This forum will be used to announce new features and release
#397397
Hello,

We have uploaded Maxwell | 3dsmax 4.2.3 to the portal.

This version fixes the problems that forced us to remove previous version 4.2.2 from public access and obviously includes all its improvements.

So, it's finally here. It took more time than expected, but it's finally here.

It comes with great new features and improvements in order to make your workflow more efficient and pleasant.
Please, check the release notes and/or this blog post for more information: http://bit.ly/MWMaxNew

You will also find information about the new features in our documentation in these sections: We hope you enjoy it.

WARNING: you may find a problem if you've been using version 4.2.2; please, notice that most probably the scenes saved with version 4.2.2, which was removed from downloads, won't open in 4.2.3; the ones made with 4.2.1 and older will. In the case you have been working with 4.2.2 and are in the middle of a project, you could either finish the project using that version or try to export it to mxs, install version 4.2.3 and get it back to 3dsmax by importing the mxs file. Sorry for the inconveniences.

We will include here the release notes for both versions 4.2.3 and 4.2.2 as they both describe what is basically new; we hope you enjoy it:

Maxwell | 3dsmax 4.2.3
Publish date: Tue, 22 Ago 2018

Fixed:
  • Maxwell was not available as render engine in 3dsmax 2015 or older.
  • Maxwell Parameters camera panel was missing from Target and Free cameras.
  • The channels' output formats were including HDR and BMP, which are not supported by Maxwell; it was saving the channels as EXR. Now those formats are not available.
  • Some of the channels' output formats were not showing in their drop-down menus in Windows 7, as they didn't fit in the box.
  • 3dsmax was crashing when the Object Properties dialogue was called and Maxwell was not the current render engine.
  • Scenes made with the previous versions of the plugin were not opening in 4.2.2. Now they will. (WARNING: please, notice that most probably the scenes saved with version 4.2.2, which was removed from downloads, won't open in 4.2.3; the ones made with 4.2.1 and older will)
  • The interface of the new Material Preview Options in the Material Editor, was a bit misaligned and too tight on the sides.
  • 3dsmax 2019 was getting frozen when previewing Maxwell Bitmap in Material Editor in Slate mode and in some particular cases.
  • MxLight target line was disappearing from viewport as soon as the Mxlight gizmo was moved out of the viewport.
  • Some lines in MxLight Projector Gizmo were showing too big or too small depending on the units used in the scene.
  • The radius of the MxLight, Area type, with Geom set to Sphere was not changing in the render according to the radius shown in viewport.
Improved:
  • The falloff and highlight cones of the MxLight Spot type won't show in the viewport when the light is not selected (so the viewport is cleaner and ligther).

Maxwell | 3dsmax 4.2.2
Publish date: Tue, 20 Jul 2018

Improved:

MXLIGHT IMPROVEMENTS
  • Create MxLight with or without a target
  • Enable or disable the target
  • Manipulator for adjusting the MxLight parameters. Area Light Width, Height and Sphere Radius can be manipulated. For Spot Light, Cone Angle and Falloff can be manipulated from the viewport.
  • Projector gizmo support for Spot Light with projector texture.
  • Hidden To Camera and Hidden To Reflection/Refraction options on the MxLight panel. These can also be accessed from MAXScript.
  • Handle to adjust the intensity value for MxLight.

VRAY TO MAXWELL SCENE CONVERTER
  • Convert the VRay materials, lights and environments to Maxwell on a single click. It includes an option to bake unsupported maps and another to work only on selected objects.
  • A toolbar button to launch the converter script launches a dialogue for running conversion script.

CUSTOM ALPHA CHANNELS EDITOR
  • Centralized the creation of custom alpha channels.
  • Now user can easily associate objects, materials with custom alpha channels in a single panel with great convenience.
  • Replaced current panel in Render Setup > Renderer > Channels > Custom Alpha by a button to open the new Studio-like panel.
  • Linked custom alphas channels information between new panel and current related information in Objects Properties and Material Editor.
  • Added right click options (in quad menus) to create a custom alpha channel out from selected objects or from selected objects’ materials.

OVERRIDE MAP PARAMETERS
  • The texture projection parameters like offset, rotation etc. in the Global Parameters section of Maxwell Material are now removed. The user can set the override parameters from Maxwell Bitmap dialogue itself and toggle between overridden texture parameters and regular texture parameters. If you change projection parameters with Override Map active, you are changing those parameters for all the maps that have it active in that material (this is currently not working for the Assistants).

MATERIAL EDITOR IMPROVEMENTS
  • The UI is made responsive when a material preview is updated. It does not freeze anymore. This is very convenient as automatic update gets much more usable while working with Maxwell materials. The floating preview image window now shows a better quality image.
  • Added a separate roll-out page for accessing the Material Preview Options per material.
  • Added a drop-down menu to select the preview scene instead of a file browse button.
  • The options in the Customize->Preferences section will now work as global parameters (default options). When creating new materials, global values like Quality, Scene, Sampling Level will be used.
  • The same parameters can be set per material basis from the Material Preview Options roll-out.
  • MxBitmap layout has been reorganized: projection properties on the left (channel, tiling, offset, etc.), image properties on the right (hue, saturation, etc.)

SUPPORT FOR 3DS MAX 2019
  • Added support for 3ds Max 2019

OBJECT ID OVERRIDES FOR MXS REFERENCES

Now you have three options:
  • Container ID: with this option, it will show the object ID of the mxs reference object, so you can specify it in Appearance tab; it will be the same for all the objects inside the reference; the object ID color of the objects inside the reference won't be taken into account.
  • Content ID: with this option, the reference will show the object ids of the objects inside the reference, so they can be many different ones; the object ID color of the mxs reference object itself (the container), will be ignored.
  • Recolor: this option will give new object IDs to every object inside the mxs reference in a consistent way, so every time you launch a render they are the same.

Fixed:
  • Dependencies included in MXS references were not taken into account when doing a pack and go.
  • In material editor, you could not drag and drop textures from the slots of a coating component (layered material).
  • Preview scene zoomed out on updating material selection.

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