VRay-like interior renders with mental ray???

[sixbysixx]

Surely all images produced natively in the applications will be linear, this includes procedurals in the 3D app and files painted in photoshop.

Noooooo!

Files painted in Photoshop are NOT linear! (unless you create them as 32bit exr/hdr files, or in a linear working space blah blah…)

Photoshop files, same as Digital Camera files are usually Gamma 2.2

[ryanea]

hi im new here and im learning a lot from this thread. i think it would be impossible for me to use mentalray if it werent for ur help guys.this is my little contribution.needs a lot of works but im pretty happy how MasterZap made mentaray mia material easy to use.Cheers.

[patikan]

hi m new here too, especially to mental ray rendering or any kind of rendering becasue i suck at it.but while reading most of the thread here, i have learned to make a half descent render.id like to thank Master Zap for the incredible mia shaders. thank u.

[ryanea]

oopps double post soory

[Snowcat]

Photo:)
Nice render.
too want to learn so work:)

[rjpadilla]

hi, its like a holy grail getting renders to be like vray.hehe.ive fiddled around with mental ray and got this image.edited in photoshop.

[rjpadilla]

hi again, i changed it a bit this time. maybe this time this will work.cheers.

[tuuhia]

@ ryanea : great work
@ patikan : hey great light :bounce:
@ jayzon : nice one

[wdaniel]

ryanea : great work
patikan : hey great light
jayzon : nice one

nice work could you 3 share with us how you did it. for example lighting ,render settings, materials weather you used fg or gi or both.

w…

[DariuszLacheta]

nice work could you 3 share with us how you did it. for example lighting ,render settings, materials weather you used fg or gi or both.

I also wish to know sometking about scene setup, looks absolutly great!!

[ryanea]

patikan, jayzon,and i know each other and have pretty much used the same setting in acheiving this render.we used portal lights on the windows and physical sun and physical sky.the mia materials were presets but tweaked to get desired effect.and most important is the photographic lense.FG and GI were used with settings of 100 accuracy 1 point density and 150 point interpolation.and pretty much evryhting were in default. if u go to http://mymentalray.com , http://forum.lamrug.org and http://mentalraytips.blogspot.com/ u will find techniques on how fix some problems.the renders we achieved was because of the kind 3d artist here in cgtalk.they were very helpful in giving information on sometimes problem in mentalray that can make u crazy but will love it anyway.hehe.frankly our renders are not still good. just seeing dagon1978,for example,will really give u inspiration.and in doing so maybe we can create beautiful renders.cheers

[BooMer86]

hi, its like a holy grail getting renders to be like vray.hehe.ive fiddled around with mental ray and got this image.edited in photoshop.

agreed
i’m playing with the mental ray for long but i din get anything close to vray.
After some studying, vray actually use pathtracing… which is a kind of unbiased rendering. Maybe that’s the reason why mr cant have that kind of ‘look’ like vray.

[GARGOLO]

http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nightshipcb9.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=laptopgold2oc7.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shipmyhousecopypx3.jpg
http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=trexnm8.jpg

[MrRay]

testing jeremy’s scene. a long way to go.have a nice day

[visua]

Trying out some new lighting-techniques in a old
scene of mine, picked up some useful pointers from
Mr Patton, much obligues!

Still not happy with my carpets in maya/mental ray,
any suggestions on how to do great carpets?

[DariuszLacheta]

visua this is looking great!!

Can you tell something about setup?
where is the light, what kind, render settings, screenshots etc. ?

I try and try but nothing look good, not even close
couple pages back i post my renders + ASCI scene of kitchen, any advice from pro ?
my post

[MatteoM]

Hi Everyone,

I see this post now and sorry if I don’t read all pages (127 pages in one night is more)… But I will answert af Ya3…

These 3dsmax/vray interior renders are everywhere! You know the ones - beautiful bright sunlight streaming in from the windows. I mean, they look kind-of… standard. So I’m assuming it’s a pretty easy thing to setup provided you have VRay. So what’s so special about VRay and interior sunlit renders? What kind of lighting setups are used with VRay? Just one bright light outside the windows? or is it a bit more complex…

Anyway, is there a way I can get the same kind of results with Maya+mental ray?

