Renderer-specific flags for the command line renderer

For flags specific to each of the Maya software and hardware renderers, type the following in a shell or Terminal (macOS) window:

Render -r <renderer name> -help

where <renderer name> is the name of the renderer (sw, hw).

Note: Consult the documentation of your third party renderer for its renderer-specific flags.

The following are tips for command line rendering flags:

Remember to place a space between option flags and their arguments.
Any boolean flag will take on the following as true: on, yes, true, or 1; likewise, the following as false: off, no, false, or 0. For example:

-x 512 -y 512 -cam persp -im test -of jpg -mb on -sa 180 file

Maya Software renderer command line renderer flags

Below are all the flags and their descriptions unique to command line rendering with the Maya Software renderer. You can also type Render -r sw -help in a shell or Terminal window to see this list.

Anti-aliasing flags

Flag	Definition
-iip <boolean>	Ignore Image Planes. Turn off all image planes before rendering.
`-eaa <int>`	Anti-aliasing quality of EAS (Abuffer). One of: highest (0), high (1), medium (2), or low (3).
`-ss <int>`	Global number of shading samples per surface in a pixel.
`-mss <int>`	Maximum number of adaptive shading samples per surface in a pixel.
`-mvs <int>`	Number of motion blur visibility samples.
`-mvm <int>`	Maximum number of motion blur visibility samples.
`-pss <int>`	Number of particle visibility samples.
`-vs <int>`	Global number of volume shading samples.
`-ufil <boolean>`	If true, use the multipixel filtering; otherwise, use single pixel filtering.
`-pft <int>`	When useFilter is true, identifies one of the following filters: box (0), triangle (2), gaussian (4), quadratic (5).
`-pfx <float>`	When useFilter is true, defines the X size of the filter.
`-pfy <float>`	When useFilter is true, defines the Y size of the filter.
`-rct <float>`	Red channel contrast threshold.
`-gct <float>`	Green channel contrast threshold.
`-bct <float>`	Blue channel contrast threshold.
`-cct <float>`	Pixel coverage contrast threshold (default is 1.0/8.0).

Raytracing quality flags

Flag	Definition
`-ert <boolean>`	Enable ray tracing.
`-rfl <int>`	Maximum raytracing reflection level.
`-rfr <int>`	Maximum raytracing refraction level.
`-sl <int>`	Maximum raytracing shadow ray depth.

Field options flags

Flag	Definition
`-field <boolean>`	Enable field rendering. When enabled, images are interlaced.
`-pal <boolean>`	When field rendering is enabled, render even field first (PAL).
`-ntsc <boolean>`	When field rendering is enabled, render odd field first (NTSC).

Motion blur flags

Flag	Definition
`-mb <boolean>`	Motion blur on/off.
`-mbf <float>`	Motion blur by frame.
`-sa <float>`	Shutter angle for motion blur (1-360).
`-mb2d <boolean>`	Motion blur 2D on/off.
`-bll <float>`	2D motion blur blur length.
`-bls <float>`	2D motion blur blur sharpness.
`-smv <int>`	2D motion blur smooth value.
`-smc <boolean>`	2D motion blur smooth color on/off.
`-kmv <boolean>`	Keep motion vector for 2D motion blur on/off.

Render options flags

Flag	Definition
`-ifg <boolean>`	If false, use the film gate for rendering.
`-edm <boolean>`	Enable depth map usage.
`-g <float>`	Gamma value.
`-premul <boolean>`	Premultiply color by the alpha value.
`-premulthr <float>`	When premultiply is, defines the threshold used to determine whether to premultiply or not.

Memory and performance flags

Flag	Definition
`-uf <boolean>`	Use the tessellation file cache.
`-oi <boolean>`	Dynamically detects similarly tessellated surfaces.
`-rut <boolean>`	Reuse render geometry to generate depth maps.
`-udb <boolean>`	Use the displacement bounding box scale to optimize displacement map performance.
`-mm <int>`	Renderer maximum memory use (in megabytes).

Additional render layer flags

Flag	Definition
`-rs`	Obsolete.
`-l <boolean:name>`	Select which display and render layers to render.

Other flags

Flag	Definition
`-rep <boolean>`	Specify whether to render the entire sequence of images or to render only the images whose files do not exist on disk. 0(false) - recompute all images 1(true) - recompute only images in the specified sequence whose files do not exist on disk
`-reg <int int int int>`	Set sub-region pixel boundary of the final image (left, right, bottom, top).
`-n <int>`	Number of processors to use. 0 indicates use all available.
`-mf <boolean>`	If true, append image file format to image name.
`-sp <boolean>`	Generate shadow depth maps only.
`-amt <boolean>`	Abort renderer when encountered missing texture.
`-ipr <boolean>`	Create an IPR file.
`-keepPreImage <boolean>`	Keep the renderings prior to post-process.

Maya Hardware renderer command line renderer flags

Below are all the flags and their descriptions unique to command line rendering with the Hardware renderer. You can also type Render -r hw -help in a shell or Terminal (Mac OS X) window to see this list.

Quality flags

Flag	Definition
`-ehl <boolean>`	Enable high quality lighting.
`-ams <boolean>`	Accelerated multi sampling.
`-ns <int>`	Number of samples per pixel.
`-tsc <boolean>`	Transparent shadow maps.
`-ctr <int>`	Color texture resolution.
`-btr <int>`	Bump texture resolution.
`-tc <boolean>`	Enable texture compression.

Render flags

Flag	Definition
`-c <boolean>`	Culling mode: 0 (per object), 1 (all double sided), 2 (all single sided).
`-sco <boolean>`	Enable small object culling.
`-ct <float>`	Small object culling threshold.
`-mb <boolean>`	Enable motion blur.
`-mbf <float>`	Motion blur by frame.
`-ne <int>`	Number of exposures.
`-egm <boolean>`	Enable geometry mask.