3D World Mag Maxwell Article...

[Sketchrender]

I just read an article in this months 3D mag, about maxwell Renderer.

They gave it 9/10 and I kid you not say it is "Quick"

 

Did anybody else read this , it never really dealt with the issue of speed, and that's it's problem.

if you didn't know better, you would go out and buy the software...........

 

I would love to know the background of the guys who wrote the article........

 

Quick for what it dose..me ars*........

 

 

phil

 

ps. well done 3D world Mag ..........only 36 pages of Advertising this month of 114....sort that out will you ..............

[IC]

To be honest I haven't read it, yet.

 

What was the context? If it was "This is the first physically accurate daylight simulator-and it's quick" then maybe that's not so ridiculous.

If they say, "It's a quick render engine" (and let's face it that's what it is, nobody really understands the physics of light, never mind having the ability to replicate it) then that's another thing.

 

Surely the novelty will wear off soon, I'm tired of reading about how great/crap Maxwell is.

 

And Phil, magazines survive through advertising! Seriously, 3DWorld's publishers don't get wealthy from it's massive sales. I thought we'd been through this?!?

[Jeff Mottle]

And Phil, magazines survive through advertising! Seriously, 3DWorld's publishers don't get wealthy from it's massive sales. I thought we'd been through this?!?

 

LOL. Although I hope their editorial is not influenced by advertising, becuase I like the guys at 3Dworld, it would not be the first time I've heard that a good review can be purchased. God knows I've been asked enough times. Fourtunately you never have to worry about that here...I refuse to do it.

[signet]

Maxwell is not quick. end of story.

 

Unless I a missing something major (perhaps a super computer or the elusive "make quick" tick box ) then I cant see Maxwell being used in proper production for quite some time.

[Sketchrender]

That's exactly what I ment.production wise it's not up to scratch.

 

As far as advertising ....don't tell it's a non profit organisation...........do me a favoir..........

 

I love the mag...but hate the fact that i have to see the magazine advertised on four pages.......I bought it.......I get it...

as i said before bring out a pdf verision.........save me the hassel of driving all over Dublin to look for it.

[jackb602]

I haven't seen the review yet, but from the sound of it, 3D World is really hurting their reputation by publishing it. One could argue that Maxwell has great potential despite its speed, but it's just factually incorrect to call it "quick". And I think even the most ardent fanboy would have a hard time giving Maxwell a 9/10 in its current state. I have trusted 3D World reviews in the past, but given this review, I'll be taking them with a big grain of salt in the future. This is really a shame for all the talented, hardworking, and honest developers that deserve meaningful recognition from the only 3d magazine we have.

 

Jack

[Ernest Burden III]

Something interesting happens when you try to objectively score something. You start off with "I hate it, I don't know why but I do". But there is no 'score' for that. So you break it down. Can I easily set up the scene, can it do realistic lighting, does it handle maps, whatever. You look at the smaller chunks, the trees if you will, and see that yes, there are lot of trees. But do you see the forrest? My point is that I am as mystified as the rest of you by the score (haven't read it though) but think it may not be a 'bought' piece or an incompetent reviewer. It may just be the result of looking at all the pieces and not seeing that the assembled result misses the mark overall.

 

By the way--you can use that situation to your advantage when a client looks at your final and says "I hate it". There's nothing you can do to remedy that. So you ask them to break it down into pieces. Ask them what they LIKE about it. You can often get them to a point where they are able to articulate what is bothering them, and then you know what to work on.

[AJLynn]

Also, there are scenes Maxwell will render quickly - large lights, not too much glass, stay away from the IOR files, not much light bouncing. If you were, say, a product visuals guy or somebody who wants to replicate shots from Star Wars, you might think it's great.

[Justin Hunt]

3D World is a great mag and has a good reputation for doing honest reviews, even if they do err on the side of positive unless of cause it caused the whole office system to die a horrible death.

 

Pick up some past issues (4 - 5 years old) and see how they reviewed packages like Bryce and the like. They were pretty good dispite the software being very buggy.

 

3D world does not get involved in the politics side of this industry. Lets face it there is more politics involved with Maxwell than anything else. Sometime I think the UN needs to brough in to mediate some of the Maxwell threads:rolleyes:

 

JHV

[Adehus]

Total speculation of course, but if the review was paid for, it would be entirely consistent with NextLimit's approach to doing business. Having invested in Maxwell some time ago and watched everything unfold over the past year, there is no question in my mind that NL's inclination towards dishonesty could lead them to such extremes.

[Adehus]

Also, there are scenes Maxwell will render quickly - large lights, not too much glass, stay away from the IOR files, not much light bouncing. If you were, say, a product visuals guy or somebody who wants to replicate shots from Star Wars, you might think it's great.

 

It's funny... one of the design firms I do retail store viz work for has a product design group. One of their guys bought Maxwell based upon the product viz images in the gallery. After he heard I had used Maxwell, he approached me and asked, "how does anyone deal with these render times?!" (followed by, "the Lightwave plugin is ridiculously buggy!")

 

Main point being, Maxwell is less slow for product design applications and some of the other instances you mention (compared to architectural applications) but by no stretch of the imagination is it fast compared to the competition. Not at all. As others have mentioned previously, in situations where Maxwell is faster, other apps are also proportionately faster as well. Just because Maxwell can render a product in 8 hours instead of the 80 hours needed for an interior doesn't mean that 8 hours is a fast (or even vaguely acceptable) render time. Especially when Lightwave, et al can do it in 20 minutes with similar quality.

[Simon Moir]

3D World definitely does have some pretty good feature articles ( I enjoyed the one detailing some of the work done for the Da Vinci Code recently for example). But it's not so hot for news (Oh yeah, I remember reading about that on cgarchitect last month!) or reviews. They're not going to pan advertisers are they? The lowest score in their "Buyer's Guide" is 6/10, most products score 8 or 9. Rubbish.

[Justin Hunt]

I read the article and I think they gave a fair overview of the renderer. They did say that it was fast for what it does, speed is a relative thing. As I said before they don't get involved in the politics of the programs they review, and they do give low ratings if something is really bad.

 

JHV