VRay-like interior renders with mental ray???

[Cuni]

Cuni, you are mixing two different lighting setups when you use the physical sun/sky and area lights by the windows. That might be why you are getting mixed results. I’d stick with area lights by your windows emmitting photons and your sun as a spot light or distant light for direct sunlight. You should always know where your photons are coming from and what effect they are making. That is how you have the most control over your scene. For most interiors the Maya physical sun/sky is not your best choice. It does work great for exteriors though. You can achieve great renderings without using the physical sun/sky as a crutch.

I was trying to follow some techniques I found from other people that know much more than I. I’ll make some changes and see what results.

Thanks for your help.

[Visor66]

you have 128 samples!? Try lowering them to a max of 60 per areaLight and see what happens!

[SilentHell]

Mental Ray is nice but not as good as V-ray :sad: … I work on MAYA and MR i like Maya alot and i wish if i can see V-ray in Maya too , MR can give good images but u feel like somthing is missing , somthing is wronge … any ways
here u go my try with MR , MAYA 8.0, Photoshop… just dont look at Metarials and Textures because they are really bad … but i guess lighting is not that bad … isn’t it? :rolleyes:

[MAV4d]

Mental Ray is nice but not as good as V-ray :sad: … I work on MAYA and MR i like Maya alot and i wish if i can see V-ray in Maya too , MR can give good images but u feel like somthing is missing , somthing is wronge … any ways
here u go my try with MR , MAYA 8.0, Photoshop… just dont look at Metarials and Textures because they are really bad … but i guess lighting is not that bad … isn’t it? :rolleyes:

ive never used Vray, but ive seen and produced images from Mray that are the same or better. Mental ray isnt very user oriented, meaning people have to think and or READ! i know its hard to have to do both or one at a time. ive also seen things in metal ray and i havent seen in any other renderers, i think that mray is just more felixable, but with flexiablitity comes complication, and that dosent bode well for the first time user

[Cuni]

Mental Ray is nice but not as good as V-ray :sad: … I work on MAYA and MR i like Maya alot and i wish if i can see V-ray in Maya too , MR can give good images but u feel like somthing is missing , somthing is wronge … any ways
here u go my try with MR , MAYA 8.0, Photoshop… just dont look at Metarials and Textures because they are really bad … but i guess lighting is not that bad … isn’t it? :rolleyes:

This is always the same man, if that renderer or the other one fullfills your needs, go ahead and use the fastest or the nicest for your needs. they are just tools. you don’t have to marry them.

Lluis

[Cuni]

Cuni, you are mixing two different lighting setups when you use the physical sun/sky and area lights by the windows. That might be why you are getting mixed results. I’d stick with area lights by your windows emmitting photons and your sun as a spot light or distant light for direct sunlight. You should always know where your photons are coming from and what effect they are making. That is how you have the most control over your scene. For most interiors the Maya physical sun/sky is not your best choice. It does work great for exteriors though. You can achieve great renderings without using the physical sun/sky as a crutch.

   YOU were 100% right.
   The problem was a bad setup, mixing portal lights with sky in a wrong way.
   Here's the evidence.

   [img]http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test06dt3.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.th.jpg[/img][img]http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test06dt3.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.th.jpg[/img][img]http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test06dt3.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.th.jpg%5B/IMG%5D[/img][img]http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.jpg[/img]
 
   Many many thanks to everybody.
   
   Lluis

[visua]

And what exactly is the “wrong way”, coz I have the exact same problem?
According to the manual, sun & sky in conjunction with portal lights is just the
way to go?

YOU were 100% right.
The problem was a bad setup, mixing portal lights with sky in a wrong way.
Here’s the evidence.

    [img]http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test06dt3.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.th.jpg[/img][img]http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=test06dt3.jpg%5D%5BIMG%5Dhttp://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3924/test06dt3.th.jpg[/img]Many many thanks to everybody.
    
    Lluis

[Cuni]

And what exactly is the “wrong way”, coz I have the exact same problem?
According to the manual, sun & sky in conjunction with portal lights is just the
way to go?

