What is the difference between RSL and MDL?

Super cheese sandwich

I have the same content marked as RSL and MDL. What is it? Which should I use? I use Iray

 

Thanks

fixmypcmike

RSL is for 3Delight, MDL for Iray

Super cheese sandwich

Thanks Mike

TOPcat831

Why don't they just label it 3DL & Iray ....?

jsdaz_5811013940

That would be too easy.

Richard Haseltine

Both RSL and MDL are used by other render engines, though I think RSL tends to be heavily tweaked. Still, you might export a scene using RSL shaders for use in another render engine (or DS might gain a plug-in for another render engine - people were thinking about adding support for Renderman when it became free for non-commercial usage, though the current Renderman does no, confusingly, use RSL) or a scene using MDL for use in another engine. Tying the formats to a particular engine might lead to confusion, if not now then later as new options became available from Daz or others.

gpmail1_050f96e784

RSL isn't called 3DL because 3DL isn't RLS. 

RSL is Renderman Shader Language, the C-like language used to write renderman shaders and scene files.
3Delight is a Renderman compliant renderer.  Basically it can read .rib files (RSL scene files), which include code for 3d objects, shaders, textures, and lights as well.

So 3Delight is to RSL what Photoshp is to JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, etc.

 

As Richard Haseltine mentioned, the newest Renderman doesn't use RLS.  That is because Pixar has ditched it in favor of C++.  They also ditched their REYES algorithm in favor of Ray Tracing.  REYES was developed as an alternative to Ray Tracing back when computers were much slower and Ray Tracing render times were extremely long.  Now that computers are very powerful/fast, Ray Tracing render times are not so bad, with the improvement in reflection quality being the positive payoff.

michaelsart_f74292e7c3

I appreciate the in depth info here. Now if all content actually had an MDL/RSL lable. Some of the content I have purchased has two versions with no explanation of which is which

TenTen71

Usually you can click on a material thumbnail and look at the info palette. The path will usually indicate an iray or 3delight folder. That's how I usually double check. But thanks for the education on the RSL/MDL.

 

tristanthorne1997

Thank you for posting this and to all who answered. I have wondered the same thing for a very long time.

NylonGirl

TOPcat831 said:

Why don't they just label it 3DL & Iray ....?

Richard Haseltine said:

Both RSL and MDL are used by other render engines, though I think RSL tends to be heavily tweaked. Still, you might export a scene using RSL shaders for use in another render engine (or DS might gain a plug-in for another render engine - people were thinking about adding support for Renderman when it became free for non-commercial usage, though the current Renderman does no, confusingly, use RSL) or a scene using MDL for use in another engine. Tying the formats to a particular engine might lead to confusion, if not now then later as new options became available from Daz or others.

But they wouldn't have to change the filenames.They should just make their labels show as 3DL and IRAY in DAZ Studio. They could change it again later if they added other rendering engines.

Richard Haseltine

NylonGirl said:

TOPcat831 said:

Why don't they just label it 3DL & Iray ....?

Richard Haseltine said:

Both RSL and MDL are used by other render engines, though I think RSL tends to be heavily tweaked. Still, you might export a scene using RSL shaders for use in another render engine (or DS might gain a plug-in for another render engine - people were thinking about adding support for Renderman when it became free for non-commercial usage, though the current Renderman does no, confusingly, use RSL) or a scene using MDL for use in another engine. Tying the formats to a particular engine might lead to confusion, if not now then later as new options became available from Daz or others.

But they wouldn't have to change the filenames.They should just make their labels show as 3DL and IRAY in DAZ Studio. They could change it again later if they added other rendering engines.

What if the other render engine is a third-party add-on?

WendyLuvsCatz

I was curious, since they are all bricks joined with cords why isn't it possible to make a shader that is both?

I mean both won't work in the each engine the same but it could have parameters for both like Octane shaders do in Carrara with a place to put the other shader too

so you don't need to reapply one or the other changing engines

 

Richard Haseltine

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I was curious, since they are all bricks joined with cords why isn't it possible to make a shader that is both?

I mean both won't work in the each engine the same but it could have parameters for both like Octane shaders do in Carrara with a place to put the other shader too

so you don't need to reapply one or the other changing engines

As far as I know it is possible to have a single shader that includes both RSL and MDL versions.

WendyLuvsCatz

Richard Haseltine said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

I was curious, since they are all bricks joined with cords why isn't it possible to make a shader that is both?

I mean both won't work in the each engine the same but it could have parameters for both like Octane shaders do in Carrara with a place to put the other shader too

so you don't need to reapply one or the other changing engines

As far as I know it is possible to have a single shader that includes both RSL and MDL versions.

it would be a great idea IMO if sets did that instead of having separate shaders

I do it in Carrara with my Octane scenes, many of the Octane shaders I added a Carrara set to as well as I use both engines

likewise DAZ studio with iray and 3Delight but am forever having to redo separate scenes and subsets