# Mental Ray Reviews **Vendor:** NVIDIA **Category:** [3D Rendering Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/3d-rendering) **Average Rating:** 3.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 24 ## About Mental Ray mental ray is a feature rich, high performance 3D rendering software that creates images of outstanding quality and unsurpassed realism based on advanced ray tracing techniques. ## Mental Ray Reviews ### 1. Mental Ray is a rendering tool that is used to produce 3d product with professional level quality **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anderson d. | Marketing Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Mental Ray is the best software I have seen for beginners. I started using it when I was just starting out in the field and it helped me know the basics of rendering so it is best for anyone who is just starting out. The quality of product produced is not photo-realistic as compared to other softwares in industry but it is definitely faster. Its speed is one of the main things I like about it. It is a powerful engine that completes the work in just few steps and makes it easier to get feedback from customers. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Mental Ray is expensive as compared to its competitors but it is understandable as good quality products are never cheap. The export speed is poor and it makes it annoying that it takes a lot of time with just a simple feature. The renderings produced are not professional and sometimes do not even look professional. Updates are needed to improve the system but they don't produce it as often as they are required. There is still a large room for improvement. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mental Ray is one of the best softwares in the industry that works best for beginners. It is very fast and takes less amount of time to do the work. It works on rendering techniques and produces realistic products. The main thing about it is its ease of use. Their team is always there for you to help and sought out the problems that you are facing. ### 2. Fast and easy to use as compared to other rendering engine **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shalini S. | Freelance 3D Visualizer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 12, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Fast in producing rendering results. If I want to check my Interior design results, it does not take ages to produce result. It is easy to set light and materials to the scene which is good in terms of work turnaround and get feedback early in the process of interior designing. Its a great tool that can help you be agile in your work, engage customer early on and produce results faster than ever. There are some great community available to help you with any questions regarding the product and solve if you are stuck and don't know where to go. I have see many product community that are not so great but that is not the case with mental ray. Another good thing is it is part of NVIDIA which pairs greatly with my laptop core component. At first I wasn't so sure about this but when I started using, I saw results and compare with other software. I was comfortable with results. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Need to improve the software on the quality results as compared to other software in the market. One thing that I have to compromise is the quality which works for me depending on the project. If client is not so peculiar about the quality but they need a view so that they can provide feedback and explain what additional is needed then I don't see much of the problem. I sometimes face clients or companies that are very specific about the quality then I use mixed approach - I use this for low quality and early feedback but use other software for final rendering. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Use it whenever you need it but make sure to experiment. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am interior designer and I create 3D designs based on 2d plans and it is very critical to di it fast, effective and correctly. This software helped me to execute the design. I used this software to creating interior designs and use mental ray as rendering engine. I have used many other rendering engine like Vray, Corona. ### 3. Helps create images of high quality and details by using ray tracing techniques. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wallace A. | Sr. Android Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 26, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Mental Ray creates 3D graphics with no cost. It is faster and user friendly. The graphics created are excellent as compared to its speed. The main best feature about it is that is it comes preinstalled and is an incredible render with no hidden cost. Standard level graphics are created with no hidden cost. It is not the best in the industry but does the basic work. Mainly it is liked because how convenient it can be at times. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** It is not realistic as compared to other software and graphics created are not that professional. There's no PBR work flow and render frame buffer is useless. IPR is slow. You need to have knowledge to optimize. The system sometimes crashes with no reminder. The main features that i dislike are distributed rendering and mental ray satellite. The speed is a bit poor so it slows down the process. They do not work that great. Graphics are not realistic as compared to other software i have used. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mental Ray is not the best software out there and has some faults but that occurs with most software. However it is an excellent tool for someone who is looking out for basics with a low cost. The system keeps getting updated and with every update useful features appear like calculating GI solution. Due to updates it speeds up the process. It is quicker and efficient. ### 4. Mental Ray used to be my go to rendering engine for a long time **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 15, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** When I used it back in the days it was part of the 3ds Max and it was fantastic - easy to use, showed great results and made life so much easier having it as part of the base software package than constantly adding plug-ins. Definitely the best was ease of use - clearly good level of information, good menus, standard and customized options. The lights and the materials were good and the results were good. Rendering times were ok. Back then the quality of the images was not as demanding as it is now though. Things have changes significantly and as much as I liked Mental Ray I had to move on to stay current with the industry standards and quality expectations. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** With time the capabilities of Mental ray diminished and there was a different rendering engine that became industry standard for visualization. So to keep up and be competitive I had to learn the other engine and start using it for my work. At that time I was teaching 3d modeling rendering and animation in few colleges in NYC and my students started requesting the other engine to be included in the curriculum because all the jobs wanted these specific skills. So the colleges had to adjust and purchase that other engine. As much as I liked Mental Ray for my work, I got to see better results with the other engine. I never looked back. