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Author Topic: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack  (Read 5784 times)

LQ3798

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Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« on: September 07, 2017, 03:08:27 PM »
Hello,
Any heavy user of Mental Ray will know that the Mental Ray Renderer is no longer going to be provided by Autodesk, integrated in 3ds max. However, you will also know that Nvidia is providing Mental Ray for Free, to users who have a previous license, for one rendering node...and no batch rendering,..so still very functional, for free, for most arch. viz. needs,..if you want more nodes or batch rendering you pay a very small fee if you have an nvidia (pro-level) gpu.

That being said, Is Forest Pack planning on providing support, updates for Mental Ray going forward with 2018,...or are you going to abandon it altogether. If you do, this creates several questions one may have,...do I have to switch to V-Ray, or Keep using Max/Mental ray 2017 for as long as possible...

Please Advise...

Regards

J.W.

iToo

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2017, 04:43:09 PM »
Hi, yes we are in contact with NVidia and we did some tests with the SDK.

But our main problem is that once the plugin is compiled with Mental Ray support, it is dependent of their libraries, and causes some problems if Mental Ray is not installed.
For example, Max shows a warning about the scene includes MR components and suggest to use the translator tool. This is a major inconvenient for users who don't know, or are not interested on Mental Ray.
Of course, we don't want to force to all users to download and install MR, in order to use our plugins.

Until now we have not found an elegant way to solve this problem. So, in the short term Mental Ray for Max 2018 will not be supported.
This would change if we find a solution for these technical issues, but there are not guarantees.

Thanks,
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

LQ3798

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2017, 10:33:35 PM »
Hello,

My Forest Pack Subscription is up for renewal,...
I'm curious what the status on Mental Ray Support for 2018 is, as this may make a difference on my decision to renew subscription..
I do not use V-Ray,...Mental Ray for the Near Future

Thanks much

JW


iToo

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #3 on: October 31, 2017, 08:36:04 AM »
Hi, unfortunately there are not changes since my last post.
Actually Mental Ray is not supported in Max 2018. I don't know if that may changed in the future.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

LQ3798

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #4 on: October 31, 2017, 06:53:13 PM »
Thanks for the update,...
Mental Ray is supported for 3ds Max 2018, I have it and rendering with it. You have to download from NVidia...
It is Free for single frame rendering (non-network),..If you want sequence rendering or network rendering you have to pay...(Much Less than V-Ray, and even less if you own an NVidia Pro-Quality gpuCard)

It is actually Quite Inexpensive
and better than previous versions

http://www.nvidia.com/object/mental-ray-features.html

LQ3798

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2017, 10:53:51 PM »
Actually you are correct. I just received the email from Nvidia stating they will no longer be supporting or releasing Mental Ray,...Bummer..means weeks of work on my part for new materials, etc..and learning/purchasing  V-Ray...


iToo

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2017, 09:00:29 AM »
That's it. As result of these news, i can confirm we are not going to support Mental Ray in Max 2018.

We'll keep the existing code for older Max versions, for compatibility with existing scenes, but that's all.
Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

LQ3798

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Re: Mental Ray 2018 - Forest Pack
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2017, 03:12:06 PM »
yep