[Soth3d]

Hi. I would like to use Maxwell render coupled with Houdini as a main package for my personal projects. Last month I made couple tests with latest plugin and I found some bugs. Here is a list:

1. There is a really annoying problem with camera parameters incorrectly read by Maxwell. For example, setup some simple scene, add camera, specify it on MaxwellROP and try to render - everything works OK. Now save scene, open it again and try to render - Maxwell will incorrectly (or will not at all) read camera settings from Houdini. Not even camera position or ISO. You have to cancel render and try rendering again, or sometimes even set camera on MaxwellROP again, before it will read camera settings properly.

2. Sometimes there is a popup window with error that shows when you try to change any parameter on Maxwell SHOP Material. It says something about missing parameter. Don't remember what the error tells but when it shows once it will show always. So, for example, if you tweak Reflectance or Bump Strength you get error window each time you change value even the slight ammount. But for example if you take the same project to different machine and open it, error may be not present there. It's not that it shows only on one computer. On my personal workstation it doesn't show as frequent but sometimes it popup. It just starts showing without any reason.

3. "Edit in Material Editor" can halt Houdini when you try to save edited material and come back to Houdini. First try most of the time works but next ones are risky to use.

4. "Render Any Frame" always renders only first frame, even if you set timeline on different frame. You have to force different frame by specifing range, for example from 40 to 40.

5. "ROP->Objects->Camera Parameters" and "ROP->Objects->Object Parameters" menus are really hard to use.

What you see on the image is how this part of the menu looks. You can't expand it. So if you got more than one object/camera with different setting it's really hard to navigate, and if there are 5 or more object there it's really easy to miss some setting.

6. Plugin always tries to set expression(or key) like state on every path field, for example if you set path to texture on some shader at some point it turns green. The same happens in ROP with camera path.

7. There are some BIG problems with correct texture rendering. UV's are messed while they render correctly on Mantra/Vray/Modo.
Below image shows example of really simple geometry created in Lightwave. Vertex UV's in 3-5 points are also created with Lightwave. Point 1-2 uses vertex/point UV's created in Houdini.


Here is example scene I used for tests you see on picture above: http://www.mediafire.com/?tiaf9iraz4sal5t

8. What is Subdivision setting on "ROP->Objects->Object Parameters" doing ? Is is for setting subdivision level for geometry like when using "Polygons As Subdivision" or SubdivideSOP when rendring on Mantra ? If this is the case, it doesn't work. When I turned it on one of the projects, it completely deformed my geometry (simple bottle).

I hope that all those problems can be fixed fast so I can use wonderful Maxwell without any problems in my projects.

PS. One last thing, I'm also familiar with HDK and C++/Python programming. Is there possibility to get source code for this plugin ?

[11hp11]

Hi,

Thanks for reporting these issues. I'm currently working on the new version of the plug-in where some of the above bugs are fixed (major changes are in the file structure and the IPR). It will be uploaded to the beta site next week. If you don't have access to the beta site, please contact with the support or send me a pm and I send you the plugin.

1. and 5. I agree the specific camera and object setting on the ROP node is quite uncomfortable. What do you suggest? Maybe an obj node with the special parameters could be better which has the camera or the geometry as the input. About the camera: you can use the MaxwellCamera node at the moment (which is a wrapper around the normal camera), so you don't have to define the special parameters in the ROP.

2. There are some callbacks attached to the SHOP parameters, but I never met this problem before, will check anyway. I guess this part will change in the upcoming beta.

3. Which platform do you use? There was a problem with calling the material editor on Linux which caused crash. It's fixed in the upcoming beta.

4. and 6. Fixed.

7. Thanks for the test scene. I'll check and fix this.

8. Yeah I guess it should be similar to the Mantra render. Will make some tests.

Sorry but the source code is closed. But if you would be interested to take part in the development send me a pm and we can discuss the details.

Best Regards,
Peter

[11hp11]

The new build with the fixes and new IPR implementation will be uploaded at the weekend to the beta site.

[Soth3d]

Hey, sorry for no reply. I was a little busy and couldn't even touch Houdini and Maxwell lately. F*****g 3dsmax took all my time this month.

1. Do you need to make OTL at all for this ? maybe simple Python script that creates Folder with parameters on normal camera will be better ? What is the reason that camera is not read correctly first time after opening the scene ? Does it require initialization of some parameter that is simply not set when you open scene ?
2. I'm not 100% sure but I think this error mentioned something about IPR, and I remember to be surprised because of the message and error name because I wasn't using IPR at that time.
3. I'm on Windows most of the time. Those tests where made on this platform.

See you

[11hp11]

Hi,

the win64 and linux builds are uploaded to the beta site, osx coming soon.

There's an important change in the file structure, the plugin is installed to the program folder, so the houdini installation is kept clean. This is not compatible with the old plugin files (if it is installed in the Houdini folder), that's why the new installer will uninstall the old plugin first. Also the following environment variables have to be set (the installer can set them when you choose):

set MAXWELL_FOR_HOUDINI_PATH=[plugin_install_dir]
set HOUDINI_PATH=^&;$MAXWELL_FOR_HOUDINI_PATH
set PATH=%PATH%;[plugin_install_dir]\bin

On linux you have to activate the environment variable settings with . ~/.profile after the installer changed the .profile.
You can check the plugin version with the maxwell_plugin_version hscript. If the IPR is not working, please check the HFS\houdini\soho\maxwell_render.py file, if it's there you have to delete it.
Let me know if you have any problems with the installation.


I added the OTLs with the special maxwell object and camera parameters, I'm not sure it's a good idea to modify the original node interface, but will ask some testers what do they think, and will make a try.

Cheers,
Peter

[Soth3d]

You could make is as a preset for the camera OBJ.

I will check/test plugin ASAP. Thanks for hard work.