Microsoft KB Archive/176598

INFO: Rendering with Soft -R Options

PSS ID Number: Q176598 Article last modified on 11-13-1997

IRIX:3.51,3.7; WINNT:3.51,3.7

IRIX winnt

================================================================ ==

The information in this article applies to:

 Softimage 3D for IRIX, versions 3.51, 3.7 == Softimage 3D for Windows NT, versions 3.51, 3.7 == 

= SUMMARY =

The main difference between mental ray rendering with soft -R and rendering with ray.irix5/ray.exe and an mi file on disk is memory usage. With soft -R, the scene is loaded into memory once for the soft executable then piped to and loaded into memory a second time for the ray executable.

You can place several repetitions of the soft -R command with the -j option, so if the rendering stops prematurely, the next line instructs the rendering to resume where the last command stopped. (The -j option instructs soft -R to skip over images already rendered or partially rendered in the directory).

You can also use soft -R with the -m or -M commands. The -m option instructs soft -R to render to an mi file (even if rendering to an mi file is not specified in the scene). The -M option is the same, but with one mi file per frame.

So with the -m or -M option, a batch-rendering script instructs soft -R to load the scene, render an mi file for one or a sequence of frames, invoke the ray executable for those mi files, remove the mi files from disk, and repeat this for more frames or more scenes.

You can also use soft -R -m with the -P option to specify a post-frame script so that for each frame the post-frame script invokes the ray executable on the mi file that was just rendered, and then remove it from the disk. The additional advantage with this is that the scene is only loaded into soft - R once (and soft -R only checks your databases once).

For the ultimate batch-rendering script, use the -m -j and -P flags all together.

To see a complete list of options, enter the command: soft -R

= REFERENCES =

Query the Knowledge Base for related articles by using ‘rendering’ or ‘mental ray’ as your search phrase.

If you have any questions concerning the information contained in this article, contact support@softimage.com by e-mail.

= Additional query words: si si3d si3dren si3dmr =

Keywords : si si3d si3dmr si3dren Version : IRIX:3.51,3.7; WINNT:3.51,3.7 Platform : IRIX winnt Issue type : kbinfo ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1997.