9

Material to Shader (mental ray) 1723
Options dialog (page 3–165) when creating the
height map. Default=10.0.
Height M a p—The height map itself (usually a
bitmap).
Material to Shader (mental ray)
Material Editor > mental ray Connection rollout > Assign
a shad er. > M aterial/Map Brow s er > Material to Shade r
Material Editor > m ental ray or DGS m aterial > Assign a
shader. > Material/M ap Browser > M aterial to Shader
Note: Shaders appear in the Browser only if the mental
ray renderer is the cur rently active renderer.
Lets you use a regular 3ds Max material as a shader.
Depending on the component to which this shader
is assigned (Surface, Shadow, Displacement,
Volume, and so on), the mental ray renderer uses
theappropriatematerialcomponent.
For example, if you want a mental ray material’s
Surface component to look like a standard material
you have, assign Material To Shader as the Surface
shader, and then assign it the standard material.
Note: Mater ial To Shader do esn’t work as an
environment background. Use the orig inal
3ds Max material, instead.
Tip: To edit the material assigned to Material To
Shader, you can drag the button to an unused
sample slot in the Material Editor (b e sure to
choose Instance when prompted). Or you can
follow these steps:
1. In an unused sample slot, create the material
and adjust its settings.
2. Save the material to a library.
3. Assign the Material To Shader to its component.
4. When you click the Material To Shader’s shader
button, browse from the library and load the
material you prepared in advance.
If you need to fu rther adjust the material, you can
repeat these steps (without having to reassign the
Material To Shader).
Interfa ce
Mater ial button—Click to display the Material/Map
Browser (page 2–1412) and choose the material to
use for shading.
Sh ader L is t (menta l ra y )
Material Editor > mental ray Connection rollout > Assign
a shader. > Material/Map Browser > Shader List
Material Editor > mental ray, DGS, or Glass material >
Assignashader.>Material/MapBrowser>ShaderList
Note: Shaders appear in the Browser only if the mental
ray renderer is the currently active renderer.
The Shader List shader provides an interface for
constructing a mental ray shader list. A shader
list combines the effect of multiple shaders: each
shader is called in turn, the first one’s output being
treated as input to the next, and so on.
Interfa ce