![]() (Note: since we wrote that story, Autodesk has introduced new rental pricing of $600/year per machine for Arnold, and announced that it is to discontinue perpetual licences of the software.) That makes the pricing of Mental Ray for 3ds Max fairly competitive, insofar as you can make comparisons – an issue we discussed in more detail in our story on Mental Ray for Maya. So how does the pricing stack up against other 3ds Max render engines? Previously, the Iray for 3ds Max plugin had to be purchased separately, at a cost of $295/year per machine.Įxisting licences of Iray for 3ds Max also now automatically function as paid licences for Mental Ray for 3ds Max: both renderers are now covered by a single licence. ![]() You can read our review of the Iray for 3ds Max plugin here.) (That’s the new plugin version of Iray, not the Iray render mode built into Mental Ray itself, which is now officially named ‘Mental Ray Iray’. However, unlike Mental Ray for Maya, buying a commercial licence of Mental Ray for 3ds Max also gives you Iray, Nvidia’s interactive physically based renderer, for free. Paid licences also include Iray for 3ds Max for free (The same pricing has also now been applied to Mental Ray for Maya, which raises the price of floating licences “to be more in line with industry norms”, according to Nvidia.) Nvidia has also now introduced separate pricing for local (that is, node-locked) and network (floating) licences, the latter priced at $395/year for one or $1,495/year for five. If you aren’t using a Nvidia Quadro or Tesla GPU, the cost rises to $295/year per node, or $995/year for a five-pack. That brings the cost down to $95/year per render node, or $325/year for a five-pack of licences. ![]() However, Nvidia has adopted the same pricing model as for Mental Ray for Maya: if you’re using one of the firm’s professional GPUs – a Quadro or Tesla card – you get a discount. That’s a blow for many 3ds Max users, who were accustomed to the unlimited Mental Ray network rendering that Autodesk provided up until 3ds Max 2017. Like the version of Arnold bundled with 3ds Max 2018, the new plugin is free to use when rendering from a single machine, but for network rendering, you’ll need a commercial licence. You can read a full list of features in Mental Ray 3.14 here, although note that some of the functionality listed was actually introduced in Mental Ray 3.13.įree for use on single machines, but you pay for network rendering The update also introduces support for Light Path Expressions, making it possible to generate AOVs on a per-light basis when rendering, giving more control over rendered output in the final composite. It has “full support” of Mental Ray shaders, motion blur, depth of field, hair, volumes and particles, and only loads geometry into GPU memory, making it possible to render more texture-heavy scenes on the GPU. That includes GI Next, Nvidia’s GPU-enabled global illumination system, which the firm claims is “over 10x faster again” when running with a GPU – presumably, Nvidia’s top-of-the-range Quadro – than a 14-core CPU. The release also introduces the new functionality rolled out last year in Mental Ray 3.14, the standalone edition of the software, and in Mental Ray for Maya, the equivalent Maya plugin. Today’s release makes it possible to use those scenes again, with Nvidia’s blog post stressing that the new plugin is “fully backwards compatible for all the functionality and data people depend upon”.Īdds new features from Mental Ray 3.14 standalone With Autodesk’s decision to stop bundling Mental Ray with its software in favour of its own Arnold renderer, legacy Mental Ray scenes are no longer compatible with 3ds Max 2018 out of the box. The first version of Mental Ray compatible with 3ds Max 2018įor many 3ds Max users, the most important thing about Mental Ray for 3ds Max will simply be that it exists. Network rendering requires commercial licences, which are available on a rental-only basis.īuying a commercial licence of Mental Ray also activates Iray for 3ds Max, Nvidia’s interactive physically based renderer, available as a separate plugin, and previously purchased separately. The plugin is free to use when rendering from a single machine. The release integrates the new features of Mental Ray 3.14, the latest standalone edition of the renderer, including the GI Next global illumination system and support for light path expressions. ![]() Nvidia has released Mental Ray for 3ds Max, its new plugin version of the renderer, and first for 3ds Max 2018 users, following Autodesk’s decision to stop bundling Mental Ray with the software. Nvidia’s marketing graphic for Mental Ray for 3ds Max. Posted by Jim Thacker Nvidia releases Mental Ray for 3ds Max
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