Hi there

I’m not getting the MR Physical Sky options in the Dynamite Explorer window.

Do I have to turn on Mental Ray, in the preferences?

The scene has been completly created with 3.6, but I’m only getting the standard Sky parameters.

I’m also having trouble viewing your tutorials, especially the Environment one. It’s just locked and won’t download anymore video.

Thanks

Curtis

To add to the above If I open a completely empty scene I get the Physical Sky Parameters rollout.

But when I open my scene it’s gone. It’s back to Basic Sky Parameters.

Cheers

Curtis

The first thing to check is whether Mental Ray is the active renderer in that scene. Do you see an “Indirect Illumination” node in DVSP Explorer under “Lighting and Environment”?

To switch between the “Standard Sky” and “MR Physical Sky”, just right-click the “Sky” node in DVSP Explorer and select the appropriate option.

Hi Bruce

No, there’s no ‘Indirect Illumination’ node in the DVSP Explorer.

And when I right click on the Sky node I only get the option to reset sky to basic sky.

I’ve attached a screen shot.

Cheers

Curtis

So that indicates that Mental Ray is not selected as the active Production Renderer for this scene.

To switch to Mental Ray for this scene, open the “Render Scene” dialog and select the “Common” tab. Scroll right to the bottom of this panel where you should see a rollout called “Assign Renderer”.  In this rollout, change the Production Renderer to “Mental Ray”, then refresh the DVSP Explorer panel. You should now see the extra options.

The next question is why Mental Ray wasn’t automatically selected in this scene. If it was created from scratch in DVSP 3.6, Mental Ray should already be activated.

From the Customize menu in 3ds Max, select the “Custom UI and Defaults Switcher” option. On the left of this panel, which entry is selected under “Initial Settings for Tool Options”?

OK so I’ve enabled Mental Ray in the render scene dialog.

Neither of the options where selected, so I selected the DesignVIZ.mentalray.

When I render now I just get the white background.

I did get a message recommending that I use a Logarithmic Exposure control, this then produced a sky, but the ground was very dark.

Sorry to be causing all these problems.

Cheers

Curtis

I notice in a clean start up in DVSP that the exposure control is set to Logarithmic.

Do you have to do anything to the Daylight node? I notice that if you right click on it, you get the choice to Create a Daylight System.

Then you can select your location in the world.

Cheers

Curtis

Actually, you should select the “Dynamite.VSP” Industry Defaults option in the “Custom UI and Defaults Switcher” dialog.  This should have been selected automatically when you started DVSP 3.6 for the first time, although you are asked if you would like it to be selected - perhaps you answered no.

If you use that option, there will be no exposure control created until you generate a daylight system - which to me, is the correct methodology.

The sky will be rendered as white until you create your daylight system - the easiest way to do this is to right-click the Daylight node in DVSP Explorer.

I would highly recommend viewing our video tutorial on setting this up if you haven’t already done so.

Bruce

There’s no choice Dynamite.VSP in the list within the “Custom UI and Default Switcher”.

The selections available are:

Initial settings for tool options:

DesignVIZ
DesignVIZ.mentalray

UI Schemes:
DefaultUI

I tried to view your tutorial, that is what highlighted me to your mental ray approach, but unfortunately I only managed to view 2 minutes of the video and then it wouldn’t download anymore.

Cheers

Curtis

Curtis,

In the installation folder for 3ds Max 2009, you should see a folder called “defaults”. Is there a sub-folder in there called “Dynamite.VSP”?

We’ll have WMV versions of the viewo tutorials uploaded in the next day or so. These should help as they can be downloaded to your hard disk before viewing. Watch this space…

Hi Bruce

No, there’s no Dynamite.VSP sub-folder in the defaults folder.

Only the following sub-folders.

DesignVIZ
DesignVIZ.mentalray

Cheers

Curtis

Thanks Curtis. Could you try installing the v3.6 service pack again? Make sure that you are logged in with administrative rights when you run the installation. That Dynamite.VSP folder should be installed as part of the installation process, then when you next restart 3ds Max, you should get a message asking which “Industry Defaults” you want to use.

Hi Bruce

I logged in as an administrator and reloaded SP4, but I didn’t get any message from VIZ asking about industry defaults.

And it still has created the dynamite folder in the defaults folder of the VIZ directory.

You keep mentioning 3DS MAX, but I’m using VIZ. Is there a difference with the installation?

We’ll get there in the end.

Cheers

Curtis

We will indeed. Which version of VIZ are you using?

I thought it might, VIZ 2008.

For what it’s worth, I’m using MAX 09 and there is no VSP sub-folder in the defaults folder either.