Side Effects Software posts a masterclass in Houdini Mantra Renderer, showing off Houdini 15’s improvements. Here, Senior Rendering Developer for Side Effects, Mark Davies walks through the many changes that the Mantra Renderer has undergone in Houdini 15.
Houdini 15 introduces many enhancements to the Mantra renderer
Additions include quality metrics, which is a new way to determine the quality of a render in Houdini. Quality metrics will provide a way to understand the noise in the render allowing you to better tune your renders. Other changes to the Mantra Renderer include changes to adaptive sampling, texture and surface baking improvements, and check-pointing. The Render Check-pointing feature will allow you to stop and start a render at the point where you left off.
This is a great in-depth look to the Mantra Rendering engine inside of Houdini. Mark Davies explains the different rendering engines that are available in Houdini and outlines their advantages and uses.
Houdini 15 supports a MicroPolygon engine based on the REYES system, a RayTracing engine, and a PBR system which includes path tracing and simpler metrics and fewer controls. Check out the page for Houdini 15 for more information on what is new and changed.
