Renderer's translator for Maya

3Delight for Maya(v10.0.4)

 Rendering Features

• Two Render Modes

Both direct rendering in Maya (including rendering into Maya's render view) and RIB export are supported. Direct rendering is useful in normal lighting and rendering work while RIB export can be used for render farm rendering. RIBs exported by 3Delight For Maya are optimized for size and can be written in compressed binary form.

• HyperShade and RenderMan Shaders Support

Both RenderMan shaders and Maya's HyperShade nodes can be assigned to objects. HyperShade nodes are automatically converted into human-readable SL code and compiled for rendering. New HyperShade nodes can easily be added by providing 3Delight For Maya with their SL code.

• Motion Blur and Depth of Field

Multi-Segment motion blur and realistic camera shutter simulation contribute to high quality rendered images. Compared to other rendering software, motion blur in 3Delight For Maya is fast. Depth of field is fully supported and simulates a realistic camera bokeh.

• High Quality Anti-Aliasing

Edge anti-aliasing, motion blur and depth of field quality are all controlled using very simple and predictable controls. "Pixel Samples", "Pixel Filter" and "Filter Width" are the most common parameters one needs to know. Contrary to other rendering packages, such as ray tracers, increasing pixel samples for higher quality anti-aliasing does not affect performance significantly.

• Geometric Displacements

Displacements are efficiently rendered to sub-pixel accuracy. Hypershade displacement shaders as well as RenderMan shaders can be assigned to geometry.

• Shadows

Both ray tracing and shadow maps can be used to render shadows. Shadow maps can be rendered in "deep" mode for realistic shadows in hair and fur. Additionally, 3Delight For Maya can automatically generate "cube shadow maps" for point lights. Contrary to other rendering packages, cube shadow maps are not stored as six separate shadow maps but in one special shadow map.

• Ray Tracing

Reflections and refractions are accurately rendered.

• Global Illumination

Point-based (smooth) global illumination, photon maps, caustics, final gathering and image based lighting are supported.

• Subsurface Scattering

Automatic subsurface scattering can be enabled on a per-object basis and delivers impressive results, fast.

Workflow

3Delight For Maya offers a multi-pass rendering workflow that is suitable for production work. "Render Passes" can be used to render different components of a scene (as in "Render Layers" or to render different lighting characteristics of a scene (such as diffuse, specular or ambient occlusion). In short, a render pass can define the following parameters (please refer to the User's Manual for a thorough description):

1. Camera and quality options
2. Render mode. Either direct render or RIB export.
3. Objects to render. Maya sets can be used to define groups of objects to render in a given pass. The default is to render all objects in the scene.
4. Light sources to render. Maya sets can be used to define the light sources that are used. The default is to use all light sources.
5. Clipping planes to use. A 3Delight For Maya clipping plane can cut space in any desired direction to clip away geometry. Clipping is performed at sub-pixel accuracy and can be used, for example, to cut an object in two.

Additionally, a given render pass can use a certain "shader collection." This means that objects can have different shaders assigned to them, depending on the pass being rendered. The User's Manual provides more information about this unique feature. Note that one could simply use one render pass for the more traditional one layer rendering.

Supported Geometry

• Maya Hair and Paint Effects

Rendered using 3Delight's efficient `RiNuCurves' primitive.

• Polygons

All types of polygons, including those with holes, are supported. Additionally, polygonal geometry can be tagged as a subdivision surface and rendered as such.

• NURBS (Maya surfaces)

All NURB surfaces are supported. Trim curves on surfaces are also fully supported and rendered to sub-pixel accuracy. All surfaces are rendered smooth.

• Hierarchical Subdivision Surfaces

Fully supported, including both creasing and partial creasing on edges and vertices as well as per-level UV sets. As always, all hierarchical subdivisions are rendered smooth and to sub-pixel accuracy.

• Particles 

"Point", "blobby", "sphere" and "patch" particles are supported. "Point" particles are rendered using 3Delight's efficient lightweight particle primitive.

• Curves

Maya curves can be tagged as renderable on a per object basis and rendered using 3Delight's RiNuCurves primitive.

Additionally, UV sets, texture reference objects and normals (if any) are correctly assigned to all primitives.

Configurability and Flexibility

As with all serious production tools, 3Delight For Maya has been designed with flexibility in mind. In fact, no other rendering plug-in on the market achieves the same balance between integration and configurability.

1. We implemented most of the RenderMan interface in MEL, which means that you can call RenderMan commands in your MEL scripts. Other packages mainly provide "RIB boxing" capability.
2. 3Delight For Maya was written mostly using the MEL RenderMan interface which means that one can modify it at will. Only core functionalities have been programmed in C++ for performance reasons. 

Import and Export

• Output Formats

3Delight For Maya can save rendered images in many file formats, including: TIFF, IFF, OpenEXR, cineon, bmp, sgi, softimage and PSD.

• Input Formats

Maya's textures used in HyperShade shaders are automatically converted to 3Delight ".tdl" textures. When using RenderMan shaders, 3Delight's texture converter (tdlmake) can be used to convert the most common images formats to ".tdl" textures.

• HDR Images

tdlmake can convert high dynamic range probes (both normal and "twofish" probes) images into environment maps suitable for image based lighting.

