Mental Ray for 3ds Max 2018 now available from NVIDIA

[Anonymous]

We’re proud to announce that NVIDIA Mental Ray for 3ds Max is now available for download here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/mental-ray-3ds-max.html  NVIDIA Mental Ray for 3ds Max is fully functional and free for you to use while you are working within 3ds Max - regardless of resolution or number of frames rendered.

If a license is purchased, it enables all forms of network and batch rendering, Mental Ray Standalone and Satellite modes, as well as the separately available Iray for 3ds Max plug-in product. Existing owners of Iray for 3ds Max will find that their current licenses will work for Mental Ray for 3ds Max as well automatically with no licensing change.

- Phil

[TMat]

Hello,

It seems there is a problem on the downloads page to which you have linked.

After filling in all the required info and checking the box for Mental Ray 3ds Max 2018 I get a message "a non valid item has been selected" 

Can you fix it for Max users please?

Thanks.

[Emperor_TOe]

i got this when i tried to download it, it went away when i filled in the "where did you hear about mental ray" box.

[TMat]

I tried again, making sure to fill in that query also.

Still won't let me through to the download.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the notice -  we see the issue - the page isn't processing the request for a download for 3ds Max alone.

To solve this right now, please select a Maya version in addition to the 3ds Max version and the email will get sent to you for downloading both.

We will get this resolved properly ASAP.

- Phil

[jharper3L74D]

I've installed the package for 3ds Max 2018 and upon opening my scene files, I am constantly getting the Missing DLL dialog box, but it is empty, I just have to click OK a couple of dozen times to open the file.

Also, I am getting many missing map and error messages when rendering saying there was an error loading my TIF bitmaps.  I can post the log file later this evening, but just wanted someone to start looking at these potential issues.  Many of my TIFs are 16 bit images if that makes any difference.  I have not had any problems with these maps in previous releases.

Thanks!

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the information.  I'm sorry that you're having problems.  

We have reproduced the missing DLL problem, and are in the midst of diagnosing the exact cause of the failure.  Any scene or log files you can provide will help us tremendously in this effort.  If you allow the conversion dialog to open (but do NOT actually convert anything) you may get more info about what is missing or broken.  

Regarding the TIF files, the log will be helpful to us.  We think that the warnings are harmless, but we'd love to see at least one file for testing here.

Regards,

David Marks

NVIDIA

[Anonymous]

Hi nvidia guys,

Just released after 1 month from 3ds released

- download issue

- missing dll empty window issue at start (here too)

Good job, well done. I'm scared in launching the first render: what could happen more??? 🙂

Joking apart, is maybe there a release date for the iray material plugin 2018?

Thank you.

Stefano

[Anonymous]

Hi Stefano.

Your sarcasm is well-deserved. We obviously missed some issues in our first release.  Please do continue to find out "what could happen more??" and come to our forum and report your successes and any problems you find. (NVIDIA Mental Ray for 3ds Max forum)  We can respond there more quickly and not completely hijack Autodesk's space.  We have several similar threads already and will post official solutions there.  Furthermore, we are also continuing our beta program and have committed ourselves to turning around new releases at a rapid pace. (Contact us there if you'd like to participate.)

Hopefully you noticed the Professional Application Center installed with the renderer.  This tool will alert you when updates are available and will download and install them automatically if you choose.

Regarding your specific question, the Iray+ Material is part of Iray for 3ds Max.  We have version 1.3 available via our website, and the 2018-compatible version is presently in internal testing for release "soon".

David Marks

3ds Max Workflow Specialist

NVIDIA

[dgorsman]

@Anonymous - no need to worry about hijacking.  Participation of representatives such as yourself is quite welcome (and before I forget, welcome aboard! ).  Especially with this large change in the rendering landscape.

[iadproductions]

David,

Here is a screenshot of the Scene Converter dialog, it looks like it is incapable of even converting ProMaterials.  That's a huge oversite. 

and I've attached the log file.

If there's a beta group for mentalray in Max2018 I'd like to be involved

Thanks,

Jeff

[Anonymous]

NVIDIA has confirmed a critical backwards compatibility issue when loading scenes using certain materials with the Mental Ray for 3ds Max that shipped on May 10, 2017. 

Issue:

Loading scenes from an earlier 3ds Max version may result in their materials not being recognized in 3ds Max 2018, and scenes saved to an earlier 3ds Max version can also have difficulty with their materials not being recognized in the earlier 3ds Max.     

Fix:

Uninstall Mental Ray for 3ds Max 2018.  Download the new Mental Ray from 3ds Max posted on May 17, 2017 and install it.  

Result:

3ds Max 2018 will now be backwards compatible with earlier releases, and saving to earlier 3ds Max versions will work fine.

Temporary Situation:

3ds Max 2018 scenes edited recently while using the first Mental Ray for 3ds Max will not be compatible with this update. Such files will work correctly with the next Mental Ray for 3ds Max update, scheduled for the week of May 22, 2017. 

If you are in mid-production with Mental Ray within 3ds Max 2018, and all is working well for you, we recommend that you wait for this update and do not uninstall as instructed above.

[iadproductions]

David, are there any goodies, hidden shaders, etc that we can expose and try out ?

[dbhinnant]

Wait... wut?  Haven't been keeping up the latest on 2018.  Mental Ray is no longer delivered with 3ds Max?  This is troubling.

[dgorsman]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Wait... wut?  Haven't been keeping up the latest on 2018.  Mental Ray is no longer delivered with 3ds Max?  This is troubling.

---

While MR is no longer included, Arnold is.  The decreased integration of the two allows for NVidia to develop MR at their own speed without being restricted by 3DSMAX progress (and vice versa).  This also applies to other rendering options (including those not-yet-available) as it makes it easier for 3DSMAX to work with them too.

Make sure you check the NVidia page for pricing options, as there are different licensing and pricing for Quadro/Tesla users as well as qualified educational users.

[dbhinnant]

That's all well and good but I have a 40 computer render farm that I will now have to pay for.  Mental Ray and Backburner have grown to be so far behind that I was looking at 3rd Party solutions already.  Just not sure I can convince the powers that be to pay the price.

[iadproductions]

Was there an update for this week?

[jharper3L74D]

David,

Just following up, is there an ETA for the next update to mentalray ?

Thanks,

Jeff