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]

Also, when I put physical sky, I get black picure, like there is no light at all. By the way, what is better physical sky, dome, or hdr?

[Anonymous]

Under PhotoRender settings, check the export MXS only, then open in Maxwell Studio first. Rotate earth, establish lighting there, fix any textures, etc. I do it that way and there seems to be less headache.

[Anonymous]

I did it that way

[Anonymous]

Hallo!
I hope that I will not repeat, but I am too lazy to read all this...

I am using Maxwell render 1.0 and ArchiCAD 10. I have a plug-in that can be downloaded together with Maxwell Render 1.1 demo version and it seems to me that this plug-in is not working with Maxwell Render 1.0...

Is there a different plug-in for each version? And where can I get them..?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

There is a download page at the Maxwell site, you will need to contact their support section. http://www.maxwellrender.com/

[Anonymous]

Here is my first attempt on Maxwell. I can't seem to get all my textures to show up though. There isn't much set-up, but I still have a long way to go.

Rendered in 13h20min

Justin

[Anonymous]

13hr, what is the machine - it seems you should have a cleaner image. What are the light setups? - Perhaps crank up the power of the interior lights and adjust your exposure real time with multi-light.

Nice, and if it was cooked correctly (fast machine) and perhaps with a slight tone down of blue paint, wow - time to get out the bball.

Yes I have looked at the rendering several times, very impressive space. Maxwell does a great job of creating light effects.

[Anonymous]

I have a hdr image for the illumination channel set at 90 and the high pressure sodium for the high bay lighting. fstop 6, iso 250, shutter 250.
The blue is actually supposed to be a texture, but it didn't show up.

I just started using Maxwell on Monday, and I don't know much more now than I did then. Any tips you could give me would be great.

Justin

[Anonymous]

For the little amount of sky, I would use physical sky and crank up the interior light power. Play it by the seat of your pants to get more lighting power, it lowers the render time. HDR is a killer.

[Anonymous]

Here is my second attemp at Maxwell.

Justin