Softimage 2012 announced

[Maximus]

dont think mr 3.9 is integrated at all, just that Unified Sampling feature.
And regarding iRay, sayin is useless is kinda unprofessional..
Just think with a gt460 gfx card wich cost 90bucks you can have cpu+gpu rendering for insane quality for product/archviz, its a feature of the render engine wich is totally incredible its not implemented, even Cinema4D has it, Catia.

kinda not surprised by the fact the render section is almost untouched, lets wait for 2015.

cool stuff ICE modeling tho.
what i like is UV changes and vector displacement, still have to discover the rest further, good job on ICE i guess.

[Rez007]

dont think mr 3.9 is integrated at all, just that Unified Sampling feature.

That makes sense, and you are right - iRay would have been nice as well.

[Nizar]

Beast feature:
" New 'Stop' icon in the Play Control " We all demand a new icon (ok, I actually don't animate nothing, but think it can be useful)
If we excluded new ICE modelling feature (impressive, it seems more userfriendly then Houdini), the other upgrading don't worthy a major release.

What they mean for :
"Mental Ray 3.9

* Unified Sampling is an alternative method for aliasing"
It is only a single feature from MR 3.9?

Hey, no new dark theme in SI 2012...

[origin]

dont think mr 3.9 is integrated at all, just that Unified Sampling feature.
And regarding iRay, sayin is useless is kinda unprofessional..
Just think with a gt460 gfx card wich cost 90bucks you can have cpu+gpu rendering for insane quality for product/archviz, its a feature of the render engine wich is totally incredible its not implemented, even Cinema4D has it, Catia.

Yes, in current state its useless. Not to mention hardware limitations, unless you can afford Tesla with loads of GB RAM.
You should stop waiting for something that will never come (mray, a modern renderer) and look for alternatives (arnold, vray beta).
mentalimages is wasting time (from my point of view) for crap features like mentalmill/realisty server and for example, for 2 years they cannot finish Irradiance particles. I won't be suprised if this Unified (adaptative sampling) is half finished.

Of course, this is only my opinion. This is internet so everyone is wrong

[Magog]

kinda not surprised by the fact the render section is almost untouched, lets wait for 2015.

The road Softimage has already been decided a long time.. IMHO.

[Mathaeus]

dont think mr 3.9 is integrated at all, just that Unified Sampling feature.
And regarding iRay, sayin is useless is kinda unprofessional..
Just think with a gt460 gfx card wich cost 90bucks you can have cpu+gpu rendering for insane quality for product/archviz, its a feature of the render engine wich is totally incredible its not implemented, even Cinema4D has it, Catia.

From 'no-choice' point of view, it looks like... From perspective of 3d studio Max users... I sow a few guys playing with iRay, and that's all. Professional or not, you'll be in trouble if someone asks for fly-through, because it's can't utilize just nothing in between rendered frames... For me personally, it still has a 'something-slightly-wrong-in-mid-tones' so typical for Mental Ray images.

People already have Vray setups, tons of Vray scenes, work flows, tutorials, setup software, small render farms (one Vray licence is for 10 machines, at least for Max).. Actually all that Mental Ray/iRay what not, it's some kind of outsider, beginner story. They became to Max a few years after Vray, they released a unique material with interpolated reflection, energy conservation and another stuff... a five (5) years after vRay material, they never had a comparable radiosity. Average Max user probably don't even know basic stuff about MR, some of us with XSI experience have a *very* bad memories....
I'll never forget, first what I saw on XSIBase, was a long, 'hot' discussion between two 'XSI base masters', about AA settings, no winners... Well, when gurus can't make agreement about so basic stuff... what beginner can think about all that
And after all, it's about confidence too. For now, even Mray/iRay has something outstanding (don't believe..), that 'outstanding' should be consistently alive at least for two or three years (impossible...). *Then*, people may start to thinking of...

BTW, those who don't need that much animation, but still good radiosity images.. these days, Lightwave has a really great, integrated radiosity, unlimited render nodes, all that for a good price.

Anyway, for me, 'vector displacement' feature is a top bad joke

[eternal art]

I'm not sure but as i know (Unified Sampling) is another name for (Restrizer) .
but don't take my word .

[gustavoeb]

I guess people that work at SI know they can't expect much from MR, that is why we porbably have seen lots of updates in the SDK. So other companys can deliver what mental images just can't, despite the gazilions of dollars they might be getting with every maya, max, si license.

[Maximus]

check here if you want some info about unified sampling:

http://forum.mentalimages.com/showthread.php?t=7780

i'm so deeply frustrated on how Mental Ray is handled..i need to find something else really quick..this is really became absurd.

[SreckoM]

@Max

I saw that you mostly doing interior or exterior renderings? Right?
Why do not you try Vray?

[Maximus]

@SreckoM because Vray is failing bad, its been 5 years in development? still no news, i was in beta and they were pretty slow to develop and fix stuff (obviously because of the small userbase, not blaming CGroup).
Dunno how further they went, but when i was in beta everything was a crash right after another, displacement -> crash, environment image -> crash, render region -> crash and so on.

Its not ready at all, otherwise we would hear more about it, and i'm guessing they are having some issue with softimage sdk? no idea.

I like mental ray, i like the quality and i've spent lots of time on it, what i dont like is the complete missing of features since a lot of time wich are game changers, especially importons + fg + ibl + progressive mode + iRay.

Even at mental images forum you can read how people got shocked on how MR is implemented by Autodesk in their 3d packages.
I think this needs some serious work. But i'm telling it since 2 years and we got nothing.
Sadly i'm softimage user wich means suck it up when it comes to render stuff.

[origin]

vray beta is going good...one big flaw it's exporting every time you render, and there will be no scene/texture caching in v1.0. Still few things not implemented mainly ICE area.
The MR features you listed, how long they are in development? ages and still unfinished? importons sucks, iray sucks, fg sucks, brute force gi sucks, progressive mode sucks, iray sucks even more, antialiasing sucks, area lights sucks, motion blur sucks!!!, depth of field sucks. this is one big dead renderer, stone age thing included in modern package (softimage, not max or maya)

[Rez007]

I thought for sure an overhaul to Mental Ray would have been the main feature in 2012, because that is the only thing that people have been complaing about forever...I guess I was wrong. In hindsight, it only took 6 years to get IES lights (which the lighting system still doesn't work properly), still no unit-of-measure option, they opened up the modeling aspect - which seems to mean no out-of-box shell/thickness or proper extrude along normals...instead it seems like they want the community to make those. It would have been nice if they at least added those into the the release.

I am definitely not ranting, eventhough it seems like it, I do like the 2012 features, but some things are consistantly overlooked. I don't like when basic things are left to the general users to make. It leads to many different versions, and instability issues because poeple just want to be the first to release.

[Nizar]

Agree with Reez and Max, but I think they would push SI in a "Houdini style" direction, in this way SI don't make problems with MAx and Maya fields.
So, no one users feature request, IMO, will be done by Autodesk

[ShaderOp]

Agree with Reez and Max, but I think they would push SI in a "Houdini style" direction, in this way SI don't make problems with MAx and Maya fields.
So, no one users feature request, IMO, will be done by Autodesk

And another conspiracy theory is born

[Nizar]

Yes, I cannot live without

IMO is a sensate commercial choice: Before acquisition SI was aimed to dethrone Maya, but now AD don't have any interest in this. The better solution is cannibalize Houdini userbase (AD cannot buy Houdini).