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]

Hi Mario,

Is MW compatiable with AC11?
- Yes.

How do you use it?

- You can use it via plug-in directly from ArchiCAD (you got another render engine in PhotoRendering Settings dialog window to pick) with crucial option to set like camera, enviroment, lighting solution etc.
Or you can export your model in 3ds format and set up everything in Maxwell Studio.

DO you have to export your model to MW studio or you just have a pluging for AC?

- Most of the time I use plug-in but for more accurate results (proper texture mapping) it's better to use Studio

Can you use MW materials?

- All the ArchiCAD materials are translated on the fly. For accurate results you can connect MX materials with ArchiCAD materials (you make materials in separate, standalone - Material Editor). Pretty much the same like with LW shaders.

Last thing: With the newest release of Maxwell Render 1.6 you got also true displacement which gives astonishing results with all the bumpy materials.

[Anonymous]

Hi tigr!
So you happy with it?

[Anonymous]

very ... it might be a bit faster though.

[Rex Maximilian]

I notice all of the renderings have a grainy look to them. Is this by choice (artistic choice) or a limitation of the rendering engine? The renderings look like they were taken with a digital camera with high ISO settings, or high film ASA.

I really like the wide-aperature, shallow depth-of-field renderings on their web site.

[Anonymous]

The grain in renders comes from the nature of render (unbiased render) which constantly calculates bouncing light rays and update the image. Theoreticly if you let it render long enough it will get cristal clear, in practice everything above sampling level 14 is good enough for printing (post work grain removing is a faster solution).
There are some rules and techniques which also help decrease render time and the grain, for example not to use real dielectric in windows' glass if you not after complex caustic, keep the material color value under RGB 240 or make the emmiter geometry as simple as possible etc.

Cheers,

[Anonymous]

Can you post some exterior work?

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I'll start the ball rolling... Just love Maxwell...

[Anonymous]

Cannot post anything from the latest since it's a pay work, but here is one I did some time ago for fun.
BTW great one Justin.

[Anonymous]

Thx, nice one Tigr,
Great texture detailing, is the scene lit by HDR ?

[Anonymous]

Yes it is.
It was made with ver 1.1, now imagine how good the brick and grass might look with latest displacement. I try to I find some time to redo it.