How does the mental ray work in Maya?

Controls the number of light samples at an intersection point, when a ray hits an object, and the material is processed. When actively enabled, the default for new scenes, mental ray uses light importance sampling (LIS) to sample the lights. This disregards the explicit samples settings in each area light in favor of more sweeping scene control.

How to render an exterior scene in mental ray?

Open the exterior scene you want to render in Mental Ray but be sure to make it the more simple that you can. For this first step we need something very light, a heavy scene can drammatically increase your working time…keep the details for the final renders!

How does mental ray use light importance sampling?

When actively enabled, the default for new scenes, mental ray uses light importance sampling (LIS) to sample the lights. This disregards the explicit samples settings in each area light in favor of more sweeping scene control.

Which is the best tone Mapper for Mental Ray?

Tone mappers are essentials in exterior render tecniques because exterior scenes have a lot of unbalanced lights (tons of highlights and deep blacks), Mental Ray’s tonemappers are our best friends to balance and tweak our rendered images. Be sure to spend some time in tweaking mia_exposure_simple, this will enhance your exterior renders a lot.

Which is better Mitchell or Lanczos in Maya?

Mitchell and Lanczos are alternatives to Gauss that tend to sharpen the final computed pixels. Mitchell sharpens less than Lanczos, but both may create detail where it may not exist, so use with care.

When to use indirect diffuse mode in Maya?

When an indirect diffuse mode is used, this affects the trace depth at which indirect diffuse sampling continues to be used. Note that a value of 0 currently means that the first indirect diffuse samples are taken, but then no others, when an indirect diffuse mode is enabled. The count starts after the first diffuse interaction, not at the eye.