OK, now I can change the settings for the grass, but I don't get any grass when I render the scene!? Hmmm, I still have some problems and I preciate some more help.

Were you testing 1.6? If so, I would think that because 2.0 is really the final release of 1.6 beta, you have used up the 30 days already. You might be able to contact chaos and ask for an extension to fully test 2.0 I would think.

cool! these trees look good... thanks for the link! best V

That's a valid point -- for while now we've all been re-using this thread: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=41040 So there alot of information in there already, there are a few others, but that is the one I use myself... I actually get an email whenever somebody posts to that thread so I know there's something here I need to look at. Best, Jason.

Hi! It was I who wrote this question back in 2012 and I haven't worked with any 3D-visualization since then. But I have missed it a lot and I'm thinking about start again. So I have been playing around with free version of Sketchup 2015 and Maxwell Render. And it's about lights again. Is it impossible to create a nice render of a kitchen interior with the free version of Maxwell Render? Are there better performance and options available in the paid version? If I do a room with a big box in Sketchup and open one side. I then create some spotlights and point the face downwards inside the box, I see no light at all from them! The outside light is sky without the sun and time is set to evning. Shouldn't there be any light? Is the paid version of Maxwell Render worth the money or are there any other free or low cost renders out there that is better? Renders made by SU Podium seems very realistic, especially the of interiors. Kerkythea is free, but I guess there has been no development with that since the release in 2008? Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! I have just changed the color to be darker. It's not a texture, just plain color material. And I have pressed the refresh button several times, but it still render the old color!? Help!?

You can also try to copy everything in your model, open a completely new, empty file and use Edit > Paste in place. Now try to save this new file. (Sometimes something gets corrupt in a file while - most of - the geometry would otherwise be fine)

I'm not sure what to tell you on this -- smoothing renders as it should on my machine. Best, Jason.

Glad you got it sorted -- it's not rules perse but there have been issues here in the past in regards to this forum which is for shared use by many different 3rd party software. I'd rather not go through that again so I just wanted to preemptively reduce the possibility of conflict. Best, Jason.

The white dots are reflected caustics -- they will clear but will take longer in the free versions "draft" mode for FIRE. Here are a few comparison renders (all to SL 12). !["Production" mode for FIRE](/uploads/imported_attachments/BaHX_chair_SL12.png ""Production" mode for FIRE")!["Draft" mode for FIRE](/uploads/imported_attachments/IzHc_chair_SL12_draft.png ""Draft" mode for FIRE") and as a slightly counter-intuitive work around I would reduce the roughness to 0 -- which causes the caustics to be less of an issue... as you see in this render (which will be the file I PM back to you).!["Draft" mode for FIRE with 0 roughness plastic](/uploads/imported_attachments/jY51_chair_SL12_draft2.png ""Draft" mode for FIRE with 0 roughness plastic") Best, Jason.

Yep, both of those used displacement -- which is a shame because they really didn't need it, so I made edited versions for you without displacement: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/41250852/j_edited_concretes.zip For that matter I have already made hundreds of free SketchUp materials with linked MXM's for all of the Arroway textures (including the Concrete set), which you can get here: http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=38528 While it's true the Arroway textures (http://www.arroway-textures.com/) can be slightly expensive, you will find they are the best in the business... and by using my sets you will have whatever you want already ready to use just like any normal Sketchup material. Best, Jason.

OK, thanks for the links!