Maya 2008 MentalRay Transparency Error

Deadline
1

Hello there,



I’m having problems getting a Transparency to work over deadline - please see attached images.



One is rendered from my scene, the other is the same scene sent through Deadline.



I’ve ensured that all the network path for the texture is corect, and it’s a jpeg.



What could this be? Why won’t it render correctly? Is it a problem with Maya, MentalRay or Deadline?



Thanks



Chris

2

Hi Chris,



Go to one of the machines that rendered the bad image and open a command

prompt. Then try to render the same image from the command prompt using

the same Maya Render.exe executable and command line arguments that

Deadline is using (these are printed out in the slave log). This is

essentially reproducing how Deadline renders the image, so if the

problem still occurs, then we know that the problem is either Maya or

Mental Ray specific. Give this a try and let us know the results.



Also, check the logs for the tasks that rendered bad frames. Maybe Maya

is printing out something during the render that might explain the

problem, but isn’t being caught as an error.



Cheers,

3

Thanks Ryan - I think I’ve tracked it down to a setting within Maya.

Under Window>Settings>Preferences>Prferences>Rendering>Mental Ray Preferences I need to check the “Use maya-style alpha detection for textures” box, or I get the same effect as I’m getting through deadline.



The strange thing is I ran a batch file to render the same scene and I got a different effect entirely (still incorrect) - I honestly don’t know what’s going on, but would like to know what other people are doing about this problem - I use cut-out materials a lot and would be stuck if I couldn’t use them anymore.

4

Really? Does no one use transparency in Maya and Deadline?