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is really hard to say. It's been over 6 years that I haven't used Mental Ray. ### 5. The Problem With Mental Ray **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tigran K. | CG Artist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Some time ago it was a really innovative and handy tool for us (I mean ArchViz artists). **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Lack of compatibility with plugins, almost no innovations, feels really old. For example, take Vray, the same could have happened with Vray if they didn't buy (in some cases catch) Corona Renderer in time. And what we have now, Vray is better than Corona. I think you guys have to work on the innovation side and compatibility thing at first. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm solving problems with Vray now. Not using mental Ray anymore. ### 6. My Experience with mental ray is so smooth and amazing. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sohail A. | Freelance 3D Artist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Physically correct materials in mental ray are amazing **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** takes time to optimize the mental ray engine. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** best render engine you can use. most important part on the renders or animations are materials.. and materials on mentalrat ray are stunning. just use it :) **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** on mental ray i do not worry about materials it just giver phyaicall correct renders.. and also layer system is best in mental ray. ### 7. High quality realist render in short time **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shehan M. | Photographer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** High quality realist render in short time Compare to other render engines **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Can improve to get cast shadows and reflections in real time like game engines Ex: unreal and unity **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Main thing is it’s in built in the software and as loved Nvidia graphics card Mental ray is working so smooth and very fast in the system ### 8. Mental ray Occlusion is the best. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sujay K. | Lead 3D Artist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 18, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** If I need to bake ao in 3dsmax or maya, i ussally preferred mental ray. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** It's a outdated and time taken process . **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** high performance 3D rendering software that creates images of best quality with no extra cost. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Apart from ambient occlusion bake I never use mental ray. For me the benefits which I use AO. ### 9. Mental Ray Review 2020 **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dom M. | CG Generalist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Mental Ray is fast and can give you top quality renders for my work in maya. Useful in previs, architecture and animation! **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Some times the render speed in the maya render viewer can be slower than other renderers. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Great for animation and quick lighting setups **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Very good to help you set up lighting quickly ### 10. Its imporving now. Would like too see some features like corona renders **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mohammed S. | 3D Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Materials i like the most on this render engine **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** I cant fine alot of stuff like the models and tutorials about this render engine **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** I would like to tell them to study about this from your official website. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** These days am not working with mental ray ### 11. good for cartoon style render **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** ajay k. | 3D Artist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** easy to use and easy to handle and material are very good **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** It is not giving realistic result from my point of view **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** some time render will not happen it is showing some error to solving that error it will take time ### 12. Best and easy to learn **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** easy to handle and setting up. just need few options to get the best output. Materials are easily avilable to work in the scene **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Not updating with the time. Not the best output according to client requirement **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Work according the industry needs. Improve the quality for asking feedback from users. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** You just need to know a few option to get the best output. ### 13. it is a great rendering engine **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** VARGHESE D. | Architect, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** easy to use no confusions ,had advanced options **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** incorporate some presets for regular using materials can save time **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Good platform **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** good output ### 14. Nice quality render **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Yeah it’s very good and powerfull render engine lots of friends and me we are using Menta Rey for our projects. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** We need more shortcut for photorealistic quality render. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Yes I will recommend to other. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Lots of we have solved through mental tey it’s good for heavy and high poly scene render which is very good part of it’s. ### 15. Good for Beginners **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Arts and Crafts | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** What I like with mental ray is it’s easier to use compared to Vray **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Honestly this is the first renderer I use when I was a student. I just switch to keyshot since its more convenient and fast to use **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** I guess its just the rendering speed and a live preview would be great ### 16. Creative Plugins for Realistic Rendering **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 21, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** I mostly like the material quality and its function. