[Forum Moderator]

Hi,

We expect to have a working version with all the basic stuff by the end of the year. What I call "basic stuff" includes output options, Multilight, channels, Fire, environment, cameras with thin lens and pin hole, materials list using referenced mxm (not integrated material editor yet), visibility flags for objects, exporting options to Studio, network, MXS and render.
Then we will work on the integrated material editor, extensions, specific Maxwell light objects,....

I hope you can bear with us while we build it up.

Fernando

[orkunkule]

Do you consider releasing a beta version? I would like to use it and help to find any bugs. End of the year means 1 year after rhino 6 is released and I guess it will take an other 6 months to release the fully functional (embedded material editor vs.) version.

I have no idea how can I use a render software without material editor and that means I need to wait for another 10 months.

Is Zaha Hadid, still using Maxwell?

[PA3K]

Hello,
any news Fernando, Luis ... ? Could You please write few more words ? I've got email 26.9. about crossgrade, but I don't need more licenses with other software, just this one with Rhino. Is there any development progress in NL with Maxwell ? Some new features or something, that we can looking forward to ?
... just something good ... because it is sad to see Maxwell decline ... You can speak familiar or casual here (if You can). Everything is better than nothing .

Patrik

[steffen_l]

Dear Next Limit, we have been with you since the alpha release of V1. And we have used Rhino ever since thanks to your fine plugin. Now you tell us that after nearly a year of waiting there will be some limited beta of a plugin for V6? Are you serious?

[orkunkule]

Considering other topics, I assume that NL will release Maxwell V5 fully supporting Rhino 6 and will make us pay for it. Correct?

[orkunkule]

Happy New Year.
By the way I started to find my way out with Rhino Render.
Very much thanks to NL for pushing me!

[Forum Moderator]

Hello Rhino users,

I have some news regarding the support for Rhino 6.
First of all, I apologize for not informing you sooner about the state of the development. Some time ago we had a disagreement with the developers that were in charge of rewriting the plugin and for some time I didn't know exactly what to say or what was going to happen after that.

So, first the bad news: we lost quite some time with this problem and we won't be able to stick to our expectation of having a first version of the plugin by the end of the year.
Now the good ones: luckily for us, Márton (Marton Day8) has accepted to take over the development of the plugin. He has coded the plugins for Revit, Archicad and Modo, and recently assumed the responsibility of rewriting a big part of the code of the plugin for Cinema R20, so he has a lot of experience with Maxwell and coding plugins for us and he is familiar with Jeremy's and Maxwell code. He is also a stable asset and won't let us down.
As a plus, he's an active user of the forum so you will have more information from his side and a direct and fast connection with the developer of the plugin, as you had with Jeremy.
We are still determined to get the plugin out as soon as possible at least with the same quality as our current plugin for Rhino 5.

I hope you can still bear with us and wait a bit longer.

Happy holidays!
Fernando

[greengreen]

This is very disappointing. Please get it together

[Ivan del Renzio]

Hello. I was just wondering if there was a timetable for developing a Beta plugin for Rhino 6?

Currently we are having to re-install Rhino 5.

[greengreen]

It looks like there is now a Rhino 7 WIP
https://www.rhino3d.com/download/Rhino/7.0

[Thierry Debourg]

Dear Fernando,

I am a French industrial designer and user of Maxwell render V3 that I use in Rhino V5 like a lot. My job is to design products and I use maxwell only to present them as best as possible. I avoid working with the studio and I have not migrated to Maxwell V4, because of the lack of plug in Rhino V6.

It is frankly very painful and heavy to make live versions of V5 and V6 files because of Maxwell.
Fortunately Mc Neel makes it possible to cohabit versions of Rhino ... otherwise Maxwell would have jumped for a long time.

What worries me through what I read on this page is that you are not talking about compatibility of the future plug in Maxwell with Rhino V7 Work in Progress which is being developed at Mc Neel.
At the speed where you develop the Plug in Maxwell for Rhino V6 at Next Limit, there is something to worry about. I really fear that Rhino V7 is available before the plug in Maxwell compatible Rhino V6 ... and that we left for a ride.

So one question, did you think to anticipate for this future evolution of Rhino?

I hope you are also aware at Next Limit that tired of so much waiting, that professionals like me are ready to change rendering software ....

Best wishes for this new year ... and get along.

[Forum Moderator]

Hello,

I understand the frustration. We are worried about losing customers because of this but hopefully, the third time will be a charm. We have had two different developers that quitted for different reasons besides some technical issues before Márton took over the project. I have confidence in Márton and I think he is the best guy available for the task.
In the future, we won't have this same problem as, in this case, it comes from an SDK that was deprecated by McNeel and made the whole plugin useless, as it was based on it (as you may know, that development began several years ago). The new plugin will be based on the main SDK and it is not supposed to be changed anytime soon, so we won't have the same problem when Rhino 7 is out. We are also developing it so it will be easy to have a Mac version too without too much hassle and with very similar capabilities than the Windows version (as long as the SDK permits).
If I'm not wrong McNeel starts to work on the next Rhino version as soon as the current one is stabilized and usually it takes a lot of time to release it (usually more than two years?), so I don't think it is imminent (there's no Rhino 6 for Mac yet) but we'll keep an eye on the progress of the WIP versions to be ready for the future.

I'll try to keep you updated as much as I can. We want to make the plugin even better than before.

Best wishes,
Fernando

[dsr]

Hi Fernando,
I have not commented for a very long time, but we are active Rhino/Maxwell users in my architectural studio.
It has been very frustrating to watch the conversation over these many months regarding the development -- or lack thereof -- of the Rhino 6 plugin.
We are trying to be a very integrated architectural firm between our 2d/3d and visualization work. To date, we have stuck by Maxwell as our rendering plugin, but we have been thwarted in our attempts to create a seamless workflow. Rhino 6 provides us with important tools that go a long way toward better integration; we are very interested in this! But it would be a giant step backward for us to maintain v5 and v6 versions of all of our models. So, as per your earlier promises, we decided to wait until the end of 2018 to see if NextLimit could produce its long-overdue Rhino 6 plugin.
Now you have missed another deadline and while it is good news about Marton, you are not giving us any indication of when this might be sorted out.
We will need to begin our search for a Maxwell alternative very soon. For me that is a little crazy since we have put it hundreds if not thousands of hours of working to perfect the relationship between our design and its use of Maxwell. Finding an alternative now to Maxwell is just the reality of the situation you have put us in. We are in the midst of one large pubic project and just about to sign a contract for 2 more. Until now we have been big Maxwell advocates (and Rhino!) and, in some ways, we should be an ideal client for you. We are a small but growing firm and I personally teach design and building technology at a major university as an "expert" practitioner. I also have a strong background in photography and optics. I advocate for the right combination of design tools when it comes to getting our work built and often times that falls well short of working with the complexities of systems like Revit. I had hoped that NextLimit would not abandon Rhino, but this seems to be case, practically speaking?
Can you commit to a release of a Rhino 6 plugin within the next few months? Or give us any sort of idea of a time frame?
Would you be interested in taking this conversation offline and getting our deeper insights into your product?
To be clear, we love Maxwell and what we have been able to do with it to date, but it is becoming increasingly clear to us that we need a render engine that will better keep up with current design technologies.
Best Regards,
David

[numerobis]

I had hoped that NextLimit would not abandon Rhino, but this seems to be case, practically speaking?

For me it looks more like Maxwell as a whole has been abandoned...

[seghier]

can you add support to import 3dm file in maxwell studio?
i think that will be a solution