Mental ray Handbooks vol.1

This book, written by the mental ray software project leader, gives a general introduction into rendering with mental ray, as well as step-by-step recipes for creating advanced effects, and tips and tricks for professional users. A comprehensive definition of mental rays scene description language and the standard shader libraries is included and used as the basis for all examples.

The mental ray series of handbooks is conceived to provide concise and up to date general and technical information about the commercially available rendering software mental ray. The series addresses the needs of professional. and non-professional users of the software as well as of software developers who intend to integrate the stand-alone version of mental ray or the mental ray comportment software into applications that require interactive photo realistic and high image quality programmable rendering. In addition, the series provides comprehensive information to students and researchers in computer graphics. mental ray is a valuable tool for teaching and demonstrating the fundamental concepts of photo realistic and programmable rendering as well as a benchmark and catalyst for further research.

The rendering software mental ray and many of its unique underlying concepts are the result of ongoing research and development at the company mental images since its incorporation in 1986. Leading vendors of 3D digital content creation and 3D CAD and product design software have made mental ray their rendering software of choice for all purposes of high end visualization and image synthesis ranging from digital special effects and 3D animation for motion picture, video film, and games production to 3D mechanical and architectural CAD and to industrial product design and automotive styling.

The first three volumes of the series are written by staff members of the R&D team at mental images. Forthcoming volumes will be written by users and researchers and will focus on advanced topics such as the use of mental ray Phenomena for achieving any imaginable or physically correct visual effect.

The development of mental ray was funded in part by the European Commission in ESPRIT projects 6173 (DESIRE) and 22.765 (DESIRE II). The publication of this series facilitates the dissemination of widely accessible information about the resulting software in a timely manner and in more technical detail than it could be achieved otherwise.

It is a great pleasure for me to thank Rudolf Siegle, Director of Springer-Verlag Wien/New York, and Silvia Schilgerius, Planning Department Manager, for their interest in the project and for their willingness to publish the series at Springer-Verlag Wien/New York as part of its distinguished publication program, in computer graphics.

Organization of this Book

This book contains a general and comprehensive introduction to rendering with mental ray@, based on a complete definition of its input scene format. It is intended for beginners to learn about rendering techniques supported by mental ray, as well as for advanced users who need information on how to achieve certain effects with mental ray while maintaining maximum performance. It can also be read as an introductory course into computer graphics, with an emphasis on rendering and its underlying concepts.

• Chapter 1 - contains the general introduction.
• Chapter 2 - lists all features of mental ray, and explains the terms used. This chapter is organized by feature.
• Chapters 3-19 - are a cookbook-style collection of examples for using rendering techniques in an optimal way, and give hints for how to select and apply mental rays features. These chapters are organized by technique.
• Chapter 20 - lists common problems and their solutions.
• Glossary - is a glossary of terms.
• Appendix A - lists the command-line options of mental ray.
• Appendix B - contains scene data samples too long for inclusion in the main text.
• Appendix C, D, E - contain descriptions of shaders in the standard shader libraries.