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Some rendering setting is a bit difficult to understand. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Excellent Plugins. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Apart from old version of V-ray, I can save my time in rendering and get the good quality I want. ### 17. In my college time I use to work on mental ray but didn't used for long time **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Mental ray is inbuilt in 3ds max which is quite good. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** The material and some times render are heavy. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Good software for beginners if you don't want to buy expense software **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Good material quality and look. ### 18. Hey. I'm a 3d artist and what we want from a renders software mental ray offer excellent service. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Animation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** It renders things at best quality and i never got disappointed with it **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** I think it should also start work on realtime renders in autodesk Maya **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mental ray improves my work by giving out best outputs ### 19. metal ray is good and friendly to use **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Events Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2020 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** it takes less time to render, file doesn't get heavy **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** renders aren't realistic as compare to v-ray rendering. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** good for rendering **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** its easy to use and my files doesn't get too heavy while rendering ### 20. Quick realistic renderer **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mahsa N. | Architectural Intern, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 25, 2019 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** I’ve used Mental Ray in 3Ds Max couple of years ago.Although it was not as realistic as V-Ray, it was faster and easier to work with. Most of the time I’d prefer to use it because of it’s conveniency. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** It was not as realistic as V-Ray. Most of the time my render didn’t look professional. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** If they want to save their time to get a good render, they can use Mental Ray **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** It was saving my time to get realistic render ### 21. Mental ray, was nice at the time but is now obsolete **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sam D. | Visual Effects Supervisor, Animation, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 21, 2019 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** Tweakablility ability to make images. This software is obsolete avoid at all costs **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Poor Export/Translate speed. Too much knowledge required to optimise **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Dont **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** None, this software is obsolete ### 22. The graphics are insane **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sunny B. | Mr Suresh, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 19, 2019 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** By far one of the best on the market to render quickly and smoothly **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Pricing can be an issue, but with quality comes pricing **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Benefits include speed rendering ### 23. Retired Render. **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Miroslav B. | 3D Asset Artist / 3D Generalist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** For a long time it was available as a plug-in in Maya and Max for free. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** Compared to other renderers (for example, Vray), Mental Ray was slow in calculating metals. It was developed slowly(for example, there was no PBR workflow). **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** Nothing to say. This renderer is stopped supporting and developing by NVidia. Try Iray. It's better:) **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it for rendering 3D model's turntables, because it was in Maya and i didn't bother "What Render to use?" ### 24. Expensive Time Renderer **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Manish K. | 3D Generalist, Media Production, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 07, 2016 **What do you like best about Mental Ray?** It comes pre installed with multiple autodesk softwares, hence it eliminates the need to buy an external renderer for complex ray tracing functions like Caustics and GI, recent updates allow for calculating GI solution over GPU which has significantly sped up render times. it's ability to render in 32bit exr allows for non-destructive linear work flow. It allows for the creation of industry standard level graphics at no extra cost. **What do you dislike about Mental Ray?** The render frame buffer is not so useful compared to other renderer out there in the market. Distributed rendering is not user friendly in any given situation. Mental ray satellite is more confusing and crashes without notification. Real time rendering is not available for mental ray production render. Mental ray ipr is slow and lacks GPU addition. **Recommendations to others considering Mental Ray:** If your looking for great renders at no additonal cost but at the cost of longer render times then Mental ray is for you. **What problems is Mental Ray solving and how is that benefiting you?** Since it's pre installed saves a lot of cost of purchasing an external renderer. ## Mental Ray Discussions - [What is Mental Ray used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-mental-ray-used-for) - [View Mental Ray pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/mental-ray/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+22%3A36%3A33+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=346a159f-fcc7-430d-869e-e7486fd2df25&secure%5Btoken%5D=e7b05b7eaaad8d08298cf2f42fc8af1eb3d5de0d419852d6741500287da9bf8d&format=llm_user) ## Mental Ray Features **Generative AI** - AI Text-to-Image - AI Text-to-Video - AI Text-to-3D ## Top Mental Ray Alternatives - [V-Ray](https://www.g2.com/products/v-ray/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (214 reviews) - [Blender](https://www.g2.com/products/blender/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (305 reviews) - [Chaos Corona](https://www.g2.com/products/chaos-corona/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (114 reviews)