Posts made by Zoom123

Thanks Gaieus!

I am doing the model of a house which I also plan to render. I read that rendering sharp corners look unnatural and rounding them would produce much better results.

From some initial tests though it seems that rounding the corners removes some flexibility in reshaping the model (e.g. pushing and pulling walls). So is this corner rounding something that should be only done at the very end of modeling, or are there some techniques that will allow me to round the corners earlier while not loosing the flexibility of adjusting the model a bit?

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

@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.

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?)

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)

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

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.

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!

Thanks Brodie. I will have a look at the demo then!

Thanks for the help!!

I am mostly interested in their stone textures ... if I get the Render Suite demo will I be able to create and save the materials and keep those materials to use with the stand-alone plugin even after the demo expires?

@unknownuser said:

at least until the materials in the plugin are beefed up

Any insider info about when that would happen? If I buy the stand-alone plugin now to what sort of free upgrades will I be entitled to? Just minor ones or major ones also? (e.g. 2.6.20, 2.7 or 3 also?)

Thanks!

Would it still worth to buy the arroway textures (or similar) even though I will not be able to use the specular maps? How much worst would the result be without the specular maps?

Regarding Bump and Displacement maps, some of the textures would say something like "diffuse 100% - displacement 50mm" (http://www.arroway-textures.com/en/products/stonework-1/contents). With the plugin it doesn't seem possible to change both the bump and the displacement at the same time, it is one or the other. Or maybe I didn't understand something?

Thanks, now that difference is clear!

Another question:

I've been looking at arroway textures (ex: http://www.arroway-textures.com/en/products/concrete-1/contents ) and I noticed they provide several different kinds of maps (diffuse, bump, specularity etc). How would I apply those textures with Maxwell for SU?

I understand how to add the diffuse and bump maps, but where would I add the specularity / glossiness map?

Also there are some textures where a bump map is provided and in addition they give a value for displacement. How can I do that?

Hello, I am still a bit confused on the differences between the Draft and the Production engine. In their website they say "Maxwell Render is unbiased: for any given scene, both the draft and production engine will eventually produce the identical image" but from some of the responses here I got the impression that for more complex lighting you need the Production engine. So now I don't know what to expect from the Production engine. Would it produce an even better result or would it produce the same result but faster?

Or maybe that "eventually" is only theoretical, and for complex scenes the draft engine could take many days to produce a result that the Production engine can do within a few hours? (i.e. you will practically never wait for the Draft engine to finish)

@unknownuser said:

What happens if mine says 0? Does it mean I have no cores at all in my system?

The default is 0 and it means that it uses all cores/threads available. If you are using Windows you can open the Task Manager > Performance and there CPU usage should be close to 100% for all threads.

Thanks. Apart from the "Tutorials / FAQ" section should I be looking anywhere else? I found some info but is not exactly what I was looking for, I will search more.

Thanks!

How can I get the smooth surfaces of Sketchup to show smooth in Maxwell? For example, when you create a cylinder in Sketchup, Sketchup displays it smooth even though it is made by a certain number of sides. How can I get the same effect from Maxwell?

Thanks.

Are there any tutorials on how to create hybrid emitter/IES luminaries or other best practices in creating luminaries that will be on-camera?

Is it ok to physically model lamps with Maxwell, or could it result in very slow rendering?

@unknownuser said:

1. Context click the group (or component) and choose Maxwell> Separate By> Material

2. On the Output tab change the setting for "Use Instances" to "No".

These things do not seem to apply to the Standalone version.

I downloaded the IES example component from the Maxwell forums but I can't get the component itself to be shown lit. (but light is still coming from it). Backlight and Reflector are both set to "Yes" in the options.