3ds max 9: Photometric Lighting - visual render issue

[mister3d]

Could you show the wireframe? I advise you using mental ray.

[Howi]

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii18/Howi_a/PhotometricTest1-wireframe.jpg

Well, here's the wireframe. On using radiosity on the editable poly it cut everything into tri's ofc.


As far as using mental ray; I've set all the materials in the full scene using the default renderer. If I switch to mental Ray, the settings that currently look how I want, will come out looking very different in a mental Ray render; especially metal and other raytraced materials.

I had it happen on a previous project where things with only very minor settings (e.g. in reflection and so on), ended up looking wrong when I tried to render with mental ray.

I also know very little about how to make use of all its wonderful features, and even less about lighting a scene using mr lights than I do with standard. Likewise using mr options in the material editor is something I am not knowledgeable on.
So I'm not too keen to switch to it, unless that's the only way to fix this issue, as it will tack way too much additional time onto this project.

Anyone who know why this weird shine is popping up with the photometric lights, I will be very chuffed if you know a fix :bowdown:

[mister3d]

I don't know what the problem is. Try to uncheck the settings one by one. First of al, you have a lot of long thin triangles, which is very bad for radiosity. Radiosity works well when you have a uniform tesselation of geometry. It's one of 2 reasons almost no one uses radiosity today. The second reason you get too heavy mesh after radiosity tesselation. Then use another material for the door, simply blank. Finding a bug is a matter of dividing the problem into small tests by unchecking all cumulative adjustments and testing them solely.
So my advice is still: put some time and learn mental ray, or switch to vray, though it's a commercial plugin, but faster to learn and is simpler with shaders.

[Howi]

Solved it. The pop-up box you get as soon as you use a photometric light 'recommends' switching to Envirpnments Effects etc.

I left that unticked, and it solved the problem. The triangles were in fact put in as soon as I used 'Radiosity'. I had a nice tidy mesh until then. So I think I will use some lights with no shadows turned on, as ambient light to soften the scene, and ditch radiosity.

I know how to use mental ray, (i.e. i can get it to render stuff), just not familar enough to get the most out of it; or at least to fix all the materials in my time limit, (as they were made under the defaults) so they show up properly under mental rays settings, is what I meant, rather than laziness :)
Fully intend to learn it properly on another project, as its a good renderer.

I would love to use V-ray, all the things Ive seen it do seem awesome, but I can't afford it, and I'm not sure where to get it free, or even if you can without it being illegal.

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