Ambient Occlusion (and more!) presets for batch render mental ray

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I used to use 3DS max for interior renders, and had pre-sets for batch rendering that outputted several versions of the rendered image at the same time, which were the:

• rendered image
• an AO version of the image
• a line pass version
• a flat, random colour version (only used for post-edits in PSD to easily select objects)

...all at the same time.

Can someone remind me how to create these exact pre-sets or at least know the process used to create them? I've seen that to upload a pre-set in the batch render window it's required to be an .rps file, but I've no memory of how i achieved this before.

Currently using mental ray in 2017, and Arnold in 2020. Hoping that the pre-sets are native to 3DS and can be used across the two versions.

Any help much appreciated!

Cheers

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I used to use 3DS max for interior renders, and had pre-sets for batch rendering that outputted several versions of the rendered image at the same time, which were the:

• rendered image
• an AO version of the image
• a line pass version
• a flat, random colour version (only used for post-edits in PSD to easily select objects)

...all at the same time.

Can someone remind me how to create these exact pre-sets or at least know the process used to create them? I've seen that to upload a pre-set in the batch render window it's required to be an .rps file, but I've no memory of how i achieved this before.

Currently using mental ray in 2017, and Arnold in 2020. Hoping that the pre-sets are native to 3DS and can be used across the two versions.

Any help much appreciated!

Cheers

[Anonymous]

To add to this.. I think i've cracked it. 

It seems my hazy memory had confused batch rendering with... render elements. 

So i've remembered how to add render elements to my render output, and from there i can select mr AO shader etc. My follow up question is; is there a way to improve the AO render element so that it is as good as my AO material override? I've played around with the render element AO settings and it seems that Max dist: 400 and falloff: Quad give an OK output, but still nothing in comparison to what i can generate from a material override. 

Is there a way to plug the material that i've created for my manual AO into the render element so that it can generate from my material? Similar to how you would drag the material from the slate editor into the material override slot, perhaps.

Any thoughts welcome, i'll keep investigating myself in the meantime. I still remember the batch renderer presets having some sort of benefit, I just can't remember how... yet.

[Anonymous]

To add to this.. I think i've cracked it. 

It seems my hazy memory had confused batch rendering with... render elements. 

So i've remembered how to add render elements to my render output, and from there i can select mr AO shader etc. My follow up question is; is there a way to improve the AO render element so that it is as good as my AO material override? I've played around with the render element AO settings and it seems that Max dist: 400 and falloff: Quad give an OK output, but still nothing in comparison to what i can generate from a material override. 

Is there a way to plug the material that i've created for my manual AO into the render element so that it can generate from my material? Similar to how you would drag the material from the slate editor into the material override slot, perhaps.

Any thoughts welcome, i'll keep investigating myself in the meantime. I still remember the batch renderer presets having some sort of benefit, I just can't remember how... yet.

[Anonymous]

So from my experiments, the mr AO can't replicate the material override AO that i can generate as I can't find a way to input a material into it, so I have to rely on the presets, which aren't very good.

But, i've come across the mr Shader element, which does allow me to input a material as a shader, so i've referenced the AO material which i want to use... but it just renders black -_-

Anyone have any experience with mr Shader elements?

Answers on a postcard...

[Anonymous]

So from my experiments, the mr AO can't replicate the material override AO that i can generate as I can't find a way to input a material into it, so I have to rely on the presets, which aren't very good.

But, i've come across the mr Shader element, which does allow me to input a material as a shader, so i've referenced the AO material which i want to use... but it just renders black -_-

Anyone have any experience with mr Shader elements?

Answers on a postcard...