mental ray® software options that are included with, or available for, Autodesk® Maya® 2011 software

We frequently have conversations with clients explaining the differences  between the various mental ray options available for Maya 2011.  Here is a simple outline that I think will help to at lesat get the basic breakdown of the different options.  Enjoy!  If you have more uestions, just contact us here at Motion Media.

 

The following mental ray® software options are included with, or available for, Autodesk® Maya® 2011 software:

• mental ray for Maya renderer (1 license with each Maya 2011 license)


• mental ray Satellite for Maya (8 licenses with each Maya 2011 license)


• mental ray Batch for Maya (5 licenses with each Maya 2011 network license)


• mental ray Standalone for Maya (each license must be purchased separately)

mental ray for Maya renderer

The mental ray for Maya renderer license is required to use the mental ray software to render 3D scenes on the Maya 2011 host computer.  It is only licensed to run on the computer on which Maya is installed and will use all of that computer’s processors–including all multi-core processors such as those found in dual-core, dual quad-core, and quad quad-core workstations.  The mental ray for Maya renderer is one of four (4) different rendering options available with the Maya 2011 software.  The other three are the Maya native renderer, vector renderer and hardware renderer.  One (1) mental ray for Maya renderer license is provided with each Maya 2011 software license and it can only be used to render 3D scenes created in Maya. ( .ma or .mb scene files)



mental ray Satellite for Maya

mental ray Satellite for Maya licenses provide similar functionality to the mental ray for Maya renderer but allow you to render images on processors other than those of the host computer.  They therefore allow you to render 3D images created in Maya 2011 using any computer on your network including both workstations and servers. mental ray Satellite is primarily designed for rendering high resolution, high quality single-frame images (e.g. for print) more quickly.  For rendering animations sequences it is preferable to use mental ray Batch software.  Licensing is per processor.  The number of processors that can be used simultaneously is controlled by the number of Satellite licenses available. Eight (8) mental ray Satellite licenses are provided with each Maya 2011 software license and can only be used to render 3D scenes created in Maya. ( .ma or .mb scene files)

mental ray Batch for Maya

mental ray Batch for Maya licenses are required for more efficient distributed background rendering of 3D scenes created in Maya. ( .ma or .mb scene files)  They can use any computer on the network including both workstations and servers.  The main difference between Batch and Satellite is in how they render frames. Satellite renders a single frame as tiles across multiple ‘satellite’ systems. If a single render node fails the whole render will fail.  Batch renders multiple frames across multiple systems and if a system fails the frame will be rendered elsewhere.  Batch is therefore a more robust solution for distributed rendering.  Licensing is per computer (a workstation or server with a unique machine ID). The number of computers that can be used simultaneously is controlled by the number of Batch licenses available.  Five (5) mental ray Batch licenses are provided with each Maya 2011 network software license but the Batch licenses of multiple Maya seats can be pooled to create a larger render farm.

For Example: If a customer has 6 licenses of Maya they can pool all thirty (6x5) of their mental ray Batch licenses to create a render farm of up to 30 nodes.

mental ray Standalone for Maya

mental ray Standalone for Maya licenses must be purchased separately and are not provided with Maya 2011.  mental ray Standalone licenses provide the greatest flexibility for more complex render pipelines as they allow customization through script editing of the ASCII .mi file.  Licensing is per computer (a workstation or server with a unique machine ID).  Example: a quad-core workstation requires one Standalone license, a dual quad-core workstation requires one and quad quad-core workstation requires one.

Note: The mental ray for Maya offerings describe above are all supported on same operating systems as Maya 2011 (Windows 32 and 64-bit, Linux 64-bit, and Mac OS X 32 and 64-bit).

Note: Customers can have mixed render farms using any combination of supported operating systems (Windows, Linux and Mac OS X).