[Forum Moderator]

Hello!

We have just released a new version of the plugin for Rhino 6 for both Windows and Mac. It is version 5.1.6.3 and it includes some interesting new features that will make your life easier. It works with the same Maxwell Render version, so you don't need to update the engine.

Some of the new features are these:

• New Referenced MXS feature
• New Materials toolbar
• New Pack and Go feature
• New Materials Override feature

Here you can find a video about them: https://youtu.be/jXyYmQGfHzQ

We know many of you are longing for us to add the extensions (grass, scatter, sea, volumetrics,...). We need a Maxwell Render version update for them to work correctly, so they will be added along with the next Maxwell Render version (it should be close now).

Here are the complete release notes:

Maxwell | Rhinoceros (V6) 5.1.6.3
Publish date: Thu, 01 Oct 2020

ADDED:

• Maxwell Referenced MXS object.
  • In the case no Rhino material was applied to the Referenced MXS object, it is displayed in Rhino Viewport with a greenish Maxwell material and will use its original materials inside Maxwell.
  • In case the user adds Rhino material to the Referenced MXS object, it overwrites the original scene materials (inside Rhino viewport and also inside Maxwell).
  • LIMITATION: Maxwell MXS references instances inside Rhino blocks are not displayed correctly after reloading the scene and are taken by Rhino as normal objects, however, they will render fine.
  • LIMITATION: because of a Rhino API limitation, if you put the MXS reference into a block in order to instance it and then you use the “Edit in Place” command, the objects inside will be displayed as cubes of the size of the bounding boxes of the references in the viewport; they will render fine. As a workaround, you can explode the block and recreate it with the same name. The instances will be updated and displayed correctly.
• "Maxwell_AddMaterial" command to add/import basic material types.
• New Maxwell Material toolbar with shortcuts to add the different types of Maxwell materials with options to add many materials at the same time to the Rhino file (for example, you can now import all the mxm materials from a folder in one go).
• New Maxwell Tools toolbar (currently it only has one button: "Add Referenced MXS", but it will host the extensions buttons and other tools in the near future).
• New Pack and Go feature available from the rendering toolbar the Maxwell menu and the command line (Maxwell_PackAndGo).
• New Override material option in the Rendering panel > Maxwell for Rhino > Global tab > Materials. It will replace all the materials of the scene except for the emitters with the material of your choice (great for clay renders).
• New Default material option in the Rendering panel > Maxwell for Rhino > Global tab > Materials which defines the material used when the object doesn’t have any material applied.

IMPROVED:

• The name of the exported Rhino object inside the Maxwell scene now follows these rules:
  • In the case the user has given a name to the object, Maxwell name = user name + the Rhino guid of the object.
  • Otherwise Maxwell name = short description of the object (or the name of the Block) + the Rhino guid of the object.
  • Exported light objects follow these rules too from now on (every name contains the guid of the original Rhino object, which adds another chance to identify the objects.)
• The plugin now writes its plugin id into the exported mxs file.
• Maxwell Material texture button shows the Texture file path (if any) as a tooltip.
• Automatic translation of Rhino environment: the intensity value of the Rhino environment texture has been fine-tuned; now it is translated to an IBL with the intensity set to 15 instead of 100, which was excessive.
• Automatic translation of Rhino gradient environment: the midpoint has been changed from 0.1° to 45.0° and Zenith/Horizont colors have been switched so they match what you expect to see from a natural point of view.
• New context menu when adding a custom alpha channel to an object (less clicking for the users).
• The Remove Custom Alpha button is disabled (Custom Alphas list in Object settings) in the case none of the custom alpha channels are selected.
• Custom Alphas Dialog > add object to custom alpha channel button opens now a context menu. It allows the user to add an object via pick selecting, add the already selected objects or by name (only named objects).
• While pick-adding objects to a Custom Alpha channel, the plugin allows the selection only for Maxwell-renderable objects/lights.
• Custom Alphas Dialog -> new tooltips for the +/- buttons.
• Maxwell object properties are visible only for Maxwell-renderable objects/lights.

FIXED:

• FIRE view didn't follow the change when the user changed the visibility flag(s) for a lights object (for example hide flags, opacity, etc.).
• Converting a Maxwell material (assistant type) to Custom could break the Rhino undo mechanism.
• After a Maxwell material (assistant type) was converted to Custom, the used texture ids were wrong.
• When adding texture to a Maxwell material assistant, the plugin was not activating the texture checkbox automatically.
• The plugin allowed activating Denoise shadow with AutoConfigure mode "Fast", which is not a possible combination as in fast mode there’s no shadow channel.
• Maxwell referenced materials were exported to the mxs file as embedded.
• Switching between different material assistants on the same material could cause weird UI behavior. For example, the Substance assistant doesn't show any parameter.
• (Rhino 7) The plugin doesn't refresh the Maxwell toolbar properly.
• The command "Maxwell_ToggleFIRE" and "Maxwell_NewFIREView" could not switch to FIRE mode in the case the user had renamed the display mode to something different than "Maxwell FIRE".
• The plugin didn't load on some systems.
• The AboutBox build date was wrong.

We hope you enjoy it.

Kind regards,
Fernando