The book arrived brand-new, carefully packed, absolutely satisfy my need. Simply love Amazon's way of business.

This is really good choice for me. Detailed one project sutdy. Actually I learned a lot from this book. Before Mental Ray / Lighting in 3D's Max was a puzzle for me. Know I really understand.

Thanks,
Regards,
SAQIB

At first I was reluctant to buy this book as the previous books about mental ray were not so helpful;being a 3ds max user. I have to confess that I was utterly surprised to find out that this book explores most areas of mental ray usage. Moreover, i was delighted to have seen for the first time a book that touches on the subject about common mental ray errors, and how to overcome them.The "flash light effect" tutorial was another big surprise for me; especially as this technique has always been linked to Maxwell renderer.
Having known jamie cardoso's work for years, I knew this book would be a good purchase.
All tutorials were innovative and very easy to follow.
Finally,the array of detailed 3D scenes,bitmaps and documentation make this book a very good value for money indeed. Many thanks to Jamie and Roger. ...Are you considering the second edition any time soon? This book left me wanting to know more.

If you've never done any design viz before (and I mean NEVER) you might benefit from this book. My biggest beef is that 90% of this book's content is laid out almost word for word in the Mental Ray tuts and user reference that ship with Max 9. At this price...hold off.

I must admit that i am really dissapointed with this book. To me it seems like the author just took the reference help menu and made it his own. These renders are not even close to realism. I thought by buying this book, i would gain some confidance in the archviz field. Unfortunately that is not the case. I will have to look elsewhere to gain that confidance and to get a better book or dvd tutorial on archviz. I am not new to 3D. I have worked in 3D for 7 years using 3ds max, and Maya. This book is more accurate to be marketed towards beginners and not towards mid level or professionals.