Draise wrote: ↑18 Nov 2017, 19:25
It's like all the licensing overhead to maintain Softimage is now becoming a non issue with its inner workings also going EOL.
Perhaps a benefit in an unfortunate circumstance, but is still mostly unfortunate.
MR is every bit as flexible (also depending on host app) as Arnold (or vice-versa),
except for (at least traditionally) it's major drawback of usable worry-free light transport,
which was exactly the point of their GI NEXT.
Their pathtracer which they were finally actually making quite a bit of headway,
( only once they actually had a reason to ... which says alot about AD development pace in general )
Here is an MR / Arnold comparision comparing exterior and interior settings.
https://antoniobosi.com/maya-render-tes ... ray-render
Arnold was slightly faster in exterior settings, but for interior, the difference was astonishing.
MR is some 12 times faster (1h vs. 12h) for similar amount of noise levels
(and same low amount of prep-time while suitable for animation)
While it was the worst possible conditions for Arnold, (or any pathtracer for that matter) namely ::
--> setting-up for almost noiseless result in a mostly indirectly lit setting,
lit by variable warm and cool colored dusk or dawn (magic hour) skylight source through a small portal.
... and while it's possible to take some shortcuts with Arnold like using combinations of constant colored lights..
(funny that we talk about "cheating" with Arnold, but for legitimate ends of avoiding very (very) long rendertimes per frame)
... it was enough to show how MR managed to overcome it's previously biggest drawback,
further compounded with the many advantages of the very optimal MILA material layering.
______________
The author also made a comparison with Vray, (both 1h renders for interiors)
https://antoniobosi.com/home/render-com ... ray-render
and made this comparison (of MR pathtracer) with Vrays approximation methods,
because unlike Arnold, it's possible, and pure pathtracing in Vray is even slower than Arnold .
Except althought it's possible to use approximation methods in animation with Vray,
it's still somewhat of a pain to setup and get it working,
which also needs to be re-addressed for every particular shot or setting.
Nevertheless, it can very-much be considered as yet another casualty.
Here's a link to MR's eol thread
https://forum.nvidia-arc.com/showthread ... standalone
What I find silly and unnecessary, is the all-out removal of availability.
Stopping developing / supporting it is one thing, but like removing it entirely, specially for such a long-time tried and true participant, is like doubley unfortunate, for absolutely no reason.
Sell it cheaper, but don't remove accessibility altogether!