Render Stats

Find this section in some selected objects’ Attribute Editor, from the Attribute Spread Sheet (Windows > General Editors > Attribute Spread Sheet) or the Rendering Flags window (Windows > Rendering Editors > Rendering Flags).

The Render Stats section appears in the Attribute Editor when applicable to the selected object. These options lets you turn on or off various rendering options for selected objects.

Note: Render Stats for IBL (image-based lighting) nodes are described in the mental ray Help topic "Image based lighting node attributes".
Casts Shadows

Determines whether the surface casts shadows. To make shadows render faster, turn off Casts Shadows for surfaces that do not need to cast shadows.

Enable Casts Shadows if you want the object's shadow (cast onto other objects) to render. Disable if you do not want the object's shadow cast onto other objects to be rendered.

Note:
  • If you render shadows separately, use the mask channel of the rendered shadow image in your compositing software to reduce the brightness of another image.
  • When you render from the Render View window, you can render only the selected objects by selecting Render > Render Selected Objects Only.
Receive Shadows

Turns on the shadow-catching ability of the surface.

Hold-Out

Enable this option per object, so that the object renders transparent and shows directly through to the background environment; for example, an image plane. For use with Viewport 2.0. Shadowing (Receive Shadows) is supported with this feature.

Note:

Artifacts may appear on objects with the Hold-Out option enabled if these objects also have shadows enabled.

In a scene where Screen-space Ambient Occlusion and Multisampling Anti-aliasing are used, objects with the Hold-Out option enabled may block image planes. To work around this issue, disable Screen-space Ambient Occlusion and Multisampling Anti-aliasing.

Motion Blur

Turns on motion blur for the surface. You must also turn on Motion Blur in the Render Settings window.

Primary Visibility

When on, the surface is visible in the view and renders.

Tip:

A surface’s shadow renders, however, if its Primary Visibility is off and Cast Shadows is on. This also applies to reflections and refractions.

Smooth Shading

If this is on, each vertex uses its own normal vector - meaning smoother transition between two faces. If this is off, one normal vector is used for a face; 3 vertices in a triangle uses a same normal vector, resulting flat looking shading.

Visible In Reflections

When on, the surface reflects in reflective surfaces.

Visible In Refractions

When on, the surface refracts in transparent surfaces.

Double Sided

Determines if the surface is double-sided. If single-sided, you can decrease memory use and use the Opposite option.

Opposite

Opposite flips the surface normals. Double-Sided must be off to set Opposite.

Geometry Anti-aliasing Override

When on, the surface overrides the geometry anti-aliasing settings.

Tip: Motion-blurred objects ignore any changes to the Geometry Anti-aliasing Override settings. The blur generally hides any aliasing artifacts.
Antialiasing Level

Select one of the following options:

Level 1

The default. It takes 32 visibility samples.

Level 2

Takes 96 visibility samples.

Level 3

Takes 288 visibility samples.

Level 4

Takes 512 visibility samples.

Level 5

Takes 800 visibility samples. Level 5 gives the best edge anti aliasing quality, but it is also the most expensive (in both memory and speed).

Shading Samples Override

When on, the surface overrides the global shading sample settings in the Render Settings window.

Shading Samples

Sets the minimum number of times Maya samples each pixel. For example, if set to 1, Maya samples each pixel once; if set to 8, Maya samples each pixel 8 times. The number of shading samples taken per pixel is limited by the number of visibility samples performed by the Edge Anti-Aliasing computation. So, if you use Medium Quality (which performs 8 visibility samples per pixel), you cannot get more than 8 shading samples regardless of the Shading Samples attribute setting.

Since Shading Samples computation is very expensive, you should try adjusting the Max Shading Samples (below) first.

Max Shading Samples

Sets the maximum number of times a pixel is sampled during the second pass of a Highest Quality render (adaptive shading pass). The higher the number, the longer the rendering takes, but the more accurate the resulting image is.

Max Shading Samples has an effect only when used in conjunction with Highest Quality edge anti-aliasing. Also, depending on the requirements to compute an accurate solution, the number of Shading Samples taken can be less than the number of Max Shading Samples.

Tip:
  • Occasionally, when an object is moving, the object’s textured edges look distorted. To resolve this, try increasing the number of Max Shading Samples.
  • Sometimes, skinny highlights can exhibit roping or flickering artifacts. Try increasing the Max Shading Samples setting. You may also need to increase the Shading Samples setting, but you can set it on a per-object basis.
Already Premult

Select this option to indicate that the image plane already has a pre-multiplied alpha channel; that is, the RGB values have been multiplied by the alpha channel.

Note:

The following attributes are only applicable to volume primitives and fluid shapes. They only appear in the Attribute Editor of the shape node of a volume primitive or fluid shape.

Volume Samples Override

When on, the object overrides the global volume shading settings and you can turn on the Depth Jitter option in Render Settings window.

Volume samples

Adjusts the number of samples placed inside the fog volume.

Depth Jitter

If you set Volume Sample Override on, you can turn on Depth Jitter option. Randomizes the samples of the volume with depth which replaces banding artifacts in volume renders with noise. The noise can be dramatically reduced by increasing the volume samples and anti-aliasing levels.

3D Motion Blur

Max Visibility Samples Override / Max Visib Samples
Override, for the selected shape node, the global maximum number of motion blur visibility samples to be taken for surfaces during rendering.