maya and mental ray (public beta?)
 

hi all,

a|w announced the release of mental ray for maya 1.5 as a downloadable public beta. does anyone here know if this will be fully functional?

and if there's already a pricing/timing for the final version?

I'm asking because I'm considering to finally get maya as an additional package (right now I'm on LightWave).

another thing is this strange "annual maintenance fee" concept; did you really all pay for that? what happens if I don't? :D

oh and knowing that mental ray is a killer renderer, I still would appreciate some links to mr renders, especially GI wise...

thanx all, and prepare for some real dumb questions from here
:p

I havnt heard nothing about the 1.5 as a downloadable beta..Im looking into it now as it would be great !!

Great to see your thinking of the maya switch - although your work in lightwave is awesome!

btw phillip..hows your little baby, I see your picture, little buet!

anyways, Ill post more info on the renderer as I find it.

hey kev, have a look here: http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/pro...entalray.shtml

and just to set things straight: this won't be a "switch", just adding to my toolbox :D it can't hurt to know as many apps as possible, and since I'm feeling pretty secure in LW by now, it's time for a new challenge.

oh and access to mental ray and PRman (when I can afford it) is just the holy grail, renderingwise.

there's alot studios out there working with LW and maya, hence the beaver project, these 2 apps can really be a great addition to each other.

and my daughter is fine, thx. isn't she the most beautiful you ever seen? ;)

some news:

I just called a|w; the public beta will be released within the next 4 weeks, it will be fully functional but once the final is released (estimated end of teh year) you will have to buy it in order to further use it.

I'll get a recall tomorrow with probably some more information about a cooperation between a|w and mental images.

I'll keep you updated.

thx philip! good info

sounds very nice.... will see what we can render wit MR

yeah, sounds real cool so far, just imagine a|w implementing mental ray in maya like it is in XSI... *drool*

so XSI allready has Mental Ray implemented ??

yes, at least the XSI advanced, not sure about XSI essentials though

hmmm.. a couple fo weeks ago I got a couple of cd from Softimage..on the website you can get somekind of evalution version of XSI, just like the PLE of MAYA.

Will install it and see what it can do

yeah, the the experience cd. I got that one too, the difference between this and PLE is you can't save but don't get blinded by the so-called "watermarks". the videos on cd #2 look very impressive.

to be honest they are still sealed. I have not yet opend them, but you say that cd 2 is all cinematics ?

yes =)

maybe it is time to open them and see what Softimage has in store for me

argh, I wasn't here when they called... so I'll check again tomorrow if this is really true... here's what I have been told about the call: the price of mental ray for maya will be 6,500 euros (yes, 6.5k)... ouch, this is double the price of the current mental ray licenses. I really hope they only have mistaken the currencies