Thanks Ted for the recommendation. However, does this book work with Viz 2007 or is it only for Max--perhaps Viz 2008?

>>does this book work with Viz 2007 or is it only for Max--perhaps Viz 2008<<

Hi M,

It's written for Max 9 therefore using MR 3.4, but many of the processes and concepts would be the same in VIZ 2007's (I'm quite sure, haven't actually used VIZ in a while) version of Mental Ray.

I would suspect VIZ 2008 has MR 3.4, but you should check with someone more authoritative. :)

Good luck
Ted

Thanks for the Reply, Ted.

The reason I asked is because I tried a tutorial on LIGHTING (MR and 3DS MAX) some time back. It involved using under MODIFY the options, MR SKY and MR SUN. These options were not available in VIZ 2K7. Lucky for me only 30 mins of my time was wasted before I found out I couldn't procede with the tutorial... ;)

>>MR SKY and MR SUN.<<

There are some new Physical Sky options in Max 9 MR that you wouldn't have in VIZ2007 and I'm not sure how deeply it's investigated in this book.

You'd probably be better off waiting until the VIZ is shipping with a comparable version of MR. Don't forget that VIZ2007 won't open Max 9 files, so the samples would be of no use even if the process was the same.

In my estimation, MR is something to use when you've exhausted the scanline renderer, too. MR isn't a fix for fundamental lighting problems and is much too slow for general use.

Good luck
Ted

Thanks for the Reply, Ted.

The reason I asked is because I tried a tutorial on LIGHTING (MR and 3DS MAX) some time back. It involved using under MODIFY the options, MR SKY and MR SUN. These options were not available in VIZ 2K7. Lucky for me only 30 mins of my time was wasted before I found out I couldn't procede with the tutorial... ;)