hardware rendering particles?

# 1 23-01-2008 , 05:37 AM

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forparticles that need to be hardware rendered like sprites etc, can those render in like metnal ray? I wanna render some of my scenes in maya software or mental ray but those dont show up some particles cause those need to be hardware rendered. I do no t wanna hardware render my animations, anyone know any tips or how the professionals solve this problem? thanks

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# 2 23-01-2008 , 06:09 AM

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as far as I'm aware Maya 2008 has support for particle rendering with mental ray.

I think before that you were restricted to the hardware renderer unless you instanced geometry to each particle and then it might show up in the software renderer. Dont quote me on that last bit though user added image

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# 3 23-01-2008 , 09:05 AM

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In almost any typical production, professionals, students and hobbyists alike, rendering in multiple passes is VERY common to achieve the look and control over a given shot.

Esspecialy when it comes to particle rendering.

It is not just common, but often MANDATORY for 2 reasons:

1. In post having all the elements in a shot as a separate pass allows for the ultimate control over a multitude of things such as, time of day, light and color, matte control etc. and much more.

2. In the case of Maya 8.5 and earlier specifically, you had no choice. However, because hardware rendering uses the HARDWARE of your graphics pipeline, those renders are SUPER fast!
In most cases hardware particle rendering is near real time, around a second per frame depending on particle density, and multi-pass count.

Also, with Maya you have the luxury of assigning your hardware particles (and anything else in fact) to its' own render-layer.
This means, you can set per-render-layer override flags so that some of your layers render with MR, other layers render with the Hardware renderer and others with the software renderer.
All by simply right-clicking on the layer and telling it to use a given renderer overide user added image

This may sound daunting to anyone using Maya, but this video made by Alias after Maya 7 added these features explain the render-layers feature very simply:
Just let it load user added image

https://downloads.alias.com/mkt/gmk_m...der_layers.swf

Also, good job t1ck135 for pointing that out about the new feature in the new MR core as a LOT of Maya users STILL do not know that this is possible now user added image

From the Maya 2008 "NEW FEATURES" list:

mental ray 3.6 Core
Maya 2008 uses the latest mental ray 3.6 core.....
...Additionally, particle types previously supported only in the Maya hardware renderer can now be rendered in mental ray, eliminating the need to combine outputs from multiple renderers. (i.e composited in post)

Originally posted by t1ck135
.....unless you instanced geometry to each particle....
Dont quote me on that last bit though

Originally Posted by

Too bad! I quoted you! hehe...

You are correct again user added image

And not only does the instanced geometry render in software, it also renders in Mental Ray in 8.5 as well.

...not sure about v8 or earlier tho.

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 4 23-01-2008 , 10:07 AM

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what does rendering in multiple passes mean? thanks for that long reply, im new to particles so everyone that helps i appreciate

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# 5 23-01-2008 , 10:14 AM

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correct me cuz i'm probably wrong,

but at a guess i THINK rendering in passes means rendering certain things from the scene, like rendering the phong illumination, hair, and ambient colours in different files (?)

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# 6 23-01-2008 , 11:02 AM

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No problem user added image

In cg slang for this example, passes = layers.

By this I mean, say you have a scene of a bouncing ball and a dancing bear. Oh, and the ball is on fire just for fun, hehe.

Your scene ultimately has 5 objects:

-the ball
-the bear
-a floor
-the fire
-a light

In Maya, each one of these objects can be put on its' own "render-layer". (see the video in my last post, very informative)
NOTE: RENDER layers are different from DISPLAY layers user added image

When an object or objectS are on thier own layer and you send it all off to render, all of your layers are rendered as separate image sequences, i.e. "passes".

Then you can composite them back together in a compositing application like After Effects, Fusion, etc...
with individual controll over each pass.

Make a little more sense now?
If not, let us know.

PS, when in Maya, hit F1 for the main help, and search for "render layers".
OR, you can browse the main directory for rendering, and in there you will find information about the render layers feature in great detail user added image

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 7 23-01-2008 , 12:40 PM

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Ok lets say you cvant hardware rendering because your graphics card is incapable
can you use mental ray?

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# 8 23-01-2008 , 01:46 PM

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Originally posted by elephantinc
Ok lets say you cvant hardware rendering because your graphics card is incapable
can you use mental ray?

Originally Posted by

Simple answer is yes

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 9 23-01-2008 , 08:20 PM

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hehe I've finally been quoted ragecgi, cool user added image

Simon

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# 10 23-01-2008 , 08:23 PM

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YES!!!!!!!!:attn: :attn: :attn: :attn:

finally particles will be mine!
MWHAAHAHA

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# 11 23-01-2008 , 08:34 PM

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ok
i redered using mental ray but the particles just dont show
is there anything i need to do?
thanx for any help

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# 12 23-01-2008 , 08:34 PM

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Originally posted by t1ck135
hehe I've finally been quoted ragecgi, cool

Simon

Originally Posted by

hehe... Theres another one for ya user added image

Booohahaha, hehe

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 13 23-01-2008 , 09:49 PM

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Originally posted by elephantinc
ok
i redered using mental ray but the particles just dont show
is there anything i need to do?
thanx for any help

Originally Posted by

Are you using 2008? It Works with me no probs

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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