Is anyone really happy with Maxwell?

[Devin Johnston]

Well NL is saying that they will have the Max plugin at the same level the Maya plugin is at within a month. Who knows it they will do it but I'm not installing anything else until I know it's better than what I'm using now.

[Antisthenes]

to that i can say there is only 1 way to know

 

ok well maybe 1.5 ways but that .5 of a way is @ a defict

[AJLynn]

Do you have Max9? Try mental ray - it's a bit ahead of Vray in some areas, behind it in others, but if your comparison is to Maxwell you'll love it.

[Antisthenes]

i don't (haven't used max since v6) remb. i am autodesk alergic

but i read about this Fry render http://www.fryrender.com/index.html and want to research that more as well as Indigo http://www.indigorenderer.com/joomla/

[AJLynn]

I was talking to Ryan. Of course you don't have Max9.

[RyanSpaulding]

I'm at Max 8 and I'm not sure I can get them to spring for MAX 9 since we already have VRay and Max 9 doesn't seem to be too big of an upgrade...other than the Mental Ray enhancements.

 

It's quite the software conundrum I'm in.

[AJLynn]

Oh, you already have Vray. Then that would be the way to go, since there's going to be no way around doing a messy file transfer anyway - either that or be one of those people that use Microstation for everything including rendering and insist that it's better at it than anything else

[w i l l]

I like Maxwell so far, but then I only have Photoworks (with Solidworks) to compare which you high end people will probably not know too much about.

 

Systems are progressing... in 1 month is suppose dual dual cores with 8GB of RAM will be the standard and renders will be quicker. I think this is what Maxwell are banking on (progression of technology). Luckily i'm not pressured with render work at the moment so the software is good enough for me. I wasn't using it before version 1 either so I haven't had that many bug problems etc.

[Devin Johnston]

With a dual quad core machine you will need 2 copies of Maxwell in order to take full advantage of your hardware, if NL was really looking to take advantage of hardware to speed up Maxwell wouldn’t they be counting sockets instead of cores?

[w i l l]

Yeah well their decision is also based on maximising profits. I think you get a free license if you purchased before a certain time so you can have dual quad core with one licence. This is what Mihai (or Jaun) told somebody (Dutch person who renders toys) on the forum.

[Devin Johnston]

Yea I got my free licenses and I know that there are a lot of people over there saying that hardware is the answer to the Maxwell speed problem. My problem with that is it seems like they have completely given up on trying to tweak the code to get more speed out of it and there just taking the easy way out by saying “we’ll just let the hardware ketchup with the software". Cooperative rendering was supposed to be the answer to Maxwell's speed problems and it is if you have 30 CPU's to devote to an entire night of rendering a single image but that's just not realistic for most people. NL also likes to play the game of not recognizing that the people in the Arch Viz field need to render out print resolution images and as a result most of their testing is at screen resolution. There are actually people on their forum that say an image rendered at 2000x1500 is large enough to print on 8x11 perfectly; I mean you can do it but it's definitely not going to be anything spectacular. The bottom line for me is speed and no matter how fast hardware gets Maxwell is still going to be the slowest engine on the market.

[w i l l]

Yes the important factor is it's speed in comparison to other software. I have to say attempting a Maxwell Arch Viz render would scare the shit out of me. Luckily i just do Product Design.

[makeArchitecture]

I want my $500 back.

 

The Mac version doesn't work.

 

The stupidity in the code is hilarious. When I try to use the Sketchup plugin, it crashes right out of the box or if I get it to export and use their materials, I get an error like this:

 

>> Num processors: ( logical: 1, physical: 1 )

 

Reading MXS File: /Users/williamhuchting1/Documents/632 Bridge Competition/Maxwell Tests/test2.mxs

MXS file read successfully

 

>> Checking Data...

>> Loading Bitmaps & Preprocessing Data...

>> Error: Bitmap File not found ( C:/Program Files/Next Limit/Maxwell/materials database/textures/Arroway/boards+02_d100.jpg )

>> Render Failed.

 

Macs don't have C drives!

 

Earth to Next Limit!

 

So I am preparing my complaint with my senators, the FTC and the EU.

 

They should return people's money.

 

I'll NEVER get a working rendering out of that beta software they put out!

 

Sincerely,

 

Wm

[AJLynn]

Wait a minute... they didn't ship the Mac version with a set of material definitions that work with Mac directory structure?

 

Even after all this time as an NL customer, they still blow my mind.

[makeArchitecture]

No, there are not Mac and PC versions of textures available at the download site.

 

Maybe they mislabeled it. Maybe they lost it. Maybe their dog ate their homework.

 

Their incompetence is unreal.

 

It's been 12 months and they still don't make a working Mac version.

 

Here's their response:

 

Hello William,

 

I know the error is not very clear on the mac side, but it is because that is the path that was used when the material that uses that texture was created. That does not mean that it is not looking in other default paths to find the texture. We will fix it for the next release so error messages will be more clear for all our users.

 

How to solve it? Arroway materials use some textures that are not in the main distribution and must be downloaded form the download page. They are very high quality textures and the size is quite high to distribute them always, so only the users that need them must download textures file. Pleasedownload them from the download page: http://www.maxwellrender.com/qetuombczadgjlwryipmrnld/downloadmx.html. And install them inside your "material database" folder in the Maxwell folder, It should fix your problem.

