Rendering variables

AW_JPEG_Q_FACTOR

This variable can be used to specify the quality of JPEG files that Maya renders out. The valid values are 1 through 100, with 100 being the highest quality. The default is 100.

AW_JPEG_SUB_SAMPLING

Allows you to control the subsampling quality of the rendered image.

The value of the AW_JPEG_SUB_SAMPLING environment variable is:

L1xL2,Ch1xCh2,Gr1xGr2

where:

• L1 and L2: sampling factors for the luminance component
• Ch1 and Ch2: sampling factors for the chrominance component
• Gr1 and Gr2: sampling factors for the grayscale components

A few possible settings for this environment variable are as follows:

• 2x2,1x1,1x1 (default)
• 2x1,1x1,1x1
• 1x1,1x1,1x1 (provides the highest visual quality)

For example:

• mel% putenv "AW_JPEG_SUB_SAMPLING" "1x1,1x1,1x1"

The values for each of the L1xL2, Ch1xCh2, and Gr1xGr2 components can be between 1 and 4, where 1x1 is of the highest quality. In general, the lower the component value, the better the quality of the final JPEG because a smaller sampling block allows better high-frequency color information to be captured.

MAYA_DISABLE_MRMAP

By default, Maya converts non-native image file formats into temporary IFF files so that they can be read. This variable allows you to disable the conversion of mental ray .map files. Disabling this conversion saves scene export time and render time. To enable this option, set the value equal to 1. To disable it, set the value to 0 (zero) or leave it undefined.

Note

You can still render textures of this file format type, but only with the mental ray for Maya renderer. In addition, the following functionality is disabled:

• Scene view display of .map format textures
• Swatch previews in the Hypershade of .map format textures

MAYA_DISABLE_MRFORMATS

By default, Maya converts non-native image file formats into temporary IFF files so that they can be read. This variable allows you to disable the conversion of mental ray .ct and .st files. Disabling this conversion saves scene export time and render time. To enable this option, set the value equal to 1. To disable it, set the value to 0 (zero) or leave it undefined.

Note

You can still render textures of this file format type, but only with the mental ray for Maya renderer. In addition, the following functionality is disabled:

• Scene view display of .ct and .st format textures
• Swatch previews in the Hypershade of .ct and .st format textures

MAYA_NO_JITTER_FINAL_COLOR

If you are quantizing to 8-bit color, we apply some randomness, or jitter, to the color. To enable this option, set the value equal to 1. To disable it, set the value to 0 (zero) or leave it undefined.

MAYA_RENDERER_RT_BACKGROUND_COLOR

If you set this variable to 1, Maya includes the camera background in the calculation of reflection and refraction rays. If you set this variable to 0 (zero) or leave it undefined, Maya ignores the background color for these rays.

MAYA_HW_FILE_TEXTURE_RESOLUTION_OVERRIDE

Enable this flag to force baked file textures to be the maximum of the texture resolution attribute on the file texture or the actual file texture dimensions.

MI_MAYA_SOCKETS

Set this flag to 1 so that you can preview your render in progress in imf_disp while rendering from the command line. You may need to adjust your firewall.

This environment variable was added in Maya 2008.

This environment variable is not necessary in Linux.

MAYA_OFFSCREEN_HRB

Set this flag to 1 to expose the Render Offscreen option in the Hardware Render Buffer > Render menu. When enabled, an offscreen buffer is used when rendering sequences using the Hardware Render Buffer. Single-frame renders will continue to be rendered into an on-screen buffer. During offscreen rendering, moving windows over the Hardware Render Buffer window does not affect the rendered frames, as would normally be the case.

Note

The Render Offscreen option is only supported on Linux and Mac OS X and not Windows.

MAYA_EXR_LONGNAME

EXR version 1.7 supports 252 character channel names. The limit is 252 and not 255 to save room for an extension of up to 3 characters used to differentiate individual channels (for example .R for the red channel). However, EXR version 1.7 is currently supported by very few external applications (for example, Flame), and embedding channel names longer than 31 characters may break compatibility with external applications that do not support it. By default, channel names are truncated to 31 characters for backward compatibility. Set this to 1 to allow long channel names so that channel names are not truncated.

MAYA_TEXCOORD_ORIENTATION

Set this environment variable to either OPENGL or DIRECTX to define the MAYA_TEXCOORD_ORIENTATION_OPENGL or MAYA_TEXCOORD_ORIENTATION_DIRECTX macros respectively. When the macro is defined, it is set to 1.

By setting this environment variable, when the CgFx plug-in compiles a CgFX shader, the shader is compiled with the MAYA_TEXCOORD_ORIENTATION_OPENGL macro or MAYA_TEXCOORD_ORIENTATION_DIRECTX macro set to 1, and the texture is loaded using the orientation (OpenGL or DirectX) you specified. See Orientation for the texture co-ordinate system for more information.

MAYA_QUICKTIME_ENCODING_GAMMA

You can customize the gamma used for encoding Quicktime playblast by setting the environment variable MAYA_QUICKTIME_ENCODING_GAMMA to the desired gamma. If this environment variable is not set, the default value is 2.2.

MAYA_USE_SUBRENDERING

Set MAYA_USE_SUBRENDERING to 1 to enable subrendering. By default, UI elements are interleaved with the rest of the scene. However, you may want to render UI elements separately instead so that they do not interfere with the scene render.

During subrendering, similar UI items are rendered together in the same render pass. Therefore, all UI elements in the scene, such as the wireframe, locators and icons, are rendered in the same render pass after the main scene is rendered. Rendering is therefore more efficient as UI elements are rendered separately from a complicated rendering system. For example, UI elements do not need motion blur, therefore, it is more efficient to render them separately after the scene has completed rendering.

However, the tradeoff of using subrendering is that UI elements cannot alpha blend correctly with the scene, since they always render last and only interact with the zbuffer of the scene.

MAYA_VP2_DEVICE_OVERRIDE

Use this environment variable to select the rendering engine with which to run Viewport 2.0. When set, this environment variable overrides the user preference (Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences > Display) for both interactive and batch sessions (using the -hw2 option).

Set this environment variable to VirtualDeviceDx11 to render Viewport 2.0 in DirectX 11 mode. Set this environment variable to VirtualDeviceGL to render Viewport 2.0 in OpenGL mode.

Unset this environment variable to use the user preference again to select your rendering engine.

See Using DirectX 11 with Viewport 2.0 for more information about running Viewport 2.0 in DirectX 11 mode.

MAYA_VP2_USE_LINEAR_NC_SPACE_DEPTH_PRIORITY

By default, Extension for Maya 2013 uses a new algorithm for determining depth priority (that is, deciding which UI elements draw on top of another). This algorithm scales linearly in clip space and provides more accurate results when the near clip distance is small. You can revert back to the legacy (NDC) depth priority algorithm by setting this environment variable to 1.

MAYA_VP2_IMAGEPLANE_CAMERA_UI

If you find that your image plane is affected by post effects such as screen-space ambient occlusion or depth of field, set this environment variable to 1 so that the image plane renders last in the scene. However, when using this environment variable, semi-transparent objects may not render correctly in front of image planes.