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Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films: it hasn't been since ~2013 (when Arnold came around). After Effects doesn't really belo

by berkut 5y ago

Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films: it hasn't been since ~2013 (when Arnold came around). After Effects doesn't really belong on this list? Gazebo is a preview renderer explicitly designed for GPU use, it's not designed for accurate lighting or material look. Manuka is not GPU accelerated (it used to be when first written, but it wasn't worth it given complexity of build setup for very little benefit, it's pure CPU now and has been for > 7 years). Until the GPU renderers can run custom shaders (rather than just the stock shaders the renderers ship with), i.e. OSL supports full GPU support, high end VFX facilities aren't really using GPU renderers that much for final lookdev and lighting. Smaller facilities which are happy using the stock shaders are though.

KennyBlanken 5y ago
> Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films You didn't say "feature films", you said "film and TV." You're goalpost-shifting / no-true-scotsman'ing. > it hasn't been since ~2013 (when Arnold came around). The Arnold I mentioned that is GPU accelerated? Or a different Arnold? Just checking. > high end VFX facilities Again with the goalpost shifting / no-true-scotsman-ing > aren't really using GPU renderers that much for final lookdev and lighting. They doing that rendering work on laptops? What is the article talking about? Server farm hardware? We're done here.
- berkut 5y ago
  I think you're confusing me for the other poster - that was the first time I've responded to you... I haven't moved any goalposts. Arnold has only been GPU accelerated for a few years - not since 2013. Same with Renderman - XPU only came out this year, and still doesn't support everything on the GPU, including custom shaders (like Arnold GPU doesn't).
- bhouston 5y ago
  > Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films Mental Ray really isn't used anywhere. It sort of died like more than a decade ago. Honestly, I used it back in 2003 in the VFX industry, but not since. You have to be mistaken here. No one uses Mental Ray that I have heard of in production in the last decade. Probably someone does, but not anyone serious. Autodesk doesn't even sell licenses of Mental Ray and I believe you will find it hard to buy them from NVIDIA as well: https://www.autodesk.com/products/mental-ray-standalone/overview https://www.autodesk.com/products/mental-ray-standalone/over... Are you thinking iRay? Still made by NVIDIA and uses GPU acceleration. The default renderer in Maya, 3DS Max is Arnold these days, others use V-Ray, RedShift, Octane, RenderMan, etc....
pixelpoet 5y ago
> Until the GPU renderers can run custom shaders (rather than just the stock shaders the renderers ship with), i.e. OSL supports full GPU support, high end VFX facilities aren't really using GPU renderers that much for final lookdev and lighting. Surprised no one has mentioned Redshift Renderer yet; GPU-based, supports out of core for both geo and textures, and OSL. Nevertheless, I agree that "nobody renders on CPU" is just patently false - one need only look at the Corona Renderer numbers to instantly disprove that.

by berkut 5y ago

KennyBlanken 5y ago

> Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films You didn't say "feature films", you said "film and TV." You're goalpost-shifting / no-true-scotsman'ing. > it hasn't been since ~2013 (when Arnold came around). The Arnold I mentioned that is GPU accelerated? Or a different Arnold? Just checking. > high end VFX facilities Again with the goalpost shifting / no-true-scotsman-ing > aren't really using GPU renderers that much for final lookdev and lighting. They doing that rendering work on laptops? What is the article talking about? Server farm hardware? We're done here.

berkut 5y ago
I think you're confusing me for the other poster - that was the first time I've responded to you... I haven't moved any goalposts. Arnold has only been GPU accelerated for a few years - not since 2013. Same with Renderman - XPU only came out this year, and still doesn't support everything on the GPU, including custom shaders (like Arnold GPU doesn't).
bhouston 5y ago
> Mental ray is no longer heavily used in the industry for feature films Mental Ray really isn't used anywhere. It sort of died like more than a decade ago. Honestly, I used it back in 2003 in the VFX industry, but not since. You have to be mistaken here. No one uses Mental Ray that I have heard of in production in the last decade. Probably someone does, but not anyone serious. Autodesk doesn't even sell licenses of Mental Ray and I believe you will find it hard to buy them from NVIDIA as well: https://www.autodesk.com/products/mental-ray-standalone/overview https://www.autodesk.com/products/mental-ray-standalone/over... Are you thinking iRay? Still made by NVIDIA and uses GPU acceleration. The default renderer in Maya, 3DS Max is Arnold these days, others use V-Ray, RedShift, Octane, RenderMan, etc....

pixelpoet 5y ago

> Until the GPU renderers can run custom shaders (rather than just the stock shaders the renderers ship with), i.e. OSL supports full GPU support, high end VFX facilities aren't really using GPU renderers that much for final lookdev and lighting. Surprised no one has mentioned Redshift Renderer yet; GPU-based, supports out of core for both geo and textures, and OSL. Nevertheless, I agree that "nobody renders on CPU" is just patently false - one need only look at the Corona Renderer numbers to instantly disprove that.