Mental Ray is missing from Maya Render Settings window

Autodesk Support

Oct 8, 2023

Products and versions covered

Issue:

Mental Ray renderer is not an available option in the Render Settings window in Maya.

Causes:

There are several potential causes for this issue:

  1. The correct Mental Ray plug-in has not been installed (or a corrupted/incorrect installation)
  2. The Mayatomr plug-in (Mental Ray) is not loaded in the Plug-in Manager.
  3. The Maya Preferences are corrupt and need to be reset

Solution:

Use the following procedures to address the behavior:

Reinstall Mental Ray plug-in

  1. Uninstall existing Mental Ray plug-in
  2. Sign into Autodesk.com, and follow this guide to install the appropriate plug-ins: Where to find Updates and Add-ons for Maya)

NOTE: Mental Ray has specific plug-in downloads for each version of Maya and which are not universally applicable (including Maya 2016 Extension 1 versus 2016 Extension 2).


Load the Mental Ray Plug-in:

  1. Go to Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager.
  2. Find Mayatomr.mll
  3. Select Loaded or Auto Load next to the plug-in.
  • Selecting Auto Load will load this plug-in automatically the next time Maya is opened

Corrupted Maya Preferences

Reset the Maya Preferences by following this guide: How to reset the Maya Preferences to Default
 

NOTE: Mental Ray is not bundled with Maya 2017 and later versions. For plug-in support for 2017 and later versions, refer to NVidia's Support page

Products:

Maya; Maya Entertainment Creation Suite;

Versions:

2011; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2016;

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