VRayBlendMtl: Equivelant in mental ray???

[TomD_Arch]

So I was watching a Grant Warwick tutorial on advanced vray material creation. My intention was to carefully follow along and see if I could create the same results using mental ray. Well we come to a part in the video where he applies the VRayBlendMtl and I am now stuck because I don't believe anything like this exists for 'mr'. Regular Blend comes close, until you want to apply a modifier to one of the two individual materials it has and there is no slot for something like a Falloff.

 

So now is the part where all you V-ray fans tell me "You're right! that's why you should stop using mr and start using v-ray." I'd rather continue to grow my knowledge in mr and am hoping someone might have some advice for achieving a similar outcome.

 

Thanks!

[Chris MacDonald]

Pretty sure the composite material will do what you're looking for. Just make sure you don't have anything like shellac, or additive enabled on whatever you choose to use; these break the first law of thermodynamics and will render physically incorrect results... Though that may not be a problem for you .

 

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[RyderSK]

I am not quite following, but the only thing you miss with regular blend, is you have to nest them, because you cannot stack more than 2 materials at one hierarchy level.

But otherwise, you can simply apply fallof curve into 'mask' slot and there will be no difference.

 

With VrayBlend, the mask slot visually resides next to the top material, but it blends between the original, and the one it's next to. With Blend, you simply continue nesting the layers. It's less comfortable, but otherwise I don't see a functionality difference.

 

Also, if you're following Grant's way of applying reflective curve via fallof instead of fresnel, remember that MentalRay shader has custom Fresnel/BRDF curve already unlike more 'primitive' VrayPower shader where there either is the simplified fresnel, or no fresnel at all.

 

Imho, all Grant shows should be replicable by 99perc. via MentalRay shader as well. I think honestly MentalRay shader is so much better anyway.

[RyderSK]

Pretty sure the composite material will do what you're looking for

 

Composite mat is pure legacy stuff, outdated gimmick, there is no use for it all as I am aware. All it does is either substract, add, or blend without mask (thus the same as Blend material...only in useless way).

Composite map, is the update, but work on map/texture level instead.

 

So, use the blend, it works as should imho.