I know there are several versions of MentalRay Stand Alone
from Autodesk compatible with differnet Autodesk 3D software.
Some versions for max, some for maya.
What version would be compatible with Houdini 9, if any … ?

In some sense any with proper binary version (3.6), in some other sense none, as they weren't designed to work with Houdini. But with some minor tweaking in paths, includes, variables, you can convince mental to work with Houdini. At least command line rendering should work just fine.

Rrr … there is no MentalRay render support in Houdini Apprentice
and there is no free demoversions of Autodesk MentalRay SA.
… some sort of russian roulette ? )) Rrr …

The feature to use external render engines is disabled in Apprentice. Only Mantra works with Apprentice.

I know … ))
… and there is no way to test how fine Houdini works
with 3rd party renders.
I`m playing with Houdini Apprentice and have found it
extremly powerfull … but mantra … It takes ages to render some
not very complicated scene on my Intel CORE2 Quad 2.40 gHz.
I don`t know where is the problem … but …

I don`t know where is the problem … but …

The problem is that you must really know well your renderer to work with it fast.
It stays true with any production render engine. It needs your attention.
I've just saw how mental was speed up 2x in hands of skillful guy just in moment we consider switching to Mantra (But whole setup is done in mental now so it's probably better for everyone).

It's scary to think how my scene in mantra could speed up in hands of JColdrick for example .

Leave mental, stick mantra and get familiar to it. You won't regret


cheers,
sy.

nanobes-arbooz
I know … ))
… and there is no way to test how fine Houdini works
with 3rd party renders.
I`m playing with Houdini Apprentice and have found it
extremly powerfull … but mantra … It takes ages to render some
not very complicated scene on my Intel CORE2 Quad 2.40 gHz.
I don`t know where is the problem … but …

What are you rendering? Can you post an image or describe it? Perhaps we can make some suggestions for optimization - or at least explain why it might be slower than you want it.

Maybe some tutorials then? Think about how much mental ray resources are out there. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.

Scrounging through webboard posts for snippets of mantra commands isn't any fun :roll:

I'd really like to know how to get that stuff going with python via command line / batch / etc

any simple scene … just a sphere + omnilight + camera …
all rendering setting are at their defaults.
i have read the posts in other topics, maybe on more complicated
scenes matra would be more fast ( comparing to other renderers ),
… but …
the main problem is that it takes about 20-30 sec to start any rendering
( the MPlay is already open ).

What build you're using? Do you have some fancy firewall setup? I had the same for a time on my WinXP machine (never on Linux one). This is a problem with Houdini <-> mPlay communication. I'm not sure how it was fixed. New build or I did a tweak somewhere. But this has nothing to do with mantra rendering speed.

Download newest production build. Try again. If won't help, post some details about your system. And don't lose your faith


cheers,
sy.