 

Renderman for Maya Pro

RIB In/Out - Supports importing and exporting 3D data called, RIB

RIB Archives - For efficient rendering & referencing geometry
RIF Filters - Filtering 3D data can be a powerful production technique
RiProcedural Plug ins - Create procedural geometry, feathers,and custom shaders, with custom DSOs and DSO Shade Ops     
RI for MEL - For inserting RIB directly into the Maya scene using MEL
RIB Boxes - To attach RIB directly to objects using special Maya Materials
RSL Nodes in Hypershade - Use RSL to author custom Maya Materials
64 Bit Linux Support - Native 64 bit support for Linux

 

New in RMS3.0

 

NEW FEATURES

 

 

1. Relighting - GUI for interactive, final render-quality relighting of your Maya scene. (RFM Pro Only, RenderMan Pro Server Required.)
2. Maya Fluids - Maya Fluid are now supported with full support for motion blur and the ability to produce depth maps, for Deep Shadows, etc.
3. RenderMan Controls - A new, consolidated user interface provides intuitive, one-window access to the RfM's basic settings and operations.
4. Co-Shader Support - RFM now supports tightly bound light/co-shader combiniations.
5. Slim Scripting - MTOR-style Slim scripting is now supported from RFM, via slimcmd and slimmsg.
6. TCL - RFM now supports Slim-side Tcl expressions (e.g. mattr, etc.)

ENHANCEMENTS

1. Render Layers - The pass mechanisms for both implicit and explicit passes has been improved for Maya Render Layer's.
2. The RIB Inspector - A new RIB inspector provides quick access to your render data.
3. Better Intergration with Slim - RFM's integration with Slim has been improved:
   1. Slim sessions now "travel" with Maya scene files.
   2. Bind Slim shaders to Maya nodes without the use of Maya ShadingGroup Nodes.
   3. Hierarchical binding via the Maya DAG is now supported. A new binding strength attribute allows you to override lower-level bindings at higher DAG levels.
   4. Slim can now initiate preview renders in Maya.
   5. Slim networks can now generally imply extra rendering passes.
   6. Full support for Slim-side Ensemble Adaptors.
4. And more ... 

JOB DISTRIBUTION

            Pixar's Tractor - RFM provides no-hassle job distribution with Tractor, Pixar's new and improved work dispatching system ... one Tractor license is included with every seat of RenderMan Studio.

SLIM 9.0

1. Factory Templates - Complete upgrades to out-of-box templates, providing production-ready shading while leveraging the new capabilities of RSL 2.0.
   1. Improved physical accuracy
   2. Optimized performance
   3. New Slim nodes of all types, including Broadcast co-shaders, PTex utilities, volume nodes, and more.
2. Materials Library - A library of complex appearances is provided.
3. Tight Slim/RFM Integration - Offering new levels of interactivity with Maya. Tight integration means:
   
   1. Direct attachments from Slim
   2. A new Smart Palette based on Maya selections
      Slim networks can now imply extra rendering passes..
      
   3. Full support for Slim-side conditional Adaptors
      
4. PSets - PSets are a new UI tool for simplifying the process of introducing many minor variations in shaders.
5. Co-Shaders - Complex shading tasks can be much more controllable and efficient with co-shaders.
   

RENDERER ENHANCEMENTS

1. Upgrade to 15.2 - RFM includes a significant upgrade to the core rendering technology, providing substantial out-of-box performance enhancements.
2. Unlimited Threading - Renderings now can take advantage of unlimited threads per seat.
3. Disney's PTex - RFM now supports PTex files, including both reading, writing, and baking, facilitating new workflows for painting and texturing models, with higher quality results.
4. Enhanced Threading - Significant gains when using multiple processors
5. Accelerated Ray Tracing - Substantial performance optimizations

 

 

Aqsis 

       -liquid

       -RibArt(http://www.mostafasari.com/index.html)

Pixie

 

       -liquid

 

 

Air

    AirStream(http://www.sitexgraphics.com/html/air_stream.html)

Features

Integrated as a Maya rendering plug-in
Render to the Maya framebuffer or Air Show
Use custom Air surface, displacement, light, or instancer shaders
Automatic translation of Maya shading networks
Easily add custom shading language functions to a Maya network
Drive Air shaders with a Maya network
Environment shaders and imager shaders
Quickly and easily add Massive agents to a scene
Simple controls for ray tracing and global illumination
Automatically generate and use archives for efficient scene export
Extensive particle support
Maya fur and hair including IPR shading
Powerful instancing for particles, surfaces, curves, and fur
IPR - Interactive Preview Rendering with TweakAir
Bake shading and lighting to textures with BakeAir

 

 

luxrenderer

     luxMaya(http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxMaya_Getting_started), source code(https://bitbucket.org/luxrender/luxmaya/src)

liquid

Mantra for maya

        OpenMaya(http://openmaya.net/openmaya/about.php),forum(http://forum.openmaya.net/viewforum.php?f=7)

         ~ is dedicated to renderinterfaces for maya. This does not mean the already existing commercial ones but mostly the interfaces to new renderers, mostly free ones or experimental ones.

 

 

ElvishRender

       maya2renderer(https://github.com/yaoyansi/maya2renderer)

 

//TODO:

Other renderers.....