3ds Max R9 Student SuperPack w/ mental ray 3.5 Core

[Arnold Grove]

Since Im going back to school, Im looking at the 3ds Max R9 Student SuperPack and it ships with Mental Ray 3.5 Core .

My question is, is this the newest full version of MR or a scalled down version, and in either case, I want to learn VRay so will this version cause problems when I install VRay?

And while Im at it, how does the 2 compare? I know in the end its the user and preference, but im wondering about features, ease of use, how the renders compare, etc.

Thanks very much, Arnie

 

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=761701

 

 

[Brian Cassil]

Mental Ray has been included with Max for the last couple of releases. It will not cause any conflict with VRay.

[Arnold Grove]

Thanks Brian

 

Do you have any thoughts on how they compare?

 

cheers, arnold

[Brian Cassil]

I actually use Final Render (yes we still exist) so I couldn't give you a really good comparison. I do know that both are capable of creating equally good results. In the past, MR was considered very complicated, however the latest release of Max 9 is mostly focused on enhancements and workflow improvements to MR so that may not be as true now. Others here could give you a better comparison of the two.

[Ricardo Eloy]

Comparisons are a bit hard to do, especially because this new MR has many improvements. One thing you could do is check this out: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/20130-couple-quick-ones.html

Andrew is testing it and he's probably the one to answer MR questions right now.

[Juan Altieri]

i think the tree options are really good (MR; VR and FR), most of the quality depends on you, i already saw great works with all this plugins and MR really improve the quality for the latest version, i hear they include phisical sun and sky as vray do it.

[AJLynn]

So this looks like a standard Max package with a student license - the only thing it wouldn't let you do is use it to make money. As for the mental ray questions:

-You can have mental ray, Vray, finalRender, Maxwell, etc., installed at the same time. There is an option in the render dialog to choose between them. In most cases, if you want to switch render engines while in the middle of working on a scene, you will need to redo your lighting and materials.

-As of Max9, mental ray and Vray are remarkably similar. A student license of Vray costs $250, which was a good deal a year ago, but I'm not sure anymore. Having experience in Vray and limited experience in older versions of mental ray, I started learning mental ray 3.5 when I got my Max9 upgrade, and I'm currently working on a real project with it - and it's as good as my Vray work. (I'll post something when I can - this is for an approval process and needs to stay in-house for the time being.) I've been a Vray proponent for a while but now I'm confident that mental ray is also a great option.

[Arnold Grove]

As far as making money, thats a long way off. So AJ, standard package means not a 'full' version of Max? Im sure Im looking at serious study for a good while, I still have to work my reg job.

 

So this looks like a standard Max package with a student license - the only thing it wouldn't let you do is use it to make money.

 

Will I not be able to output stills and animations? thanks, arnold

[Arnold Grove]

AJ, the MR renders are killer, cool geometry as well!

[Brian Cassil]

Will I not be able to output stills and animations? thanks, arnold

 

You can output anything that the commercial version can. In functionality, the programs are identical including output capabilities. The only difference is the student version shows a screen, on start up only, that states that you are using a student version that is not authorized for commercial work. In other words you can not legally use it to make money with.

[cakewalkr7]

I was told that there were 2 flavors of the academic version. One which allowed only 1 install and another that allowed however many installs on one machine as needed. Does anyone know which version this is?

 

Also, when I looked at this page, http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=6080698, it talked about "It incorporates all the functionality of our professional licenses and includes education-specific features, such as a print banner making the software inappropriate for professional, commercial, or for-profit purposes.". Does this mean that the final renders are watermarked? I don't mind a small watermark since it is after all an educational version. But, I'm not sure if I'd want it if it covered too much of the actual image. Can anyone verify how this works? Thanks.

[cakewalkr7]

^bump^... anyone know?

[Arnold Grove]

Good question cake, Im awaiting an email from the academic suerstore, hoefully that will answer your question. Ill post it asap, ag

[cakewalkr7]

Thanks Arnold. I emailed them too about a week ago and haven't heard back yet... hopefully they'll respond.