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]

With the Maxwell package you get, Cross Platform Mac, Windows and Linux versions of the program, plug-ins for many 3D programs, textures, materials, lights, tutorials, examples and a committed community of users.

You also get Maxwell Studio - a full editior to compose scenes, Maxwell Material Editor (a sample screen is attached to this message) and Maxwell Engine for distributed rendering across your office network.

The Material Editor includes a MATERIAL WIZARD which makes the process of creating your own materials a snap. This is the best material editor I have ever used.

Why give your client a rendering, when you can give them a photograph?


Check out the FREE community material library at:

http://mxmgallery.maxwellrender.com/

While you are there, register and download the DEMO and support files.
Tell em' Mark sent ya, just to confuse the little buggers.

[Thomas Holm]

Burginger wrote:
Why give your client a rendering, when you can give them a photograph?

I appreciate the links to their beautiful gallery very much, Mark. MR seems to be a very capable renderer. You could tell us how expensive it is, too.

But THAT is a completely different question. I find it often is much better to give the client a not-completely-realistic picture of the project. It leaves something to their imagination, which is good! (See Dwight's Photoshop tweaks, etc)

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:

Burginger wrote:
Why give your client a rendering, when you can give them a photograph?

I appreciate the links to their beautiful gallery very much, Mark. MR seems to be a very capable renderer. You could tell us how expensive it is, too.

But THAT is a completely different question. I find it often is much better to tive the client a not-completely-realistic picture of the project. It leaves something to their imagination, which is good! (See Dwight's Photoshop tweaks, etc)

I agree strongly that for design discussion/presentation sketchy renderings are far better than photo-rendering. The photos are often good for public presentation when you want to present the project as a completed work and not a springboard for discussion. This all works out rather well since the model is usually not developed enough in schematic phase to make a decent photo rendering anyway.

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:
MR seems to be a very capable renderer. You could tell us how expensive it is, too.

Yes you have a good point - it can be expensive, but a well rounded digital architect keeps his tools up-to-date. The alternative is to still be using ArchiCAD 8, PhotoShop 6, and a 800Mhz machine. It is a business expense. Never go backward and why stand still?

Price posted on Maxwell website - $995 for the complete package. free plug-ins, free incremental upgrades.

Compare: ArchiCAD 10 Upgrade from 9 Price: $795.00 ArchiCAD 10 Upgrade from 8.0 or previous versions Price: $995.00

The real expense is in training time, self-taught learning curve and daily implementation @ $$$+ per hr. Just ask Dwight about his Chapter Four LightWorks Voodoo Tricks rendering.

[Thomas Holm]

Matthew wrote:
I agree strongly that for design discussion/presentation sketchy renderings are far better than photo-rendering. The photos are often good for public presentation when you want to present the project as a completed work and not a springboard for discussion. This all works out rather well since the model is usually not developed enough in schematic phase to make a decent photo rendering anyway.

Precisely!

[Anonymous]

Is this turning into a debate? I scratch my head because the Forum is called "Presentation - Rendering and Multimedia" - Are we suggesting that users need go no further than the Kor-i-noor Sketch engine of ArchiCAD? Honestly for most purposes that suits me just fine in the initial phases and documentation. I have a B&W HP plotter, rendered color images don't even get considered for my standard work.

However, for special projects seeing the bldg. as a real object is also interesting.

I started this thread for an honest analysis of a very powerful rendering engine. If you want to use it for daily routine architectural work is not even the subject.

--
Taking a standard example model - the NHS Building - (supplied on the GS web site) - using ArchiCAD 10 - export as a .3ds - Layers/Materials - Import directly into Maxwell - Drag and Drop a few shaders - render for 50 min. with a G5 single 1.8 MHz will deliver the following result. Longer rendering will give a smoother texture to the image.

[Anonymous]

One more example before I dump this example model out of the program. NHS example file again in a standard G5 1.8MHz. Open GL very responsive easy to navigate. Camera lens changed to 20mm, image 1000 x 700 rendered for 90 minutes. Smoother image grain. I forgot to turn on the GLARE, notice the black sun spot on left corner of bldg. - You can have selectable diffraction effects from the camera diaphragm. You can select circular, hex and any other shape you might like to try.

The next feature I will address will be Multilight (tm).

[Thomas Holm]

Interesting. Looks just like a physical model, made of cardboard and plastic and paint!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing your excitement about this relatively new product.
I have been interested to try maxwell out. I have the demo downloaded but have not had the time yet to play. I am always open to new techniques and technologies.

I have found that I have shifted to mainly sketchy renderings for clients as it stimulates their imagination a bit more than the photo renderings (unless the photorealistic rendering is perfect). I think that Maxwell may be able to produce renderings that are a bit more artful than Lightworks. Photorealistic yeah, but also able to go past that and create pleasing renderings that are exciting to look at but not necessarily photo accurate...

Again, I appreciate your post. Thanks.