taming mental ray (English version)

How to export mi file from 3dsmax. 1. Assign mental ray renderer as Production renderer First open the Render Set Up dialog. Figure export_mi_1 show that opening the rollout of assign renderer and then choosing the mental ray renderer as Production renderer. Figure export_mi_1 2. Export a mi file from 3dmax. Choose Render Set Up --- Processing Tab. First you need to choose a filename as in Figure export_mi_2. Without a file name, the checkbox of 'Export on Render' is disabled. This was difficult for me. I wanted to export a file, but Export on Render is disabled. I wish I could choose the Export on Render and then see a warning message, ''an export file name is not specified.'' Next, push the Render button, then a mi file is exported. Figure export_mi_2 This is also difficult for me. When you ' export ' a file, push the ' render ' button. I wish it was like   When you ' export ' a file, push the ' export ' ...

Even iray has no customized shaders, iray has a shader. It is mia_material (Arch&Design in 3dsmax) only. Actually, it is a shader that has mia_material interface and the implementation is different from mental ray (only for iray). mental images explains this is for the users who already know the mia_material. Such user doesn't need to learn the iray shader from the scratch. Therefore, some of the physically meaningless parameters of mia_material are disabled. They also said that they will support more physical shaders, like BRDF shaders. Someone  asked about volume shaders support at the confenence, but, unfortunately, iray version 1 doesn't support volume shaders and will be supported in the following versions sometime. As for a DCC software user, the problem of iray is they can use it from 3dsmax/Maya/XSI or not. But NVidia's explanation is 'that is autodesk's decision.' Although, mental ray 3.8+ standalone or NVidia RealityServer support iray. (See ment...