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.

[__archiben]

well. i wanted to give it a shot, but 'maxwell' doesn't even launch and 'mxstudio' is too painfully slow to use. i assume it's a mactel thing. any indication that they will be making it a universal binary/intel build for the mac? it does look extremely promising . . .

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Maxwell doesnt launch independantly. It only launches from within Maxwell Studio. If you would like to change that, here is a method:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16705

Universable binary is working but not released publicly as of today. Should be soon.

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18080

[__archiben]

Daniel wrote:
Maxwell doesnt launch independantly.

ah! better RTFM then . . . .

thanks
~/archiben

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the insight and Burginger for starting the thread. Maxwell does look extremely promising. I do have the new MacPro (intel x 4 processors) waiting for a program like Maxwell to finish off my renderings. Can't wait until it is in Universal Binary.

I downloaded the demo and was able to load a simple ArchiCAD 10 3ds project into MXStudio (a building lobby).

OBJECT LIST:
The OBJECT list seems very large and the names are just a series of numbers (from number 1 to 240) (I wish they were the names of the materials I had selected in ArchiCAD).

1) How does one organize this list into groups?
2) Is there a way for MXStudio to import as a group based on the material one has selected [or maybe by layers (one could lable the layer w/ the name of the material used)]?
3) And does MXStudio allow you to assign a material to the entire group and not each object individually?

CAMERA:
Manipulating the camera doesn't seem very intuitive either, not like ArchiCAD...it seems you have to type in numbers...am I missing something that makes moving the camera, changing its angle, tilt, etc. easier?

The program does look extremely promising, the lighting and materials features look great. I'm sure the OBJECTS and CAMERA functions will come with practice.

[Anonymous]

DrawingStudio wrote:
Questions below

OBJECT LIST:
The OBJECT list seems very large and the names are just a series of numbers (from number 1 to 240) (I wish they were the names of the materials I had selected in ArchiCAD).

The (Windows) ArchiCad 10 plug-in assigns the material names to objects, you could figure it out this way


1) How does one organize this list into groups?

Select items, right click (select group items)

2) Is there a way for MXStudio to import as a group based on the material one has selected [or maybe by layers (one could lable the layer w/ the name of the material used)]?

Not sure if Plug-in can do this.

3) And does MXStudio allow you to assign a material to the entire group and not each object individually?

Yes, select items, drag material onto highlighted items

CAMERA:
Manipulating the camera doesn't seem very intuitive either, not like ArchiCAD...it seems you have to type in numbers...am I missing something that makes moving the camera, changing its angle, tilt, etc. easier?

I am just learning this too. There is a PDF in the Maxwell folder, Page 39 describing use of the camera controls, creating multiple cameras, etc.

[Anonymous]

For camera movements:

1. Ctrl+C to create new camera.
2. Select newly created (or any) camera from camera list, right-click on it, pick "set this camera as active"
3. Now with Alt key hold down, press left/middle/right mouse for camera movement, Alt+Shift+L/M/R for target movement and finally Alt+(Shift)+Ctrl+L/M/R for fine adjustments.

Also in Maxwell/docs folder there is a pdf manual which is worth reading.

[Anonymous]

CAMERA:
First, click on the 'eye icon' in the top left corner of the model 'viewport' window and select Model Cam (or create a new camera). This allows you to see thru the camera lens.
Then, under CameraList (bottom left), double click on the Model:Cam to bring up a dialogue box. Change 'Focal Length' to 12 (hit enter or tab) or some lower number to make the angle wider (especially for interiors).
MOVEMENT:
Like you said tigr, hold down the alt key...put your cursor in the 'viewport' window, click/hold/drag left or right.
Alt+Shift (w/ mouse click/hold/drag) allows the model to revolve around the camera station point.
GROUPING OBJECTS: it's easy as you pointed out Burginger and I think assigning materials is fairly straight forward, but it seems you have to load which material you want into the materials list (on far right), only then can you drag/drop them over the group of objects.
MATERIALS: I seem to be having trouble getting access to the material files...I downloaded 'Arroway' textures, put them in the Maxwell>Materials database>Textures>Arroway folder, but it says that the textures should be in the C/......something folder....which sounds like PC jargen.

[Anonymous]

MATERIALS: I seem to be having trouble getting access to the material files...

Using the sample file allows me to access the Material Browser from the drop down menu. WINDOW/MATERIAL BROWSER - then select material and drag and drop onto the material list. From there drag and drop onto Object List items as you see fit.

[Anonymous]

Update to my scene. Adjusted the physical sky and added a tree lol

[Anonymous]

Facinating web site at: http://www.3dchaya.com/download_mdl/download00.htm

Render - 20 min ea. of Houryuji_Buddhist_temple five-story pagoda