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Noemi Balogh
Gallery at:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/
If you want THAT TYPE OF REALISM in your images, you need to take the jump into the Maxwell universe.
You might be thinking it is difficult. I used to think that way. Guess what? It isn't all that difficult. Within just a few hours I have been able to come to grips with the interface, navigation and material editor.
"But isn't it Slooooooooow?", you quip... No. In many ways it is actually fast. The reason it is so fast is because it is predictable. You don't need to think about Global Strength, Occlusion, Shadow Sampling settings, etc, etc.
It is extremely architectural, place your crosshairs on the hires Earth globe, think google earth, now position your project with north arrow - specify the year, month and time of day. Check Physical Sky and you have just successfully finished the lighting of an exterior.
It has a function that takes just 1 or 2 minutes to generate a fuzzy preview. Very fast and useful.
Here is the clincher, you can also do much of it from within ArchiCAD 10. Yup, NextLimit is working hard to create the connections (plug-ins) between ArchiCAD 10 and Maxwell. PC will come first (as usual
Mac comes next) What's exciting about the Mac development is Universal App - Mactel support. Have you heard about the Quad Core Intel chips coming out soon? Imagine a MacPro with dual Quads. All of them working on your images at once. The future is looking kinda bright. 
I will post within this thread more info as it become available to me, and I will give you a peek at some of the programs more useful features.
oreopoulos wrote:Please post it again or perhaps just edit the previous post. I promise nobody is editing the thread.
Did someone delete it? And why?
I would try to point my negative experience with Maxwell.
1) Promised alot delivered half. They promised a ton of features (texture baking, displacement maps, procedural materials... and much more)
2)The archicad plugin is simply a DISASTER (they have announched a new better one, 3 months ago, but still no sign of it), The current one is simply a geometry exporter, and that would not be bad IF the exported materila was useable. What you get is a SINGLE object, and materials are assigned as triangle groups, not editable (locked). Simply unusable for serious Job.
3) Alternatives? Tried 3ds and obj export. There, either Archicad is a bad exporter of 3ds and obj or Maxwell is just producing garbage. Some projects (very small and simple) are exported in 3ds ok, but others either do not load or end up missing most of the structure
4) The only viable way is exporting to c4d and then exporting to Maxwell. You also get problems that way, but less, and you can actually produce something usufull.
5) The maxwell potential was (is?) good. But customer support is non existent and the usual response to protesting is "shut up" (yes when you ask to deliver what was promised you get that answer )
6) You can produce some nice picture with Maxwell, but for architecture interiors you have to provide it with a cluster of computers to get a noise free image, or leave it for 3-4 days (or more ) to get to acceptable noise levels.
Thats the negative side of the moon. For the bright side you may look at other posts
1) Promised alot delivered half. They promised a ton of features (texture baking, displacement maps, procedural materials... and much more)
2)The archicad plugin is simply a DISASTER (they have announched a new better one, 3 months ago, but still no sign of it), The current one is simply a geometry exporter, and that would not be bad IF the exported materila was useable. What you get is a SINGLE object, and materials are assigned as triangle groups, not editable (locked). Simply unusable for serious Job.
3) Alternatives? Tried 3ds and obj export. There, either Archicad is a bad exporter of 3ds and obj or Maxwell is just producing garbage. Some projects (very small and simple) are exported in 3ds ok, but others either do not load or end up missing most of the structure
4) The only viable way is exporting to c4d and then exporting to Maxwell. You also get problems that way, but less, and you can actually produce something usufull.
5) The maxwell potential was (is?) good. But customer support is non existent and the usual response to protesting is "shut up" (yes when you ask to deliver what was promised you get that answer
)6) You can produce some nice picture with Maxwell, but for architecture interiors you have to provide it with a cluster of computers to get a noise free image, or leave it for 3-4 days (or more ) to get to acceptable noise levels.
Thats the negative side of the moon. For the bright side you may look at other posts
Oreopoulos, thanks for the concise list of concerns. Looking at it I don't see anything that is insurmountable. Over the next few weeks I am sure each one of them can be mitigated.
Let's start with that plug-in, are you on a Mac or PC also are you AC10 or 9?
If you are Windows and AC10, be assured the plug-in is in beta and it works. It will release very soon. As far as the Mac - I don't know.
For now, I am using a Mac without the aid of a plug-in. I have been successfully and unsuccessfully testing various export file options. I will share this information within this thread so that we can all learn from it. For example I recently tested an ArchiCAD model of a home. It exports fine as a .3Ds - but - when I add VF-Tile to the roof the process broke down. If you ever want to overload a 3D program with polygons, just use the Tile Object.
The .3ds exported and imported fine with Cinema4D, but it would not load into Maxwell. So then I switched to the lowest 3D common denominator file format - DXF . Exporting the model in AC10 took 30 MINUTES! Ouch. But then the model loaded fine into Maxwell. Go figure?
