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.

[Dwight]

Rendering is not magic.

If somebody thinks that Maxwell does great exterior renderings and bad interior renderings, he is giving me the impression that he is an idiot.

It would be great if rendering programs could just "make up" light that was perfect for all occasions, but this is not the case. The person who wrote that critical article probably expected Maxwell to be automatic. It's not.

Yes, you do need to add more lights to an interior scene, but not architectural lights: photographer's lights. The Maxwell people have gone to great lengths to make their camera just like a real camera with a shutter and film. Why NOT make the WORLD work like it was a photograph? Imagine those great interiors seen in architectural magazines. The photographer shows up with a little camera and ten stooges bring in the big lights. These lights fill the shadows so that one view can encapsulate the memory produced by many glimses through human eyes that constantly adjust to changing light.

[Anonymous]

Dwight, thanks for the comment, I agree with you.
In my opinion(I am using maxwell demo for 3 days), the biggest problem is the big rendering time. So, I think that some experts should give some tips and tricks how to reduce it. For example is geometry as important as lighting when it comes to reducing rendering time..

[Anonymous]

@fferrini

I tried hier to make similar effect. The Rendering-Engine is LW.

[Anonymous]

Tips from anyone would be appreciated. I have tried in vain to get xFrog trees into Maxwell. So far no luck.

I did get this scene from ArchiCAD to load into Maxwell. It features trees and landscape from ArchiTerra plus some other ArchiCAD objects.

Maxwell shines the light of reality on the ArchiCAD objects to show just how silly they really are. If you are going to use Maxwell, you better model the scene to look absolutely realistic - otherwise you will find yourself working for the Cartoon Network. http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/

[Anonymous]

I think that the only way to put trees into maxwell is over .3ds format. For example: Use onyx tree(I belive that is the proper name), save the tree as .3ds, and then import it into maxwell..

[Anonymous]

*Delete*

[Anonymous]

a couple new interior shots of some lofts I am designing in San Francisco's South Park neighborhood. Still some detail modeling to do,but its a promising start. Point of interest: TV screen is made with an MXI image saved out of MXCL and made into a MXM Emitter. I should do a night render next to show how it will light up the room.

Unit B



Unit C kitchen. I got to redo this cause the faucet got screwy. And I should model the lampshades like in the first image.

[Anonymous]

hi

how have you modelled the lights?

did you have to create them from scratch using maxwell emitter materials?

TIA

Adri

[Anonymous]

I used lamp objects from ArchiCAD's library. In picture 2, the hanging lamps look too bright. So in Picture 1, I tuned off the shade of the lamp and made my own square tube around the bulb and applied a translucent MXM to the new shad and applied an emitter MXM to the bulb inside. ArchiCAD lamps dont allow you to apply a material to the emitting surface within ArchiCAD. But if you export to Studio, you can find the material called "MyLamp001" and then apply an MXM to it. I guess I could have applied my translucent glass material to the shades in AC and then delt with the emitters in studio.

[Anonymous]

Maxwell Render dot it has the pleasure to announce the release of number 00 of the first magazine for Maxwell Render: Maxwell Magazine.
In format pdf, partially in English and partially in Italian, the magazine is born thanks to the engagement of the Maxwell Render customers and contains in this number, beyond to important resources and tutorial, one exclusive interview to Victor Gonzales CEO Next Limit.

Download Magazine (without .it registration)
http://www.maxwellrender.it/fileshare/MaxwellMagazine/MM_00.pdf

P.