ART Renderer and transparent/Refractive materials

[MattDillon247]

I've noticed some issues with transparent and refractive materials when using the ART renderer:

1) The mental ray Water material that is included in the Autodesk Material Library looks terrible when processed with the ART renderer. I was able to get around that by creating a Physical Material that works. 

2) Refractive materials like glass seem to be particularly touchy. Again, the AEC Material library glass materials wind up with some bizarre reflections in them. As with the water material, I tried creating a Physical Material to replace them with, and got some improvement, but there are still some strange artifacts that shouldn't be there.

Granted, I'm no "Materials Ninja", but it seems that there are some shortcomings to what is otherwise a promising renderer, especially for those that don't want to mess with all the buttons and sliders that come with the GI settings for the mental ray renderer. 

Has anybody got any tips for dealing with this that could make the ART renderer a better option?

Thanks in advance.

[MattDillon247 · Accepted solution]

Ummm... never mind... I'm an idiot.

It struck me after I posted this that the Revit file that I've been working with in Max (I neglected to mention this was a Revit link, too, didn't I?) was a Revit 2016 file - in fact I think it was originally a Revit 2014 file.

Amazing... if you use Revit 2017 materials and bring them into Max, the ART renderer seems to handle them just fine. I haven't tested glass yet, but the water came out looking just fine.

Disregard my last transmission. Stand down from DEFCON 1, Cancel the alert, recall the bombers...

[Alfred.DeFlaminis]

Hello @MattDillon247,

So many meetings today, but your post was a breath of fresh air!  I hope you don't mind but I printed it out and put it on my cubicle.  So funny! 

Is there anything I can do for you at this point?  I am happy to help.

Best Regards,