tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post3375434220759920650..comments2024-03-25T11:14:26.579+01:00Comments on zap's mental ray tips: Famous mental ray myths...Master Zaphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08935910250942359436noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-51903421262797745142012-02-20T14:05:36.047+01:002012-02-20T14:05:36.047+01:00hello Zap, Thanks a lot for your tips, they are gr...hello Zap, Thanks a lot for your tips, they are great, but i was wondering if you could give some tips on adding realism to the shaders, like finger prints on glass, or dirt a car.<br />Thanks youAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-91309339049327904172009-09-27T16:37:07.140+02:002009-09-27T16:37:07.140+02:00Why we have to spend so many hours to setup Mental...Why we have to spend so many hours to setup MentalRay to give us Photorealistic results?<br /><br />Do you setup reality when you capture an image by camera?! .. you just setup stage, light<br />and camera parameters, then hit the capture button, thats it !!<br /><br />That is why I like Maxwell Render, Vray, FinalRender and Modo's internal render .. You just turn on GI, AA and set few other things, and result is photorealistic image !!<br /><br />Sorry, But I can't understand philosophy behind massive render settings, while our goal is almost same .. we just want something to simulate physix and capture image .. just like Maxwell!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-11656235213248147032009-04-21T16:10:00.000+02:002009-04-21T16:10:00.000+02:00You seem to know quite a bit about Mental Ray. Is...You seem to know quite a bit about Mental Ray. Is it true that if your object is far away from the origin, (the center of the grid), it will render slower? I have been told this twice and didn't believe it at first but now I'm starting to think it's possible. (Though I haven't tested it yet).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09081457101139714911noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-279272594727887762008-03-05T01:33:00.000+01:002008-03-05T01:33:00.000+01:00Sure MR is a great renderer, its such a shame its ...Sure MR is a great renderer, its such a shame its such a mess of an implementation within Maya with the need to rely on some guy in tim buck two making shaders to actually get things working and then having to rely on that person to update shader because they wont work in the next version of Maya.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00973526125184779842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-20939471028545102202008-03-05T01:06:00.000+01:002008-03-05T01:06:00.000+01:00MentalRay software engineers will always tell you ...MentalRay software engineers will always tell you that they can do this or that better or faster. Yet in the REAL WORLD of film production they are the ones left alone at 2am crying over broken features and slow renders whilst PRman users are at home with their families knowing that their renders are in the bag.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09342411727738572792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-27102634733090213672007-10-10T09:49:00.000+02:002007-10-10T09:49:00.000+02:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06936662905380677972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-64368062003084190912007-10-01T19:10:00.000+02:002007-10-01T19:10:00.000+02:00Hello,I tried searching the net but could not find...Hello,<BR/><BR/>I tried searching the net but could not find an answer> what is the best value for the oversampeling contrast?<BR/><BR/>thanx!Rockin Horeahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11113216300856167059noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-73250592470662100472007-10-01T15:34:00.000+02:002007-10-01T15:34:00.000+02:00Thanks Zap for these great comments and tips.I tot...Thanks Zap for these great comments and tips.<BR/><BR/>I totally agree with that sentense: "I am wholly uninterested in oldschool dinky-toys rendering in a fisher-price universe of reflection maps and reflective occlusion"<BR/><BR/>And yes maybe Prman got some advance on raytracing in a last few years... but seting up a scene to raytrace is a fraking pain the ass compared to mental ray. At least is was in Renderman 11 for me.<BR/><BR/>Yes cheating raytracing will always be faster in rendering time... but never in setup time...never. I don't believe anyone who can say it is faster... setting a boolean value to TRUE in Mr to get raytrace shadow or setting up some insane array of shadow maps shader in prman is not the same.Sylvain Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04036137663328791255noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-33199264706037464342007-09-29T08:21:00.000+02:002007-09-29T08:21:00.000+02:00My, where to start. . .Oddly enough no one seems t...My, where to start. . .<BR/><BR/>Oddly enough no one seems to remember that raytracing is actually MORE efficient than scanline. Scanline has a linear performance while raytracing is logarithmic. In fact, there's the argument that as images become more complex and systems more powerful, it will completely replace scanline. And while I like PRman for some things (Particles and AOVs) in practical use I have never had it outperform mental ray, when setup correctly.