some probs. in mr rendering

[paragmokashi]

:) hey guyz,
I am new to mental ray rendering, as i dont know much i am not able to point
out where i am going wrong. I need ur help in placing me on right track. below is my render image.
ive render it by following a tutorial even the mesh is from that tutorial, as the tutorial was mayaa based
i was unable to do the exact parameter change as the interface is different for max and maya mental ray.
i ve rendered this scene by using autodesk viz 2006 and mr version 3.3.bla bla.

what i want to do is;

1. The shadows are very crooked in this scene i want to make it softer.
2.I am not that much satisfied with lights.
3. are these parameters ok!
GI-max no. of photons - 2500

Volumes
Max no. of photons 2500

Final gather
Samples - 2500
4. tell me any other advanced parameters for photorealistic rendering
5. In so many cases i ve found people saying adjust this radius adjust that radius, which radius are the talking about?

Thats all for now. but i ve lots of querries in my mind.

[CTZn]

Do you want answers regarding Maya usage (like soft shadows) ?

Generally speaking:
3. are these parameters ok!
GI-max no. of photons - 2500 No, that's quite low, and then you must compensate with very high FG settings wich is very time consuming. Consider 10 000 photons being a test setting, and 100 000 an average (or just an indicative value) for production, it could be 1 or 5 or 10 millions depending of your scene. Not sure regarding volumes though, but could be in the same ranges.
Final gather
Samples - 2500That's quite high, although you are using an older (not so optimized) version of mr. Maybe a good production setting, but first ensure your photon solution is smooth enough, wich is obviously not the case in your image.
4. tell me any other advanced parameters for photorealistic renderingMaterials are the key, use mr ones as much as possible. If you can use mr light shaders that's even better (eg physical light shader).
5. In so many cases i ve found people saying adjust this radius adjust that radius, which radius are the talking about?If they doesn't show up in mr 3.3 (dunno if they should), just go without.

More ppl may give you more answers ! If you use autodesk viz 2006, the 3dsMax forum would be more appropriated.

Cheers !

[yencaray]

1. are you using Dmap shadows or ray? if you are using depth maps shadows make sure if you're using mental ray to in the lights attributes check shadowmap in the mntalray section of the light and click copy options from maya to start out. adjust the softness and see what makes it look better.
Ray traced shadows - go down to the ray-traces shadows and give the light radius something above 0 start with 1 and adjust till you get the sofness you were looking for. giving it more shadow rays with make it look smoother but drastically add to render time.


2 if you aren't satisfied with the lights move them around. or read a book on lighting.

3. to many FG photons, not enough GI just like CTZn.

4. honestly the phsysical light in mental ray is the same point light in maya with some attributes adjusted for "physical light" it's the same thing the physical light has just been a lil stripped down so you dont have so much control and the intensity is multiplied by pie+12 or something don't remember exactly. but point is physical light shader doesn't give any benifit over other light. if you really want i can find the documentation on it.
getting photorealistic renders comes down to your shaders and the properties you have setup along with textures that work with each other.

[bertrand]

i ve done some test with gi 3500 and fg 250 that was correct.
the exponent for the area light was 2 and it intensity was 7000000.000 I use the windows area light as photon source and a i use dgs material. the render time on amd 3000 was 6.10 mn with 1500 ddr. i post the result.
bert