Rendering with mental ray and 3ds Max 5. Maximize the RAM Player and click the Open Last Ren- dered Image in Channel B. Click OK in the Configuration dialog, and you'll see the split screen of the RAM Player with the image showing direct light on the left and the image with indirect illumination calculated on the right (see Figure 2.14). You can click in the RAM Player and drag the mouse back and forth to reveal more of Channel A or Channel B. 6. Close the RAM Player (click OK when prompted) and the Rendered Frame Window and save the 3ds Max file. Indi- rect illumination gives the scene apparent "volume" and brightens the shadows with light that is colored based on the color of surrounding surfaces, giving this scene a more convincing appearance. Note: When we used the default final gather settings, the render times on our machine went from 50 seconds for direct light only to 3m7s with final gather. However, the quality of the rendered scene is increased greatly. 2.3.1.2 RenderFrameWindow Whenever you render a scene in 3ds Max, the Rendered Frame Window appears, showing you the rendering progress and then the final image. The Rendered Frame Window also contains tools that can increase your daily productivity (see Figure 2.15). Some of the useful tools you will learn about in the Rendered Frame Window are Render Preset Area to Render The precision sliders Trace Limits Monochrome Figure 2.11 You can enable final gather in the Vendor Setup dialog. mental ray requires many test renders when making adjustments to lights, materials, and rendering settings, and by using default settings, you will often waste valuable time. By making some simple adjustments in the Ren- dered Frame Window, you can speed up your rendering times without affecting the quality of lighting in your scene. The overall quality of the test renders will be reduced, so you will need to reset these adjustments to higher qualities at the time of final rendering. Render Presets will help you get back to a default state. 2.3.1.3 Exercise:RenderPreset 1. Open the 3ds Max file called Ch02_street_scene_02.max from your hard drive and save it to the hard drive with the name Ch02_street_scene_03.max. This is the Street scene where you previously learned to enable final gather. 20