Chapter 2: Rendering with mental ray rendered scenes. Gamma correction is therefore probably the most cost-effective way to balance these light/dark relationships to correspond more closely with reality. Pure white and pure black pixels or light intensities do not vary, but the grayscales in between (midtones) are affected greatly by the gamma settings. Using correct gamma values will ensure that contrast levels of a scene are interpolated correctly for a much more realistic end result. 2.2.1 Exercise:Enablegammacorrection You should already have loaded the mental ray renderer in Chapter 1, so now make sure that gamma correction has been enabled for both the rendering output and the display in the material editor. Then follow these steps: 1. Open 3ds Max. From the Rendering pull-down menu, choose Gamma/LUT Setup (see Figure 2.5). 2. On the Gamma and LUT tab of the Preference Figure 2.4 Ambient occlusion is a material special effect Settings dialog, check Enable Gamma and enter 2.2 in that can add important shadow-like detail to rendered images.