[JDHill]

Please watch this thread for notification of updates, with official releases being available from the Customer Portal, and betas from the Maxwell Public Beta Area. For more information on betas, please see here.

[JDHill]

Version 3.0.0

Scene Manager

• Re-worked Camera, Environment, and Output UIs.
• Added Camera > Aperture > Lens.
• Added Camera > Aperture > Custom Bokeh.
• Sun UI is now decoupled from Physical Sky.
• Added Custom Sun Type and Color.
• Added Sun Radius Factor.
• Added Output > Channels > Deep.
• Added Output > Channels > Alpha Custom.
• Added Output > Custom Alphas group.

Material Editor

• Added Material > Type (found in top tree node).
• Added Material > Type > AGS.
• Added Material > Type > Opaque.
• Added Material > Type > Transparent.
• Added Material > Type > Translucent.
• Added Material > Type > Metal.
• Added Material > Type > Car Paint.
• Added top node > right-click > Switch To > AGS, Opaque, etc.
• Rewrote Emitter UI.
• Added support for light projector emitters.
• Rewrote Texture Editor.
• Added Texture Editor > Use Override.
• Added Texture Editor > Rotation.
• Added Texture Editor > Mirror X & Y.
• Added Texture Editor > Hue.
• New texture params are shown in the preview.
• Rewrote Displacement UI.
• Added new displacement parameters.

Object Properties

• Added Opacity.
• Added Backface Material.
• Added Boolean parameter
• Added Custom Alpha Channels.
• Added Smoothing.
• Added Subdivision.

Maxwell Sea Extension (new)

• Produces a sea surface generated using RealFlow technology.

Maxwell Volumetric Extension (new)

• Produces Constant, Noise 3D, or Particle-based volumetric.

Misc.

• Optimized initial loading of plugin UIs.

[JDHill]

Version 3.0.3

Changes

• Zero-thickness Volumetric & Sea are now auto-corrected.
• After animation export, the plugin now asks to render.
• The plugin now points to the Next Limit support site for help.
• Updated to Maxwell 3.0 icons in toolbars and installers.

Fixes

• Maxwell FIRE resolution was mistakenly clamped to 720 px.
• Active texture path could be set to the name of a directory.
• Pack & Go was mistakenly leaving out displacement maps.
• Selection of items in Feature Manager could cause a hang.
• Worked around a registry bug with the MSI installers.
• Readme files mistakenly referred to Maxwell 2.7.20.
• Extensions could fail to be removed in some cases.

[JDHill]

Version 3.0.5

Changes

• Switched to Maxwell 3.0.1.3 SDK binaries.
• Switched to using local versions of extensions.
• Added new Maxwell Scatter extension.
• Added Materials list grouping capability.
• Added Output > Export > Displacement option.
• Added Output > Export > Dispersion option.
• Added Output > Export > Motion Blur option.
• Added a command for updating MXS references.
• Added customization of FIRE window background.
• Added new camera Focus method options.
• Added Transparent > Dispersion parameter.
• Removed +/- 100% Shift Lens limits.

Fixes

• Lumen/Candela items were swapped in the Emitter UI.
• Global map was not correctly read from MXM files.

Notes

• Important: Maxwell 3.0.1.3 is crashing with MXS References containing instances; this also affects MXS References used in the plugin, as well as the new Maxwell Scatter feature, which operates in terms of MXS References. The workaround is to disable instances when exporting an MXS intended to be used for referencing (which is not generally a bad idea, regardless). This is important to note both for the use of MXS references, and because the new Maxwell Scatter extension is implemented in terms of MXS References.
  
  Regarding the Materials list grouping feature, in the top-level properties of a Material, you will find there is a new "Group" parameter, located just below the Material's name; this is used to group materials in the Materials list. Since there is no corresponding property in an MXM file, a subtle hack is used to add grouping support in MXMs: in the MXM Description field, if you type group=name at the end of the description, the plugin will find this, and use name to group the MXM, when it is imported.
  
  In the Materials list context menu, you will also find a new "Set Group" item, which is used to set the Group name for all currently-selected materials. Note that groups are not shown when using the "List" display mode; this is not a bug, grouping is simply not supported by the underlying UI framework in this display mode. And before you ask, neither is it supported (also by the underlying UI framework) to collapse groups in the UI; I tried using various hacks to enable this, but they all ended up making the list component unstable.
  
  Lastly, it is quite a big change to move to using local versions (they are installed in a MaxwellDotNET subdirectory of ProgramData) of extensions, so please let me know if you notice any problems.

[JDHill]

Version 3.1.0

• Update to Maxwell 3.1.0 binaries
• Add Camera Response
• Add Exposure Presets
• Add Floating Shadows (FIRE)
• Add Floating Reflections (FIRE)
• Add White Point
• Add Tint
• Add Render Zone
• Add Hide to Camera in Shadow Ch.
• Add Spotlight Emitter mode
• Add Material Custom Alphas
• Add Release License function
• Ignore Linked MXM now defaults to off

[JDHill]

Version 3.1.1

• Update to Maxwell 3.1.1 binaries
• Extra Sampling feature was not working from the plugin

[JDHill]

Version 3.1.3

• Update to Maxwell Render 3.1.1 binaries
• Maxwell FIRE was restarting unnecessarily in some situations
• Add support for OpenVDB (i.e. Volume File) to Volumetric extension
• Color param was not working properly in the Transparent material type
• Viewport materials were not updated on some types of changes

[JDHill]

Version 3.1.5

• Update to Maxwell 3.1.99.8 libs.
• Add material Priority.
• Add PSD output support.
• Add new Output modes.
• Add Reflectance Channel output.
• Add Maxwell Sea Repeat U/V params.
• Add Maxwell Scatter Uniform Scale param.
• Add Maxwell Scatter Remove Overlapped param.

[JDHill]

Version 3.1.6

• Update to Maxwell 3.2.0.0 RC1 libs.
• Allow dragging files to IBL channel paths.
• Add "Grow toward World Y" to MaxwellGrass.
• Remove 255 search dirs max limit.
• Add max search depth limit of 10.

[JDHill]

Version 3.2.1

• Update to Maxwell 3.2.1.1 binaries.
• Procedurals were not working in FIRE.

[JDHill]

Version 3.2.5

• Update to Maxwell 3.2.1.2 binaries.

[JDHill]

Version 4.0.1

• Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.8.
• Fixed a failure to load the plugin.

[JDHill]

Version 4.0.2

• Plugin was checking for a Rhino license instead of a SolidWorks license.

[JDHill]

Version 4.0.3

• Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.11.

[JDHill]

Version 4.0.5

• Update to Maxwell 4.0.0.12.