 

Please contact us if you have any other problem

 

 

===========================================

Ignacio Bonafonte Arruga

Next Limit SL

http://www.nextlimit.com

 

 

It's installed EXACTLY as he said it should be.

 

Enough is enough. It's time for NL to refund money or face legal action.

[Ernest Burden III]

Please contact us if you have any other problem

 

Well there you go, just contact them. Everything will be great.

[IC]

I've only used Maxwell twice (in actual jobs) in 11 months.

In between I've been playing with it and trying to glean info from various sites. I've stayed away from any of the Maxwell specific forums as they are all just weird.

 

It crashes for no reason, test renders take an eternity and the material editor is the most over complicated device I've ever used but none of these things are the end of the world (to me). I'm lucky in that my firm buys my software. If I need to hit a deadline, I'll steer well clear of using Maxwell.

 

I can understand the frustration of people who bought in at the beginning and were then disappointed again and again but overall I'm happy with it as an occasional alternative renderer and hopefully I'll use it more and more. It's buggy and slow but the output still impresses people.

 

I am, however, preordering Fryrender.

[leoA4D]

...In between I've been playing with it and trying to glean info from various sites. I've stayed away from any of the Maxwell specific forums as they are all just weird.

 

Would you share urls for those sites? Like you, I am playing and learning with much lower expectations.

 

I am, however, preordering Fryrender.

 

I am on an IntelMac and am watching Fryrender. I am not ready to repeat a M~R yet but am impressed with the work and comments from Fryrender users we know. Just maybe.

[makeArchitecture]

I sent my first email to the US mission of the European Union this morning. I will also contact my two Senators whom I know from various events here in Chicago.

 

I got this hilarious response from Next Limit this morning:

 

Hello William,

 

We hHello William,

 

We have many happy mac users of our software, who have made really great renders using mac as you can see in the forums. Those are images posted by clients like you, if some of them have had problems they have e-mailed us and we have tried to solve them.

 

Most of the times problems were in the users side, not in the software. Users have not read the documentation and don't know how things work in Maxwell. Maxwell is a new paradigm in render technology and many of the things valid for other renders are not for Maxwell. Bu we have always helped any users that have asked us.

 

In thing you can do is export the mxs file and open it in mxstudio, and try to render from there, it will say you what textures are missing and will ask you for the location.

 

Probably you will also like to know we are updating Sketch Up plug-in today or tomorrow, so probably it will help you in your problem.

 

Best regards,

 

===========================================

Ignacio Bonafonte Arruga

Next Limit SL

http://www.nextlimit.com

 

Europe Time Zone [+6h US East] [+9h US Pacific]

 

That's right! The problem is mine but we are updating the plugin today or tomorrow.

 

As I said I am calling Obama's and Durbin's offices today.

 

I want my money. Next Limit is going down!

 

Wm

[Adehus]

 

I want my money. Next Limit is going down!

 

Wm

 

Sounds like what you're doing might be a long shot, but I do wish you the best- I'd love to get my money back, and I'd love to see the garbage finally get taken out.

[Devin Johnston]

I think it's funny that they can't even respond to you in proper English.

 

I wish you good luck, there have been lots of people who have tried to get their money back and have failed but I don't know if anyone has taken your approach before.

[makeArchitecture]

What's really funny is that he accuses me of not knowing how to use his software and that being the problem.

 

 

Yes, I am the one who put the default Windows drive location into the Mac version of the Maxwell Sketchup plugin. And it hasn't worked since its release two months (or more) ago.

 

Damn! I hate when I do that!

 

;-)

[Devin Johnston]

 

Probably you will also like to know we are updating Sketch Up plug-in today or tomorrow, so probably it will help you in your problem.

 

 

Here is another part that I really like; they are telling you there going to fix the Sketch Up plugin in a day or two. This from the company that says they will have an update in the coming weeks and you actually wait 6 months.

[AJLynn]

That's a common theme (and running joke) for NL - anything that goes wrong is because users don't know how to use the software. Never mind that they sold it as a very easy to use system, which it almost was for a while, then turned it into something where you need a degree in physics to use it. Remember how shocked (shocked!) they were when nobody could figure out how to define a surface using layers, ND and Abbe numbers and weightmaps that didn't really work in a way that made sense? Or when I had to tell them that usually when a light source has a control in degrees Kelvin, that refers to color and not output, which are independent variables? (I actually had to give the forum mods references on color temperature so they could explain to the developers why architects couldn't get the emitters to work.) Then there was the time they sent out an email about how the slow render time issue had been solved - because cooperative rendering finally worked. As Maxer had found out, all you need is about 80 CPUs and 20 licenses to render a print-res image in under 24 hours - Mission Accomplished!

[Fran]

... As Maxer had found out, all you need is about 80 CPUs and 20 licenses to render a print-res image in under 24 hours - Mission Accomplished!

 

I just had 2 dual dualcore boxes built for me. They are running only two programs - Win XP and fryrender. I have rendered 8.5x11 output at 300dpi across the two machines in less than 5 hours (real time, 10 hours machine time). I was either going to go with Vray and a render farm for this production, or go with fryrender. I'm glad I chose fry. Even I am happy with the output. And not much makes me happy when it comes to my own work.

 

I have not even bothered to try Maxwell on my new machines. But I will say, that for those who stick with it, the new plug-ins look really good. NL has been working hard.