What are the best practice settings for Autodesk VRED for Hololight Stream Runtime?

Autodesk VRED is professional 3D visualization software that brings complex data to life. With Hololight Stream Runtime, you can experience Autodesk VRED scenes in XR on all major XR devices.

This guide explains our best practices for preparing a scene optimized for XR. Because each project’s needs vary—depending on scene complexity, lighting setup, and subjective quality expectations—there’s no single settings pattern that works for every project. Instead, we outline the impact of each setting on performance and quality so you can make informed adjustments.

Your results will also depend on your workstation configuration. The right hardware, software, and network are essential for running Autodesk VRED smoothly and ensuring a high-quality XR experience. Refer to Autodesk VRED’s official system requirements before you begin.

Renderer choice

Selecting the right renderer is crucial because some advanced features are available only in specific modes. For more informations on renderer please visit Autodesk VRED.

• Recommended: Vulkan
  Available starting in Autodesk VRED 2026, Vulkan offers advanced GPU-accelerated hybrid raytracing capabilities, including:
  • Raytraced reflections
  • Raytraced ambient occlusion
  • Raytraced environment shadows

In our tests, Vulkan provided the best combination of performance and visual quality.

• OpenGL
  OpenGL is a rasterizer with no special GPU requirements. It supports 2D and 3D vector graphics rendering but lacks many of the raytracing features that enhance realism in XR.

or more information on the differences between Vulkan and OpenGL, as well as their system requirements, visit the Autodesk VRED documentation.

In our internal tests, Vulkan provided the best visual quality. However, it also introduced some limitations, as the renderer is still relatively new—both in general and within Autodesk VRED specifically.

Antialiasing options

Autodesk VRED offers two antialiasing approaches. Use only one at a time.

• Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) – Recommended
  NVIDIA technology that boosts performance while maintaining or improving image quality. Best suited for XR streaming with Vulkan.

• Realtime antialiasing
  Smooths jagged edges but uses significantly more processing power. Produces similar quality to DLSS but without its performance benefits.

Vulkan renderer settings

If you use Vulkan, the following settings can be adjusted. We’ve grouped them by whether they improve quality or affect performance. For more informations about rasterization settings and how they operate, please visit the Autodesk VRED documentation.

Quality-focused settings

• Realtime environment shadows – Recommended
  Uses raytracing to calculate diffuse lighting shadows. For best results, set Type to Raytraced Environment Shadows.
  Performance impact: high.

• Realtime light source shadows
  Adds realistic shadows from direct light sources.
  Performance impact: high.

• Raytraced reflections – Recommended
  Produces realistic and dynamic reflections for materials and environments.
  Performance impact: high.

Performance-focused setting

• Occlusion culling – Default
  Improves rendering efficiency by not drawing objects hidden behind others.
  Performance impact: positive (performance gain).

• Backface culling - Recommended
  Renders only the faces with normals pointing toward the camera.
  Performance impact: positive (performance gain).
  

Best Practice Scenario

We tested the default demo project in Autodesk VRED Professional 2026, applying the following renderer and performance settings:

• Renderer: Vulkan
• DLSS: Balanced
• Realtime environment shadows: Raytraced environment shadows
• Realtime light source shadow: Active
• Raytraced reflections: Active
• Occlusion culling: Active
• Improve color depth: Disabled