I tried that too - it's the same result.
It shouldn't be anything different anyway...
Benny

Theres a quite a few tutorial on doing it, google them.
I use the methond from maya the complete reference, works like a charm

Nvm... probably just my computer...
It won't accept ping and ipconfig commands as well, giving the same error...
I think I'll need to reinstall windows...
Thanks anyway,
Benny

i love these errors don't you?

you get this because 'render' is not a command you can use (on anyones computer, not just yours)

to be able to use this command you need to add stuff to your class path.

I assume you're still using XP (works the same with vista anyway)

Go
Control Panel > System > Avanced tab > Enironment Variables (button)

A new dialog appears with two box things (i forget what they are called)
One should be called "System variables"

Scroll down until you see the variable "Path", double click and add
to it.
Well... add the address of the bin folder of your maya directory and type semicolon ; after it

and you will be able to use the command "render" from any location, because in that bin folder is the render.exe


Maya adds itself to the classpath when it installs so i have no idea why it's not there for you.....



if that fails then you can't use the exe files in the bin folder from the command line :p

Hey Benny any luck with that command render at all?

Thanks a lot Chirone... it finally makes sense...
@ Genny - I'll try it now ( :zzz: )
here's a render I left overnight:
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7214/tempwd9.th.jpghttp://img291.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

I liked the first one better... there's something crazy going on with the reflection of the murky figures...

Benny

No... still no luck...
I looked into Path and it was already there. the files themselves (Render.exe, ping.exe etc) exist but It won't use them for some reason...
Benny

try opening the comand prompt in the bin folder (or if you dont have that ability just type in the command prompt cd <adress-of-bin-folder>) and see if you can use the 'render' command



if you don't want to type in the entire adress just highlight the adress in the folder, copy that and right click in the command prompt and click paste

I tried that as well... No luck...
I really need to reinstall windows...

:attn: :attn: :attn:
Managed to run a Mental Ray render with Maya closed:
' "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya8.5\bin\Render.exe" -r mr D:\Benny's\Maya\Projects\Chess\Figures5.mb '

I tried this before without the quotes... my brother told me today that I should put the .exe address in quotes and it worked :attn:
Now I just need to wait and see what comes out :)

Here's an update:
http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/3360/tempwv3.jpg
Improved the murky glass...
I'll improve the lighting and do another test render.
This time no background...

Edit: this time the render works fine, though I had to look for the output file for a pretty long time. Found it under 'My Documents\maya\projects\images\...'
also found other cool forgotten stuff... ( see first post thread in members lounge)

Benny

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang:
I found out why my cmd commands weren't working:
this is what was in 'Path'
I have no idea why it was written that way. maybe some stupid program added itself to Path and f***ed it up in the process?

I didn't notice it before because I've never seen how it should look. Though something was a bit funny about it.
A quick search in Google and I found out how it should look.

Funny thing - I was trying to learn some c and Visual Studio told me "can't spawn cmd" as an error. Problem is the 'cmd' command was giving the same error as 'render'...

Benny

interesting.... wonder where all the ; went....

you should be able to just type
render -r mr Figures5.mb
in the command prompt provided you have the cmd open at the
D:\Benny's\Maya\Projects\Chess\
location

if you find the powertoy for xp to open the cmd from any folder then that would make it easier for you since you just have to type that line instead of typing out the whole adress (ok, you'd only do that once but if you accidentally close the cmd then you have to do it again)

Nah, now that it's all running properly it's not a problem at all...

Update:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6268/tempyx5.png
*Changed the intensities of the lights
*Increased light radius from 0.3 to 7 (Mental Ray != Maya Software...)
*Got a new sky pic for the sky dome - I like this one a lot. Nice reflections on the marble and you can really see the Fresnel effect in this one.
perhaps I need to lower the intensity though.

- Even after installing Maya with sp1 I can't load a file onto the 'out color' of a surface shader without invoking a fatal error... sky dome is therefore a lambert.
does someone have a better idea for it?
Benny

EDIT:
I'll start another final and go to :zzz: soon...

Dude that's a really lame error lol did you google that? I'd find that very hard to live with.

I don't :D
Perhaps I would have if I ever used it... As I barely know what it does that doesn't bother me as much as receiving fatal errors with no obvious reason and having to open the scene and Maya over again.

Didn't find (Google) anything useful about that.
perhaps I'll check that error later....
Good night
Benny