lara Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hi all, I am interested in buying 3dsmax6. I am quite familiar with radiosity (viz 4) but have no clue on how to use mental ray and after searching the internet for any tutorials to understand how mental ray works and why it is better (if it is!) from radiosity I did not find anything to convince me that I should learn how to use it. Even the site of the developers of mental ray does not give any practical info for the renderer (unless you buy the books)! Maybe I should stick to radiosity... Can someone help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hi Eleni, Is there something in Max 6 that you need that isn't in VIZ - for example, particle systems or sub-object animation? If VIZ 2005 is available in your area, you might want to look into the upgrade. It also has mental ray. Max 6 ships with some tutorials for using mental ray. I'm not sure what VIZ 2005 ships with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lara Posted April 27, 2004 Author Share Posted April 27, 2004 Dear Fran, Thanks for your quick reply. What I would really like to know is why did they decide to integrate mental ray into max6 and viz5? Is it quicker than radiosity? What is the point of having both radiosity and mental ray if you have to set up the lighting and materials in a different way (at least as I understand it)? The only trouble I have with radiosity is the very long render time... Maybe I should wait for now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne Harney Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Having MR in Viz2005 just gives you another option for GI. Some are more comfortable with the MR type renderers (like vray, brazil, fr, etc.) but if you're comfortable with radiosity stick with that. I don't have Viz2005 but I believe radiosity has been improved with adaptive meshing. There doesn't seem to be much excitement about MR yet in the arch viz community but it does do caustics, displacement, etc. I believe where scanline with radiosity doesn't. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Basically radiosity and MR are 2 totally different approaches to GI both with pros and cons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Hi all, Even the site of the developers of mental ray does not give any practical info for the renderer (unless you buy the books)! Maybe I should stick to radiosity... Can someone help? lara, From the above extracted quote- The books are very technical, ie explaination of the programing orientated to writing shaders and interface with MR. Lots of cross referencing from here to there needed. It's more of a technical guide than users guide. Fran's statement is very valid. Radiosity is a fairly simple and high quality solution. GI in general & MR in particular tends towards greater complexity, due to the increased variables. WDA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lara Posted April 28, 2004 Author Share Posted April 28, 2004 Hi all, thanks for replying... your advice has been quite helpful. As I understand it, I will stick to radiosity for the time being, at least until the next release of max. Does anyone know whether it is worth investing on a different renderer, like V-ray and if it supports .ies files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pixelperfectg Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 Personally, I've really been pleased with my purchase of Vray. It's great for interior lighting. And yes it supports IES lights. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stefkeB Posted April 30, 2004 Share Posted April 30, 2004 Having MR in Viz2005 just gives you another option for GI. Some are more comfortable with the MR type renderers (like vray, brazil, fr, etc.) but if you're comfortable with radiosity stick with that. I don't have Viz2005 but I believe radiosity has been improved with adaptive meshing. There doesn't seem to be much excitement about MR yet in the arch viz community but it does do caustics, displacement, etc. I believe where scanline with radiosity doesn't. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Basically radiosity and MR are 2 totally different approaches to GI both with pros and cons. I don't think VIZ 2005 has adaptive meshing at all. And Mental Ray is very good and has been used for Filmwork since a long time (it's in the same league as Renderman). For architectural visualisation it has been used less since the price was high and only Softimage was using it and that is a very animation-oriented software. Since Mental Ray is now included in XSI, Maya, 3ds max & VIZ, it's good to learn, but it'll take time. It's not a plug-and-play renderer like the others. IMHO, scanline 3ds max/VIZ render is adequate, but V-Ray is very usable as well. Try the others if you want: Final Render has a demo, Brazil has a free edition (RIO), VRay has a demo and a free version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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