[Ernesto]

I am working in 2012, and use intensively external references.
What I am experiencing is that when in maxwell Normal Shading mode or Advanced Shading mode certain objects disapears from the scene.
I know that they are there, because I can select those objects picking them blindly.
If I change to the default maya Shading mode they reappears again.
This is not constant, sometimes it happens and some other times it is fine.
Sometimes a whole external reference dissapears too.
Additionally these shading modes seem to be unstable, since sometimes they look too dark and some other times it looks all washed white.

Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

The Maxwell viewport is obsolete and will be removed in a future version. The "Normal Shading" mode is similar to textured mode in the regular Maya viewport, but renders normal maps for Maxwell materials when they are present. The "Advanced Shading" mode was an attempt to preview some more material features, such as roughness and reflectance 90, but it has many limitations (no shadows, no object reflections etc.). Both modes are incompatible with some of the objects which have been introduced after they were implemented.

FIRE supersedes this custom viewport.

[Ernesto]

I see...
Thanks
E

[Ernesto]

Here in this image you can see the Maxwell Normal shading (Upper) and the Maya Normal shading (Bottom)



As it can be seen, the Maxwell Normal Shading adds a shining that is really necesary in case of DARK objects.
In the Maya version I couldn´t get a similar look, and it is prety dificult to figure out the shape of the object and the detail.
Perhaps I do not how to configure it right, or perhaps this is something that you added...
Even if this is obsolete, something like that is very usefull for people that have no such powerfull machines to use FIRE as normal viewport.

Ernesto

[Mihnea Balta]

I think it's possible to add specular highlights for the maxwell materials in the regular Maya viewport. We'll look into it.