I attach a test render from Maxwell, 250 min. on a Mac single processor 1.8 GHz.
Moving the model from AC10 --> C4D then export as --> .obj and dxf and .3ds
None of these methods worked 100% - for some reason the 3ds just would not load into Maxwell, causing a hang. Then the .obj and .dxf seemed to work for about 75% of the geometry, but who can use a peoject with missing polygons?
Most of these problems are probably related to the tile object because without it the success rate is much higher. Anyone have a better tile solution than VF-Tile object?
I have the beta AC10 plug-in for Windows and I will test that with AC10 on my windows machine soon. For now I am giving up looking for a good method of using the Mac with Maxwell.
Let's start with that plug-in, are you on a Mac or PC also are you AC10 or 9?
If you are Windows and AC10, be assured the plug-in is in beta and it works. It will release very soon. As far as the Mac - I don't know.
For now, I am using a Mac without the aid of a plug-in. I have been successfully and unsuccessfully testing various export file options. I will share this information within this thread so that we can all learn from it. For example I recently tested an ArchiCAD model of a home. It exports fine as a .3Ds - but - when I add VF-Tile to the roof the process broke down. If you ever want to overload a 3D program with polygons, just use the Tile Object.
The .3ds exported and imported fine with Cinema4D, but it would not load into Maxwell. So then I switched to the lowest 3D common denominator file format - DXF . Exporting the model in AC10 took 30 MINUTES! Ouch. But then the model loaded fine into Maxwell. Go figure?
I attach a test render from Maxwell, 250 min. on a Mac single processor 1.8 GHz.
Moving the model from AC10 --> C4D then export as --> .obj and dxf and .3ds
None of these methods worked 100% - for some reason the 3ds just would not load into Maxwell, causing a hang. Then the .obj and .dxf seemed to work for about 75% of the geometry, but who can use a peoject with missing polygons?
Most of these problems are probably related to the tile object because without it the success rate is much higher. Anyone have a better tile solution than VF-Tile object?
I have the beta AC10 plug-in for Windows and I will test that with AC10 on my windows machine soon. For now I am giving up looking for a good method of using the Mac with Maxwell.
Running the same Roof Tile AC Model thru the AC Photorender:
Sketch... This engine takes an unknown amount of time to render, 193 min...110min...268min... (I stopped the render after 15 minutes because the estimated time to completion kept increasing each minute) Sketch does not like a tile roof. Without the tile it renders in 45 seconds.
Internal Rendering Engine: It was like watching the moon move, but it did get a render after 30 min.
LightWorks Engine: Yes! It cranks thru the model in 5 min. Lighting can be adjusted to create the necessary image. If all you have is AC10 for rendering, then get Dwight Atkinson's book and learn how to maximize the potential of this built-in rendering engine. Better yet, sign up for one of his classes when he is in your town, the guy is like a gypsy doing traditional folk dances from town to town, you have seen his avatar - that's one of his dances.
Sketch... This engine takes an unknown amount of time to render, 193 min...110min...268min... (I stopped the render after 15 minutes because the estimated time to completion kept increasing each minute) Sketch does not like a tile roof. Without the tile it renders in 45 seconds.
Internal Rendering Engine: It was like watching the moon move, but it did get a render after 30 min.
LightWorks Engine: Yes! It cranks thru the model in 5 min. Lighting can be adjusted to create the necessary image. If all you have is AC10 for rendering, then get Dwight Atkinson's book and learn how to maximize the potential of this built-in rendering engine. Better yet, sign up for one of his classes when he is in your town, the guy is like a gypsy doing traditional folk dances from town to town, you have seen his avatar - that's one of his dances.
Burginger wrote:Burginger
Sketch... This engine takes an unknown amount of time to render, 193 min...110min...268min... (I stopped the render after 15 minutes because the estimated time to completion kept increasing each minute) Sketch does not like a tile roof. Without the tile it renders in 45 seconds.
Annoying isn't it. It does eventually stop increasing and all of a sudden you will have you sketch render, but you never know exactly when that is going to be. In your case, it was probably after 16minutes
Burginger wrote:I am 100% sure that this wont be the case. Its a year since the first (incomplete) release and NO update since then. There are tons of missing (promised) features. There is no indication of fixing the problems. So i wouldnt bet in a few weeks. If you said in a few years, that would be closer to the truth
. Over the next few weeks I am sure each one of them can be mitigated.
Here a test in Maxwell using a scene i am currently working on.
Jus to add to this post.
I used a skydome for my exterior lighting and my camera settings were an ISO of 100, fStop was 1/19, focal distacne was 500. My render time was like 2.5hrs.
Jus to add to this post.
I used a skydome for my exterior lighting and my camera settings were an ISO of 100, fStop was 1/19, focal distacne was 500. My render time was like 2.5hrs.
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