hi guys, just a couple of questions

[winsrp]

Well, hi... im winsrp, currently new to this forum, first post an all, so, im glad to be here.

I just saw all your tutorial, and they are quite cool since they are videos an all, but sound in some cases it really low, and sometimes quality its not the best, i liked the casttle ones, those have great quality and audio...

Any way, i have been using max since... well, since 1.0, and currently im using 7 (out of financial resources to get 9), anyway, im just a casual modeler and currently im just doing some 3d works to get some extra cash (since im not in the artistic carrer, im a computer engineer). well every 6 months or so i get max and so some refresh about mi knoladge, and had been using mental ray for quite some time know, but i had some questions about general aspects of it.

questions:

1. How do you get caustic to work on first atempt... i normaly get the error that the photon emision got canceled due to +1.000.000 photons, and i just play with material until it works, but i would really know whats going on there.

2. how do you get to use the Glass shader from mental ray with caustics (have been trying for quite some time, but always get the error from question 1)

3. how do you do a good high quality looking grass.... but not on and 1mx1m scale, but on a 100mx100 scale... small pieces of terrain are easy to have great resoult with them, but when you do it at great scale, ill need a deepblue server to render that thing, so, anyone has some ideas, maps just dont seem to give that realistic look from far away. I was thinking on a volume map like the one on v-ray, but i can think of anything like it for mentay ray, except for a really ugly displacemente there.

4. Any one has a really good site for a Nurbs tutorial, i just havent been there and i would like to try it out, and from your experience is it better than normal poly, mesh, modeling?

5. how did you do to put the background image on the viewport? i knew how to do it, but i just dont remember...

6. can you use the snaps like perpendicular when you make cut to a poly? havent been able to.

7. from your experience, when using mental ray, is it better to like big scenes whith skylight and a couple of m.light here and there, or to use a daylight system, pros and cons?

Well i guess thats it for now, ill put some of my work later on, most of it are just materials, lights, and shadows tests.

thanks guys, cya

[CU441ES]

1. Use the tutorial on it
2. ^^ as above
3.http://www.jeffpatton.net/MR_Grass_Displacement.htm
4.http://hammerbchen.blogspot.com/
5.alt + b
6. right click on the snaps button (angle thing with a 3 next to it)
7. dont know never tried

hope it helps bye!

[Jelmer]

well as cu441es answered most of your questions i'll try 7 , for exterior lighting you usually need only 2 lights, a sun and a skylight, if the weather is overcast/cloudy you basically only need the skylight.
If you use multiple spotlights for example that would only make the results more unrealistic.
The daylight system can be usefull, but i've only been using it in the max 9 trial version because it's much improved and works together with the new mr_physical_sky shader, so in max 7 i would just do it manually, add a spotlight or sun for the sunlight, and then a skylight for... skylight, remember, even when the sun is quite bright you still need a skylight to illuminate the darker parts of your scene (shadows), just use a low multiplier so things don't look blown out.