Has Mental Ray support for Maya 2017 come to an end?

[Anonymous]

Has NVIDIA stopped supporting Mental Ray? Back in early December I purchased a license for "mental ray - ProGPU - Local," for Maya 2017. That's the $95 dollar license for systems that have an NVIDIA pro card. I have a Quadro M5000. The license was for Mental Ray version 3.99. After the purchase I downloaded the file. I installed it and it turned out to be version 3.14. Using the Professional Application Center, I was unable to generate a license file. My account page sent me into a loop. It gave an email address for me to use if there was a problem. I've sent 3 emails describing my problem and asking for help. There has been no response from NVIDIA.

I made the purchase after NVIDIA posted a message on this forum that they were supporting Maya 2017 and the files were ready.

The NPAC shows that 3.14 is the latest version; but, my account page says that I have a license for ver. 3.99. I can't find a place to download ver. 3.99.

I went to their Mental Ray forum; but, I was unable to log in. I have sent 3 requests to change my password. Each time, I received a message that they had sent me the email from which to start the process for a new password. That was 2 or 3 days ago and I haven't received those emails.

Over the last several years, when I've seen something like this, it meant that the software company was shutting down; but, they weren't going to admit it, yet. If that's the case, I wish they wouldn't have taken my money. On the other hand, if it cost me $95 to find out why Autodesk unceremoniously dumped them, maybe it was worth it. I hope I'm wrong; so if anybody has information that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[pshwayka]

@Anonymous works for nVidia...he may be able to help you.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much. I'll do that.

[Anonymous]

Sorry you're having troubles. We/NVIDIA are of course still supporting mental, and in a big way.

Now, for your questions. First, thanks for purchasing. Your license unlocks capabilities of the free-to-use version, so you don't need to download or install any additional software if you already have NVIDIA mental ray for Maya installed. All you need to do is enable the license (which you have done) and you can start using the licensed features.

What your license version number shows is what your license is good for - meaning mental ray 3.99 and BELOW. We made the version number high in the licenses so that you'd never hit a limit as we update with new versions - which we plan to do much more frequently than in the past. We will point this out in our future documentation better.

>>I went to their Mental Ray forum; but, I was unable to log in

You do need an account there to post, as you do here on the AREA. Just reset your password there if you forgot it or open up a new account to start posting (also like here). For others reading this, our primary support location is here: https://forum.nvidia-arc.com/forumdisplay.php?215-NVIDIA-mental-ray-for-Maya.

As for the transition with Autodesk, they worked closely with us to ensure we had all the pieces necessary to continue supporting the use of mental ray going forward, which starts with 12 years of backwards compatibility and the deepest feature support within Maya. It took us a few months longer than expected to start shipping, but those growing pains are behind us and you should expect to see the mental ray solution evolve swiftly from here on out.

- Phil

[Anonymous]

I'm going to try using my "IP address" rather than my "host name."

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>>I went to their Mental Ray forum; but, I was unable to log in

You do need an account there to post, as you do here on the AREA. Just reset your password there if you forgot it or open up a new account to start posting (also like here). For others reading this, our primary support location is here: https://forum.nvidia-arc.com/forumdisplay.php?215-NVIDIA-mental-ray-for-Maya.
***************************************************


I followed the process to change my password several days ago (sent 3 requests), and never received the emails. My full paragraph reads:

"I went to their Mental Ray forum; but, I was unable to log in. I have sent 3 requests to change my password. Each time, I received a message that they had sent me the email from which to start the process for a new password. That was 2 or 3 days ago and I haven't received those emails"

I sent another request about 45 minutes ago. I have not received the email, yet. I use ATT sbcglobal and that could be causing a problem. They have a history of occasionally blocking emails and downloads from certain sites (e-on software and Humster3D, for example) without any apparent reason. I'll try to create a new account, using gmail.

I'll post my results.

[Anonymous]

Hi Russell,

I enabled your NVIDIA mental ray forum account for posting. Looks like it had gotten caught in email confirmation. Sent email to the gmail address you associated with your account if you want me to help reset a password or anything.

Bart

[Anonymous]

We may have, both, been working on it at the same time, so I'm not sure what happened. On my end, it looked like switching from "sbcglobal" to "gmail" allowed me to register for the forum and receive all of the emails that were generated during the process. The problem might be with "sbcglobal." I don't know. I'm just glad that it's working now. Thank you, Bart.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Problem solved! Using the "IP address," rather than the "Host" name allowed me to finish the licensing process. Thank you. -Russell