I connected the sky into the environment of the portal light.
If that is not the problem, try to disconnect in the shading group the shadow shader. I mean, the mia_material for oppaque objects, with no shadow shader.

[visua]

WTF?! You are now officialy my hero of the day! What moron over at autodesks
development-department came up with the brilliant idea to connect the mia_material to
the shadow slot by default in maya 2008?!

I connected the sky into the environment of the portal light.
If that is not the problem, try to disconnect in the shading group the shadow shader. I mean, the mia_material for oppaque objects, with no shadow shader.

[Olegr]

WTF?! You are now officialy my hero of the day! What moron over at autodesks
development-department came up with the brilliant idea to connect the mia_material to
the shadow slot by default in maya 2008?!

The mia_material is a shadow shader and photon shader in addition to a normal material. If it had not been connected by default and you needed to connect it when turning on the mia_material transparent the forum would have been full of whines. Mia_material increased render time when connected to the shadow slot on opaque materials is a maya bug, and will hopefully be fixed.

[visua]

Increased rendertimes and ****ed upp overbright reflections are hardly the same thing?
Well in maya 8.5 this connection didn’t happened by default, and people seemed to manage just fine?

The mia_material is a shadow shader and photon shader in addition to a normal material. If it had not been connected by default and you needed to connect it when turning on the mia_material transparent the forum would have been full of whines. Mia_material increased render time when connected to the shadow slot on opaque materials is a maya bug, and will hopefully be fixed.

[Olegr]

Increased rendertimes and ****ed upp overbright reflections are hardly the same thing?
Well in maya 8.5 this connection didn’t happened by default, and people seemed to manage just fine?

This forum was full of threads with people asking how to get shadows working with transparent objects. Mia_material is a shadow shader as well so connecting it by default is the correct thing to do. Only problem is it does not work as it should. But the bug is not the connection.

[Cuni]

The mia_material is a shadow shader and photon shader in addition to a normal material. If it had not been connected by default and you needed to connect it when turning on the mia_material transparent the forum would have been full of whines. Mia_material increased render time when connected to the shadow slot on opaque materials is a maya bug, and will hopefully be fixed.

Actually, it took me 2 days to find the solution, and it was in one forum. It’s such a waste of time, but as someone said, Autodesk is doing a great job making bugs where there were no bugs before.
Hope next release they don’t mess up so much.

[AthorNZ]

Sorry to dig this up again, but can someone upload or send me the howardb scene? Its not on his site anymore.

Thanks
Athor

[jvgfx]

Maya 2008 (p03), mia materials, photons+FG

http://funkyimg.com/viewer.php?img=65382bh2_09_1_13_49.jpg

75min, Core Quad 6600

[ghostlake114]

Okie, If any guys want to go with Vray inside Maya, go to chaosgroup.com , go to forum, read rule and ask for a beta tester for Maya Vray.

I cant reveal anything because of NDA but one thing, It is the SAME 3dsmax Vray and really bug free and could be in production.

But sorry, I still stuck with MR :|, because It is really flexible.
Vray,is really good and is a super GI engine. But It cant beat MR in shader

[MAV4d]

Maya 2008 (p03), mia materials, photons+FG

http://funkyimg.com/viewer.php?img=65382bh2_09_1_13_49.jpg

75min, Core Quad 6600

very nice!

just wondering what your settings where to get that render time?

[thehive]

hey MAV4d

the settings are 123 4 and 5 lol, how it goin man

[jvgfx]

very nice!

just wondering what your settings where to get that render time?

FG:
Accurace 600
Point Density 0.5
Interpolation 75
Min/Max radius - Auto

Photons: Sun + Area in Windows + FG Mia_Portals

this scene for maya 2008 (p03):
http://rapidshare.com/files/89724697/bh2_11.rar

Original scene from max9 (evermotion interior), converted to maya + my corrected textures and lighting

[Bitter]

This is a P03 file above, not sure someone has mentioned it, but opening P03 in a previous 2008 means you can’t get to the render settings the normal way (mental ray core change), have to use miDefaultOptions instead.