Sorry, but the idea that MRray is a powerful but misunderstood rendering engine seems to be coming from the fact that these days they are being bashed a lot, and are acquiring almost underdog status again, swaying popular opinion in support again. There are very few meanings of the word powerful that would apply to MRay when you compare it to competitors, and v4 is a long overdue, multiple times failed endeavour that we're all still waiting to see eventuate.
It has one of the biggest collections of incoherent, half implemented changes of direction in any engine on record to date. They had the penetration and clout to really change the game and institute new standards, but they repeatedly dropped the ball on that front too (MetaSL anyone?) It remains one of the least reliable and cryptic, most patched engines out there to squeeze quality out of. As for them deciding not to participate into integration, am I the only one who remembers what their efforts in those regards looked like? They weren't exactly stellar. The good times of MR in Soft were an anomaly when raytracing was underdeveloped and dormant, combined with one smart, stubborn, determined cookie (Halfy) doing miracles, but both those factors are gone. It shouldn't be upheld as anything. The less you do that, the sooner you stand a (albeit very small) chance that it will stop being bundled for money you shouldn't be paying with your apps, so you can pick something else that actually works the way it was intended to. On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Andy Moorer <andymoo...@gmail.com> wrote: > The sad thing is Mental Ray is a good and powerful renderer. Mental > image's fateful decision to not participate in integration/implementation > and leave it to Autodesk has done them tremendous damage. > >
