Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Goodmorning everyone.

I am going through the Manuals and online Video tutorials and I don't quite understand the difference between Studio and the Core Application (Maxwell.exe). I am a novice here so I am just getting off the ground. Working through the Rhino plugin seems to be the right place to start (assigning materials, emitters etc.) then when I start the rendering process, it launches the core application. I am wondering when would I ever need to use Studio? There is so much information out there but this isn't clear. Any assistance with this would be appreciated.

Thank you all.

Cosmas Demetriou

maxwell.exe is the actual production render engine. Fire-enabled plugins and Studio also contain rendering functionality, but your real rendering will be done with maxwell.exe, either by using it directly (i.e. via its UI), by command-line, or by way of Maxwell's network-rendering system.

Studio is primarily an MXS-editing application. It allows people who use applications which have no plugin to use Maxwell. For example, there is no plugin for AutoCAD; through Studio, an AutoCAD user is still able to use Maxwell, due to Studio's DXF-import functionality. In other cases, the host app may have a Maxwell plugin, but may also have subpar functionality in one area or another. In yet other cases, an office may use several different host applications; they can use Studio to consolidate their scene-building workflow.

Just for instance, in version 3, Rhino's texture-mapping functionality consisted entirely of the ability to set tile, offset, and to flip or swap U and V directions. So here, Studio's texture mapping functionality far excelled Rhino's, and even though there was a Rhino plugin, Studio was a basic necessity for any Rhino user who needed to do any serious texture mapping.