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FIGURE 47.4

The Preference Settings dialog box includes a panel of mental ray settings.

Note

Multiple white brackets may be visible if you're rendering across a network or using a computer with multiple processors. •

The Show Visual Final Gather Progress option displays a rough approximation of the render scene as it is being rendered before waiting for a Final Gather solution. This gives you a quick look at the scene before it computes a Final Gather solution. You can also select to clear the frame before rendering.

The Messages section lets you specify which messages are displayed as the file renders. Options include Errors, Log Information, Log Progress, Debug Messages, and whether to write this information to a file.

Using mental ray Lights and Shadows

If you look in the Lights category of the Create⇒Lights⇒Standard Lights menu, you'll see two mental ray specific lights: mental ray Area Omni and mental ray Area Spot. These area lights spread light from a defined area in the Area Light Parameters rollout. By default, all mental lights use the Global Settings for their illumination values, but by using the mental ray Indirect Illumination rollout, shown in Figure 47.5, found in the Modify panel, you can override the global settings for the selected light.

FIGURE 47.5

The mental ray Indirect Illumination rollout lets you define the light settings for individual lights.

Enabling mental ray Shadow Maps

In the Shadows drop-down list of the Shadow Parameters rollout is an option to enable mental ray Shadow Maps. These shadow maps are more accurate than normal shadow maps.

Using mental ray Sun & Sky

If you want to quickly create an outdoor scene and render it using mental ray, then the Daylight system that uses the mr Sun and Sky is an easy quality solution. Before adding the Daylight system to your scene, switch the renderer to mental ray in the Render Setup dialog box. Then add the Daylight system to the scene, and in the Modify panel, select mr Sun in the Sunlight drop-down list and mr Sky in the Skylight drop-down list. When you first select the Daylight system, a dialog box appears recommending that you use the mr Photographic Exposure Control. Click the Yes button to enable this control. When you select the mr Sky option, another dialog box appears, asking if you want to enable the mr Physical Sky environment map. Click Yes to this also.

If you look in the Environment panel, you can see the mr Physical Sky material applied. This material defines how the sky and ground planes look. The default settings look pretty good.

The Daylight system includes controls for positioning the sun in the sky based on a physical location, day of the year, and time of the day. By changing these controls, you can manipulate the sun's position in the sky relative to the scene objects. If the sun appears in the viewport, it is rendered with lens flares, as shown in Figure 47.6.

FIGURE 47.6

The Daylight can be endowed with mr Sun and mr Sky.

When a Sky & Sun system is in place, you can ensure that it displays within the viewport if you open the Views⇒Viewport Background⇒Viewport Background dialog box (Alt+B) and enable the Use Environment Background settings. Make sure also that the Display Background option is set. Using this method makes the Sun & Sky system visible even if the Viewport Shading option is set to Off.

Selecting the sun light object and moving it about the scene or changing the Time and Date parameters automatically updates the background and the scene. This provides a good way to precisely position the sun where you want it, as shown in Figure 47.7. For best results, select the Enable Hardware Shading option in the Lighting and Shadows menu for the viewport shading label.

Using mental ray Sky Portal

If you look closely at the Photometric light category, you'll notice another light type sandwiched between the mr Sky and mr Sun lights. The mr Sky Portal provides a way to focus light streaming into an