global folder for include and library files

[rlevene]

Hi,

So we have muliple versions of standalone intstalled on our render nodes and at the moment I install mental ray on each node individually and then if we start using a new shader I have to add that shaders mi and dll files to the relevent folders on every single render node. Bit of a pain. So I want to make it easier so I can just copy new shaders I want to use on the farm to one place.

What I would like to do is just have 1 global shared directory that all the nodes can see and call on for the shaders by default when rendering. So rather than look in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mrstand3.9.1-adsk2012\shaders\bin or mi fodler, they look at X:\MentalRay\MentalRayVersion\Shaders

I know I can set things with an environment variable but that would conflict with other versions since the environment variable names are the same in every version, no? Would it be better to edit the rayrc file. Then when installing mental ray standalone on a new machine, I would just have to copy one file (rayrc) and then it would link to all the shaders. But at the moment the rayrc file by default points to registry values. I am not sure how to edit that.

Any help would be great.

Best,

Richard

[maxt]

take a look at the manual:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya...html#SECTION70
http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya...ml#apx:regvars

[rlevene]

Yeah I was looking at those pages yesterday but was a bit unsure. (not an area i am comfortable with)

Just have to give it a go.

Thanks,

Richard

[maxt]

basically you simply set these:

_MI_REG_INCLUDE,_MI_REG_LIBRARY reg variables..

like ..

registry "{_MI_REG_LIBRARY}" value "your_UNC_GLOBAL_LIBS_path_for_example" end registry
registry "{_MI_REG_INCLUDE}" value "your_UNC_GLOBAL_MI_path_for_example" end registry

[rlevene]

Ok will give it a try.

Many thanks,

Richard

[rlevene]

so I got this working fine. Just editing the rayrc file and adding paths to the global shader library.

However it still means on every machine I install mental ray I have to copy the rayrc file.

Yes I know I can create a MI_ROOT environment variable that will look to just a directory with that rayrc file which is great but what if you have multiple versions of MR installed? ie 3.7, 3.9, 3.10 etc? I do not want a 3.10 render to look in an MI_ROOT that contains 3.10 shaders.

Can there not be a MI_ROOT_39, or an MI_ROOT_310 ? If you get what I mean?

Thanks,

Richard