FREE Maxwell Render for Sketchup (free version).

[Zoom123]

From what is said I understand that creating the materials based on the Arroway textures is not as simple as just loading the maps and values provided by Arroway in MXED. Is that correct? In that case maybe instead of trying to create the materials myself with the demo version I would be better off downloading ready made materials created by pros!

[jason_maranto]

It is alot of work -- each set took me about a week of solid work to put together (including testing time)... and it is not really as straight forward in Maxwell as it might be with Arroway in other engines but I do use the formulas they provide (just interpreted through the Maxwell interface).

There are some marketplaces where you can buy ready made MXM materials -- here's a good place to start:

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?keyword=&media_typeid=3&include_artist=bubbaloo&display_format=list&page_num=1

and also here:

http://www.dvc3dtextures.com/

Best,
Jason.

[brodie]

@zoom123 said:

From what is said I understand that creating the materials based on the Arroway textures is not as simple as just loading the maps and values provided by Arroway in MXED. Is that correct? In that case maybe instead of trying to create the materials myself with the demo version I would be better off downloading ready made materials created by pros!

Material creation in any professional program is as much art as science (although maxwell in general and Jason, in particular, has the potential to create materials in a highly scientific way). That said, you should do both. Jason's materials will give you a great idea of how to create your own. The MXED has some wizards that can help you create plastic, glass, textured materials, metals, etc. so it's easy to pick up and get something very good without being a pro. But the more you use it you'll discover what exactly the values and settings do and the process will be faster.

With the arroway textures you can pretty much just use the wizard to create a "textured" material, drop in the arroway maps and you'll be in great shape. Jason tends to take them to the next level though tweaking values and adjusting layers to get them just right (and then generously GIVING his hard work away to the joy of us all!). However, if you're new to Maxwell, photography, and/or rendering in general using Jason's materials could be like learning how to golf with a $400 driver - it won't hurt but it's not going to magically make you a good golfer...or renderer. So keep that in mind, and definitely play around with the material creator as it's one of the most enjoyable parts of Maxwell IMO.

-Brodie

[Zoom123]

Thanks for the answers! As a newbie and non-professional in this field I think for the time being I will stick with the stand-alone plugin and ready made materials. It seems that I will have to learn a lot to create high quality materials with MXED and there is no point in trying to learn so much within the 30 day demo trial when I am not planning to buy the Render Suite (for now at least).

I was looking at the results of the Maxwell Render For Google SketchUp Competition and I wonder if the images there were created exclusively with the stand-alone plugin (particularly for the "Free Category") without the use of MXED or any other help from the Render Suite.

[Stinkie]

@jason_maranto said:

http://www.dvc3dtextures.com/

Hmm, nice one. Thanks.

[jason_maranto]

@zoom123 said:

I was looking at the results of the Maxwell Render For Google SketchUp Competition and I wonder if the images there were created exclusively with the stand-alone plugin (particularly for the "Free Category") without the use of MXED or any other help from the Render Suite.

IMO using MXED does not violate the terms of the free category because it is free also -- the last time I used the demo, MXED did not expire with the rest of the suite... however that may not be the case any longer. Next Limit often run contests and competitions on the Maxwell MXM Resources webpage and to be fair to everybody users would need access to MXED to create their entries, so some of what you can download there was created using demo versions.

I would venture to say that getting high-quality output from Maxwell will require the use of MXED at least sometimes (or ready made MXM materials)... there are simply too many instances where you need to do complex blending of layers/BSDF to get a particular effect.

The embedded character type materials in the plugin are essentially "wizard" materials and were really made for simple convenience of converting SketchUp materials rather than actually taking the place of MXED... the stand-alone plugin concept came much later and the materials have not yet been revisited to deal with the lack of MXED (with the exception of IES emitters).

I would definitely say material making is probably the most complex element of working with Maxwell -- it's an area that even long-term users can have issues with. But bear in mind, if/when the plugin materials are "beefed up" it will have to become more like MXED because that is the basis of all Maxwell material making in all plugins... so learning MXED will never hurt you, nor be wasted time.

