Tommy Burns

I had one of these last year for a trial for 2 weeks and it definitely renders in mental ray. You can use it by distributed rendering or export an .mi file and render that. They do supply some shaders that work well with the box. I was going to purchase until I seen a renderboxx which renders MR and VRay and I also got a new machine which at the time was just as fast as the Artvps

AJLynn

Did they change something? I had thought I'd remembered them making a deal with mental but I looked at their web page and it said in bold print that it doesn't support 3rd party renders, just the ART renderer.

Tommy Burns

Maybe they did but I used mental ray on it for two weeks no bother but it didn't support Vray at all. They give you some of their own shaders and advise you to use them for the best performance so maybe this is what they mean but then again why do they support .mi files are these not connected to mental ray?

Tommy

shaneis

About an hour's reading has lead me to this, the Renderbox software has integrated mentalray 64-bit. It provides full integration to Maya and Max via plugins. They provide three materials (shiny, glass, mirror) which can be used in lieu of and alongside the materials available in each program. Here's an excerpt from an article at Vizdepot...

"Brian Tyler, CEO of ARTVPS, said: "With 64-bit architectures now driving 3D applications, we are seeing model and scene complexity growing and increasing demand for ever higher quality images and faster performance. It is great to be working with mental images, whose products are an industry standard. As a result of our alliance, ARTVPS' next generation RenderDrives will also support the mental ray 64-bit renderer together with our RenderPipe material library."

So it seems that if you're using MR4Maya or MR4Max, you're fine and also get 3 new optimised materials and your cameras/ area lights and IBL.

Article at highend3D...

http://www.highend3d.com/news/highen...solut-109.html

I suppose if you're a mr user, they're kind of looking good now, especially as the price has come down. 28 cores @ 64-bit, install and start rendering, software and licences inlcuded. Yep, sounds like a really good deal!

AJLynn

I'd do some more research on that - I can't find any web page mentioning RayBox and mental ray at the same time, but I do see some that discuss its compatibility with Renderman files. You'd think it would be mentioned on the faq or that googling raybox mental would turn something up, but nothing relevent. I think this might be a newer product that does not include mr support - did they continue with mr support on ArtVPS hardware after mental got bought by nVidia (meaning that it should be running on nVidia hardware sooner or later)?...

manta

Mental Images bought Artvps some time ago, and MR is intergrated into it now...

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manta

Hmmmm....I would swear on my life I read that MI aquires ARTVPS, but now I can't find any evidence of it....strange...anyway there is collaboration...from MI website...

ARTVPS and mental images collaborate on new ray
tracing solutions

The field of ray tracing visualisation is set to see further developments in 2006, heralded by the announcement of a partnership between two of the sector's leading commercial forces.

ARTVPS, developers of a unique graphics processor for photorealistic ray tracing, and mental images®, the developers of the globally leading, Academy Award® winning high-end rendering software mental ray®, have concluded agreements that will further the evolution of advanced ray tracing solutions for 3D visualisation. As part of the deal, mental images will license intellectual property from ARTVPS with the exclusive right to its sublicensing. ARTVPS in turn will become an OEM partner of mental images for the integration of mental ray in future 64-bit versions of its RenderDrive™ product range. In addition, ARTVPS will become a system integrator for RealityServer®, the unique software platform for the development and deployment of 3D Web Services and applications from mental images.

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AJLynn

Yeah, there's the press release from 2006, and they do have at least one mental ray product, but what I'm saying is that the poster should do specific research (call the company) to determine whether the exact product he's looking at has mental ray support, because to all appearances that model does not.

shaneis

OK, I've emailed ARTVPS, here's their reply...

"Hi Shane

"RayBox uses our own renderer and is not compatible with Mental Ray.

"Our Mental Ray Solution is RS-MR. From your email I guess that it is RSMR that you wanted more information on. RS-MR is a way to easily utilize standalone Mental Ray Licenses.

"As regards you main concern - standard mental ray materials are covered.

"If you have any further questions on RS-MR then please don't hesitate to contact me

"Kind regards

"Amy Plumb
ART VPS Ltd
10 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0FG"


Cheers,

S.

nicnic

sounds like desperately outdated technology trying to hold on.
avoid at all costs

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