Maxwell V2 is out

brodie

BTW, I'm getting ready to get Maxwell 2.0 along with a render node so I'll try and report back. I don't use AutoMXM though so that shouldn't be an issue for me.

-Brodie

frv

Hi Brodie,
yes the design is nice but I did not make it, I regret to say I just did the SU/Maxwell/PS work.....
I did post my problem on the Maxwell sketchup forum.

It did not work since I use the new plugin and autoMXM. Once I reinstalled the old plugin all went well again. Reinstalling is just a matter of getting the old installation file and reinstall over the new version.

I wonder how you asign tectures without autoMXM. I find autoMXM the most useful way to asign textures.

Some quick remarks about the new Maxwell:
Working in Studio v2 seems a bit slow (unresponsive) compared to the old Studio.
Studio is easier to work with since its all a bit more visual.
Maxwell output is rather different in color and renderquality. My first renders of older models came out ugly. Glass to much reflective, colors harder and skies a but dull. I am used that one should tweek settings to get good results so I am sure these differences can be quickly overcome.

brodie

I use the Maxwell Material Panel within SU to associate my SU material with my .mxm file. My initial reasons for doing it this way were 1) the panel was pretty intuitive and I never took the time to learn the automxm feature 2) I've heard many more issues with automxm than the material panel 3) in the beginning I was adjusting my materials and names for each project so it was just as easy to pick them using the panel as to use automxm.

I think I'm going to use the switch to 2.0 as an excuse to reorganize some of my workflow. I'd like to get into automxm as I think now it would be more useful to me. To bad it's not working yet.

Interesting to hear your comments on the color differences with 2.0.

-Brodie

frv

Well, autoMXM is linking SU materials in an automatic way and its actually really simple to use. Just get the names right and it works. But with the new plugin this does not work any longer.

To be honest, I got v2 now but for architectural work using SU I would wait a few months before upgrading. I don't think you should be excited a lot over faster renderingspeed. My current models seem to not to be rendering any faster or nicer. For me upgrading is more or less a matter of keeping support up to date.

brodie

Well I am excited about the thinSSS. I ran a test w/ the demo version and my trees look a lot better.

I'm also excited about hdr shadows as well, I think that should help out.

As far as speed, I'm not too concerned about whether or not the engine is faster since I'm able to use this upgrade as an excuse to get a node license as well. That will take me from running on one quad-core machine to also including an 8-core server machine downstairs. So w/o any engine improvements that puts me at 3 times faster than I was.

Then there's the layered materials which I'm excited about as well. It will probably take a bit to get a good grasp of material creation but I suspect in the end it will make things much better.

If you get a chance maybe you could open up that same building model in 2.0 and just do a straight render w/o changes? Could be interesting

-Brodie

Richard

I admit to historically waited till the x.1 (1.5.1, 1.6.1, 1.7.1) releases before upgrading! For my thinking the first releases are more an open beta where testing across platforms and configurations (always issues).

Regarding AutoMXM - I originally did all linking this way and later dumped it not because it was buggy but because I found it just so tedious to continually rename textures and prey that one name isn't wrong! Now with the MXM reporter plugin everything is SO MUCH quicker and intuitive, what a godsent!

Like brodie I'm really excited about the HDRI shadow improvements, now just have to finally workout my manual placement idea, as I have NEVER been able to get them placed correctly. Wish they had incorporated a better placement system as I had posted to the wish list which works similar to my manual method but obviously not in model. I posted the same recommedations to the Thea forum and giannis was fairly interested in the idea of incorporating something similar to thea.

It's a bit of a nightmare that materials seem to need to be re-tweaked!

frv

Is anybody using Maxwell 2 and the new plugin. I wonder if others are having the same problem exporting models under autoMXM ?

stefankaplan

@frv said:

Is anybody using Maxwell 2 and the new plugin. I wonder if others are having the same problem exporting models under autoMXM ?

I have no problems using Auto MXM in Maxwell 2.0 (Maxwell Exporter 2.4, SketchUp 7.1). It links and scales mxm materials as expected, similar to the settings in SketchUp.
... Wooops - When using lots of different textures it really is slow! You are right
Richard has got a point regarding the MXM Reporter though: THAT is a great tool which makes the Auto MXM-feature much more interesting, flexible and understandable.
Only thing I need is a toolbar-button to execute the plugin... I already posted a suggestion for the button icon but the cool guy who made the script doesn't reply and I don't know how to add anything to the script.
Maybe one of you guys would give it a try?

NewOne

The SketchUp plugin for maxwell has been improved since 1.7 or is the same?

frv

The plugin is slow as much that exporting goes from second or a minute to hours . Not even with really a lot of textures. I am exporting now with the old plugin and render from studio.

I have not seen any response on the Maxwell forums or from NL.

