An update of the previous A few Maya 2011 and Iray pics... thread:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthr...87&t=956291
From the main Maya production scenes recently added to the ULTIMATE MAYA AND MR ARCHVIZ GUIDE tutorial guide, as a contribution to the amazing Forests in Maya Mental Ray thread by eem:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthr...87&t=804892
To demonstrate that using Maya 2012 in conjunction to the Mental Ray (IBL) Environment Lighting and (PR) Progressive Rendering String Options, with the Mental Ray 3.9 iray render engine algorithm...
Is possible to render millions of poly's from the main Maya Render View, in one go and without crashes...!
The Cutout Opacity attribute of the Mental Ray mia_material, the mia_material_x and the mia_material_x_passes which was not recognized by the previous iray 3.8 version...
Has now been fixed as well as the mia_exposure_simple lens shader node which based on my tests, is now supported by the new Mental Ray 3.9 iray render engine algorithm.
The Mental Ray mia_lens_bokeh lens shader node, based on my tests is still not supported by the current iray 3.9 version...!
As for the previous tests, I used an old Quad workstation with 8 GB of RAM and a basic NVidia 8800 GT display adapter with just 512 MB and 112 CUDA Cores...
Which considering its limited amount of memory, doesn't allow me to use iray in GPU mode with complex Maya production scenes.
In the first render image output with the (IBL) Environment Lighting and (PR) Progressive Rendering String Options, used in conjunction to the Mental Ray 3.9 iray render engine algorithm in CPU mode…
The main light contribution is provided by the Mental Ray mia_physicalsky lens shader node, with the sky Multiplier value raised to the input value (8) and the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value set to the input value (1).
The Mental Ray mia_physicalsky lens shader node is used to light the scene, as well as the sunDirection node which is set to visible in the main Outliner panel.
Notice the warm color dominance displayed by the image as well as the strong Depth of Field effect, since that I increased the value in the Radius field of the physical_lens_dof node to the input value (1)...
Which causes the render time, to increase as well...!
The physical_lens_dof lens shader node is connected to the main persp camera Lens Shader list, since that the camera Lens Shader field...
Is already connected to the Mental Ray mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node, which should be used instead of the mia_exposure_simple lens shader node…
Thanks to its flexibility compared to the mia_exposure_simple lens shader node.
The iray render engine algorithm at the moment doesn't provide any option to tweak parameters, other than the (IBL) and (PR) String Options values...
As well as the Mental Ray mia_physicalsky lens shader node Multiplier value and the mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node, Cm 2 Factor value.
Please note that you can get the dll’s files required by the Mental ray 3.9 iray render engine algorithm, from the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and the 3ds Max Design 2012 Trial versions…
Both the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and the 3ds Max Design 2012 Trial versions, can be downloaded from the main Autodesk website:
http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/trial/?nd=1
And just paste them, to the Program files/Autodesk/Maya2012/bin folder.
Link to the high rez version:
http://www.samui3d.com/CGTALK/2012_1_2000.jpg
In the second render image output the main light contribution is provided by the Mental Ray mia_physicalsky node, with the sky Multiplier value raised to the value (8) and the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value raised to the value (8) as well...
The Mental Ray mia_physicalsky node is used to light the scene as well as the Mental Ray sunDirection node, which is set to visible in the main Outliner panel.
Notice the slightly cooler color dominance displayed by the image as well as the increased environment light contribution, provided by the mia_physicalsky lens shader node...
Used in conjunction to the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value, increased to the input value (8).
Please note that in the previous iray 3.8 version, using the mia_physicalsky lens shader node with the sunDirection node set to visible...
In conjunction to the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option, with values other than the default value (1) the final render image output was displaying lighting artifacts.
Based on my tests using the previous iray 3.8 version, by decreasing the value in the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option...
The presence of this lighting artifacts, was decreasing as well...!
Looking at the second render image output, seems that this issue has now been fixed in the new Mental Ray iray 3.9 version...!
Link to the high rez version:
http://www.samui3d.com/CGTALK/2012_2_2000.jpg
In the third render image output the main light contribution is provided by the Mental Ray mia_physicalsky node, with the sky Multiplier value raised to the value (8) and the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value raised to the value (8) as well.
