topic Re: What is the Alias Renderer?? Is it he same as Maya or unique? in Alias Forum

What is the Alias Renderer?? Is it he same as Maya or unique?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 04:32:14 GMT

There seems to be very little infomation/history about the Alias renderer (both Raycaster and Raytracer). Do you know when was it made? Is it any different than Maya's? How has it been changed/updated over the years( if at all) or it the same as when it was still Alias/Wavefront Studio tools for Windows NT or even further back when it was Irix exclusive?

Thank you in advance.

Re: What is the Alias Renderer?? Is it he same as Maya or unique?

brian.osborn — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 08:05:06 GMT

The renderer in Alias is truly ancient, and hasn't really been updated at all since irix days, its a scan line raytracer, its something that desperately needs to be updated. The latest releases from Autodesk incorporated a link to VRed in order to try and provide a better renderer, but unfortunately the animation package in Alias is as old as the renderer, and the animation nodes and paths do not transfer to VRed, which means that any animations created in Alias have to be duplicated in VRed. Although there are some ways to automatically translate the shaders, they do not truly transfer correctly either, which means that they need to be tweaked in VRed to look as intended.

Its very odd that Autodesk have so many renderers to use ( Arnold, VRed etc) but the renderer and animation functions in Alias have never been really updated, I think that it is a real issue.

I guess that Autodesk are concentrating on providing real time rendering feedback in the new VR tools etc, but I think that there is still a place for a decent rendering and animation function. Even Blender has a better renderer than Alias, and thats free......

Re: What is the Alias Renderer?? Is it he same as Maya or unique?

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 17:42:52 GMT

Thanks. But how do you know the renderer is the same as on IRIX??

I never had a chance to use the old Alias (way before my time) but I know that the 3DSmax renderer is exactly as it was when it first came out.