maxwell renderer

[Reeko25]

What do you guys think of Maxwell renderer. I'm about to purchase either vray or maxwell. Can anyone give me some info on maxwell. Or where I can find info on it. We mainly do interior scenes. We are also using Viz 6.

Which is the better one.

 

 

 

Thanks your your help

[AJLynn]

Maxwell has its good and bad points. At this time I can't really recommend it as a buy-it-and-use-it-for-all-your-production-needs kind of renderer.

 

The good:

 

Very realistic images, with a certain quality you can't really get anywhere else.

Ease of use.

 

The bad:

 

It has not yet reached final release, and there is no good information on when it will.

The materials system is not at all like what you're used to, and it can not use procedual maps, only bitmaps.

You are forced to be physically accurate - if you want a light source you model the light bulb.

It's very slow, especially for interiors. We're talking days, not hours.

 

It has this one critical flaw that deserves its own paragraph. Any light that hits a surface because of caustics (e.g. reflected off a metal of glass surface, or passing through glass) is not seen is reflections or through glass. If you are outside a building looking at a window and there is sun on it, you do not see the illumination through the window. This is something that's supposed to be corrected in their RC2 render engine, which will probably not be available until version 1.5 or 2.0. Considering how long it's taking to get to 1.0, there's no telling how long it will be until they get to RS2.

 

For now you're probably better off with Vray, or mental ray - mental ray is harder to learn and slower unless you become very good at optimizing it, but its image quality is comparable to Vray's when used by people who are good at it.

[siliconbauhaus]

I have and love both.

 

Vray has never let me down and continues to improve and get new features. Their support is second to none and the vray forum is full of helpful people.

 

Maxwell's development strategy and their lack of support is very disappointing. All I want was sun though glass and a speed increase, both of which so far are still disappointing.

 

If I had to buy only one it would be vray. I think there's still the deal going on which include Chris Nicholls excellent dvd. If it isn't, I would highly recommend you get both dvd's anyways.

[ecastillor]

I havent used maxwell, and have used vray for a while....

 

All I can ell is that for now...most of the vray related posts here are stuning images...both interiors and exteriors....some of them done in a few hours....(and a lot claim to be their first vray image!)

 

and on the other hand, most of the maxwell posts here, have to do with people complaining about the software itself, the release of their new version taking too loong...hard to make materials,ridiculously long render times. a lot of grainy images, and yes...a few excellent images ( that took more than 24 hours to render..at low res)...

 

so for the time being, for me, its a no contest...go with vray

[chuck]

Maxwell has some features that I really like, but if I had to buy one renderer for production right now, it would be Vray. Maxwell has too many problems and is too slow. Right now I'm getting mostly noise free results in 15hrs for a 1500x1100 image. This is on a dual xeon 3.4, without interior lights that make it even slower. From what I gather from the maxwell forums there won't be a major speed increase for version 1.0.

 

Chuck

[rivoli]

I'm about to purchase either vray or maxwell.

 

well, if you put it like that, either maxwell or vray, and you need a production ready renderer, then you have to go for vray. maxwell is still in beta and it's not ready for production yet (especially when it comes to archviz/interiors).

i put maxwell into production quite a few times so far, but only for product design viz, and being in beta stage you use it at your own risk anyway. you may get lucky, you may not, and i sure wouldn't gamble on a renderer if it had to be my only production tool.

 

where I can find info on it.

 

lot of info here:

 

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/index.php

[Maximus3D]

I wouldn't decide if i should buy a product or not by asking in a product specific forum like this, as the situation is with Maxwell now most people are pissed off with it and you will only end up with negative comments and that's not a objective point of view on it all. There are two sides to every coin, now you only get one side in this thread.

 

I have no comments to what you should and shouldn't buy, it's up to you and your skills and what you're gonna do with it.

 

/ Max

[Devin Johnston]

All that I recommend you do is go to the Maxwell forum and look under the Off Topic section. If you take the time to read through those posts (and there are a lot of them) you will understand what is going on with Maxwell and you can make an informed decision.

[Adehus]

Contrary to, ahem, another opinion posted here, you'll get the best info on Maxwell relative to an archviz users needs here. Some are being more tactful than others, but trust me on this- Maxwell is not a production-ready tool for archviz. Not by a long shot.

[Fermi Bertran]

totally agree with Magnus

Without being a Maxwell user myself (was very close to purcahse a license few months ago, did not because I had not time at the moment to do the needed testing, ( it alpha software then), what's obvious is what you have already been told, MWR, though promising is still beta worth keeping an eye on it to see what turns out of it.

For production work, general advice is wise: go for produtcion ready tools.

Cheers

[AJLynn]

I've had my share of aggravating experience with Maxwell, but I stand by my statement.

 

Maxwell is being used to great effect in many fields, but it is not ready for prime time in arch vis production work, and from the information given by the Nextlimit people and the "inner circle" users it is unclear when it will be. Maxwell can be used under some circumstances but can not be relied on as your go-to engine.

 

Vray and mental ray are high-end products that are production ready now, and you have your choice of fast and relatively easy (Vray) or included with Max/Viz at no extra cost (mental ray). Many people prefer Vray, and you can make a pretty good argument that the time it can end up saving you is worth the additional cost.

[AdamT]

Usually when you go to a forum for software X and you ask if you should get X or Y, a large majority will tell you to get software X. After all, they've already made that choice themselves.

 

That everyone is telling you to get software Y (or V in this case) should set off major alarm bells. At this point I would recommend VRay, finalRender, Mental Ray, Brazil, or Cinema 4D Advanced Render before Maxwell.

 

It may end up being a great choice, but IMHO that won't be the case for at least a year and maybe as many as three years.

[Fran]

I would say that if you base your product purchase on whether or not it is production-ready for the near future, that Vray would be the better choice.