[jvanmetre]

Past MW versions allowed for a refresh of a scene after tweaking iso, scattering, etc...can't seem to do
that with this version?

Also in 2.5, preview window doesn't reflect the same amount of light in the main rendering window (darker).

[JDHill]

Assuming you're referring to the render engine and not the plugin, yes, you can change those parameters (iso, shutter, etc.) interactively, with the results being shown in the preview panel; you can then click the Refresh button in the preview panel to update the main render with your changes. The preview image has always converged somewhat differently (i.e. more quickly) than the main render, so it is not very strange for it to be somewhat brighter. Can't really say much without a screenshot though.

[jvanmetre]

For some reason refresh isn't working in render...when I start to render, refresh goes from being able to be selected to greyed out, it isn't an option once the render begins. This is the beginning of a set design for a blackbox theatre -- the interior is a bit dark.

The rendering just started in this snapshot and already the refresh is greyed out -- maybe I've toggled something off?




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[JDHill]

Well, if you want to refresh the main render, you have to do one of two things:

1. stop the render
2. wait for the next sampling level

Changes are interactive in the preview window all the time because it is small, but since changes to something like simulens might require lots of processing, they are only committed when the main render is updated, or when you click Refresh -- which you can only do when the render is stopped.

I believe this has worked the same way ever since Maxwell 1.0, but I could be mistaken; I have no specific recollection to the contrary, anyway.

[jvanmetre]

JD-

Okay, I did just stop a rendering and now it works...I can only say I've experienced some inconsistency with the renderer where it hasn't allowed me to refresh after I've stopped a rendering...I think in those instances when I stopped a rendering it appeared to continuously write the mxi and would not indicate that it had completed.

[JDHill]

Just a hunch, but I'd guess that when you saw this, you were rendering a pretty large image, and you had multilight enabled. MXIs can of course be quite large files (especially in the case of color multilight), and may take a while to write. Naturally, you cannot ask the engine to change an image buffer while that buffer is in the process of being written to disk.

Whatever the case, you will probably get better feedback on issues like this by posting in a Maxwell-related forum, rather than a plugin-related one. I can tell you lots of things about the plugins I write, but as far as Maxwell itself goes, I really have no more information to work with than do you.