2011-03-03

Issue in mia_envblur in 3ds Max

An issue has been found in the "mia_envblur" shader as it is integrated into 3ds Max. (Read more about mia_envblur here)



Autodesk has added a Phenomenon wrapping the shader, and it was just discovered there is a typo in the Phenomenon declaration, that causes one of the parameters to not actually function. The blur still works - but only with a fixed level. The checkbox for inheriting the blur from the Arch&Design material is non-functional!

You can easily fix this yourself by opening a file named "architectural_max.mi" which in the path: <3dsmax>\mentalimages\shaders_standard\mentalray\include.

Opening the file you can search for a line which reads like this:

"mia_material_blur" = interface "not m.mia_material_blur",

Edit this line to read:

"mia_material_blur" = interface "m.mia_material_blur",

...i.e. removing the "not ".

Now, all parameters of your environment blur (including inheriting blur from the Arch&Design material) should work!

Also, some people report issues with flickering in the reflections. This can be caused by two things:
  • Too low resolution in the Envblur shader. The "resolution" value need to be high enough to resolve details in the original environment map.
  • Intermittent interaction with the "blur" feature in 3ds max "Bitmap" shader. Turn down the blur in the Bitmap shader (in the "Coordinates" rollout) to lowest possible, which should resolve the problem.


/Z

9 comments:

mikeowen said...

Cheers Zap. Rapid response!
Mike

Orni said...

Hello!
How did you make the blurry self reflection on the teapot with envblur? My renders only blur the environment, objects not included...

photons said...

hello ZAP~
there are a lot of talk about the use of miLable attribute in maya, and there is a tutorial too.. but its quite confusing ... how to render it with maya 2009 and above pass system.. and also how to extract it.. is there another way to get the same result .. all confusing... if can do write a post on it..
~ ankit

Jonas said...

Tjena Zap!

Jonas Törnros heter jag, jobbar med MR och Max på Animech.com i Stockholm. Jag har en fråga över en sak. Tar den på engelska så alla kan hänga med.

Sorry for the off-topic here:
Why is there a problem to convert Jerry Ylilammis BerconMaps to MR?
I read a post from way back when regarding this. Here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-599519.html
Can you pleas elaborate on this?

Thank you very much.

Unknown said...

Does this apply to 3dsmax 2010? I don't see that line in "architectural_max" in the 2010 version.

thanks,

Brenticus

Unknown said...

@ Orni, see Zap's fxphd class, he covers a lot of this in greater depth.

Stenio Rodrigo said...

Is there this option in 3ds max 2009?

friks said...

Zap, please give a hand in this...

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=6&t=997548

do you know something better than round corners for this case?

thanksss

liumiao said...

Hi zap. I am one of the mentalray user. Currently I am having some troubles of my vehicle rendering.
Here is my images.

http://www.cg-cars.com/showthread.php/6481-Rendering-Help?p=130005#post130005

Could help me of those ugly edges? What should I do. Thanks a lot.