Ninja

Using a sunlight with MR is giving me a completely black render...I have enabled Final Gather, and flagged the light to use MR,,,but nothing

anyone any ideas >?

thanks in advance

Fran

Hi Martin,

What kind of sunlight are you using? Mental ray doesn't support IES lights. Is this an interior or exterior space? Does the mental ray error log open when you render? Is it enabled?

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jucaro

Yes, as what Fran said, MR doesnt support IES sunlight. Use direct spotlight instead if you want to simulate sunlight. For the past few weeks, i too was struggling on how to light both interior and exterior scenes using MR and using just one light source.

IMHO, i would still stick to Vray.(at least for the time being until i get to understand MR.)

MR produces more believable results than Vray. But in terms of speed to deadline schedules, VRay sets the pace.

As of now, I'm still experimenting how to make MR render as fast and as optimized.

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Ninja

Thanks guys for the feedback.

Im attempting to render an outdoor scene with a single light (very important I used GI)

The MAX6 on-line reference does state that a sun light will work with MR BUT to enable final gaterhing to avoid very dark results...and yes, I do get errors and warnings in the MR dialogue. The "sun" light has MR dialogue in the modify panel....so surely it must be supported by the MR render ?

...any suggestions for an efficient out door lighting solution including GI (with MR) guys ?

thanks

xgarcia

Just FYI:
There is a sticky'd thread over at CGtalk.com about Mental Ray shaders. Not sure how much applies to arch. viz. but some time saving tweaks have been discussed. Hope that helps.

jucaro

You'd have to use a lot of GI samples if you want to light a scene with just GI alone, and only fewer if you want to use FG at the cost of longer rendering times.

If you want to light an exterior scene with HDRI, GI has no use. Instead, use FG+skylight or a Dome mapped with an HDRI map, but still you'd have to use FG (basic HDRI scene setup still applies).

And oh, BTW, the MR scene in the MAX6 CD is useless for learning if at all. The tutorial and Help was tinee bit only for grounding and basics

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Ninja

so rule of thumb....avoid MR for exterior scenes ?

thats ashame

jucaro

NO. Rule of thumb is...if you have a deadline, stick to what you are familiar with.

IMHO, MR is really OK. exterior scenes are quite easy to set up than interior ones. But i'm still biased to the speed that Vray offers and the results that I want. Vray is more predictable in terms of output and speed.

MR renderings look great though, but the myriad of settings it has can leave me baffled and frantic on how to optimize the settings.

[ November 29, 2003, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: jucaro ]

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siliconbauhaus

actually mr does support IES files.....from what I've found anyways

abicalho

IES Files are different from IES Sun and Sky.

Alexander

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