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]

jp_walford wrote:
Agreed,
Anyone know a good (free) video editing app. for PC that can use the .png files maxwell outputs, or will I have to convert every frame to say .jpg... ?

Not free, but Quicktime Pro is only about US$30 - can be used to compile multiple images into a video file.

[Anonymous]

Thx Tom,
Actually, scratch that request...
Found right after I posted, that Windows Movie Maker does exactly what I need... Fancy that Right under my nose...

[__archiben]

s2art wrote:
I know its nearly mid-winter, but doesn't it get any brighter than that in Christchurch?

OI!

it's because it's winter that the image is dark . . . they've all got their log fires a-burnin' and chucking soot and smog out into the atmosphere. what sun?! and the slight yellow hue is the fug caused by the local sewage plant that's backed up and gone pop for the third time in a week. the place stinks. dan's image is pretty accurate . . .

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Funny thing. My very first try in Maxwell was also a night scene.
It can be only architect's wicked mind to produce such a thought: "So I have this cutting edge light behaviour simulator....let's do the night thing "

[Anonymous]

how long did your render take tigr ?

[Anonymous]

~/archiben wrote:

s2art wrote:
I know its nearly mid-winter, but doesn't it get any brighter than that in Christchurch?

OI!

it's because it's winter that the image is dark . . . they've all got their log fires a-burnin' and chucking soot and smog out into the atmosphere. what sun?! and the slight yellow hue is the fug caused by the local sewage plant that's backed up and gone pop for the third time in a week. the place stinks. dan's image is pretty accurate . . .

~/archiben

Actually looks a helluva lot better on my home 'puter with LCD monitor (yes, ~/Ben, working on the powers that be for an upgrade at work, and I think I'm winning). Thought Chch was the garden city, all pretty and flowery and bright, sun always shining. And aren't log fires outlawed?

Tigr, love your work.

[Anonymous]

Danj,

It was long time ago so I don't really know, but might be 5-6 hours. I've never paid much attention to the render times since it cooks while I sleep.

[Anonymous]

Thanks s2art.
Hope you like this one too.

[Anonymous]

Nice render tigr

One thing I noticed with rendering straight from archicad is that emitters outside your field of view don't seem to work. I tried adding a couple of street lights to get some extra light to my house but they didn't seem to add any extra light to my render.
Anyone else found this to be true?

[Anonymous]

tigr wrote:
Hope you like this one too.

Nice. I like the view point, like the camera fell off the tripod.

And Danj, I take back my sarcastic comments from earlier. Definitely looked much better on a decent screen.