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1714 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
The components for some mental ra y
materials and shaders can b e assigned other
shaders. For these components, the main shader
button is accompanied on the right by a small
button. Ifnoshaderisassigned,ortheshader
assigned has only a single return value, the button
is disable d and shows a dot in the middle. If the
shader assigned can return multiple values, text
appearsinthisbutton,andatooltipshowsthe
parameter name. Clicking the button displays the
ConnectParameterToShaderdialog,allowingyou
to change the parameter b eing used.
Inter face
List of r eturn va lues—Lists the parameters that the
shader returns. The ty p e of each parameter is
indicated in parentheses, following the parameter’s
name.
Show Compatible Only—When on the list shows
only the return values whose type is compatible
w ith the component the shader is assigned to.
When off, shows all return values from the shader,
whether they are compatible or not. Default=on.
3ds Max Custom Shaders
3D Displ acement S ha der (mental
ray)
Material Editor > mental ray Connec tion rollout > For
the Displacement component, turn off the lock button.
> Click the button for the Displacement component. >
Material/M ap Browser > 3D Displacement (3dsmax)
Material Editor > mental ray material > Click the bu tton
for the Displacement component. > Material/Map
Browser > 3D Displacement (3dsmax)
Note: Shaders appear in the Browser only if the mental
ray renderer is the currently active renderer.
A 3D Displacement shader displaces the geometry
of surfaces. The effect is similar to displacement
mapping of a standard material. You can apply
mental ray displacement to any kind of object,
unlike standard displacement mapping, which
is restricted to surface models (meshes, patches,
polys, and N URBS surfaces).
Displaced surfaces are smooth if the displaced
polygons share normals; otherwise, the displaced
surfaces are faceted. Also, unless normals
are shared, faces can become separated in the
displaced mesh. To prevent this, make su re
adjacent surfaces belong to the same shading
group.
When the mental ray renderer is the active
renderer, mental ray displacement is the only
displacement method used, unless your scene
includes a Displace modifier (page 1–629),which
always uses standard 3ds Max displacement.
Tip: Before you render , you can disable or enable
displacement by using the Displacement toggle in
the Options group on the Common Parameters
rollout (page 3–27).
Global settings for the mental ray displacement
method are in the Displacement group on the