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.

[Djordje]

Burginger wrote:
Camera settings are a mixed bag.

Photographically speaking:

All your renderings have a problem of blazing sunlight and very low DOF.

If the sunlight is blazing, your F stop is 8 at least - more with the modern 200 or 400 ISO films - therefore your DOF is practically infinite. For example, Walkway rendering - even in the shadow, your shutter speed is fast, your F stop is still too high for only the column to be sharp.

Blow the dust off your SLR, load some 35mm film, shoot a few rolls, then back to rendering. It will help.

[Anonymous]

DJ, I agree with your comments. They are mostly tests, but I will try to improve upon them.

It is as if I am a test car driver with the latest prototype.

[Anonymous]

New Podcast:

ArchiMaxwell and Multilight function (~55 Mb):

http://www.maxwellrender.it/podcast//ArchiMaxwell_basics_Plastic_Model_Multilight.mov

.mov to see how subscribe the podcast on iTunes:

http://www.maxwellrender.it/podcast/podcast.htm

P.

[Djordje]

Burginger wrote:
DJ, I agree with your comments. They are mostly tests, but I will try to improve upon them.

It is as if I am a test car driver with the latest prototype.

But you won't drive the car in the second all the time, right?

Just some nagging to get you to do the tests properly; otherwise, people would say "good, but DOF is wrong" ...

[Anonymous]

Second gear? I thought I had it in neutral.

Speaking of cars,...
There is a FREE archiCAD object, an Alfa 147. It is from Dosch Design the best car models anywhere. Various formats including a low poly and high poly ArchiCAD version.

See:
http://www.3dvf.com/modules/publish/_1787_1.html

[Anonymous]

I love Maxwell Render!! Some works modeled in ArchiCAD and rendered in Maxwell 😉 😉
Respect to all of you, especially Pietro and Burginger 😉!

[Anonymous]

another one...

[Anonymous]

last one!

[Anonymous]

Wonderful work,... see DJ the software works if someone takes it out of neutral.

The Shopping cart cracks me up, is that the bag lady's livingroom? I always suspected that she was rich.

[Anonymous]

Maxwell is compelling but there are times when I just struggle. For example visiting the site: http://www.vterrain.org/ I downloaded a 3Ds scene and brought it into C4D, sending it to Maxwell worked fine, but now I can't render a HDR scene. I posted the file at: http://www.Burginger.com/MAXWELL/Maxwell_PacknGo.zip 4MB

HDRI global warming type effect. The scene is San Diego.

EDIT NOTE: Adding the HDR to the reflection and refraction channels cleared up the problem. Go figure.