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Exporting .mi files
Scene Export Optimization Controls
Several controls let you manually optimize the process of exporting scenes to .mi format. The translator recognizes a specific set of dynamic attributes that you can add to nodes to control how they are exported.
To export a .mi file, see Export a .mi file and render with mental ray.
You can accelerate the process of exporting scenes to .mi format by disabling deformation checking for objects that are known to be static over an animation (buildings, for example), and by disabling tangent vector export for objects that do not use bump mapping or other tangent-based shading effects.
Controls whether or not the translator tries to detect deformation of an object.
To support per-object control of deformation determination and motion vector calculation of shape nodes, this dynamic attribute of type boolean is recognized. It overrides the global Export Shape Deformation option and either marks the current shape for or excludes it from deformation motion blur. Two common scenarios are supported:
This option may accelerate translation of shape animations and detection of deformation motion blur dramatically.
Controls export of tangent vectors on objects.
To support per-object control of tangent vector calculation for polygon meshes and NURBS surfaces, this dynamic attribute of type boolean is recognized. It overrides the global Export ... Derivatives options and marks or ignores the current shape accordingly for tangents computation. Two common scenarios are supported:
The tangents are first order derivatives supplied as mental ray bump basis vectors. They are required for mayabase shader filtering and bump mapping purposes.