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maxwell install problem


phildlight
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I'm trying to be a little pro-active here to help my IT guy figure out why we can't get maxwell to fire up. When you try to launch it, you get the error: "Data folder not found under the installation path. The application will close".

 

NL support is apparently swamped and haven't got back with a solution, but I know that if you log on to the machine locally, it will start up. Must be something to do with the profile right? BUT I don't have admin rights (driving me crazy) so I can't troubleshoot it. Anyone else see this?

 

So far, we've uninstalled completely, re-installed, no go. Added environmental variables for maxroot= etc. and path etc. no go.

 

Like I said, it opens fine under a local user account, but not on the domain. It's an NT domain, and there's either policies in effect, or they're locked out as I'm setup as a power user. I'm new here, and don't have any pull in terms of network security, but something isn't right.

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Studio. We figured it out. We uninstalled and then had to manually remove the maxwell root entry in the registry and re-install.

 

I'm not sure I like it all that well. No displacement maps that I know of. Somewhat a clumbsy workflow as it doesn't integrate with max well. No pun intended.

 

Seems very slow also.

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I'm having problems too. It's just a small local network; two of the computers communicate fine, but the third is an island. Disabled firewall and still no luck. No other problems with that machine--renders fine over NET through Cinema and finalRender.

 

This must be the screwiest NET rendering workflow ever.

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I haven't even attempted cooperative rendering yet. I'm still wrestling with the studio interface and trying to achieve the level of realism I need. The gui is pretty clumbsy, and it doesn't seem finished. I left it render last night for 8 hours, so we'll see what I get when I get into work.

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actually, I'm using it with Viz 06. I'm trying to avoid using viz and doing a workflow via sketchup direct to maxwell, but I'm pretty unhappy with studio, so maybe I'll stick with render via viz. While I'm on a rant, how about these:

 

1. when you import objects from sketchup or anything else for that matter, the names have nothing to do with the original geometry. i.e. object1 object2 object3 etc. grrrrr.

 

2. when you import emitter materials, they come in named "lamp surface" so if you already have a lamp surface, it replaces it. grrrrrr.

 

3. for some reason when I import sketchup geometry, the emitters fail by a factor of about 1000 too dim. Have to multiply by 1000 to get fair light levels.

 

4. It's supposed to be a realistic engine based on real life light levels and material settings, but if you set the transmittance or other effectors to a pure white (over 214) it produces unrealistic results. If pure 255 isn't realistic, why can you set it to that? grrrrrrrr.

 

5. I've noticed some imported geometry loosing it's texture on import and getting grouped with other objects on a different texture. i.e. white box comes in on blue boxes object.

 

I'd rather be using vray, but the company already bought maxwell, so I'm sort of stuck using it.

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Yep. I don't know if you have this issue, but if I export from Cinema--with the same material on 100 different objects--it comes into Studio with 100 separate but identical materials. That alone makes it unuseable.

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  • 1 month later...
Studio. We figured it out. We uninstalled and then had to manually remove the maxwell root entry in the registry and re-install.

 

I'm having the same problem. I'm no computer guru. How do you remove the maxwell root entry and re-install?

 

i've installed and uninstalled several times. i've contacted next limit, but they're not responding...

 

any help would be greatly appreciated...i'm on windows nt.

 

thanks

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Philip, I would use the Viz or Max plug-in to do all my work, trying to work between Viz and Studio is to difficult and you have to deal with all of Studio's short comings. The Max plug-in does have problems but it works much better than Studio.

 

 

I'm having the same problem. I'm no computer guru. How do you remove the maxwell root entry and re-install?

 

i've installed and uninstalled several times. i've contacted next limit, but they're not responding...

 

any help would be greatly appreciated...i'm on windows nt.

 

thanks

 

It's pretty simple, just run the Maxwell uninstaller, then delete the Next Limit folder from Program files, then reinstall.

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What specifically are you having problems with?

 

I can't install the program and run it. With exactly the error dialog that phildlight started this thread with. Although I haven't been able to run the program in any way, unlike Phil who seemed to be able to run it by logging on locally (i don't know what that means).

 

It SAYS it installs but I can't even start Studio to insert the license info.

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You don't have to start Studio to insert your license you can just drop it into the Next Limit\Maxwell folder. If you run the Maxwell install and then delete the NL folder you have removed everything from your system. If you want you could try running a program like Registry Mechanic to clean up any loose files but I don't think that's necessary.

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You don't have to start Studio to insert your license you can just drop it into the Next Limit\Maxwell folder. If you run the Maxwell install and then delete the NL folder you have removed everything from your system. If you want you could try running a program like Registry Mechanic to clean up any loose files but I don't think that's necessary.

 

Saving the license.dat to the Maxwell directory didn't help.

 

Unlike Phil (or at least he didn't mention it), during installation, the installer can't find a file called 'Maxwell Render.msi'. I can't find it anywhere on my machine either. I can find another .msi file with a numerical name [a temp file because it's not there after installation], but selecting this file doesn't work either. So, I hit cancel in the open dialog box looking for the msi file. The installation supposedly completes. And, I am where I am now.

 

I've posted the problem to the Maxwell forum today too and emailed Maxwell directly two weeks ago.

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so...with some help from my IT guy, we found this:

 

in the Control Panels directory, pick the System control panel. Select the Advanced tab. Then, pick Environment Variables. Under the System Variables list, there was one for MAXWELL_ROOT. Select that. The User Variable identified two paths for the Maxwell root directory that were wrong (presumably from previous installation attempts to a directory with a different name). We corrected these. And voila...the program is now working.

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