Using MDL in Maya 2016
mental ray 3.13 supports many features of the Material Definition Language from NVIDIA. Maya 2016 allows you to use custom libraries of MDL materials in a limited fashion for this initial integration.
The official mental ray blog has posted directions on how to take advantage of MDL in their post today from Sandra.
Take a look and download the MDL library with example files. If you’d like to learn more about writing MDL, visit the MDL Handbook page: mdlhandbook.com
Future integrations will improve the capabilities and supported features inside Maya.
MDL used in Maya 2016
Posted on May 8, 2015, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
These are great! Very simple to set up and intuitive to use. Are there existing packages online, in addition to the examples provided, that we can download? Can we use iray packages?
You can try Iray MDL but not everything is supported yet. Some will crash. Others may not work, for example: dispersion is not supported.
ok thanks. Is there an mdl writing utility? something like slim for reyes?
No, not yet. But since mental mill, I can imagine they would think of an authoring tool. Wouldn’t hurt to request one though.
yes, a dcc-independent authoring tool would be great for all mdl users. i will mention it on the arc forum
Isn’t an MDL what is used in iRay ? What benefit is theere for it to be used in Maya, if Maya doesn’t have iRay ?
MDL is a universal format anyone can adopt (it’s free) it describes what to render, not how. This means you can render across platforms and software using the same description. Mental ray 3.13 and Iray can share these for identical renderings. (Mental ray support is still limited for now)
Thanks. Although MDL still in it’s infancy, as mentioned in Sandra’s blog, it still needs to evolve. 🙂
Iray has the modern integration. mental ray will catch up but supporting all features will take more time. Iray was built in MDL.
To clarify on Christopher’s comment, MDL itself is very full-featured. But yes, the integrations, the libraries available as standard, the recommended practices for creating your own, all these things will evolve quickly.
Check the license agreement clause 2.2 and 2.3 before doing anything with MDL.
2.2 and 2.3 are to protect other licensed technologoes by NVIDIA. For example: if you use MDL you are not given license to use other technology (e.g. rQMC) as part of the implimentation without paying for the separate licenses.
Moderation is LAME btw 🙂
I reserve the right to moderate to reduce spam, guide on-topic discussion, and eliminate trolls who may harass other users. 🙂