Maxwell V2 is out

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.

Richard

Yeah me too! Just found out that most 1.7 materials aren't compatable with v2 so if I need to completely rebuild my material library I might as well do it for another application!

Just found about another 6 glitches that don't function.

Man I wonder do they pass this the beta to one guy stoned off his head scratching his arse, burps and says "yeah mate she'll do - cranky it out there! Let the tossers work out if anything is wrong!".

I've just been reading a thread where one chap has tested about 10 scenes to find in each that v2 performs slower! Their answer but try it with an SSS material and you will notice it is faster! Great one type of material - big f.....g deal!

Though that said on one scene that I tried from 1.7 it actually did crank it's head off! The scene was about clean in 30 min. and the colour multilight mixer was enabled so that was rather impressive! Bump also has been really tunned!

Plus some workflow features have been improved but hard to justify all the whohar amongst all the increased issues!

Stinkie

@richard said:

I've just been reading a thread where one chap has tested about 10 scenes to find in each that v2 performs slower! Their answer but try it with an SSS material and you will notice it is faster! Great one type of material - big f.....g deal!

Yeah ... I read that thread. If the upgrade price won't put you off, those tests certainly will.

Knurrebusk seems to be back with a vengeance, though! I've always been a keen reader of his musings.

NewOne

@richard said:

...Just found out that most 1.7 materials aren't compatable with v2 ...

What kind materials aren't compatible?

Richard

@newone said:

@richard said:

...Just found out that most 1.7 materials aren't compatable with v2 ...

What kind materials aren't compatible?

Mate form my quick tests it seems to depend much on the mood maxwell wakes up in, one one test all materials rendered matt, on another metals rendered black, on another all emitters were replaced with soemthing else, on another most materials switched to addative mode so scene went spastic.

So the short answer ????

Richard

Mind you in most of my later tests the watermark has disappeared! Thats cool!

frv

Richard, you are not on OSX are you.
I would love to know why I can't use the new plugin with autoMXM turned on. Its simply stalls and I have to resort to the previous version of the plugin.

I find Studio 2 better to work with. But I have a 30" screen....
I do not understand the hiarchy of panels and windows in Studio. Typical Spanish engeneering style, would love a more Danish aproach, simple and clean.
I think its very wise to wait half a year with the update. Although I do not mind helping NL to perfect their product. We also tested the Modo plugin but there is a lot not working there yet either. No replicators for example, could be expected though.

I tried most of the new cheaper renderapps. They either need a lot of tuning to come up with proper results to be compaired to Maxwell or are slow or very limited. The only one now interesting is Vray to me. I saw the work of Alex Roman http://motionographer.com/2009/08/16/alex-roman-thethirdtheseventh/ and was very inspired. Rendertimes 1,5 hours max. as he seems to state in this article. I think Maxwell isn't an architectural tool. Too slow and too complicated. I need a modeller like SU and a renderer like Vray.

frv

Oh, and Richard, for as long as the bugs are not yet resolved, could you set up a different photo for your profile. You look like a its all perfect for you now. We might send the wrong message to Nl ...

Richard

Mate I'm not on OSX, PC!

I know what you mean about maxwell in comparison to the cheaper apps, it is hard to break away from the devil you know, particularly when it actually works!

I recently did a stack of renders for a project home builder, he would come to my office and I would model his facades with him, testing various configurations and material tests, I would push out maybe 20 different tests in a day all flawless and all eye catching to the client (albeit without landscaping). For that purpose it was and still (1.7.1) the perfect solution!

Initial tests with V2 are proving that the quality is vastly improved and given the previous quality thats hard to imagine! Bump response thankfully is just so much better now.

I found a fair few of my problems were caused by a bad first install, the second install fixed many of the issues though some still persist!

Yeah your right its hard to look pissed off with a smiley face!!!

I've not totally written off the upgrade to V2, I've always stuck by my patience toward waiting till the bugs are fixed with any x.1 release and keeping finger crossed! That siad I will probably still invest in Thea when released, though there it is easy for me to dispell if initial clean up is slow! There in lies my ongoing issue with Indigo, such a great app but initial clean up meant quick testing / tweaking eroded it's worth.

I'd much rather something take twice as long to final quality as long as the initial clean is fast - I'd rather spend less of my time waiting over the pc just crunching in the end!

brodie

Richard,

Which version of Windows are you on? I'm running Vista 64 and am getting ready to make the switch to 2.0. I'm hopping it's not a Vista issue. I'll probably switch to Windows 7 when it comes out though so maybe it won't be a big deal either way.

-Brodie

frv

I need Maxwell for all its options to tweek the settings. If you know what you are doing the proces is actually fast. Proxy components, 2 point perspective (shift lens), rather fast till SL 10 which works for me in most cases and its real light simulation.
I can already get a look and feel of how a design will work in natural light. That means I can experiment with dark or light colors, less or more reflective surfaces etc. Other apps are too much a matter of articficial tricks to get good results. Natural light simulation is a bit like having a studio with with handmade actual buildingmodels available.

I got a mail from NL that they are working on the autoMXM issue under OSX. I am sure it must be a simple bug, MXM reporter also ran into a bug in the way OSX writes a path to the library and he fixed it somehow.

Whaat

@richard said:

There in lies my ongoing issue with Indigo, such a great app but initial clean up meant quick testing / tweaking eroded it's worth.

Hey Richard,
I am surprised at your comment. Indigo's speed has improved drastically in recent releases. For example, if you are rendering an exterior and you have the Tracing Method set to 'Path Tracing' the overall image is clean very fast (usually in a matter of seconds). Of course, areas of indirect light will take longer, but to say that Indigo is not acceptable for quick testing / tweaking is just not fair. The initial clearing for MLT methods take a bit longer so maybe you had been using this setting for your exteriors?

Indigo also supports region rendering, so if you are testing/tweaking, you can render just the region you are interested in and the noise will clear even faster.

Whaat

@kwistenbiebel said:

Also, you can easily launch several renders at the same time (I sometimes launch 5 simultaneously on my octocore using Indigo 64 bit, while still being able to continue modeling!).
Time for new computer!

@unknownuser said:

The fastest workflow I experienced using any render engine,especially in terms of material and light setup!
That's a very strong statement. Any chance we could quote you on that on the Indigo website? (PM me if you prefer)

Stinkie

@whaat said:

@kwistenbiebel said:

The fastest workflow I experienced using any render engine,especially in terms of material and light setup!

That's a very strong statement.

True, though. Kwist is absolutely right.

I own both Maxwell and Indigo, but I hardly use Maxwell anymore. This is due to SkIndigo.

kwistenbiebel

@whaat said:

Time for new computer!

The MacPro (using Windows) that I bought a year ago has proven to be my best investment ever. The 8 core Xeon costed twice as much as the usual 4 core rig, but it easily tripled the joy of working and productivity. I took the thing with me to Australia as I can't miss it.

@whaat said:

Any chance we could quote you on that on the Indigo website?

I meant what I said. Material setup is literally a 2 second thing. I always start with clicking one of those material presets and quickly change some numbers. Done. (I am using Skindigo 1.1.15 for now but I want to upgrade to 2.x).
Feel free to quote . I feel special now