Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Dear NL devs,

Are you gonna abandon Maya plug-in for MR 5.2?

Cheers,

alex

Can someone from NL answering this question please!
Is the Maya plug-in for MR 5.2 on windows 10 dropped?

Thanks in advance.

alex

I asked that like a month ago... after seeing that Maya is being mentioned less than other apps on the web site.
Maybe they still have to compile it for 2022 or maybe they wanna make us stop using it ?
I'm still on V.4 and can't consider upgrading to something that will not be supported further.

Very sad.....

choo-chee wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 7:57 am

I'm still on V.4 and can't consider upgrading to something that will not be supported further.

Have you considered trying Maxwell Studio instead of a plugin? We've been using Studio with our DataCAD for years and the workflow isn't a problem. Maybe try the free trial version to see if it works for you? We upgraded from v3 to v5 and it's been well worth it, particularly with the new denoiser.

can you work on faces, vertices and edges on Studio, like in Maya ...? because many times I modify the model in Maya and it's a must for me.

We don't have Maya so I can't say if Studio can mimic everything that Maya can do. Studio does allow control and editing of all objects, materials, UV's etc. It also has an in-built modeller so there are primitives to use and edit. The best way to see for yourself is to download the free trial version and try it out. Our work is predominantly arch + ID so all the design and modelling is done entirely in DataCAD and any changes needed are just re-exported back into Studio which allows you to replace the existing object or part object with the amended one on import whilst retaining all the other applied settings. This only takes a handful of seconds so for us, works fine.

hmmm editing objects as delete a face from an object, pull some vertices, or extrude an edge...?
the whole idea of using a plug in is to enjoy the power of the 3d app for this and have the ability to quickly test everything without the need any manual intervention...

Hi Choo-Chee,

I'm not all that familiar with Studio's modelling features as we don't use them. I had a quick look through it but couldn't see anything that would indicate it has the same flexibility of Maya, unless someone else can chirp in with further comment, I'd say it's limited? I guess you'll have to keep lobbying Next Limit in the hopes a Maya extension gets added for v5.

thanks Mark, I wasn't expecting Studio to be that sophisticated as Maya
the down side is that after getting a new PC with modern Nvidia card, I will not be able to enjoy it in the way I meant to...

You cannot model in Studio, only create scenes from 3D data you import and then render.

The concept of needing to use Studio for anything other than basic product or ArchViz work is beyond asinine from a workflow/pipline perspective. For anyone utilizing CGI for visual effects, for large sets/mat painting, or animation, it's a deal breaker.

Yeah, Maxwell Studio can't replace any of the DCC tools ..

Studio is great when you're pairing it with Cad software ... which doesn't have much of a visualisation tools.
It can't .. and, most importantly, not even intends to replace DCC software (i.e. Max, Maya, .. even Cinema ) Maxwell studio is just a hub before rendering .. it's not a creation software .. it's a rendering software.

So yeah - It is a bit sad that there no news on Maya plugin ... as Maya + Maxwell is a killer combo. My dream is to see Maxwell being node based and working together with Maya node system .. oh boy - that would be awesome.

P.S. - thought I'd add this - Altho - these days I'm finding myself more frequent using Maxwell Studio as a stop-over before rendering. I use Maya for primary part of the process, then, when I'm ready to render - I export it to Studio (I wish there were a better plugin for that) and in Studio I do last tweaks (lights, camera settings) - and hit the render button from there .. I'd say last 5% of the process ... and .. well it is not as convenient as rendering straight form Maya, but it has it's benefits.
As discussed previously .. if NL devs want to drop the Maya plugin development (and all other DCC plugins) due it requires a lot of resources with not so much of an outcome (probably due to majority of clients are from industries that don't use Maya or Max) - maybe NL folks could consider creating a "Bridge" plugins - that will hold just a very detailed exporting functionality to prepare and export your scene to Maxwell. Then it would be the Maxwell studio that you're purchasing when working with, say Maya or Max ..

I think dropping support for a DCC app sucks, and without a notice, even more. I used to use other apps that work like Studio, making you use a reference file to save all your work done in the renderer and then re-apply it when you re-load a scene after re-modifying after the client re-changed things and then you have to do some work again as the reference file not always loads correctly because of the changes... the whole idea with a plug in is that it's, well, plugged in.

Note from the moderator: due to some technical problems we had to revert to a backup of the forum and a few messages were lost in the process; we copied them in order to get them back after the intervention. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

To Nasok,

While a plugin is ideal, I think your idea of a bridge format can be served by Pixar's USD format. It supports blend shape animations, hair etc. I use Houdini, Blender and Modo and all three export .usd and I'm pretty sure Maya, Max, Cinema4d do too.

I've been able to use Pixar's pxr python module and Next Limit's pymaxwell5 to convert some simple geometry with animation and the camera from both Houdini and Blender to a .mxs files (one per frame) that I can load into Studio. It is slower than compiled code and has some workflow issues but it is better than nothing.

Nvidia's Omniverse project https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-omniverse-platform which also uses Pixar's USD
may be another useful bridge since Nvidia seems to be spending developer time on writing bi-directional plugins for Maya, Max, Rhino, Sketchup, Blender, Unity , Unreal and Houdini. There is an API for writing your own plugin but this solution will only be for Windows and Linux users that own an RTX card.