1)How do I safely remove a node connection? For example, I have assigned a bump node to the shaders bump channel but then want to remove the bump node. If I delete the connection, the shader just turns pitch black. How do I remove a node properly?

2)I’m using a MR mia shader. I want to assign a texture map to the bump channel. I assign a greyscale psd to the bump channel but Maya complains:

// Error: (mental ray) : C:PaintGrain01.psd: unrecognized file format, not an image file //

How can this be? I know that Maya supports psd so does this imply that MR mia shaders don’t? It also complains if I use tiff but is fine with jpegs.

3)I would like to see what the bump map looks like on the model in the viewport as I move it around. I have switched the viewport mode to texture but I see nothing. When I do the same with a diffuse map, I get to see a very low res map of it on the model but it doesn’t seem to work with a bump map. I know that in the shader under Hardware texturing, you can switch between textured channel but it doesn’t seem to allow bumps!!!?? Why? What am I doing wrong?

3DS Max 6 to 2009, Maya 2010
Windows XP Pro x64 SP2
NVIDIA Quadro 1700, Quad Core 2.67GHz, 4Gb RAM
http://www.beanboxanimation.co.uk

1) RMB over the attribute in the Attribute Editor and select Break Connection.

2) use and RGB or RGBA image, not grayscale.

3) I’ve found that this only works with the Maya materials.  This is not compatible with the mia materials, unfortunately.  If you want to see the bump effect in the viewport, you need to use “High Quality Rendering” with “Hardware Texturing” enabled as well.  The solution is to make a temporary material (Maya Blinn, for example) for viewport previewing.  Then use your mia material for the final render.

3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)