Rendering Algorithms
- A new hierarchical grid acceleration algorithm was introduced
that allows much better control than the old static grid
accelerator in mental ray 2.1.
- Multipass rendering and merging is now supported. Render passes
are independent renders of portions of the same scene, each
generating a subsample-based layer file. Layer files can be merged
back when rendering the last pass, or all layers can be merged as a
separate process. Merging can be done in custom merging functions.
Multipass rendering was introduced in mental ray 3.1.1, and was
significantly enhanced (using an incompatible syntax extension) in
mental ray 3.1.2.
- The -nomaster command-line option and the
mi_job_set_slaves_only function call allow excluding the
master from all tasks that can be handled on slaves, such as
rendering and tessellating.
- The bsp shadow on option enables the new shadow BSP
tree, which holds all shadow objects. The main BSP tree then only
holds trace objects. This is useful if the scene contains
simplified shadow stand-in geometry and has very low shadow ray
coherence, for example if a light dome computed from a chrome dome
photograph is used.
- The new multipass rendering
facilities allow rendering a scene in passes, and combining the
results on a subpixel level.
- Objects may specify min and max sampling parameters that
constrain the sampling range in the options. For eye rays that do
not see any objects, the samples statement in the options
block allows an optional default constraint.
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