Mental Ray Problem

[09beasleya]

Hi, im working in 3ds Max, but i hope someone can help. I changed from Default scanline renderer, no the Mental Ray renderer, but when i render my images, the shadows in my scene are very messed up and scattered. The whole scene has defects in it when i render.

[Jak_Carver]

can you provide a bit more info, for example, what lights are you using and what are your render settings?

It looks like your using depth map shadows and their settings arent proper. Try using raytrace intead.

In fact, switch to MR area lights and use some area shadows; they work much better and are still pretty fast if you work them right. If you insist on working with dmaps, increase their resolution to like 2048 or higher. The higher you go the longer the render, so might as well use area lights since they look better, are more physically accurate and require less tweaking.

What version of Max are you using? Let me know if you have any more trouble in Max, thats my program.

[09beasleya]

Hey Jak, thanks for the reply. For the image i posted the first time i was just using an Omni light to light most of my scene, but there are also a couple Target Spot lights to light up some other areas. I was using the Default "Shadow Map" for both of those lights.
I tried using the settings you suggested. I used an MR Area Omni (in place of the original omni) and used the Area Shadow map, and the image was still fairly distorted, so i tried using Ray Traced Shadows and the image cleared up a little bit, but the shadows were still not smooth.
Im using 3ds Max 7.
I posted the image i rendered wih the MR Area Omni with Ray Traced Shadows.

[Jak_Carver]

I would like to examine your scene for you, however I only have access to Max 8 and 9. I dont think I can open the scene in 8 and you would be able to open it in 7, dont think it will work though it might. I know for a fact it wont work from 7 to 9.

If you want you can send me the scene thats giving you problems and I can trouble shoot it for you when I get some free time. I can send the scene back in version 8 and give you some pointers as to what was wrong with your light rig so even if you cant open the scene, you can still go into your version 7 and fix it.

[09beasleya]

How should i send the file? The e-mail from your profile says its set to not let me send you e-mails or something..lol. Also, your private message "mailbox" is full O_o lol.

[Jak_Carver]

The email I sent u in a PM will work, just send it there, its a yahoo email and has nothing to do with the DT forums.