How to use emitters in Maxwell Standalone for Sketchup

Zoom123 · 16 Dec 2011, 23:47

Brodie, on the download page it says that there is a 30 day limit. Is there a legitimate way around that?

http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/maxwell_render_suite/download

brodie · 16 Dec 2011, 23:58

Oh, sorry about that. Either they changed it or I was just wrong. That is unfortunate.

-Brodie

Zoom123 · 17 Dec 2011, 00:25

No problem Brodie. Maybe Maxwell will revise their policy on this. I understand not including IES, but the ability to create spotlights shouldn't be considered an advanced feature reserved only for the Suite. If they don't include MXED then they should at least create some other feature that would allow the creation of spotlights.

jason_maranto · 17 Dec 2011, 01:20

The reality is they are always adding new features and they know that embedded IES lights were a need for the stand-alone plugin so that is likely to appear soon.

There was no need for them before the stand-alone plugin came out because anybody who had Maxwell had MXED as well and could make any material they needed at any time... this wasn't a purposeful slight to stand-alone plugin users, simply an oversight. It's still a relatively new application (a little over a month old) so there are bound to be some hiccups.

I did notice you were commenting on VRay ability with exteriors -- which Maxwell handles quite well... I am curious are we talking hypotheticals here or do you have actual projects that you need to accomplish with these tools?

Best,
Jason.

Zoom123 · 17 Dec 2011, 03:13

Yes, I did notice that the Standalone app was new. If they add a few missing features then I think it will be really competitive. If they could also figure out a way for quick preliminary renders, then it would have everything I need and I would certainly buy it!

I am not a pro in 3D (neither I am planning to be - I am a Web Developer). I have one project and that is my own house which I am currently designing. I have an architect, interior designer etc, and I could also hire somebody to do the 3D for me. But I am a bit of a perfectionist and I like to evaluate many different possibilities until I find the "perfect" one. So I learned Sketchup and I used the plans to make the house in 3D. Now we moved into the phase when we have to decide about specific materials and do the lighting plans, and Sketchup by itself is not very good for this. So basically I am looking for an app that will allow me to evaluate several different possibilities for materials, lighting and other aspects of the interior design.

jason_maranto · 17 Dec 2011, 11:11

Well Maxwell is the render engine for perfectionists by perfectionists -- the reason for it's reputed lack of speed (which I think is blown way out of proportion) is because they refuse to compromise in any way from their ideals... Which they say right up front on their website.

There will be no biased engine added to Maxwell, FIRE is it for previews... any speed improvements will come from upgrading to more powerful hardware and possibly some code optimization.

I respect that approach since I take a very similar one to my work -- however everyone has different priorities and it's nice that there is an option to fit just about everyone.

Best,
Jason.

bravoddb · 17 Dec 2011, 14:30

I had the same problem, but I applyed the light material on both faces, but some times it did't work, so finally I figured out that after put the material in both faces, I had to group it ( the light source, using emitter material) and the problem solved. No more black faces on emitters.

Zoom123 · 17 Dec 2011, 19:47

Speed might not be such a big issue once I upgrade my computer (i7 overclocked to about 4.5GHz) but not being able to add spotlights easily is an important issue. Do you know when they are planning to change this?

JD Hill · 18 Dec 2011, 02:28

There will be an IES material character in the next build.

Zoom123 · 18 Dec 2011, 03:23

@jd hill said:

There will be an IES material character in the next build.

Great news! Any estimate about when the next build will be out? Are we talking about days, weeks or months?

JD Hill · 18 Dec 2011, 04:29

I don't mean to seem evasive, but as a matter of policy, I never answer that question with any precision. I plan on putting up some pre-release bits for customers pretty soon (the plan for this is on the order of days, not weeks), but I won't make any estimate on timing for a public release.

brodie · 18 Dec 2011, 22:25

I don't think there's any specific plan that's been made known. If you're really interested you could email Jeremy who's the creator of the plugin and very helpful. If he has anything in the works I'm sure he'd be happy to let you know.

-Brodie

valerostudio · 4 Jan 2012, 21:51

This is excellent news. Thanks

markewi · 10 Jan 2012, 10:49

mmh, I still have trouble getting emitters to work. I turned the enviroment settings to none and either changed sketchup materials in the maxwell scene manager to have max watts etc. or used mxm files that suppose to have emitter lights but none of them will glow! The scene will render dark and you see the material but it will not be a light source. What am I doing wrong?

bravoddb · 10 Jan 2012, 13:11

@markewi said:

mmh, I still have trouble getting emitters to work. I turned the enviroment settings to none and either changed sketchup materials in the maxwell scene manager to have max watts etc. or used mxm files that suppose to have emitter lights but none of them will glow! The scene will render dark and you see the material but it will not be a light source. What am I doing wrong?

Hi, make the surface with emitter material a group, then rerender it again.

Bravoddb

brodie · 10 Jan 2012, 13:58

@markewi said:

mmh, I still have trouble getting emitters to work. I turned the enviroment settings to none and either changed sketchup materials in the maxwell scene manager to have max watts etc. or used mxm files that suppose to have emitter lights but none of them will glow! The scene will render dark and you see the material but it will not be a light source. What am I doing wrong?

What are your camera settings (what's the EV) and what are your emitter settings and what size is the emitter?

If you have realistic emitter settings and the emitter isn't too big and you've got a realistic EV (for interior scenes with emitters you're usually looking at 7ish) you should be good.

-Brodie

jason_maranto · 10 Jan 2012, 14:24

Also, Emitters are only going to emit in the direction of the normals -- which means the "front" of the polygon.

So to recap, the short checklist for emitters working right is:

Is the geometry to real-world scale?
Is the camera exposure value realistic?
Are the surface normals pointing in the direction you want light to emit?

In addition to that there are also some limits to emitters as far as their use in components -- However, there are a number of emitter related changes availible in the the latest pre-release preview (2.6.3) on the Maxwell forums and I do recommend you download that and see if that fixes the issue.

Best,
Jason.

markewi · 10 Jan 2012, 15:13

Thanks to all! I'll give it a try.....

Carloh · 30 May 2012, 13:41

are there MXM files with IES in the maxwell material gallery? this far i haven't figuered out how to create a spot light with the maxwell standalone sketchup plugin

jason_maranto · 31 May 2012, 09:43

@carloh said:

are there MXM files with IES in the maxwell material gallery? this far i haven't figuered out how to create a spot light with the maxwell standalone sketchup plugin

The newest version of the plugin supports creating IES materials directly within SketchUp (as an embedded character type material) -- I would re-download the plugin (from the Maxwell website) to get the new features. Also, I would check the Maxwell forum regularly for the latest pre-release version (which right now is 2.6.11) because often they will be newer than what is available from the Maxwell website: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=107

Best,
Jason.