Mental ray: Rendering & Ligtning

# 1 15-04-2006 , 01:54 PM

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DOes anybody know if a proper tutorials dvd for maya mental ray exists I have seen some at gnomon but they seem to cover it on a dozen of dvd's I would prefer 1 dvd which would cover most of the basiscs of:

GI
Final Gather
HDRI
SSS
Caustics
Mental ray shaders
Shading Networks

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# 2 15-04-2006 , 02:13 PM

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well, I promise that you will be 10x better at Mental Ray if you take a few hours and read the entire www.cgtalk.com thread in Autodesk Maya->Maya Rendering

The thread is called VRay style renders in Mental Ray

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# 3 15-04-2006 , 02:45 PM

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Hmm yes I have looked at that thread not all.. but I would prefer something fool proof as I am really unfammiliar with it.. most settings like GI, FG and such I can find and tweak but I don't really understand what exactly they do.. and how I can use those mental ray shaders and such.. I tried with SSS but I can never get it working correct, I need something fool proof :p

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# 4 15-04-2006 , 03:28 PM

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Well I can explain GI and FG and Caustics to you, like what they do-

Gi is the amount of initial photons cast out from the light. These photons are bounced around, adding color, and stored for later use.

Then FG comes in, looks at the photon map, what the above did, and shoots more photons (fg rays) from each gi point. That is then approximatied, and the img is made.

Caustics are done the same way as GI, except that the photons are shot out, and if they dont hit a reflective or refractive object they are ignored. If they do, they are traced to the point where they hit another objcet, stored in a photon map, and then the FG comes out and approximates them.

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# 5 15-04-2006 , 03:48 PM

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Maybe this will get you going:

https://www.jozvex.com/tutorials.html

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# 6 15-04-2006 , 05:33 PM

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Originally posted by MattTheMan
Well I can explain GI and FG and Caustics to you, like what they do-

Gi is the amount of initial photons cast out from the light. These photons are bounced around, adding color, and stored for later use.

Then FG comes in, looks at the photon map, what the above did, and shoots more photons (fg rays) from each gi point. That is then approximatied, and the img is made.

Caustics are done the same way as GI, except that the photons are shot out, and if they dont hit a reflective or refractive object they are ignored. If they do, they are traced to the point where they hit another objcet, stored in a photon map, and then the FG comes out and approximates them.

Originally Posted by

i doubt these definitions are accurate.
but look at the LA MR user group site for answers,resources, and how-to's on MR.

https://www.lamrug.org/

and u can just wikipedia [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ]
those rendering terms if u really want to know what they mean and how they work.
but the MR user grp will be more on how they work with MR for maya.

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# 7 15-04-2006 , 05:39 PM

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I'm pretty sure those defs are accurate... just as a general term.

And-basically they are not definitions- they are explanations of how they work, I should know, I am working on implementing them in my raytracer now...

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# 8 17-04-2006 , 06:49 PM

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no man, those are barely explanations,

and your raytracer is just a tut.

take it easy.

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# 9 17-04-2006 , 07:06 PM

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my raytracer aint a tut, cuz im adding some f*cking global illumination. But if you can find a f*cking tut on global illumination then I wouldnt F*CKING mind you posting it!

damn it... anyway, my accusation is: i'd love to see you write a global illumination raytracer. Especailly, if you could go back in time to the time you were 13 or 14, and then you could write me one.

Oh, and to add to that- im not just trying to implement the simplest global illumination formula, i'm gonna do BiDirectional Path Tracing- Mental Ray uses that. And if I don't manage- Ill drop the Bi-Directional and just do path tracing. Then, if I manage, I can then convert my path tracer into a Metropolis Renderer, if I try hard enough.

I respect u dude, you're a great modeler, but still... god... these things piss me off.

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Last edited by MattTheMan; 17-04-2006 at 07:11 PM.

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# 10 17-04-2006 , 08:10 PM

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well, im not 13 or 14, i dont remember what i was doing at that age. and its probably a good thing. user added image

yea, you're trying man, but dont pretend your so savvy,
i see you are writting some pretty silly stuff lately.

i wonder how much of the "coding" you are doing without getting stuff from the net? or other help; or how far you would have been if you didnt have the internet at home/or what method u'd use..... cuz most software engineers dont care much for stuff online, as they come up with it from their own knowledge....
how much is based on your vast amount of years of coding experience.

people dont just code ray tracer in a month without prior programming experience and beleive theyre are the best thing on the planet.

also, how can a definition be accurate when its in "general terms "I'm pretty sure those defs are accurate... just as a general term." that tinkles my brain."

for this to be "your" raytracer"

it would have to be "your" code, your theories,
your "mathematical studies of light.
and if you release this and call it your own, the source code can be used against you if you are plagirising other people's hard works
.

im only rebuting because the author clearly states his work he is sharing is for educational purposes only, not for kids to call their own.
yes, we'd all feel proud if we had the time in our hands to sit and code after school and feel smart...
but we dont.

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# 11 17-04-2006 , 08:30 PM

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yes, but if it were completely his.

Unfortunatly my code is horrible. It is much worse than his. No where near. Since he uses complex crap and stuff, and I dont even know what an inheritance class is.

And i guess I need to stop being over-proud (even though that explanation of how to figure out the state of normals was right, but you said it wasnt. It works. I can prove it. except that i got the negative part wrong- its positive)

So sorry for going off. I guess... but I want to release my code STILL so people can comment on it (like I wrote- BTW). And it aint his code, b/c, like I said, mine is crap compared to his.

And anyway, i am already adding global illumination to my raytracer (which is hard and its not working!):headbang:

So I will keep posting it up so people can analyze my code and stuff. I will edit my other post to say that. ok? happy?

l8er

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