MentalRay Shader AETemplates 1.4

These MEL scripts are Maya Attribute Editor templates for standard Mental Ray shaders. They define the look of the user interface and the attribute names that Maya uses to display these Mental Ray utilities. Some shaders are extended with an easy to use light linking mechanism to quickly link/unlink selected lights to Mental Ray shaders. The spotlight and physical light shaders have a button to easily match the cone angle to the maya setting. (Converts between degrees and the cosine of half the angle, the standard setting that Mental Ray uses.)

Materials with light linking mode have text menuitems instead of cryptic mode number. The help menu is also modified so the node's "Help on" menuitem now open the mental ray shader documentation, instead of the default (non-existing) node documentation.

Currently supported shaders:
(Shaders marked are new in this release.)

contour_contrast_function_levels
dgs_metarial
dgs_metarial_photon
dielectric_material
dielectric_material_photon
*mi_bump_flakes
*mi_car_paint
*mi_metallic_paint
*mib_amb_occlusion
*mib_bent_normal_env
*mib_blackbody
*mib_cie_d
*mib_glossy_reflection
*mib_glossy_refraction
mib_illum_blinn
mib_illum_cooktorr
mib_illum_hair
mib_illum_lambert
mib_illum_phong
mib_illum_ward
mib_illum_ward_deriv
*mib_lens_clamp
*mib_lens_stencil
*mib_light_infinite
mib_light_point
mib_light_spot
mib_photon_basic
mib_ray_marcher
mib_shadow_transparency
mib_volume
parti_volume
parti_volume_photon
path_material
physical_lens_dof
physical_light

Some attribute names are changed to more easily understandable names, usually based on the Mental Ray shader documentation.

Download:

MentalRayShaderAETemplates1.4.zip

Installation:

Copy all files into a Maya script directory. The list of current script directories can be queried using the following mel command: getenv "MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH"
(The sz_MRLightList.mel is just a standard light-linking mechanism that is used by some of the scripts, sz_AEMRGetLightCone.mel manages the spotlight cone angle modificications, sz_AEMR_Help.mel makes the help menu modifications.)

Modifications:

1.4 - 35 shaders, node help updated for Maya 7. Light list AEtemplate offset for Maya 7 fixed.
1.3 - 23 shaders, nicer enumerated menu for the light modes, node help menuitem works
1.2 - 20 shaders, angle conversion button for light shaders
1.1 - 17 shaders, more user friendly attribute names
1.0 - First release: 6 shaders, light linking support

None of these scripts are related to Alias or Mental Images, in the future they may create a new (and hopefuly better :)) version. Until then enjoy using them.