After you have set up the Hardware Render Buffer, and perhaps previewed particles, you can render hardware particles at final production quality. The following procedure describes a typical method for rendering hardware particles; you may decide to use a slightly different procedure.

To render hardware particles

1. If the Hardware Render Buffer is not already open, select Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer to open it.
2. If the Hardware Render Globals Attribute Editor is not already open, select Render > Attributes to open it.
3. Set Lighting Mode to either Default Light (a directional light), All Lights (up to eight lights in your scene), or Selected Lights (the lights in your scene that you’ve selected).
4. If you are rendering particles that have a Particle Render Type of Streak or MultiStreak, turn on Line Smoothing.
5. Turn on Full Image Resolution.
6. Turn on Geometry Mask.
7. If you are rendering particles that have a Particle Render Type of MultiStreak or MultiPoint, and you want the particles to be softened or blurred, turn on Multi Pass Rendering and set the Render Passes value (the higher the value, the more blurred particles will appear).
8. If you want particles to appear motion blurred, increase the Motion Blur value (the higher the value, the more blurred particles will appear), and set the Render Passes value to at least the Motion Blur value minus 1. (For example, if the Motion Blur value is 4, set the Render Passes value to at least 3.)
   ImportantTo render particles with Motion Blur, you must either turn on the particle’s Cache Data attribute or select Solvers > Create Particle Disk Cache. Otherwise, the particle may behave erratically when rendered.
9. Make sure all of the Display Options are off, and that the Background Color is black.
10. Close the Hardware Render Globals Attribute Editor.
11. In the Hardware Render Buffer, select Render > Scale Buffer > 100%.
12. Select Render > Render Sequence.

    The Hardware Render Buffer displays each frame as it is rendered.

    ImportantDo not move the Hardware Render Buffer or drag another window over it during rendering. Disable any screen saver software before you start rendering. (Maya saves hardware rendered images by taking a screen shot of the Hardware Render Buffer.)
13. Do one of the following:
    • To cancel rendering, press Esc.
    • To display the view of your scene after rendering is completed, click inside the Hardware Render Buffer.
    • To view a rendered animation, see View rendered hardware particles below.