh nor .cgeo. Material IDs are paired back to polygon selections so each part keeps its own material.
Render settings are approximated deliberately rather than force-fitted: sampling and noise threshold, GI, caustics and motion blur from V-Ray; ray depth and denoising from Corona; Redshift defaults for everything with no sensible source. One real fix worth calling out — Redshift caps its path at 6 bounces where V-Ray materials commonly default to 8, which used to render glass black. The scene's actual material maxima are now read and written to the Redshift trace depths.
Baking .vrmesh or .cgeo proxies into geometry requires V-Ray or Corona for C4D to be present to read those files — a Redshift-only workstation cannot do it. If you are converting a library that uses proxies, run the conversion on a machine that still has the source renderer available.
What is lost, stated plainly
Converting between two different renderers is not lossless, and pretending otherwise wastes your time. Every item below is written to the conversion log by name — the goal is that you never discover a gap at render time.
Sheen, SSS, thin film, anisotropy
Not carried from a plain VRayMtl or CoronaPhysicalMtl into RS Standard Material — only through the dedicated shaders that have them
V-Ray glass fog & absorption
Not transferred, so a tinted glass arrives clear
V-Ray Environment Fog & Aerial
No Redshift target — skipped with a warning
VRayClipper & VRayFur
No Redshift equivalent — skipped with a warning
V-Ray colour mapping
Only the multiplier maps, folded into each camera’s exposure; type, gamma and clamp are named in the log
VRaySwitchMtl
The active slot is resolved statically — the switching itself is not transferred
Corona Scanned & Fabric
A proprietary .scn BRDF and procedural yarn geometry — no target by construction
Corona Slicer & Outline
Redshift solves these with an object and a post-effect, not a material
Corona decals
Approximated as a polygonal plane — Redshift has no decal object
UV randomisers
Redshift uses hex-tiling where V-Ray and Corona randomise per object ID — the distribution differs
If you want a fully lossless path instead, keep the renderer you started with: V-Ray to V-Ray for C4D or Corona to Corona for C4D. And if your Max scene is already Redshift, the Redshift to Redshift path is the near-parity one.
Cross-Renderer Conversion FAQ
Explore the rest of MAX2C4D
Features
Every supported material, shader and renderer setting.
How it works
Step-by-step walkthrough of a real conversion.
Switching to Redshift
Why studios move to the renderer already in C4D.
vs FBX
Side-by-side breakdown of what FBX destroys.
vs Manual rebuild
Why one-by-one rebuilding never scales.
Showcase
Real archviz scenes converted by studios.
Batch exporter
Re-render a whole library on one engine, overnight.
Pricing
1-year license. All updates included. Money-back guarantee.
Related Guides
Redshift 3ds Max → Cinema 4D
The same-renderer path — 24 materials, 123 texmaps, RS lights and render settings.
V-Ray 3ds Max to Cinema 4D
Staying on V-Ray instead — VRayMtl, shader graphs, ~130 render settings.
Corona Materials in Cinema 4D
Staying on Corona instead — CoronaPhysicalMtl and 80+ shader nodes, 1:1.
Studio Migration Playbook
Rolling Max → C4D across an archviz studio without dropping deadlines.
How to Open .max Files in Cinema 4D
Step-by-step on opening proprietary .max files inside Cinema 4D.
3dsky / Evermotion Assets in C4D
Turn a Corona or V-Ray asset library into a Redshift one.
Move to Cinema 4D and to Redshift in the same pass.
V-Ray or Corona in, native Redshift out. One dropdown, and no second renderer licence.
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