Mental Ray for Maya Satellite has been introduced with Maya 6.5. It is a separate application that allows other computers to assist in all Mental Ray rendering tasks, such as rendering with Mental Ray inside Maya, batch rendering with MR, IPR rendering with MR, texture baking with MR etc etc.

Mental Ray Satellite is like a mini renderfarm that only listens to Maya. Mental Ray Standalone can accept custom written MI files, and scenes from most apps that have a connection to Mental Ray. Mental Ray Satellite doesn’t really have any manual operation, it just assists Maya with whatever it can.

What’s the limit on Mental Ray Satellite then?
The limit is based on the number of CPUs, not the number of computers. For users of Maya Complete, Mental Ray Satellite will utilise up to 2 external (being not on the machine with Maya) CPUs for assisting rendering. So that means 1 dual processor computer, or 2 single processor computers can assist with rendering.

For users of Maya Unlimited, Mental Ray Satellite accepts help from up to 8 external CPUs.8 extra CPUs helping with all your rendering tasks is a pretty nice boost!!

Is Mental Ray Satellite good? What do I need to use it?
Yes, I think Mental Ray Satellite is very good. Rendering is the slowest part of CG and all the (free!) speed boosts we can get are great. In order to use Mental Ray Satellite, you need Maya 6.5 or greater, Mental Ray Satellite itself and at least 2 computers (the one with Maya and the one that will assist) that are networked together. Having a fast network (100mbit+) is fairly important because a lot of files and data are transfered around (especially at the start of a render).


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