Artlantis + Maxwell Renderer

[Eduardo Rolon]

http://architosh.com/2012/06/abvent-updates-artlantis-with-integrated-maxwell-render-engine/

Interesting…

[ArchiTAD]

…yes, quite interesting!

Been playing around with it for a couple of days. Actually quite impressed with Artlantis 4.1. I'm really enjoying the new ISO/Shutter Speed adjustments, seem to produce a higher quality final render with much less manipulation.

LOVE the new HDRI background addition!

The new Maxwell Render (MR) Engine is amazing. I've attached an image that is into it's 25th hour, and counting, of rendering time (Sampling Level: and it's looking tons better that what I was acheiving in 4.1, which I was quite pleased with. The MR addition takes things to a much higher, but slower, level.

BTW: I can't get the HDRI background to look the same when I render in 4.1 and MR—does anyone know why this is so? Also, the "Background" slider doesn't seem to do anything—does anyone know/understand it's functionality?

[Karl Ottenstein]

Thomas,

Have you used any of the 17 special Maxwell shaders in your scene? (There is a car paint and two different glass shaders, for example.) Just curious.

On the HDRI: there is something about the proportions that I cannot remember - perhaps ask on the Artlantis forums?

The Maxwell 'background' slider just controls the exposure of the background (heliodon sky/clouds, image or HDRI, whichever you have chosen).

You did see the HDRI button which allows you to enable the HDRI illumination (disabled, the HDRI only provides a background)? If HDRI illumination is enabled, then under Heliodon, the Sky Light power is disabled as the HDRI provides the overall illumination. The Heliodon can still be enabled to obtain shadow casting... although it is a manual thing to move the sun position to where the shadows make sense with respect to the HDR image content.

(Personally, the huge amount of time required for Maxwell to generate a non-grainy image is just too long for me; I'll accept the lower quality of the amazingly fast Artlantis engine. I could accept it if there was a Pause button so that I could free my processors to work on something else, but my computer is pretty much unusable during a Maxwell rendering.)

Cheers,
Karl

[ArchiTAD]

Hi Karl,

Thanks for your reply, excellent feedback, as always!

No, I haven't tried any of the Maxwell shaders—not a lot to choose from. This was a model that I had done in Art 4.0 and played around with in 4.1.

Yeah, I read all the Blogs I could find and couldn't find much regarding HDRI backgrounds in Art/MR. I was/am using the HDRI illumination as you describe. I was getting some weird shadows when combining HDRI + Heliodon, especially under the vehicles—MR images seemed fine though.

I played with the "Background" slider and just couldn't get the sky background to reflect the "Partly cloudy Mid-day sky" HDRI background that I purchased—works/looks fine in the Art 4.1 renders of the image. Will keep trying.

I've got two MR renderings going on still, both are around 30+ hours with 15 hours left on the current Sampling Levels (Level 9). Will probably stop them soon because changes are so small and you'd have to be a "Pixal Peeper" to really detect the differences, especially for an exterior architectural rendering like these.

I'm really debating justifying the cost of the MR license when the new 4.1 engine and upgrades is doing such a good job straight out of the box.

Thanks again,

Tom

PS: Attached is a recent rendering done in v. 4.0, one of my favorites. Sold a City Council on the project and landed us a job—yeah!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Really nice image (and model), Tom! It would be fun to see the same scene rendered with the new 'physical' camera in 4.1 (just Artlantis with physical camera - not Maxwell) - to see if you think it is better than 4.0

Cheers,
Karl

[Anonymous]

hi ArchiTAD,

i saw the trees u render, its quite realistic. may i may which package of trees are u using. i tot of purchase some trees library. thanks.

[ArchiTAD]

Hi Mervyn,

Thank you for the compliment!

The trees are from Artlantis's "3D Plants & Trees 2" media library. I'm quite pleased with them, and use them often in my renderings.

I've attached an updated rendering using the Artlantis 4.1 new Physical Camera feature as an example — all landscape objects are from Artlantis media libraries.

Tom

[ArchiTAD]

Hi Mervyn,

Attached is another rendering that I populated with other landscaping objects from the Artlantis "3D Plants & Trees 1 and 2" media libraries — I highly recommend them!

The downside to using them is the rendering time/power required, since they are all full 3D objects — no billboards!

Have fun!

Tom

[rm]

Just wondering if anyone knows if there is any depth of field control in any of the settings of Artlantis v5 or the Maxwell add on. I cant seem to find it.

I think the new maxwell engine is great, but for my taste both as an architect and photographer, there needs to be some fall of of focus in the seen ( also called Bokeh ). No matter how good lighting is, if the image is sharp corner to corner on a building, it just looks fake to me.

By adding depth of field, which artlantis v3 had, I thought renderings looked way more photographic or realistic.

I hope I have just completely missed it here in the new Artlantis v5.

Karl.....if there is someone who knows about it, Im guessing it will be you!

Thanks!

[Eduardo Rolon]

There is.