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Seems like a long time since we had a mayor update!, can we expect something this year???

It will be released when it ready.

they can give some explanation about the dev road: gpu or not
after being the leader for some years, new unbiased render engine take some market piece
what is the future...

Well, this forum used to be very active back in the day and there where a lot more info about upcoming updates and stuff, today i see more activity on a grave yard!

I just hope V3 is worth this LONG LONG wait.....

Well, I thing it's not a secret anymore (since it has been mentioned and confirmed here many times) that v3 has been in WIP stage for a while now.
And the recent survey is just another hint pointing to it.

But I'd rather wait for while to get a complex, fully-loaded update, instead of getting half-backed, minor update strait away. /Hello, Autodesk/

I really don't want to drag out these kinds of posts because they drive me bananas, just want to mention that during this "LONG LONG" wait you have received and for free:

- vastly improved motion blur
- hair
- particles
- grass
- MXS References
-anamorphic bokeh
- python scripting
- new channels (motion vector, normals, position)
- Pretesselated displacement
- vector displacement
- RF integration
- much faster SSS
- MXS/MXI Compression
- i think about 3 new free plugins, at least
- FIRE

...along with plenty of other improvements and new features in both Maxwell and the included 14 plugins, not mentioned in this list.

What was the point of starting this thread? Complaining that new features aren't discussed in the way they were back in the alpha days is completely pointless and I guess you know that, right?

I think Mihai is 100% correct...
I wish we could have more info simply because I am really curious but we have to agree that things are coming really often and for free!
To be honest, for my kind of work, Arch rendering and 99% daylight exterior scenes,the only thing I can wish for, is more speed... well, probably GPU rendering will do the difference...

Think of AutoDesk... We expect Revit and Max 2014 next month and there is no news, no beta.... Also there is no wish list forum, and user wishes are never heard... Updates have been almost ridiculous for 1-2 years now and none of the serious problems and bugs are solved... But they are a world leading company... I don't get it...

On the contrary, NextLimit has a top quality product that does the job very well... and we still complain for what nobody promised... I think it is not fair...

Maxwell 3.0 has to be better,faster, simpler, cheaper.... add whatever you want... but it takes time and we have to remember that we always get something good.

I wouldn't second the wish for cheaper, as we're already getting quite cheap Software - sorry Software at a low price - considering what you get and mostly what you get in terms of prompt and excellent support, regular Bugfixes and free updates between the releases whilst the most common business model nowadays seems to be subscriptions coming with near to no innovation. I remember being told to buy the New Version for bugfixes with another package which is really nasty. And don't forget the offers for every european and world football championship every 2 years - the spanish Team being real good I think we have some great time ahead
Im really better off with some solid release every 2 or 3 years !

I'm very happy with how Maxwell has developed thus far -- much better than programs which only update annually (or biennially) regardless of whether the update is worthwhile (which it usually is not).

With Maxwell 3 my concern is not so much for speed or price, but quality and ease of use improvements -- which is what Maxwell has always "hung it hat on", so I'm sure that is where they place the priority as well.

Best,
Jason.

Ok, let's clarify that I don't wish for cheaper Maxwell...
Maxwell 3.0 has to be better,faster, simpler, cheaper.... add whatever you want...
means that maybe someone might add the word "cheaper"... Faster? Yes, I need that... Simpler? that would be nice, although I don't have any difficulties, since I use Maxwell with Max plugin...

I saw iray of 3ds Max 2014 supports many standard procedural shader.
I wish Maxwell 3.0 have some nice procedural shaders like quick dirt.

I can't imagine a way in which Maxwell could get simpler.

Less required fakery -- so many of the limitations of Maxwell currently force the user to ignore physically accurate approaches to get a suitable result... AGS being just one of dozens of common examples I could use (and please don't tell me AGS is physically accurate, because it is only accurate in as much as it is theoretically possible, but not accurate to any real world experience).

Right now the user has to learn and hold two conflicting sets of rules in their mind while working with Maxwell -- the first set says: "do things as they are in reality for maximum realism"... the second set says: "here is a list of fakery cheats to forcibly make Maxwell usable for production".

There is MUCH room for improvement... but first and foremost simply getting to use the real world materials would be a big step forward for simplicity (and quality).

Best,
Jason.

Half Life wrote:Less required fakery -- so many of the limitations of Maxwell currently force the user to ignore physically accurate approaches to get a suitable result... AGS being just one of dozens of common examples I could use (and please don't tell me AGS is physically accurate, because it is only accurate in as much as it is theoretically possible, but not accurate to real world experience).

Yes, that's the point... i really can't understand why there still this untouchable rule of staying unbiased while it is already not true anymore (or never has been) as it is now...
There are so many limitations regarding dielectrics, caustics, scattering amd high reflective materials that you have to fake it in any way to get the job done. Maybe it is possible to render strictly unbiased cubes or maybe simple product shots but no archviz scenes. And i can say for me that i would have absolutely no problem to use optimized (biased!) glass and water materials with good looking caustics, refraction and tinted shadows when it then simply works and looks real!!! All the annoying workarounds for these situations are only laughable and still looking fake in most situations. But i have to use them and so all my renders are already biased - so why not do it right and use biased solutions for those special cases when the unbiased solution is not possible? And it seems so, since we already had 8 years now without a proper solution.
Maybe display a big warning sign that you're leaving the unbiased route now at your own risk if you use them... i would have no problem to do it!

Maybe next limit will surprise us and go for the brute force approach like arion , leveraging gpu or xeon phi .At least that way they could stay true to their principles of unbiasedness .

If not please introduce at least some biased options , because render times can be brutal .I've tried quite a few render engines now and really want to stay with maxwell, nothing surpasses its look for me.
Although i do need to be more productive (desperate for faster renders).