Mental Ray plugin for maya 2016 SP2 not working

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I hope someone can help me. I work as an IT support technician and one of the users is using Maya 2016 SP2.

The other day he asked me to help him download and install the mental ray plugin and then to install the service pack that goes with it. (service pack 2).

I downloaded and installed the files but yet he later tells me that every time he goes to "render" the plugin is not there.

I am not familiar at all with graphics software and he is not a technician. I think were talking past each other.

He gave me this site and I told him I would check the forums for answers.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Stephen.Blair]

Hi

• Is mental ray (mayatomr) listed in the Plugin Manager? Maybe he just has to load it.
• If it is listed, try to load it, and if it does not load, check the script history for errors (Windows > General Editors > Script History)
• Google those errors

https://www.google.com/search?q=Mental+Ray+plugin+for+maya+2016+SP2+not+working

[mspeer]

Hi!

"install the mental ray plugin and then to install the service pack".

- Maya service pack does not update Mental Ray.

You need to install Maya 2016 SP2 and Mental Ray SP2 individually.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

If your issue is resolved, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Update.

So now the user is able to check the mental ray plug-in in the settings section, but when he goes to "render" he is unable to.

The step i took before was to uninstall mental ray by going to control panel-> programs and features-> I would right click on the mental ray plugin and uninstall.

Next I reinstalled the mental ray pluigin and the service pack 2 for maya 2016

This may be obvious but is there a specific mental ray plugin sevice pack that I need to install

These are the files I found on the autodesk site

Thanks for the help

mentalray_Plugin_for_Maya_2016_EXT2_EN_JP_ZH_Win_64bit_dlm.sfxRBYSJREL.exe

mentalray_Plugin_for_Maya_2016_EXT2_SP2_EN_JP_ZH_Win_64bit.msp

mentalray_Plugin_for_Maya_2016_EN_JP_ZH_Windows_dlm_sfx_exe

Autodesk_Maya_2016_SP2_EN_JP_ZH_Win_64bit.msp

[Anonymous]

Sean,

I read your previous post again.

Can you send me a link to the mental ray plugin and the service pack. I think I may be installing the wrong downloads

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

I believe you have the right link but here it is.

What errors does the user see when he goes to render? Can you post a screenshot of the Output Window/Script Editor showing what errors are appearing when they go to render?

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Here are a couple of screenshots that I took.

Is there anything specific I should look for

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thanks for posting those screenshot!

It looks like an issue is coming from the mayabase.dll, not being found. Luckily we have an article on this!

From that article:

Maya 2016 (aka Extension 1) and Maya 2016.5 (aka Extension 2) both have separate Mental Ray plug-ins and Service Packs that are not universally applicable. To install version, navigate to Help > About Maya: 
 

After confirming the version, use this guide to locate the appropriate Mental Ray plug-in (Add-on):  Where to find Updates and Add-ons for Maya 

If the problem continues after installing the correct plug-in, the issue may be resolved by one of the following processes:

1. Clearing out Corrupted Render nodes:
   1. Open the Hypershade (Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade).
   2. Delete unused nodes (Edit > Delete Unused Nodes).
      • The Optimize Scene Size Tool can also perform this function
2. Reset Maya Preferences by following this guide: Reset Maya to Default
3. Add lights to the scene and re-render to test if this is the issue.
   • Add lights as needed, or select Lighting > Use Default Lighting in the Viewport

NOTE: Mental Ray is not bundled with Maya 2017 and later versions. For additional plugin support for these versions, please utilize NVidia's support channel.

Please let me know if this helps!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion I provided yesterday work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Sean,

I really appreciate you taking so much time on this.

I am waiting on the user to make time for me to for me to try the steps you provided.

I will let you know as soon as i am able to try the steps.

Thanks

Garrick

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

No problem! The weekends coming up so if I don't hear back from you today I'll check in with you first thing Monday!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Any changes with this?

If your issue is resolved, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Hello Sean,

I am working with the user now, he tried resetting back to defaults, wiped out the preferences, got ride of unused nodes , minimized file size etc.

I am looking over the notes you sent last time and you said that Maya has two versions, 2016 aka ext 1 and 2016.5 ext2

I am pretty sure we are using ext1

[Anonymous]

I also noticed that this computer is not running JAVA is that something mental ray would need,

If so what version should I use.

Thanks

Keith

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous 

Yes it looks like you are on extension one with SP 2 so the link provided was the right one.

As for Java I'm not sure if a specific version matters so for now you could try the most recent release.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Finally Solved

I was able to resolve this issue by

uninstalling the mental ray plugin from control panel ->Programs and features->mental ray 3d renederer (right click select uninstall)

next I restarted the computer

I then Installed JAVA version 8 version 201 64bit (this is the one of the few JAVA versions we are allowed to use in our environment)

restarted the computer

then I re downloaded and installed the mental ray plugin and service pack update

the mental ray plugin has to be installed first and it has the name

mentalray_Plugin_for_Maya_2016_EN_JP_ZH_Windows_dlm.sfx.exe

next I installed the service pack update and it has the name

mentalray_Plugin_for_Maya_2016_SP2_EN_JP_ZH_Win_64bit.msp

restarted the computer

after the restart the user tried to render and was successful.

I am not sure if it was installing JAVA that finally did it or if there was a problem with my download of the plugin or the service pack but it works now.

Thank you so much Sean I really appreciate your help and everyone else on the forum that assisted 

[sean.heasley · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

You're very welcome and awesome I'm glad its working for you!

Thanks for posting the in depth breakdown of the steps you took to resolve this as well! I went ahead and marked it as the solution for this thread!

[Anonymous]

Thats great, I have also linked to this article in my departments process documentation.

I work for a large organization and the graphics department uses a lot of Autodesk products

I noticed that Autodesk has a lot of documentation for people who use their software but is there any thing available from a support standpoint.

Im sure you understand how hard it must be for technicians who dont use the software but are required to fix it when it breaks or stops working