Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 987

Light Object Enhancements Along with the mental ray renderer, mental ray-specific area light objects and light settings are provided. Light Objects The area light on page 7909 is a feature of the mental ray renderer. Instead of a point source, it emits light from a broader area around the source. There are two basic types of mental ray area light: mr Area Omni Light on page 5070 and mr Area Spotlight on page 5073. An additional, special-purpose mental area light is the mr Sky Portal on page 5186. Area lights create soft-edged shadows. This can help improve the realism of your rendering. NOTE To render soft-edged shadows, shadows must be ray-traced, not shadow-mapped: see the Renderer panel > Shadows & Displacement Rollout on page 6292. In 3ds Max, area lights are created and supported by the MAXScript scripts, light-mentalray_areaomni.ms and light-mentalray_areaspot.ms. Both scripts are found in the \stdplugs\stdscripts\ folder within the program install directory. Because of this, when you create an area light, you actually create a target spot or omni light for which the mental ray renderer uses the parameters on the Area Light Parameters rollout. If you render with the default scanline renderer, the light behaves like any other target spot or omni light. (You can change a light from one type to another using the Type drop-down list on the light's General Parameters rollout.) For area lights rendered with the mental ray renderer, you can still set and use other lighting parameters, such as color, the Multiplier value, the spotlight cone, and so on. Shadow maps are an exception. The mental ray renderer ignores the light's local shadow map settings. Area lights always use ray-traced shadows. TIP You can use a MAXScript utility to convert standard 3ds Max light objects to area lights, as described in this procedure on page ?. Light Settings The mental ray Indirect Illumination rollout on page 5112 has been added to light objects to support the mental ray renderer's indirect illumination effects of caustics on page 6255 and global illumination on page 6261. The mental ray Light Shader rollout on page 5115 has been added so you can add mental ray light shaders to light objects. 6242 | Chapter 20 Rendering