Mental Ray Conversion To Renderman and Maya 2009

[beaker]

Even if you could translate everything, nothing would look the same. Even with default maya shaders, nothing in MR looks anything like a render in Renderman for Maya.

[playmesumch00ns]

You really, really, really do not want to try and do this. Just write a renderman shader that does what you want.

[beaker]

Oh but I did forget there is a mental ray to rib translator. Renderman for Maya can't read rib files though. You would need the full version of prman to use it.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mntlrib/

[Nea381]

yeah I was aware that it wouldn't look the same I just didn't want to have to use SLIM because it annoys me >.< and coding the .slo would be the other option. So guess thats where I'm headed. Thanks for the response guys. Later.

-Nathan

[rendermaniac]

3delight for Maya (http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php/products/3delight_for_maya/3delight_maya_overview) has a translation of mia_material which includes source code. Although, as has been said, don't expect it to be exactly the same, but it should give you a good starting point.

Simon

[Nea381]

So your saying to use that to output an RIB or just to convert the mia_material to read back with Renderman in maya? That is really close to what i'd like to do. Id like to have a mia_material type shader that was just renderman.

-Nathan

[lazzhar]

So your saying to use that to output an RIB or just to convert the mia_material to read back with Renderman in maya? That is really close to what i'd like to do. Id like to have a mia_material type shader that was just renderman.

-Nathan

Check out Jupiter Jazz (http://www.jupiter-jazz.com/wiki/doku.php?id=wiki:software)'s stuff.
They are reverse engineering a lot of mental ray stuff that should work in renderman.
Actually, mia_material that ships with 3delight is one of their shaders if I'm not mistaken.

[Nea381]

Cool, I will check out Jupiter Jazz, i've also been really looking into the 3delight stuff, it looks like valuable investment, used in production a lot so cant question it there.

Thanks for you the info though, As I had thought before the renderman shaders cant have variable sliders with exterior inputs like (File placeholders) without them being first converted to .tx files. And i hadnt seen a really nice brdf renderman shader yet. I know people have made them with SLIM and used them in production im just looking for a simple solution for it, as im not as experienced with .sl to code a shader including the brdf. I could go buy a book and figure it out but if there was a way to just convert one that would be ideal.

Thanks again for all the input fellas.

-Nathan

[Nea381]

Dont spose the 3Delight shaders written by Jupiter Jazz could be compiled via shader.exe for renderman for maya? Do you have to have 3Delight to use them?

-Nathan

[Nea381]

So I checked out more of the Jupiter Jazz stuff and it looks like they dont offer anything like avaliable shaders for download. It seems they consult with VFX houses and develop the shaders on a client by client basis and not as a community resource? However your right in that what they have developed is exactly what I want..how to get my hands on it without paying a crapload, thats another story >.<

any thoughts?


-Nathan

[praetorian]

just download free copy of 3delight, it has all the shader with src code

[Mauritius]

Dont spose the 3Delight shaders written by Jupiter Jazz could be compiled via shader.exe for renderman for maya? Do you have to have 3Delight to use them?
Most of them could.
However, 3Delight has some features that PRMan hasn't and vice versa. So shaders that use 3Delight's way of doing subsurface(), image-based indirectdiffuse() or gather() running on point clouds, won't compile with PRMan's shader compiler w/o prior editing.
But the rest should.

I dunno if the mia_* stuff falls under this category.
Report your results. :)

.mm

[jupiterjazz]

So I checked out more of the Jupiter Jazz stuff and it looks like they dont offer anything like avaliable shaders for download. It seems they consult with VFX houses and develop the shaders on a client by client basis and not as a community resource? However your right in that what they have developed is exactly what I want..how to get my hands on it without paying a crapload, thats another story >.<

any thoughts?

-Nathan

If you read well our wiki (I personally apologize, we have few time to focus on a more readable website at the moment) you will see that most of those shaders were developed for DNA Reseach (the makers of 3Delight). Fortunately they are a modern company with a fresh attitude towards development and they release all with the source, so the client can tune it at his own preference. This means you do not have to pay a crapload for those tools, and also means that in a way it ends up in the community.
We also think we have a good attitude towards development and the community and I think we have been always sharing a lot of knowledge in the past.

We also develop tools (including *any* shader) for any party, either a giant vfx studio or a private person studio. There are costs, but not so gargantuan.

I hope this clears some doubts.

P.

[aghiles]

..
We also develop tools (including *any* shader) for any party, either a giant vfx studio or a private person studio. There are costs, but not so gargantuan.

I hope this clears some doubts.

P.

Just to add that we have been dealing with Jupiter-Jazz for a while now and we were always impressed with the quality level of their work. Recommended. :)

-- aghiles

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