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INFINITE
05-11-2005, 01:23 PM
Hey guys I need some help. I just recieved MAX 7 today and I am playing around with the SSS skin shader. Its really good but I juat want to add a simple HDRI environment background to also GI light my human model. I switch on GI in the render panel, when I go to render I get the MENTAL RAY MESSAGES BOX appear and it goes on about error no photons stored after emitting 10000000 photons etc?

What does this mean? I have all the tut's on disc but can find a good one to explain a simple HDRI scene setup. This should be easy, it is in Lightwave, takes 10 secs to setup in LW.

I am a master in Lightwave and I am trying to learn MAX I hope someone can help.

Thanks for your time

I N F I N I T E
JeffPatton
05-11-2005, 02:26 PM
Run a thread search for "Mental HDRI" and out of the 65 threads it will return, you'll find several tutorials and lot's of info.
ToddD
05-11-2005, 02:27 PM
Here is a thread I found simply using the search feature of the forum on basic hdr scene.
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=160796&highlight=hdr+scene

You don't need gi enabled to use hdr. The scene should be quick to set-up, its not a max issue, just done differently than LW I'm sure.

Photon errors could be caused by photons bouncing off into space. I haven't tried gi with hdr, usually for GI encompassing your scene in a dome to contain photons works well, although you cannot(AFAIK) do that when using a skylight as the dome blocks the light from the skylight.

EDIT: Jeff beat me to it :)
INFINITE
05-11-2005, 02:53 PM
Jeff Patton: I have done beleive me but I couldnt figure out what the error was.

ToddD: cheers for the info on the photons. So I should just put an HDRI image in the environment slot and hey presto?

OOOPS!!! Figured it out, was simply a case of me not turning the HDRI RGB values up enough in the material slot. Thanks for your help though guys.
INFINITE
05-11-2005, 03:23 PM
Excuse my ignorance guys, I have used Brazil and understand the technique of HDRI and how to implement it but now with Mental Ray, I have to ramp the Materials RGB settings right up to get any HDRI lighting on the model. THus making the background wash out. Ive tried the different clamping methods....ohh so annoying... + isnt HDRI lighting similar to Global Illumination? where are the settings for this? like bounces etc? so if I have to turn GI settings on I'm back to square one with the photon error!!
INFINITE
05-11-2005, 08:51 PM
Found out that I needed too add a SKYLIGHT and copy over the environment settings for use with MENTAL RAY.

Silly me... Love the skin shader!!
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05-11-2005, 08:51 PM
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