Overview
A RIB archive is a RIB file that contains all the data needed to render some scene objects. Once these objects are archived, the RIB archive can completely replace these objects in a scene. Replacing objects by RIB Archives makes the scene lighter and requires less pre-processing time when rendering.
Working with RIB archives is a two step process:
3Delight for Maya creates a RIB archive when the Render Mode render attribute is set to 'Export RIB Archive Only' (see Render Engine). The created RIB archive can be read into any scene by using a RIB Archive Node.
RIB archives are designed to be included in a Maya scene (or a regular RIB file). They are not renderable by themselves.