However all that said, your particular circumstances are somewhat unique in the sense that you have a particular project you are working on -- and it is unknown if you will need to use the software regularly beyond that. If I were in your shoes I would probably choose to keep it simple as well.

Best,
Jason.

[jason_maranto]

@unknownuser said:

Hmm, nice one. Thanks.

Sure, I'll also let you know when I publicly release the other Arroway sets I made -- I'll probably be doing some of the wood veneer sets in the near future as well. Another user is purchasing these specific Arroway texture sets for me so that I can then create the libraries for the sets they are interested in using... which is nice for me since I get the textures, and nice for them since they get the ready-made materials libraries.

Best,
Jason.

[Zoom123]

Thanks Jason

@unknownuser said:

the last time I used the demo, MXED did not expire with the rest of the suite

Anybody can say if this continues to be the case? My impression was that MXED was part of the Render Suite and that I wouldn't be able to use it independently (and for free without time limit!!). If MXED is a separate application could it maybe even be installed by itself without the need to install the whole RS?

As you know I am comparing Maxwell for SU with Twilight Render (it is hard to choose!). After building a new computer and after the latest updates (IES etc) I can say that I like Maxwell more and I get a bit better results with it. But the big plus of Twilight for me is that it can be combined with Kerkythea (which is free), and this seems to be particularly useful for material creation when the limits of Twilight are reached. My impression was that to create MXM I would need the Render Suite which is expensive (compared with Kerkythea). If I can get MXED for free then choosing between the two will become much easier

[jason_maranto]

No, MXED apparently requires the rest of the Suite to be installed to function -- this was the very first question I asked when I found about about the stand-alone plugin. However since it is not possible to produce anything but materials in MXED there is no danger of anybody misusing it should it not expire.

All I can say for sure is that I used the demo versions for quite some time (almost a year) before purchasing the full Render Suite which allowed me the chance to really get familiar with Maxwell materials... this extended timeframe of working primarily in MXED (and researching the forum) is where I got my deep familiarity with Maxwell material capabilities.

If they now changed MXED to expire, it would be a recent advent.

Best,
Jason.

[Zoom123]

Thanks Jason. If somebody has tried the demo of the last version or if somebody from Next Limit can answer I would really like to know if I can continue using MXED after the demo expires.

If I will not be able to use MXED then I hope that they will at least add specularity maps to the stand-alone plugin. Twilight has specularity maps and it seems that this feature is more basic and more important for the stand-alone plugin than some of the other features that Maxwell for SU already has (e.g. Diaphragm, Shift Lens and Simulens)

[jason_maranto]

I doubt you will get an answer on that one since they will want to reserve the right to change their demo policy at any time -- since this is an unintended use of the demo I'm not sure they would encourage it.

Even if somebody has used it recently the download may have been modified since they downloaded it -- the only way to know is to install it and wait.

Best,
Jason.

[brodie]

I can't say how the licensing works now either but a couple years ago I was in a situation at work where I had one license and Maxwell was installed on 2 networked computers. I could create materials, work in Studio, etc. on both computers. It was only in the occasional circumstance when I'd try to run a rendering on a computer not realizing I already had one rendering on the other computer that Maxwell would check for the license, find it was already being used and fail to render. So it wasn't even checking for a license unless you hit render, and so MXED could be used forever. Perhaps things have changed but I haven't heard of it.

-Brodie

[Zoom123]

Thanks guys! Still, if somebody tried the demo version recently and can answer the question I would like to know. I know things can change from one day to the next, but if something worked in a certain way a week or two ago then the chances of being the same now are higher.

If I do install the demo version of RS, will this affect in any way the Sketchup stand alone version I have (currently the free version)? Also the fact that I will then have MXED on my computer will it change how the plugin works? For example there is an "Edit" button in the MXM dialog in the Scene Manager, but when I click on it I get the error "Maxwell MXED was not found". If I install the RS, will clicking that button bring me to MXED?(I always wondered why that button was there in the stand-alone version. If you have the stand alone version instead of the RS version of the plugin that means you don't have RS. Maybe the existence of that button is a clue that it is possible to have MXED without having RS?)

[jason_maranto]

I'll repeat it again -- it is impossible to have MXED without the suite... I already asked.

