Maya 4.5 / MentalRay 1.5

[matty429]

Maya 4.5=On or around September 30

Mental Ray=Same time

[MacRonin]

Yeah, the whole MRv1.5 & MRv3.1 thing has me a little confused also...

I guess I could try going to the mental images site, but that would be to easy...

But what I want to know, is the Mac OS X version of Maya Complete v4.5 going to be supported on Mac OS X v10.2 (aka Jaguar)...?

[Noxerus]

Don't put your hopes in the MentalImages site, not much useful info there :rolleyes:
And umm I don't know much about Mac, but shouldn't the OS be backwards compatible?

[MacRonin]

It is not the OS I am concerned about, it is Maya...

Maya can be fickle at times, and if you are running a version of your OS that hasen't been officially 'blessed' by A|w, then there could be problems...

There are advances in Mac OS X v10.2 that would be extremely beneficial to Mac Maya users, so I am asking if anyone knows which version of the Mac OS is going to be supported by Maya Complete v4.5

And yeah, the mental images site kinda sucks!

[CitizenVertex]

I wouldn't worry about Maya working with 10.2. It's just a point release with a bunch of new features all of which should be transparent to current OSX applications. Even so, Apple made a big deal about Alias at MacWorld, so I'd think they are doing their best to make sure Maya runs fine on all versions of OSX.

I think the beta will have both the connection and MR. It doesn't make sense for them to give a free public beta of the connection without rendering software.

[MacRonin]

My main thing is to see Maya v4.5 working in Mac OS X v10.2, AND taking FULL advantage of Quartz Extreme...

Mmmm... Maya on Mac OS X as seen through Quartz Extreme-colored/nv30 powered glasses...

;^p

[svenip]

i don't think paint effects will ever be supported by mental. i would be surprised if they'll do.

[Grooveholmes]

The ability to Bake your lighting in mental ray 1.5 WILL be included.:applause: :beer:

[jtk77]

does that mean you can bake your GI pass into your ambeince channel ?
and then not worry about it?
that would be very neat , not 100% correct, but fine for most things...

[Grooveholmes]

Its brilliant for game development. And a good work-around to the time issue on most renders.

[-=TF=-]

the 1.5 baking function looks really nice! :applause:

check out http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/press/maya/mediahub/images/mentalray01.jpg


cheers
lars
TF

[Farhez]

mental ray for Maya 1.5 is a plug-in that will work with Maya 4.5.

You do not need to _already_ have mental ray 3.0 or 3.1
(aka the standalone alone) version to render with mental
ray for Maya.

Everything you need to render within Render View and
batch rendering a Maya scene file using mental ray,
will be provided by mental ray for Maya.

mental ray for Maya 1.5 is based on mental ray 3.1
and I believe will therefore support the same features.

However, if you want to setup a render farm or need the
capabilities that the standalone offers (like being able
to write .mi files and render them) etc - then you will
need mental ray 3.1 standalone.

mental ray for Maya 1.0 does support bump mapping. Some
adjustments have been made in 1.5 to make it more like Maya's.

Paint FX is not supported yet - but one can always render
elements currently not supported by mental ray for Maya,
with Maya's renderer and composite.

I hope this answers your questions.

[playmesumch00ns]

Think I'll stick with prman

[-wT-]

Farhez, could you tell more about the actual renderer included in 1.5, as first when I read about the plugin v1.5 being free as a beta, I was like "Woohoo!" untill I remembered that Mental Ray itself sure isn't a cheap renderer, and wouldn't propably be distriputed with the free plugin.

But now, what I understand from your text, the plugin will have somekind of a "lite"/integrated MR (Which ofcourse doesn't allow standalone rendering of .mi files?), not the actual mental ray standalone, like in the current 1.0 version, am I correct?
Then it would make sense that you're giving it away for free ;)

[Grooveholmes]

I think I remembered seeing something at Siggraph stating that when Mental Ray1.5 for Maya comes out it'll be made available for everybody as some kind of trial version. Kind of like how Brazil has been free forever.

:insane:
Or was all of that a dream?

[jtk77]

Only if you are current with you maya maintance I'm pretty sure..
but maybe not.

Its a mray public beta of 1.5 after 4.5 ships.
for 60 days I think..60 or 30 , then it dies.
check out the alias site, they have a press release in the news section...
www.aw.sgi.com

[Farhez]

- wT -

mental ray for Maya is not a "lite" version of
mental ray - it offers the full functionality
of the standalone (including support for custom
shaders that you can write), plus support for
features that are specific to Maya (like the new
ramp and ocean shaders & volume light for
example).

However if you have a requirement to render the
special .mi files (that you may have created by
hand for example) or have a render farm - the
standalone is probably the best way to go.

mental ray for Maya is tigtly integrated with
Maya. Your scene is directly renderable
within Maya - without having to save to
any special intermediate file format or type in
commands -> you simply hit the render button
and presto you have a rendered image of your
scene.

If you've used 1.0 - you have had a small
taste of this - we've made improvements in 1.5
to make the workflow quite intuitive.


- jtk77 -

You do not need to be on maintenance to use
the public beta - all licensed Maya 4.5 users
will be able to freely download it and use it.

Hope this helps.

