Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Hi Juan!

How are MXM presets used inside FormZ?
Has anyone got this to work on a mac?

Cheers

John

Hi John,

You just need to choose an mxm file in the query attributtes dialog. is it not working in your system? can you tell us the steps you follow?

Juan

Hi Juan!

Thanks for responding. I am hoping that it is something I am doing.

I follow these steps:-

- choose object
- use set attributes tool to access maxwell materials
- select MXM material from the popup menu
- set path button to material (MXM file)
- path is copied to text field.
- exit attributes palette
- hit render

The object is rendered in the colour selected in the surface styles
palette and seems to be just "diffuse" (default).

I have tried moving the materials around as I noticed
that when I click 'edit Mxm' sometimes the material is not launched.
When this happens I look in the "console" window and
it seems that the path is truncated after any space.

i.e. if materials are in this direcvtory
Macintosh HD_1:Applications:Maxwell:materials database:mxm files:basic vol. i:c_carpaint.mxm

Console reads:-
2006-05-02 13:18:56.057 open[640] No such file: /Applications/Maxwell/materials

I am using a 2.3ghz Dual G5 running tiger 10.4.6.

Cheers

John

Hi John
Hi Juan!

There seem to be a problem with the path for texture and mxm
I'm on winXP
and simply the path for textures is not correctly given by the plug to MXCL.

I've test that with "sandstone_0-5x0-5.mxm" and the mxcl want the needed textures in the fellowing file:
c:\Maxwell cosas\Textures\Sandstone\Sandstone 02\stone+sandstone+02_d.png
c:\Maxwell cosas\Textures\Sandstone\Sandstone 02\stone+sandstone+02_b.png
c:\Maxwell cosas\Textures\Sandstone\Sandstone 02\stone+sandstone+02_r.png

If i create the right directories all work fine.
(except i have to add an uv map with the map tool of FZ

Hope this help
Jean-Luc

Hi Juan/j-luc!

It just does not work on a mac. I have tried everything
and still no success.

I link to a MXM and nothing. The object renders with the
color of the surfacestyle selected and as a diffuse object.

Has anyone got this to work on a mac??

Cheers

John

Hi!

Are there any other mac users out there using FormZ?

I am wondering whether the following is working or not
and if so how?

- transparency
- bumpmapping
- custom mxms

Cheers

John

Hi John,

Mxm presets are working here without issues. can you check if this is an issue with paths as Jean-Luc says? can you set a mxm in a very simple path without spaces numbers or non common characters?

Tomorrow we will investigate it.

Juan

Hi Juan!

Thanks again for your response.
I have tried your suggestions and nothing helps.

If I delete the spaces I can edit a MXM using the button
in the formZ palette but it still renders using the color set in the
surface styles box and as diffuse. If I open the mxs file
it only has teh defult Formz material.

I am thinking it is related to paths as teh materials load in
with colons (:) which I know is an old way to delimite files on
a mac but the console shows forward slashes (:) when there
is a problem editing the MXM (as above).

Please note I am using a mac dual 2.3ghz rnning Tiger 10.4.6
and using FormZ 5.5.2 renderzone.

Thanks again for your response.

John

Hi John,

I am investigating your issue. There will be an update soon, when we fix the tessellation issues. Meanwhile can you check if mxm presets work fine just overwriting MaxwellAtributtes.ENU.fzr file? You can download the new one from this link:
http://rapidshare.de/files/19525550/Max ... U.fzr.html

Just overwrite the old one.

I will keep you updated, there will be a new plugin very soon.

Regards,

Juan

Hi Juan!

The file you uploaded did not work.

The file you have supplied is just an external file
used to read strings so one can easily provide plug-ins in
various langauges.

Did you mean to supply this file or another?

Cheers

john

Hi Juan!

I can see that you added two extra lines that are in the
windows verision of the language file.

("Mxm",
"Mxm Parameters",)

As stated before this has made no difference.
The old way works (i.e. diffuse, emitter etc. but if I choose
Mxn preset and add a path, nothing). Its like I haven’t selected
anything as it seems to default to the diffuse default (which is confirmed
if I open the MXS file in Studio).

I still think its a path problem and it would be nice if the
plug-in talked to the console app and confirmed paths to
MXMs. My guess is that it should not be using ":" but "/" instead.

Looking forwward to the new plug-in,

Cheers

John

John, Juan,

the mxm presets don't work with me either (on Mac). also, when exporting the mxs, I suddenly get 334 materials in studio, while I only have defined 16 in formz. it seems every object gets its own material. slightly annoying if I have to tweak 1 material a bit.... so maybe Juan you could look into this as well while forging the new plugin? tnx
wim

wimver wrote:so maybe Juan you could look into this as well while forging the new plugin? tnx

Yes of course, this is the main priority, not the 6.0 plugin.
I have done some tests and I hope a new version for MAc will be released soon with the custom mxm's and other issues fixed. I am also looking the bug that makes that some areas appear black:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=14678

THis is not related to the plugin but to the render engine. You can check that the mxs file generated with the mac plugin is properly rendered in maxwell for windows. But this is only happening with formZ geometries, not with Lightwave or CInema, so we are still investigating what is happening here. We are putting all our efforts in this issues, I will keep you updated.

Regards,

Juan

Hi Juan!

Thats sounds great. I assume that you have replicated
the problem with custom MXM files?

Also as a help I find that if I change the scale to say 0.1
black triabgles alwyas appear. Occasionally they even appear with
the default 0.01 but if I change it then to 0.001 it works. Weird.

Anyways, good luck with your debugging and I look
forward to a new plug-in.

Cheers

John

Juan,

yeah I'm having the same issue, can't load any mxm presets in FormZ.
Same as Joh , just appears as a diffuse object.

On a Mac here too