Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray, 2nd Edition

Preface

3ds Max has existed for many years with alternate plug-in renders to the default scanline renderer. These plug-in renderers—like Brazil, VRay, and mental ray—have existed for years and have been used by the 3ds Max community to some degree. But how these renders integrate with 3ds Max and the availability of training material has limited the rate of adoption of these plug-in renders.

In 1997, a connection from 3ds Max to mental ray was introduced. This was soon followed by an agreement whereby a license of mental ray was included whenever a seat of 3ds Max was purchased. Despite the fact that mental ray came at no cost to the customer, there were still many 3ds Max users who stuck with the traditional scanline render or went to other ...