[victor]

Originally posted by Farhez
You do not need to be on maintenance to use
the public beta - all licensed Maya 4.5 users
will be able to freely download it and use it.

What kind of limitations will there be in the beta? Will renders have a watermark or size limit? Will the beta expire?

Also, the press release doesn't say anything about pricing/availability for 1.5 beyond the beta release (so I assume that means that you can't say much about it either), but is there a possibility that this will change? For example, by integrating the Mental Ray renderer into future releases of Maya as opposed to it being a seperate product.

Thanks for your time.

[Farhez]

These are questions that will likely be answered
as we get closer to releasing the beta.

In regards to your questions regarding pricing,
I would contact your local sales representative.

Right now we're working hard to get a good
quality product out to you.

Thanks for your patience.

[beaker]

Farhez:

Has a/w taken over on the development of the MRtoMaya plugin? One of my friends was beta testing it back when maya 2 came out. It took them like 4 years too finally ship the product and it still was missing support for alot of major things(Didn't even have FG support till like 6 months before it shipped and it was god awfull slow with any remotely large scene). They kept on saying, oh yea, it will be shipping in a few month for like 2 years. But now it seems to be moving at a much faster pace. Just wondering if a/w taking over is a result of that.

[jtk77]

Any truth at all to the rumor that a dual CPU license of Mray might be offered with Maya (as a standard, with unlimted or whatever) by first of the year ?
Its a rumor and somtimes they have a grain of truth to them..
like when the price drop was rumored after SIG last year and it was denied around, not strongly ..then BAM..DECEMEBRR rols around and prices fall completely....
jsut curious. can;t wait to try the beta of Mray.
no one at the office is in a mood to buy, maybe I can pull it if I show its valuable?
I hope the manuals are updated, like work on some practical docs for the product...
...from what I had seen of them for 1.0 ...
they were rather cryptic and thin....
also , Alias should work on some custom shaders similar to the SOFTIMAGE intergration...that would improve its value considerably
Anyway. maybe not. I could be wrong , look forward to the beta anyway :)

[Farhez]

- beaker and jtk77 -

mental ray for Maya is a joint effort by mental images and
Alias|Wavefront.

We have ultra-talented people on both sides of the Atlantic
working on this product.

The combination of these efforts are allowing us to provide
you with such rapid development.

As always, I'll pass your suggestions along to the team.

We hope you enjoy the public beta.

Now - I've got to return to working on it. :)

[jtk77]

well thanks for the reply.
As always /

The thing that made Softimage mental ray so cool when i worked on it way back was the custom lights/volumetrics and shaders that were mray only..but heck
that was a long time ago
look forward to what it ends up looking like. I'm sure furture intergration will get it to the point of softimage where its as seemless as a default renderer.

[-wT-]

Originally posted by Farhez
- wT -

mental ray for Maya is not a "lite" version of
mental ray - it offers the full functionality
of the standalone (including support for custom
shaders that you can write), plus support for
features that are specific to Maya (like the new
ramp and ocean shaders & volume light for
example).

However if you have a requirement to render the
special .mi files (that you may have created by
hand for example) or have a render farm - the
standalone is probably the best way to go.

mental ray for Maya is tigtly integrated with
Maya. Your scene is directly renderable
within Maya - without having to save to
any special intermediate file format or type in
commands -> you simply hit the render button
and presto you have a rendered image of your
scene.

If you've used 1.0 - you have had a small
taste of this - we've made improvements in 1.5
to make the workflow quite intuitive.


- jtk77 -

You do not need to be on maintenance to use
the public beta - all licensed Maya 4.5 users
will be able to freely download it and use it.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the answer.
And I know I shouldn't have wrote "lite", as I didn't mean it as something with lower feature-list, but I ment is as something that will only work with Maya. Because what I've now understood, even some 10y old Blender-kid can get Mental Ray for free, if MRforMaya can render as a standalone also... isn't that something you don't want to have?
Or have I misunderstood something completely? :)

Oh and btw, does it matter if the Maya license is educational, or do I have to get the full blown 4.5? Oh and as we're at it, will Maya 4.5 have it's educational version out immediately, and will it cost the same (= 500$ Complete, and 695$ for Unlimited) as the 4.0 -one?

[bjoern]

Hi Farhez

Can you give me a little info about this? :)
http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/products/maya/mentalray.shtml

-allows interactive and batch mental ray rendering from within the Maya user interface as well as the command line.



How much interavtive is MR for Maya 4.5? Are raytracing,antialias and or GI included?

thx for any reply
bjoern

[-wT-]

All of those features have been in since 1.0 bjoern, so don't worry about it

[bjoern]

-wT- Imean true Interactive rendering like the IPR in Maya.
but witch Gi, Raytracing, antialias and particle.... etc :)

bye
bjoern

[-wT-]

Ah, sorry, my bad :)

[Apoclypse]

i was wondering if it would be possible to use the plugin if i happen to own a copy of xsi ( i'm planning to get xsi 3.0 soon and i just want to know if i could use the mental ray that is inluded with it.

[beaker]

You can use any render nodes that come with xsi to render for maya, but not the single built in license. Also A/w won't let you buy just the translator. You have to buy a copy of MR along with it. You could still use any extra xsi MR licenses for multithreading of the MRtoMaya plugin, or just for a renderfarm.

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.