Like Brodie says I often work on 2 machines networked together with only one license -- the one machine will be rendering, which means I cannot launch a render (or Studio) on the other machine without an error, but I can work in MXED as much as I like.

However, I'm beginning to wonder if this is really the right application for you -- the people at Maxwell are not hand-holders... the program rewards those who do independent research and find their own answers. Constantly testing and learning is a way of life for Maxwell users...

Best,
Jason.

[Zoom123]

@unknownuser said:

I'll repeat it again -- it is impossible to have MXED without the suite... I already asked.

I understood that. I am talking about a functioning MXED (from installing the demo) which could be available even without buying RS. Otherwise how can the "Edit" button in the MXM dialog of the stand-alone plugin be explained? (unless it was placed there by mistake). If you buy the RS then you would have the RS version of the plugin, not the stand-alone version, right?

@unknownuser said:

However, I'm beginning to wonder if this is really the right application for you -- the people at Maxwell are not hand-holders... the program rewards those who do independent research and find their own answers. Constantly testing and learning is a way of life for Maxwell users...

This is the same for most applications I am not sure what you mean by "hand-holders". I am doing my own research otherwise I wouldn't have any questions. The purpose of forums is to share the knowledge, isn't it? Just because I am asking a question here doesn't mean that I expect an answer from you or anybody else specifically. You said what you knew about this subject and thank you again for your help. I simply asked if anybody else has a more recent experience with the demo, nothing wrong with that I think!

I can install RS and see what happens after a month, and I might do that. However I would prefer not to spend 1 month learning MXED only to find out that unless I pay several hundred dollars I will not be able to use it anymore. That is why I would prefer to have an answer before installing RS, IF somebody can give it to me

And I think this is an answer that everybody considering the stand-alone Maxwell plugin would be interested in, since MXED can put the Maxwell plugin in a different level.

[andybot]

Jason - I've been following this thread with interest, and I have to ask - is it "hand-holding" only if you don't know the answer? zoom123's questions are ones I'd be interested in answers to as well.

[andybot]

Sure - any Next Limit employees are free to chime in with answers too. In the meantime, I suppose we take what we can get, along with those grains of salt...

[Zoom123]

My question was for other members who tried the Maxwell demo recently (if such exist), not to Next Limit employees. Of course it would be nice if Next Limit could tell us what their policy is on this (it is more a matter of policy rather than a matter of roadmap) and if they will allow plugin users to use MXED for free or if they will change the way the RS demo functions to disallow this (or if they have already done this). But anyway, if I decide to install the demo then I will come a month later and let you know what happened

[jason_maranto]

What I mean is that they do not often give the answers you may want to know -- they do not give dates or publish plans about the future, they play their cards very close to the vest and things are rarely answered completely until you are actually using the finished product.

I know alot of other engines will publish their plans and projections for the future to make the users feel more at ease about long terms issues -- but Next Limit does not do this anymore...

You will have to read between the lines as a Maxwell user -- I've already given much more information directly here than you are likely to get directly from any of their employees. If my (and Brodie's) answers are not satisfactory then you will find Next Limit to be much more abstruse in their answers (or lack of them).

At some point you will have to just try for yourself and see -- or move on, but getting a conclusive answer is almost impossible because you are talking about something that they are not going to want to encourage (otherwise they already would have published the information).

Read between the lines.

Best,
Jason.

[Zoom123]

I have another question.

I downloaded some MXMs from the Maxwell Resources, but instead of storing them in my C drive (small SSD) I store them on another drive. I added the directory that those MXMs are stored in the "Search Paths".

At some point I had the issue that although I had one MXM applied to a certain surface, the texture of a different MXM was rendered instead. That other MXM had been applied in a different session on a different surface and had since been deleted. After a bit of research, I found out that the two MXMs were using textures that had the same name. Maxwell seems to copy those textures in the "C:/Users/Username/Documents/Maxwell/SketchUp/temp/textures" directory and it is using the textures from this directory instead of the directory that the MXMs were downloaded to. This seems to happen only for the MXMs that are not stored in the default location. So when two MXMs have textures of the same name the issue I describe above happens.

Either I am doing something wrong or there is a bug with the plugin or I downloaded some bad materials.