And only the Mental Ray mia_physicalsky lens shader node is used to light the scene and the sunDirection node, is set to hidden in the main Outliner panel.
Notice the general cloudy atmosphere displayed by the image as well as the increased environment light contribution, provided by the mia_physicalsky lens shader node...
Used in conjunction to the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value, increased to the input value (8).
Please note that in the previous iray 3.8 version using the mia_physicalsky lens shader node, with the sunDirection node set to hidden in the main Outliner panel...
In conjunction to the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option, with values other than the default value (1) the final render image output was not displaying lighting artifacts.
Looking at the third render image output, the same goes for the new Mental Ray 3.9 iray version as well...!
Link to the high rez version:
http://www.samui3d.com/CGTALK/2012_3_2000.jpg
In the fourth render image output, the main light contribution is provided by an (HDR) High-Dynamic Range 32-bit image...
Connected to a Mental Ray mib_lookup_Spherical environment shader, which is connected to a multiplyDivide utility node with all the Input2 values set to the default value (1).
With the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value, increased to the max input value (4) to avoid over exposed areas and firefly artifacts.
The Render Settings window Color Management controls are disabled and the Linear sRGB option is selected, in the Image ColorProfile drop down menu of the defaultViewColorManager node Color Management controls...
Enabled from the Render View panel, Display drop down menu.
The Mental Ray physical_lens_dof lens shader node with the input value (1) set in the Radius field, is connected to the main persp camera Lens Shader field.
Since that the mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node, was not used for the main tonemapping process and that the new Color Management controls...
Enabled from the Render View panel Display drop down menu, was used instead.
Notice the general crepuscular atmosphere displayed by the image as well as the warm environment light contribution, provided by the (HDR) High-Dynamic Range 32-bit image...
Link to the high rez version:
http://www.samui3d.com/CGTALK/2012_4_2000.jpg
In the fifth render image output, the main light contribution is provided by an (HDR) High-Dynamic Range 32-bit image...
Connected to a Mental Ray mib_lookup_Spherical environment shader, which is connected to a multiplyDivide utility node, with all the Input 2 values increased to the input value (8).
Please note that also the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value, is raised to the input value (8).
For the main tonemapping process, the mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node is used in conjunction to the Render View panel Color Management controls...
When the main light contribution is provided by an (HDR) High-Dynamic Range 32-bit image, connected to a mib_lookup_Spherical environment shader...
Which is connected to a multiplyDivide utility node, with the Input2 values increased to a value greater than the default input value (1).
Or when the (IBL) environment lighting scale String Option value, is raised to a value greater than the default input value (1) the final render image output...
Will likely display over exposed areas, bright spots and firefly artifacts.
Hence a Mental Ray mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node, should be connected to the main persp camera Lens Shader field.
With the Gamma field reduced to the value (1) to avoid tonemapping the output image twice...
As suggested by the guys of the Autodesk product support team, at the very informative Mayastation website:
The Mayastation, Spikes in the 32 bit renders with HDRI workaround.
http://mayastation.typepad.com/maya...-with-hdri.html
Notice a general increase of brightness in the final render image output, compared to the previous image...
And no bright spots and firefly artifacts are displayed thanks to the samples interpolation, provided by the mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node.
The physical_lens_dof lens shader node is connected to the main persp camera Lens Shader list, since that the camera Lens Shader field...
Is already connected, to the Mental Ray mia_exposure_photographic lens shader node.
Link to the high rez version:
http://www.samui3d.com/CGTALK/2012_5_2000.jpg
A few screenshots from the new Acrobat X Pro Portfolios.pdf portfolio files, recently added to the ULTIMATE MAYA AND MR ARCHVIZ GUIDE tutorial guide as well…
“THE_FINAL_RENDERS_MAYA_2012_IRAY_3.9” Acrobat portfolio:
“THE_RENDER_VIEW_PANEL_RENDERS_MAYA_2012_IRAY_3.9_IBL_PHOTO” Acrobat portfolio:
Hope it helps...!
Ciao.
