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118 Chapter 17: Rendering
translation process, but reduces the amount of data
being sent to the mental ray renderer. Default=off.
This option is useful when you are trying to render
ahugesceneandtimeisnotnecessarilyanissue.
When you render to an MI file, this option can
also help reduce the size of the output file.
When on, this toggle also tells the mental ray
renderer to save frames as temporary .
map files.
This allows you to render extremely large frames
without running out of random-access memory.
Thelocationofthetemporarymapfilesischosen
in the following order:
1. If the file
\3dsmax\mentalray\rayrc contains a
registry ent ry called _M I_RE G_FBDIR, the
renderer uses this directory.
The entry should have the form
registry "{_MI_REG_FBDIR}" value "<path>" end registry
where <path> is the directory you want to use.
2. If the
rayrc file has no registry entry, the
renderer uses the directory specified by the
TMPDIR environment variable.
3. If there is no TMPDIR environment variable,
the renderer uses the directory specified by the
TEMP environment variable.
Material Override group
Material Override allows you to render a scene
w ith all its materials replaced by a single master
material. For example, if you need to do a
w ireframe p ass, you can create a Wire material and
then specify it here. When you render,
all surfaces
will use the Wire material.
Enable—When on, rendering uses the override
material for all surfaces. When off, surfaces are
rendered w ith the material applied to them in the
scene. Default=off.
Mater ial—Click to display the Material/Map
Browser (page 2–1256)
and choose a material to
use as the overr ide. Once you have chosen an
override material, this button displays the material
name.
Expor t to .mi File group
These controls let you save the translated scene in
amentalray
MI file (page 3–1066) .
Note: Exporting to an MI file is not available when
you
render to texture (page 3–139) .
Expor t on R ender—When on, saves the translated
file to a .
mi file. Turn off to avoid saving the
translated scene. Save is available only when
you have clicked Files to specify an .
mi file.
Default=off.
Un-compressed—When on, the MI file is not
compressed. When off, the file is saved in a
compressed format. Default=on.
Incr emental (Single File)—When on, an animation
is rendered as a single MI file that contains a
definition of the first frame and descriptors of the
incremental changes from fr ame to frame. When
off, each frame is rendered as a separate MI file.
Default=off.
When you render an animation, turning on
Incremental can save a considerable am ount of
disk space.
•
Browse (“ ...” )—Click to display a file selector
dialog, which lets you specify a name for the
.
mi file, and the folder where it is saved.
•
File name—When you have used the Files
button to specify an .
mi file, this field displays
its name and path.
Render Passes group
Controls in this group let you create a rendering
out of multiple passes that render portions a
scene. This can be a useful way to render large
scenes or scenes that have complex effects. It can
alsobeawaytodividethelaboronacomposited