maya low polygon rendering

tadpole3159

hi i'm new here
i am trying to put together a demo reel of my low poly work, i spend a while modelling this tractor. looks nice when i turn on highquality rendering "1st file called HQ"

but when i render it the normal maps details disapear(second file called "render")
what am i doing wrong?

MoP

Maya's software renderer doesn't render normalmaps properly. If you've just put your normal-map into the Bump connection of your materials (default maya middle-click drag and drop behaviour) then you'll have to use Mental Ray to render this properly. Change your renderer to Mental Ray in the options and try re-rendering.

Also set these options as Paul Tosca shows in his "Making of Varga" tutorial:
http://www.9jcg.com/tutorials/paul_tosca/Making_of_Varga_part_1/28.jpg

If you're using custom shaders (HLSL, CG etc) then you can't render them at all.

tadpole3159

oh sorry forgot to mention i was using mental ray. i'll try it with those settings and see what i get

kodde

Another idea might be to render with Maya Hardware. This should produce the same kind of quality you have in the viewport. If I'm not mistaking Maya Hardware is probably more "realtime true", displaying what could also be achievable in a game.

tadpole3159

kodde wrote: »

Another idea might be to render with Maya Hardware. This should produce the same kind of quality you have in the viewport. If I'm not mistaking Maya Hardware is probably more "realtime true", displaying what could also be achievable in a game.

yea im trying that now this
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=49920&page=7
although i cant add lights need help with that

kodde

Make sure you are using the v3 Beta of the shader.

You need to fill the Light Position (think thats what it's called) slot of the shader, normal Maya lights wont do nothing for you.

Here's a quick method.
1. Open the shader in the Attribute Editor
2. Click the Copy Tab button at the bottom of the Attribute Editor
3. Create whatever object to act as you light, a polygon sphere for instance.
4. Make sure you have your new object selected.
5. In the copied tab showing your CGFX shader right click the Light Position slot and go to Selected > polyShere.

Voila! You should have a polygon sphere acting as your light source with Brice's excellent shader.

Good luck.

tadpole3159

you would think so wouldnt ya :P
i'm getting the same error pixelherder had in the thread, fix was to roll back his drivers, should i? im running 8600 GT hes got the 8800 GT and i'm not very tech savvy. i can roll back drivers but im rather scared 2

kodde

Yes you have to roll back.

tadpole3159

done and works perfectly, cheers guys