2008

Light Object Enhancements
Along with the mental ray renderer, new area light objects and new light
settings are provided.
New Light Objects
Area lights on page 7713 are a feature of the mental ray renderer. Instead of
emitting light from a point source, they emit light from a broader area around
the source. There are two mental ray area lights: mr Area Omni Light on page
4945 and
mr Area Spotlight on page 4948 . Area lights create soft-edged shadows.
This can help improve the realism of your rendering.
NOTE To render soft-edged shadows, shadows must be ray-traced, not
shadow-mapped: see the Renderer panel >
Shadows & Displacement Rollout on
page 6114 .
In 3ds Max, area lights are created and supported by the MAXScript scripts,
light-mentalray_areaomni.ms and light-mentalray_areaspot.ms. Both scripts are
found in the \stdplugs\stdscripts\ folder within the program install directory.
Because of this, when you create an area light, you actually create a target spot
or omni light for which the mental ray renderer uses the parameters on the
Area Light Parameters rollout. If you render with the default scanline renderer,
the light behaves like any other target spot or omni light. (You can change a
light from one type to another using the Type drop-down list on the lights
General Parameters rollout.)
For area lights rendered with the mental ray renderer, you can still set and
use other lighting parameters, such as color, the Multiplier value, the spotlight
cone, and so on. Shadow maps are an exception. The mental ray renderer
ignores the light's local shadow map settings. Area lights always use ray-traced
shadows.
TIP You can use a MAXScript utility to convert standard 3ds Max light objects to
area lights, as described in
this procedure on page ? .
New Light Settings
The
mental ray Indirect Illumination rollout on page 5060 has been added to
light objects to support the mental ray renderers indirect illumination effects
of caustics on page 6066 and global illumination on page 6072 .
The
mental ray Light Shader rollout on page 5063 has been added so you can
add mental ray light shaders to light objects.
mental ray Renderer | 6051