- Wed Jul 10, 2019 6:10 pm
#398316
Dear Next Limit (and Fernando!)
First, let me be clear. I am grateful the plugin is being worked on for Rhino 6. It is very late, and I realize some of this is due to changes in staff. I also understand that a big change in architecture is being undertaken. That is never easy. However, a few things:
- On the forum, the very first thing is a "Plugin Updates" section which only has the posts from JDHill, which now date back a while. Time to start updating that, no?
- I would call the current plugin a Beta, not a final product. I realize that you want to get something out fast because many of us have had to wait a long time, but if this is the final product it should be fully documented, proven, reliable and you (Next Limit) should be comfortable standing behind it. This feels like a beta. It should be called a beta. This all feels a little unprofessional, for what is, in my opinion, one of the best rendering options out there.
- Now to my main point: I understand the desire to be more tightly integrated with Rhino, but please do not assume that this makes sense all the time. It is super confusing to have pieces all over the place. Environments in one place, camera in another, materials somewhere else. The material browsing is awful in Rhino. Is there no way you can centralize all of this while keeping things "portable" so they can be re-used in the Mac version? I am a huge FAN of the guys at McNeel. They are simply awesome, and I make my living off of Rhino. I LOVE Rhino, and the support they provide beats that of anyone. But they are not full-time in the render business. If the idea for Maxwell is simply to replace Rhino's rendering engine, without adding any additional value to the process, then you guys are missing something really big.
- The way the old plug-in was setup means all the rendering settings were in one place. This made it so much easier to deal with.
- I will give the new architecture an honest try, and perhaps I'll grow to appreciate it more, but right now, for professional purposes I will be using the old plugin in Rhino 5.
- In my opinion the task of professionally rendering something has less to do with the render engine (plenty of good options out there now) and more to do with the work-flow. It used to be pretty good. It isn't right now.
I hope this feedback will be helpful to you!
Best regards,
Tom
First, let me be clear. I am grateful the plugin is being worked on for Rhino 6. It is very late, and I realize some of this is due to changes in staff. I also understand that a big change in architecture is being undertaken. That is never easy. However, a few things:
- On the forum, the very first thing is a "Plugin Updates" section which only has the posts from JDHill, which now date back a while. Time to start updating that, no?
- I would call the current plugin a Beta, not a final product. I realize that you want to get something out fast because many of us have had to wait a long time, but if this is the final product it should be fully documented, proven, reliable and you (Next Limit) should be comfortable standing behind it. This feels like a beta. It should be called a beta. This all feels a little unprofessional, for what is, in my opinion, one of the best rendering options out there.
- Now to my main point: I understand the desire to be more tightly integrated with Rhino, but please do not assume that this makes sense all the time. It is super confusing to have pieces all over the place. Environments in one place, camera in another, materials somewhere else. The material browsing is awful in Rhino. Is there no way you can centralize all of this while keeping things "portable" so they can be re-used in the Mac version? I am a huge FAN of the guys at McNeel. They are simply awesome, and I make my living off of Rhino. I LOVE Rhino, and the support they provide beats that of anyone. But they are not full-time in the render business. If the idea for Maxwell is simply to replace Rhino's rendering engine, without adding any additional value to the process, then you guys are missing something really big.
- The way the old plug-in was setup means all the rendering settings were in one place. This made it so much easier to deal with.
- I will give the new architecture an honest try, and perhaps I'll grow to appreciate it more, but right now, for professional purposes I will be using the old plugin in Rhino 5.
- In my opinion the task of professionally rendering something has less to do with the render engine (plenty of good options out there now) and more to do with the work-flow. It used to be pretty good. It isn't right now.
I hope this feedback will be helpful to you!
Best regards,
Tom
Last edited by piroshki on Fri Jul 12, 2019 5:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.