Maxwell Render - The Light Simulator

[Anonymous]

If you are interested in a new rendering engine for ArchiCAD, check out Maxwell Render.

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.

[Anonymous]

WhiteMan,
i work wiht archicad, so if you want have a render, with archicad you must download the archicad plug-in and put it in add-ons folder. than in archicad choose maxwell engine as engine render. set time, date, skylight, and enable sun. then start render. that's all!. Ciao Fabio

[Anonymous]

thx,
I did that, but it seams that the problem was in materials.. Are there any tutorials for maxwell???

[Anonymous]

WhiteMan wrote:
thx,
I did that, but it seams that the problem was in materials.. Are there any tutorials for maxwell???

go to maxwell site, section download, you can find manual too

[Anonymous]

I have already knew that
I tried in a few ways to render ArchiCAD models in maxwell, and I found out that the best way to do it is to export it like .3ds, materials, and then to make the scene in maxwell, is that ok?
When I do it , it is ok, but when I put some materials, it wont render..Why?
How do you inport those trees? Do you have to meke textures for trees in maxwell?
PS. How to put sun in maxwell???
Regards..

[Anonymous]

WhiteMan see this:

[Anonymous]

Thx a loooot!!!!
I will make some renders, and than post it..
Could you say please what is the render tome of yours pictures?

[Anonymous]

Easiest is to just export MXS (there is a check box for it in ArchiCAD Render settings) Then load the scene in Maxwell Editor. Rotate earth to obtain desired lighting, play with camera and settings - then invoke MXC [render scene] - Now you can control exposure under preview MXI.

Doing anything else limits your control of the final image.

MXS = Maxwell Studio (the place for lights, camera action)
MXC = Maxwell Render w/command line control (the place to render an image)
MXI = Interactive render solution (HDR type file - Maxwell's version)

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by export as mxs??? How to do that? Will that create a file which I could open in Studio(not to inport it)

[Anonymous]

Look at the dialog box, shown in the screen shots supplied above in the previous post by fferrini, see Maxwell Parameters? There is a check box for EXPORT MXS ONLY. Use that, then load the file you saved with Maxwell Studio. Now you can start to improve the scene.

[Anonymous]

oh
I found some articles on the internet about maxwell render.. They say that it is great engine for exterior rendering, but not very good for interiors, is that a truth? Do you need to put some extra lights for interiors?