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hmm
Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 9:12 am
by messire
same here: got difficulties to set up things...
we need tutorials or help!
- mxm materials, when chosen, can't be seen in SU, means you don't know if its applied or not . ( workflow lost something in the process). Would be a good idea to be able to set a mxm material, and automatically change the SU jpg using the mxm jpg ( when its an image)... otherwise we are going through a long process of picking the SU jpg, apply to it the mxm settings etc... Of course i assume for most textures, using the usual way and setting it maxwell properties is still the way to go. Problem comes with dielectrics and the ags, and the emitters which are way richer using mxm settings.
any hint?
noticed renders are a bit faster... will do a big test... at least files are keeping most of their settings into the V1...
tried also a .obj import in studio> confirmed to me i'll never use studio!
Nils
Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 6:29 pm
by fv
I have done a few test straight from Sketchup with my new Macbookpro. Rendering starts up fine and is fast going on the two processors. Pleased to see that all works. I have a feeling Studio and Material editor is very slow, maybe because they are not really universal binary.
I get a lot of black traingled surfaces in my renderings which don't make me happy. Have not found out how to handle this problem. Otherwise I am thrilled to see rendertimes speed up so much on my new laptop. Strange is that the Macbook does not get very hot while rendering and it should I think considering that it does run hot sometimes. Maybe just in combination with the poweradapter.
Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 10:38 pm
by andrekrige
Hi FW
I also get the triangles from time to time and have been able to sort out 99% by not leaving them as standard SU materials. Let us know if this solves anything.
Cheers
Andre
workflow hint
Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:56 am
by messire
found the easiest way to use the material editor is to keep it open on a second screen ( if available of course) and set materials there, then assign them in SU when they are set. It solves the display problem when draging the editor window ( on PC) that was open in SU, and also speeds up seeing the result etc...
Yes editor interface, especially preview is slow and almost stops all computer tasks...
Otherwiser HDRI is just awsome!, what would be great would be to have a palette of icons to speed up the process in the SU interface, instead of scrolling three menus to assign a texture, which doesn't have a thumbnail etc.. would be hot to have the menu keep last used mxm too.
tried .obj import in studio ( exported from SU ) disastrous! ( lots of missing triangles, big mess!
N.
Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:05 pm
by Sheik
I haven’t had much time to play with 1.0. I was rather turned of by the “beta type” material settings. They are total rubbish! Not BSDF, just plan BS…
Take a look at how plastic created in su2mxs looks like in Studio. Half of the settings are totally ignored (marked with green question marks) and the others are mixed here and there without any real logic. And the settings are mostly only set to one layer, so you just get half the effect. I guess this is the same in all plugins?? It seems to be the same story with dielectic and emitters…
Could someone explain how this is ever supposed to look like plastic? Tom?

Sheik
indeed sheik
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 9:47 am
by messire
Its a true joke, and since you have no preview, its pretty much unusable !
thus the ideal way to do it now with the material editor, then assign in SU using the MR scrolling menu ( assign mxm material). I am pretty astounished at the possibilities of the materials, i only wish there was some kind of preview possible, at least a way to see them in SU so we know what was applied etc. ( maybe just a roll over tag telling you wich MR texture was applied ?)
N.
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 4:06 pm
by Sheik
I also think using the Maxwell material editor directly and assigning the mxm is the right way of doing things.
I proposed a function where you could create a SketchUp material from the mxm at the same time you save the mxm. The SketchUp material would have the diffuse map or colour of the mxm, and the same name naturally, so materials using that SU material would then be swapped on export to the same mxm material. This basically the same way Hrothgars 3ds2mxs worked, so it can not be a problem. I don’t know if it is a problem to have Maxwell write materials into the SketchUp materials format, as it is said to be closed, but at a minimum we should have the possibility to manually create the needed SU materials. I also had a look at SU *.skm files and they seem pretty simple to figure out. The preset glasses and metals etc. should be applied as SU materials, not to geometry from the plugins menu as now. I want a su2mxm library for SketchUp!
It would still be useful to have the possibility of creating basic materials directly from SU materials, kind of like we now do with the “Beta Style” (BS) material settings. Only it would actually work, and be even simpler than now.
The setting could be accessed by right clicking on a face with the material, without the need to select all faces you want to apply the mxm setting to. I would prefer assigning per material, not by face. I would be fine simply with just adding a coating, adjusting roughness and transparency. More complex materials would be handled from the Maxell materials editor. How does that sound?
Ok here is the joke of the day: BS Dielectic. It is even worse than the BS plastic.

Why is the same scene different rendered from SketchUp and Studio?
Sheik
I will try to spend an enjoyable weekend, so I will not laugh at the BS emitters until next week.
Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:23 pm
by Sheik
No Bug Splat here. Assigning mxm and exporting works fine here. The only problems with mxms are the triangulation/ “material also on unwanted faces” problem, and the workflow.
I am looking forward to seeing your exporter Hrothgar!
I guess the old BS materials are there only for compatibility with old scenes, so I expect there will also be something new from Pavol for 1.x (?).
Has anyone found a way to start a multilight render directly from SketchUp?
Sheik
Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:09 am
by transparente
I had also some problems with strange triangulations on renders, but resolved this changing my workflow, here's what I do:
.sketchup modelling, and apllying diferent colours for each diferent material I have, group by material.
.export to maxwell without actually render it (just wright the .mxs)
.open scene (.mxs) in maxwell_studio and apply materials by 'grouped_objects'
.render in studio
It has been working for me for small renders where I don't have to tweek (UV map) the textures, and this way I avoid the pain_in_the_ass of applying maxwell materials in sketchup.
It has also another plus, I managed to have multilights that I think in sketchup isn't working.
Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:33 pm
by deesee
I haven't had any bug splats when using mxm materials, but then again, the only one I've really tried is ags_standard in the "jdhill" folder.
I haven't had much time to play with maxwell, but it sounds like it's going to be a neat challenge.