Mental Ray Rendering Message

[reptar]

Hi, im modelling an interior scene and i am receiving an error message which someone might be able to shed some light on the situation

 

RCGI 0.3 error 361001: photon emission shader returned miFALSE: aborting photon tracing

 

Thanks!

[SandmanNinja]

Hey Pete,

 

What kind of lights do you have in the scene?

What version of max are you using?

 

 

A quick google search found:

http://www.mymentalray.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2185

 

http://www.enjoycg.com/forums/3d-studio-max/4100-mr-errors.html

 

http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-3ds-max/3ds-max-through-2008/mr-sky-portal-error-message/

[reptar]

I am using 3D Max 2010 but have had similar problems with 3D Max 2008.

 

Please see attached my light lister image.

 

I have recently added the Photometric light (listed at top) and the error was happening before this light was added.

 

Thanks Joel

[Justin Hunt]

do you have a mrPhysical sky shader in the environment slot?

 

Also having the mrsky ground colour as black is not too good an idea as you wont get any light from the ground, ie the simulation of light bounced off the horizon line. If your doing a night shot make this a purple or orange colour.

 

512 shadow samples for your portal lights glad you have time for that to render. 64 is often too much for my liking (I live with the grain)

 

jhv

[SandmanNinja]

Agree with the 512 samples as high. I often "compromise" with 32 samples and it's generally good enough.

 

Feel free to shoot me the file - I think you have my email address.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Careful. That is a shadow map, not an area light shadow. You are comparing Samples to Resolution.

 

But Peter, the reason you are being questioned on those samples is that shadow maps are not commonly used anymore. Are you sure you need one, you might want to do a speed test vs. area shadows.

 

It used to be that in some cases shadow mapping were the way to go, because they gave softness to shadow edges, without sacrificing the extra time required for area shadows. This was with scan line. I don't know if modern render engines take the same time hit that scan line engines did on area shadows.. I have not tested this, so I don't know if it is true. It sould be that processors are just more efficient, so I don't feel like I am waiting forever for the shadows to render.

 

But onto the problem....

 

I have not seen this problem personally, but I think it might be a material problem, and not a light problem. I think older mi materials required you to place a photon shader to shoot photons. The more modern A&D material do this automatically. You might start by checking something along those lines, and see if you can find a solution. A fast way to do this would be to add a material over ride, and see if you still get the error.

 

Or, if it is a light problem, maybe you have a photon shader on one of those. I think they have a shot to add shader to them, but it is hidden by default with the design viz presets. If you are using a more standard configuration, the slot id present, or if modify the design settings, the slot is present. I am not with Max right now, so I can no tverify the correct terminology.

Edited September 29, 2009 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[reptar]

Thanks for your help! You've made really interesting points, cheers!