Modo Render Palette

The Modo Render palette and the controls that can be found on it are described in the table below. When controls also bring up additional dialogs, these are referenced for more information.

Article: Modo's Command Line Render Engine is not bundled with Mari 4.6v3 on macOS. Please consult the following Knowledge Base Article on how to connect Mari with a separate Modo installation.

What It Does

The Modo Render palette allows you to render a final image of your scene in Modo with your Mari channels mapped to a Modo shader, bake into Mari channels, preview render and bake, and save out the Mari scene as an .lxo file.

Modo Render Palette Fields

Control	Type	What it does	Dialog
Render Tab
Render Preset	dropdown	The render preset that specifies the render settings used. If you don't yet have any presets, you can specify None, or choose Basic for Mari to adjust the render settings to a basic level.
Channel Assignment \| +	button	Set the channel in Mari and the specific Modo effect that you want to assign to it.	Assign Channel Dialog
Channel Assignment \| -	button	Remove the selected channel assignment.
Mari Channel	information	The assigned Mari channel.
Modo Effect	information	The assigned Modo effect.
Preview	button	Preview the final render in the Preview portion of the Modo Render palette, in either a Flattened or Not Flattened state. The preview is sent from Modo.
Flattened/Not Flattened	dropdown	When Flattened, the assigned channels are flattened and sent to Modo. Modo sends back the preview. If Not Flattened, the assigned channels are sent to Modo as they are and Modo then sends back the preview.
	button	Prevents Mari from sending camera updates to Modo and, thus, the preview from updating until it is toggled again.
Render Dimensions	text field	The width and height of the exported image in pixels.
Flattened/Not Flattened	dropdown	When Flattened, the assigned channels are flattened and sent to Modo. Modo sends back the render. If Not Flattened, the assigned channels are sent to Modo as they are and Modo then renders out the image.
Save Render to	text field, file browser	The location to which the rendered image is saved. Modo saves the rendered image in a .png or .exr file
Save LXO to	text field, file browser	The location to which the Modo scene representing your Mari scene is saved as an .lxo file.
Render	button	Render the scene, in either a Flattened or Not Flattened state, with Mari channels assigned to Modo shader effects. Mari sends channels and other data to Modo, then Modo renders the scene to an image file specified in the Save Render to field. The Modo scene representing the Mari scene is saved out to an .lxo specified in Save LXO to field. Also, the preview sent from Modo is shown in the Preview pane of the Modo Render palette.
Bake Tab
Bake Preset	dropdown	Select the specific preset you want to bake out. Choose from the Mari defaults or custom presets defined in .lxo files. The built-in Modo bake presets are: • AO • Corner Rust • Curvature • DownSlope • Reflection • RT Curvature • Thickness • Up • Wood
Name	information	The parameter name for the component.
Value	information	The value of the corresponding parameter. This is editable within the table, and updates the same parameters within Modo.
Preview \|	button	Prevents Mari from sending camera updates to Modo and, thus, the preview from updating until it is toggled again. This is the same as the preview in the Render tab, and the toggled state in one tab matches that in the other.
Bake Resolution	dropdown	Specify the resolution of the baked texture from the following options: • 256 x 256 • 512 x 512 • 1024 x 1024 • 2048 x 2048 • 4096 x 4096 • 8192 x 8192 • 1624 x 1634 • 32768 x 32768
Bake Depth	dropdown	Specify the channel depth from the following options: • Byte (8 bit) • Half (16 bit) • Float (32 bit)
Bake	button	Bakes the result (for example, ambient occlusion) out from an .lxo file to a channel in Mari to use in your project.
Settings Tab
Use	dropdown	Specify whether to use the Default Modo - a bundled version of Modo (command line) that ships with Mari - or a copy of a Locally Installed Modo.
Modo Bin	text field	If you chose to use a local copy of Modo, specify the location file path for Mari to find the application.
Command Port	text field	Sets the port number through which Mari sends commands to Modo. The default port number is 12377.
Preview Port	text field	Sets the port number through which Mari receives previews from Modo. The default port number is 12377.