[gmenzel]

That's one of the things I miss almost every day when working with Maxwell: Basic RGB color control, beyond just brightness/contrast/saturation.

How about something like this:

[Half Life]

I would like this too, but if it gets in I'd like to see it also make an appearance for adjusting final rendered output as well... maybe in a subheading below "Tone Mapping" in the Core Render App.

(and before anybody tells me "Photoshop" -- I was an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert for years... I'm fully aware of its capabilities)

Best,
Jason.

[simmsimaging]

There must be something in the air on this subject right now - bitmap and texture adjustment and instancing threads all over the place

I am 100% for this, and am also more than a little familiar with the Photoshop approach. +1 from me.

[Aniki]

and also better hdr/mxi editing when used as emitter texture. Desaturating a colored hdr image doesn't work at all for know..

[sandykoufax]

I think this will be available in MW3. Of course, just my imagination.

[simmsimaging]

Something else that I would *love* to have in Maxwell is the ability to blend texture maps in with a spinner amount - like you can in Max.

The advantage is that it gives a global control over how much texture map contributes to the parameter. So if you set the map at 50% in the slot (say roughness for example) then Maxwell would derive the roughness value 50% from the map, and 50% would be a flat contribution set in the normal roughness value spinner.

It's really powerful and quick way to dial up or down the effect of a map without having to edit the map in post and would be a great addition to the bitmap tools requested here.

b

[Polyxo]

I would consider a Live-Link to Photoshop or any other Image-Editor as very useful too.
Clicking the Texture-Slot while holding a Hotkey or similar could instantly bring up the favorite Image-Editor.

Still I can see the desire to do individual Detail-Changes per Channel to maps without the wish to actually alter
the Source-Bitmap. So more tweaking options within Maxwell itself certainly were welcome.

[eric nixon]

Live-Link to Photoshop

If your in Windows, you can right click any file and open with PS for example, hope that helps.

[Polyxo]

Live-Link to Photoshop

If your in Windows, you can right click any file and open with PS for example, hope that helps.

Are you refering to Windows-OS "open with"?
Well that's not exactly what I mean...and no, that hint is not helpful.

What I mean is Live-Linking. Open PS (or other Image-Editor) or give it focus from within Maxwell-Editors.
Have edited and saved files reloaded to the Renderer automatically, see changes in Fire immediately.
Such works in a variety of Programs already.

[eric nixon]

I guess you misunderstood me, thats exactly what happens, you can also drag and drop into PS instead of right-clicking.

Is that helpful, I havent tried it with fire.

and no, that hint is not helpful.

Stupid jerk, why even say that? never gonna offer you help again.

[Polyxo]

I guess you misunderstood me, thats exactly what happens, you can also drag and drop into PS instead of right-clicking.

Is that helpful, I havent tried it with fire.

why am I trying to help you anyway?

Yes, please don't help me.
It's really not remotely what I am asking for. I am quite familiar with normal file-open operations in Windows, that also includes Drag and Drop.

I wish for a direct wire to Photoshop without leaving the Modelling-Program Interface, without bringing up File-Browsers or File-Open-Save-Dialogs.
Pretty sure Next-Limit has understood, otherwise I could record a little Demo how this Photoshop-Link works in 3DCoat for instance.

[polynurb]

i think eric meant that one can drag a texture from the bsdf slot directly into PS.

honestly, i was not aware of that, i only ever dragged maps onto them , but not again from there into another app.

i see the advantages a direct link has.. but how ist it with big files?

does it not add some degree of instability/complexity/extra ram consumption?

[Polyxo]

i think eric meant that one can drag a texture from the bsdf slot directly into PS.
honestly, i was not aware of that, i only ever dragged maps onto them , but not again from there into another app.

Oh neither did I!
If that's what Eric meant that I have to excuse.
That's a handy feature indeed. It that documented anywhere?

i see the advantages a direct link has.. but how ist it with big files?
does it not add some degree of instability/complexity/extra ram consumption?

I find this works very nicely between 3DCoat and PS.

[simmsimaging]

i think eric meant that one can drag a texture from the bsdf slot directly into

Nice tip - thanks Eric.

I think a more interactive relationship between Photoshop and Maxwell is a cool concept, but I would still prefer better bitmap controls within Maxwell. The reason: less confusing, IMO, and more efficient to have one map that gets slightly manipulated right at the point those changes are needed (in any given map slot etc.) rather than having 4-5 full versions of the map.

The primary issue with the external change approach is that once you have diverged into multiple streams then any *global* change needed to the map has to be done X the number of versions. It's all well and good if the core map doesn't have to change - but in my world there are Art Directors and *everything* changes, all the time, wherever you find those.

The key things with having the system integral to Maxwell is simplicity, speed, *and* flexibility. I think that is already well recognized since we do have some basic image manipulation tools already, it's really just a question of making those more powerful so they are not such blunt instruments for what is usually a very fine-tuned kind of task.

Anyway, you can argue that this functionality isn't really needed in Maxwell per se, but the need for these tools is well established and evidenced by how common those kind of controls are in native 3D apps. Since Maxwell precludes using the native tools for this in programs like Max, then it makes Maxwell that much harder to use and more limited in it's scope. Having them there just makes Maxwell that much more production friendly and powerful than it already is.

I get do get that Photoshop type stuff will always be needed for many things still though.

[eric nixon]

You can drag into a map dialogue, but for dragging out, I drag from the 'open file' dialogue, I never tried dragging directly, I dont think that works.

Another tiny tip is that you can copy the file location adress from within mxed studio and paste that into the file open dialogue, just in case someone doesnt know.

My opinion is that if maxwell will have colour controls, It would be good to have something similar to colour balance in PS, because a crude hue control leads to bad colours, and adding curves is too fiddly for what were doing.

Some contrast, saturation controls for mxi's would be great, but maybe theres a technical reason why that doesnt exist already.