Interface

Enable

When on, the renderer renders the graphic representation for the tool you have chosen.

Sampling Rate

When chosen, renders an image that shows where samples were collected during rendering; see Sampling (mental ray Renderer). This can help you adjust the contrast and other sampling parameters.

Coordinate Space

Renders an image that shows the coordinate space of objects, the world, or camera.

• ObjectShows local coordinates (UVW). Each object has its own coordinate space.
• WorldShows world coordinates (XYZ). The same coordinate system applies to all objects.
• CameraShows camera coordinates, which appear as a rectangular grid superimposed on the view.

Size

Sets the size of the grid. Default=1.0.

TipTo avoid busy moiré patterns in the grid, increase the value of Size.

Photon

Renders the effect of a photon map in the screen. This requires that a photon map be present (to render caustics or global illumination). If no photon map is present, the Photon rendering looks just like the nondiagnostic rendering of the scene: the mental ray renderer first renders the shaded scene, then replaces it with the pseudocolor image.

• DensityRenders the photon map as it is projected into the scene. High density is displayed in red, and lower values render in increasingly cooler colors.
• IrradianceSimilar to the Density rendering, but shades the photons based on their irradiance. The maximum irradiance is rendered in red, and lower values render in increasingly cooler colors.

BSP

Renders a visualization of the parameters used by the tree in the BSP ray-trace acceleration method. If a message from the renderer reports excessively large depth or size values, or if rendering seems unusually slow, this can help you locate the problem.

• DepthShows the depth of the tree, with top faces in bright red, and increasingly deep faces in increasingly cool colors.
• SizeShows the size of leaves in the tree, with differently sized leaves indicated by different colors.

NoteThe BSP diagnostic works with the BSP method only; the BSP2 method does not support it.

Final Gather

Renders the scene with pre-processing final-gather points displayed as green dots, and tile-rendering (final render) final-gather points displayed as red dots.

For animation purposes, the presence of red dots is undesirable. To resolve this, use the Interpolate Over Num. FG Points setting instead of the Radius Interpolation Method, or, if you prefer the latter, keep the Min. Radius setting as close as possible to the Radius setting; that is, the maximum radius.