If you’re looking to fix the Shadow/Sun problem caused by the HDRI, go HERE.
Hello Designers!
Due to a lot of questions arising on “Black Backgrounds” or “Black Screens” issues that encounters a lot of my readers I’ve decided to give it its own post that will be updated regularly with different fixes to the problems that can cause these issues.
The fact that certain render options work for some people and not work for others is a known issue when it comes to VRay; since VRay relies on what type of hardware you’re using it on.
I face problems like these when test rendering a certain model on my laptop when I’m out and then when I open the same file with the same settings on my Desktop PC at home to do a final render, I often have to tweak a bit so I can get the same results.
After you follow the steps in This Post, Some of you commented and emailed me about a black background where your pictures are supposed to be, and some even got a black screen where their renders are supposed to appear.
How To Fix the Black/Transparent Background Issue?
Fix #1
Follow the steps as I mentioned in the post to add your desired background and then in the ‘Environment‘ tab, change the value of ‘GI (Skylight)‘ to a bigger value; start with 2 or 5 or 10, 15, 50, etc.
What value to go with depends on your machine, VRay version, and/or Sketchup version.
Fix #2
In the ‘Environment‘ tab, change the value of ‘Reflection/Refraction (Background)‘ to a bigger value; start with 2 or 5 or 10, 15, 50, etc.
The value will, again, depend on a lot of factors.
This could also help the “Transparent Background” issue, since sometimes you have to play with both values to get everything to show correctly.
Fix #3
This fix is mostly used for the “Transparent Background” issue, but on some machines it’ll fix the Black BG too.
When saving your output image, make sure you choose JPEG or JPG instead of PNG.
In PNG format the background is usually either Transparent, White, or in some cases Black when there is no BG image, and sometimes it gets stuck that way even if there was a BG image so changing it to JPEG should take care of that.
Let me know how this works out for you, and if you encounter any other issues/have any other solutions leave a comment below!
Happy Designing 🙂
Ravenors Design Academy 
Thanks for the quick response Angie!I tried uninstalling but it still didn’t work unfortunately.
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I think this is not a render issue. Have you tried uninstalling VRay, restarting your computer, then installing VRay again?
From what you’re saying, the background shows up, but glitches when saved. Reinstalling VRay should fix whatever is making your pictures glitch when saved.
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Thank you for all your help! I unfortunately have tried everything to fix this background issue and none of your solutions have worked. When I select to save file as JPEG is does but still opens as a PNG… The background i want will flash for a moment when the picture opens but then changes to bright white. Any ideas how to fix this?
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You can find them in the Library 🙂
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Glad this helped you 🙂
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I really appreciate your post, same problem solved with the third fix, neither GI nor Reflection did help. Thank you very much!
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Please I’m having problems rendering, after my rendering, all the images will be black. Please I need a full V-Ray 2.0 setting for my SketchUp 2015 please.
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You’re very welcome!
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Angie – big thanks for your posts on the black screen issue for background images in Vray. Your suggestion to save as JPEG instead of PNG saved the day for our client meeting today. You rock!
Bob S
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