Vray is very good for interior because is about speed energie, but I think the light is very clean and for this is very false… for good rendering you need of a big computer, but I work on old Pentium 4 3Ghz and now I can’t buy a new and I can’t wait more time for one image… For setting Vray is very easy and you can see my little tutorial here, but you can see also the render is very clean in particular with Irradiance Map+Light Cache…
http://www.art2upz.com/Tutorial_Vray_Interior.html

Sorry is in italian language…

On Mental Ray… I start to use it in my “eternal wip” Tank (you can find link in my signature) on version 3D Studio max 9 and I think is very fast and easy whene you stat to understand it… For Interior I have also more problem for example I have more color blending, with IES light but I see some shader for this kind of problem… I try also animation and I think Mental Ray is good, Vray is very “brick”…

Another different is the number of geometry… with Vray I have a problem after Object: 903, Vertices: 9198000, Faces: 17764200… link to my test

I try also Vray on:

McNeel Rhinoceros - is not the same
Maxon Cinema 4D - have more problem in animation with flyking…

I give you same link for understand the big difference…

Here you can find render with Vray and “C=L3” is a little animation with mental ray (with more Flyking, but i havent time for made good)…

Here - another work with Vray

Here - another WIP with Mental Ray

Here - My test Vray4Rhino

Conclusion: Mental Ray is very good for start on version Max 9 or up…

Now I read all pages of this Thread for learn more…

Thankx and Have a nice day

Matteo

[JeffPatton]

After some studying, vray actually use pathtracing… which is a kind of unbiased rendering. Maybe that’s the reason why mr cant have that kind of ‘look’ like vray.

I have to disagree with that statement a little. Vray doesn’t use path-tracing all the time or even by default right out of the box. It’s one of the many GI calculation methods available to users. By default, Vray uses irradiance mapping and QMC (Brute Force) as it’s indirect illumination methods. So I don’t feel path-tracing is the key difference in the look/feel of a Vray render vs. mental ray render.

IMHO a lot of the differences in the results (which can be very subtle) are directly related to the tone-mapping of Vray vs. the tone-mapping options available in mental ray for 3dsmax & Maya. Plus I also feel that mental ray creates a “softer” indirect illumination solution than Vray. This softer result often requires an ambient occlusion pass to bring out small details without having to resort to insane sampling levels.

I for one would love to see a path-tracing calculation method added to mental ray some day…and not just having to use that limited path-tracing shader that’s available now. Yes, I’m fully aware at how slow path-tracing is. But I feel it does have it’s place (non-animated scenes with a far off due date… )

picked up some useful pointers from Mr Patton, much obligues!

Hey cool! Nice render!

[floze]

I for one would love to see a path-tracing calculation method added to mental ray some day…and not just having to use that limited path-tracing shader that’s available now. Yes, I’m fully aware at how slow path-tracing is. But I feel it does have it’s place (non-animated scenes with a far off due date… )

There’s a path tracing kind of final gathering mode now in Maya 2008. Its not revealed to the UI, you have to add some strings to your miDefaultOptions node:

setAttr -type "string" miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[1].name "finalgather mode";
setAttr -type "string" miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[1].value "force";
setAttr -type "string" miDefaultOptions.stringOptions[1].type "string";

Its really straight forward, no interpolation or whatsoever, enjoy.

PS: Sorry that I didnt answer regarding the mat library yet, I’m still sort of struggling on these holidays… Expect it soon though!

[JeffPatton]

There’s a path tracing kind of final gathering mode now in Maya 2008. Its not revealed to the UI, you have to add some strings to your miDefaultOptions node

That’s good to know. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it will find it’s way into 3ds Max. <thump> <thud> <bang> <—Zap banging his head on his desk because of me… :applause:

BTW…sorry for cluttering the Maya forum with my 3ds Max agenda.

PS: Sorry that I didnt answer regarding the mat library yet, I’m still sort of struggling on these holidays… Expect it soon though!

No worries, I can totally relate.