[thinkbuild]

Greetings.

I realized it is fairly difficult to really get the picture what is going on with all the plugs. Personally, I find it a bit hard to maintain an overview of who is developing the software and what problems are really being worked on by who where. As I now understand it, it seems Pavol is working in Bratislava on the SU plugins for both Mac and PC, and there is some mysterious "Mac-Guy" - Miguel? - working at NextLimit on the actual maxwell render engine.

I think that from a user standpoint, it takes some time to understand this and to see where in the forums one should look for issues. Towards this end, I (now re-decided...) to make a "personal" list of the bugs/problems I am experiencing.

Again, I don't know if it is because I am doing something wrong or if it doesnt work, but here is the list as a start. I would be very happy if anybody from NL/the community could comment/reply, etc. to these issues. I know that 1.0 is coming soon so many things might change but perhaps this can help us all:


1) DOF - no go, not ever, no combination thusfar using su/b5. not sure why, i tried many combinations.

2) textures ? again, very confusing to read in the forums, i know jake has gotten this to work but i am not sure what the magic combo is. also, i am curious is emitters can be assigned textures? (like a projection wall...)

3) multi-thread. i am not sure how to even assign multiple threads using the su plugin. is this possible? where do i set this?

4) speed. (engine) - on my g4/1.67Mhz/1.5GB ram, the speed is absurdly ridiculously slow. oh well. any thoughts, will it ever get better? it is not possible to imagine using this machine for maxwell renderings in a serious way using the beta g4 engine. i know this is a hot button issue but it would be nice to know what the big "plan" is on this...

5) "image/mxi" tab doesn't work. (engine) - this option always stays unclickable, what's the deal? i could see that perhaps this will change with 1.0 but i thought to mention it here...

6) command line. (engine) - i have never gotten this to work and have not had any secret tips on how to get it to fly. perhaps, as pavol mentioned, the new OSX/SDK will help this along with the fix of the environment/root issues. i am hoping...

7) (overall development issue) the beta plugin interface is still very difficult, with important things buried in menus in menus. hopefully this will change but i am not sure what the "plan" is for pavol, etc., on developing the interface. is there any place to comment on this?

OK thanks for reading all,

jason
*in berlin*

[yasuka]

Hello thinkbuild.

3) multi-thread. i am not sure how to even assign multiple threads using the su plugin. is this possible? where do i set this?

Perhaps, it is always exported by 2.

6) command line. (engine) - i have never gotten this to work and have not had any secret tips on how to get it to fly. perhaps, as pavol mentioned, the new OSX/SDK will help this along with the fix of the environment/root issues. i am hoping...

Please you open Terminal.app.
And you type "/Applications/maxwell.app/Contents/MacOS/mxcl" , And Return key.
perhaps, information is displayed. version,SYNTAX and Example.

If you installed Maxwell in other path, an easy method of knowing the path is that drag the mxcl file on the Terminal window.

G4 1GHz Dual
Mac OS 10.3.9
SketchUp4.0 Japanese version
Sorry, I'm poor in English...

[thinkbuild]

dear yasuka,

yeah! thanks for your help. i typed exactly what you said and was welcomed into commandline rendering. much appreciated. this will greatly improve my workflow.

i also realized that the threading is "automatic" by default, meaning that it seems to auto-optimize for your processors. so i am running 2 threads on my powerbook G4.

much appreciated.

jason
// in berlin...


{PS to jake256: will look into your texture/material suggestion tomorrow. but - do you think/know if emitters can have a "materialization"?}

[Jake256]

{PS to jake256: will look into your texture/material suggestion tomorrow. but - do you think/know if emitters can have a "materialization"?}

Yes they can with the newest plugin. I used one on a dome for a test yesterday. Seemed to work fine.

[Jake256]

Here's another bug–splotches. This is the first time I've had this problem with any of the plugins. I'm using the latest on a mac.

Notice the similar shape to these splotches in the second photo.

10.4.2 OS X
Dual 2.5 G5
SketchUp 5

[Jake256]

Well, I reran the render. This time I ungrouped the cushions and everything looks fine. So, does grouping have something to do with this problem? I don't know.