Richard

@frv said:

The plugin is slow as much that exporting goes from second or a minute to hours . Not even with really a lot of textures. I am exporting now with the old plugin and render from studio.

I have not seen any response on the Maxwell forums or from NL.

I fear that the SU plugin development is dead! I'm not sure there are enough SU users using maxwell to warrant developing it further!

NewOne

@richard said:

@frv said:

The plugin is slow as much that exporting goes from second or a minute to hours . Not even with really a lot of textures. I am exporting now with the old plugin and render from studio.

I have not seen any response on the Maxwell forums or from NL.

I fear that the SU plugin development is dead! I'm not sure there are enough SU users using maxwell to warrant developing it further!

There is Twilight and soon will be THEA... I'm not worried. If Next Limit thinks that, it's just their problem.

frv

There's a lot of alternatives out there, also for Sketchup. But its still NL's problem if things go wrong. People invest time and money into this app and for reasons of quality output. I am sure they will solve the matter but its true that SU seems no longer a target for Maxwell.
How else would you sell a new upgraded version/plugin that stalls at the first test by (Iam afraid) the first guy who upgrades.....

I am thinking of going Vray. We already use Modo but not yet much in combination with SU.

Richard

@frv said:

There's a lot of alternatives out there, also for Sketchup. But its still NL's problem if things go wrong. People invest time and money into this app and for reasons of quality output. I am sure they will solve the matter but its true that SU seems no longer a target for Maxwell.
How else would you sell a new upgraded version/plugin that stalls at the first test by (Iam afraid) the first guy who upgrades.....

I am thinking of going Vray. We already use Modo but not yet much in combination with SU.

As I think I said earlier I always wait till x.1 to upgrade, always has been issues with first releases.

I've always found in general though that the SU/MR combo is a very simple and easy workflow, I bought twilight the other day and am surprised that others suggest it is a break through in ease of use, sure simple but still more general settings than Maxwell out of the box. Speed is about the same but not nearly as functional. And of course no studio for high poly support.

I just hope they do get things sorted for the release of 2.1! Just hope they wake to the fact there is a growing base of SU users!

Richard

And of course without multilight life's a drag!

frv

I got this nice reply from NL:
"There were no changes on the Auto-mxm feature in Maxwell2 so the change in the speed there is very unlikely.
What we see as potentially an issue is the size/structure of the folder holding MXM files - if there is more files there now than it was before then the export can be slower.
Note, that Auto-mxm searches through hierarchical structure of folders for MXM materials matching the name of SU material so if the structure of folders or number of files is bigger than the search takes longer.
Let me know if the problem persists."

Well, in my case the MXM folders are the same so the bug must be in the new plugin.
I will report it again to NL and see how they can solve the matter. I am sure they will.

Maxwell is unique to me since it does produce nice renders just as it is. With Modo, Twilight and a bunch of other apps I find that it takes much more effort to produce natural light or a quick render. And Maxwell is rather fast on my 8core macpro. I agree working in Studio with large models is fast as well. I can import "number 1" SU models into Studio and have the "number 2" model in Studio growing very big....

Richard

Ok I downloaded v2 at last.

Metals from the wizard all render black, even if given 0 roughness render matt black,
Old scenes opened with V2 delete all emitter materials,
Glossy materials often render matt,
Multilight enabled allows adjustment of emitters but not environment,
Sometimes under multilight option if select emitter for solo your stuck with one being solo cant get back full control,
Cant select items behind in wireframe mode,
AGS wizard produces shit,
What the hell did they do to studio, I cant even see half of anything now nearly whole screen black other than some numbers and colour swatches here and there, cant see borders to windows or panels,dont know when one finishes and the other starts,
Took me about half an hour to find enivornment and render options panels, nice hide!
No emitter wizard,
V1.7.1 materials all mostly go matt,
If you use the view button on the bottom of the viewport and hit the red cross it closes the viewport and you've lost it and can not seem to dock it again, might be possible but I can see anything.
such a once simple and tidy interface is now a near unuseable, unreadable mess!

I'm sure I'll find more but that was just with a short play, I would have posted this to the maxwell forums but I think I'm yet another who has been outspoken to be band.

solo

Hmmm, I was proding around the net trying to find some positive views of the new version, sadly there is not much.
I guess this is great news for the Thea gang, as they seem to have the next best thing in the making.

kwistenbiebel

What a joke.
They might as well not release a SU plugin at all

Stinkie

Yeah ... I've always found it rather surprising how, well, sad Maxwell's SU plugin looks next to SkIndigo. Takes NL ages to correct stuff, too - probably the most cost-effective approach. For them, that is.

That Modo plugin looks sweet, though! Still - I am not very willing to shell out € 345 (VAT not included) just because the plugin spews out files that aren't compatible with 1.7! (This I find ... baffling. How many lines of code would it take?)

This is where NL and myself part ways, I'm afraid. I'll be giving Thea a spin as soon as it's beta is available.