Hi, i thinking of upgrading to 3Dmax6. has anyone used mental ray and can give an opinion of it in relation to Max’s native scanline renderer. also perhaps anyone that already has Max6 and could offer insight into how much of an improvement it is. when i convert to NZ dollars even the upgrade is a big purchase so any advise would be good thanks 
Mental ray is actually one of the better render.
little complexe in first time… but … you can do anything with it.
the max6 version … is not a big revolution … but some little options are improved… for me the better option is;. possibility to work one half modele for skinning and ringing, and you can now do a symetry on it.
that’s great!
From what I understand, MR is one of the most physically accurate renderers. Definetly blows the scanline away. Since it has been in softimage for a long time and recently maya, there are alot of available shaders for it. What I gather from other forums is that it comes down to wheather or not you plan to network render with it. I don’t know the figure, but it is the most expensive per node renderer for max. So if you have a renderfarm, VRAY is the most cost effective solution to upgrade max’s render since you only pay once and not per node. Plus it is currently the fastest GI renderer out.
As for max 6 being an improvement and worth the price, I couldn’t really say since I have not used it.
I believe you may also be better of with Brazil, Vray or Final Render, depending on your needs. Mental Ray is ageing a little now and is becoming rather clunky in comparison. Try a site like CG Channel and run a search for Brazil and Final Render etc, though Brazil would be my choice if I had the money.
thanks for the input guys. it is inevitable that i’ll upgrade anyway. i was interested in peoples experiences with mental ray in terms of what to expect and which areas it excels at. i do have final render installed however, i find (especially when animating rather than still image work) that it isn’t the right approach to take. when dynamic surfaces are included in a final render solution things get a little bit out of hand. i’m hoping that some of the fake techniques for achieving a GI render type scene that i use with the current max render, are maybe just that much better or more realistictly (or simply) acheived with mental ray. i currently approach my background lighting with a 48 light HDRI dome light rig (basically my fill light) and add key and rim light to this rig as i set fit. from what i’ve heard, mental ray will be able to achieve this same lighting rig with a normal 3 point(including a directional light) lighting rig, which will obviously make a scene with animated lighting or objects alot simpler.
anyway…maybe i read too much into it’s capabilities…just interested in peoples experiences with the mental ray render and what to expect when i finally hand over the dollars.