<BR/><BR/>The problem is no one runs a fair comparison. No one compares the Rasterizer to PRman. For a lot of tasks PRman is still not built for multithreading on a lot of CPUs. (I believe shading operations only and 4 threads) As such, when I setup a scene with detail shadow maps, mapped reflections, and motion blur I can generally outperform PRman by a factor of almost 2. (This is a machine with dual 8 cores running mental ray 3.5 and Rman for Maya 2.0)<BR/><BR/>No one seems to run that comparison. Honestly. . .no one runs a comparison between software at all where there's an attempt to match the features. That applies to everything.<BR/><BR/>As for who invented the wheel for a lot of the methods, the prize doesn't really go to Pixar or mental images. While the features themselves are unique to the software, chances are, it was tried at a university first.<BR/><BR/>I use whichever tool is appropriate at the time, be it PRman or mental ray and as such I can say that I find no flaw with mental ray that has been purported as true to be actually true.<BR/><BR/>It's a shame that without actual experience with these tools many will believe what they hear. It's a bit like asking the wolf about the missing chickens.<BR/><BR/>"Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge." -- Mark TwainDavidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10598126315294522260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-1067365863516462752007-09-28T19:15:00.000+02:002007-09-28T19:15:00.000+02:00great zap!!! thx, my f5 pressing really payed offgreat zap!!! thx, my f5 pressing really payed offInohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01314301851922482802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-89888921266762168652007-09-28T19:02:00.000+02:002007-09-28T19:02:00.000+02:00Yes of course! mr Sun and mr Sky.Like I said, basi...Yes of course! mr Sun and mr Sky.<BR/><BR/>Like I said, basically, go by the age of the shader when you use it. The IES sun/sky are pretty much useless.<BR/><BR/>/ZMaster Zaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08935910250942359436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-90867170711816190842007-09-28T17:43:00.000+02:002007-09-28T17:43:00.000+02:00But Zap... for exterior daylight setup, shouldn't ...But Zap... for exterior daylight setup, shouldn't I get more realistic results using the mrSun and mrSky than using max's photometric IES sun and IES sky lights???<BR/><BR/>I'd really like your opinion on this, since max's daylight lights make shadows a bit too dark....Inohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01314301851922482802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-22961724619780386472007-09-28T12:19:00.000+02:002007-09-28T12:19:00.000+02:00Well it was true 2 years ago but now prman is well...Well it was true 2 years ago but now prman is well more advanced in new ways to mimic raytracing with faster and more stable sens for production movie scene. Raytracing are slow and problematic with high memory issue. All the trick you spoke about are good and fast for animation in non hero object or motion blured, very handy. Prman had always been a trick renderer and will always , simply because tricks are fast for unusefull raytracing job. I love mental ray for archicad rendering, but for animation I prefer to use prman, and for many reason, motion blur displacement, scattering depth of field, shading language, hair and fur and openexr compositing, Many characters are a lot faster and better in quality than with mental ray, hairs are photorealistic and fast, it only depend on your shader level, and it's only one example to me. what a pain in the ass to setup a final gather GI with moving objects with mental, and how easy it is to add multiple bounce of GI with point based inside prman free of flicking and 10 to 20 time faster than mental.<BR/>don't forget some of old mental ray develloper are working on renderman, but renderman is a hybrid renderer using reyes raytrace and GPU technics to improve the best possible the rendering time for animation. mental is a pure raytracer<BR/><BR/>I don't recommand PRman for still image, mental is really good for still and easier in many ways. but animation is another world for PRman. you should try the last pro server zap you could be impressed by some of the new ways to render photons or new shading language. pixar created lot of good approcimation technology trough the years like deep shadow or point cloud brickmap geometry, all those tricks are very handy in production environment.<BR/><BR/>I love the speed and quality of approximation compare to the accuracy but slow of the raytracing, time is money for me.<BR/><BR/>adinaJudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05237827125370517086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-8548545782006659372007-09-28T10:19:00.000+02:002007-09-28T10:19:00.000+02:00Lets rephrase this to say that the first people to...Lets rephrase this to say that the first people to use "raytracing" and "slow" in the same sentence is PRMan users.<BR/><BR/>The subject wasn't about the truth or untruth of the statement, but the existance of the mindset.<BR/><BR/>/ZMaster Zaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08935910250942359436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36992715.post-58324146084337652612007-09-28T10:07:00.000+02:002007-09-28T10:07:00.000+02:00>> You see, PRMan lives in mindset where raytracin...>> You see, PRMan lives in mindset where raytracing is so slow that you avoid it like the plague.<BR/><BR/>This should be added to another list called "Famous Prman myths..." :P This hasn't been true for a couple years now.Deke Kincaidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16829815427191780856noreply@blogger.com