[archipeter]

HI Everyone!
This tool is amazing...just a few questions:
1) I will avoid the ever-present, basic "noise" questions; my understanding is you simply need smarter materials, smarter geometry, or more rendering time. Is that accurate???
2) I am considering a dedicated rendering station; are these new quad-cores w/ 3-4 gigs of RAM good enough? Can Maxwell take advantage of multi-threading? Obviously, 2 or 3 separate PC's would be even better, but........
3) Out of focus image??? What did I do?
4) Noisy image after 20 hrs on a P3, 1.5 gB RAM...still the best lighted rendering I have ever done

Looking forward to getting to know the community

[-Adrian]

Welcome chap!

1) Yes, don't make them unnaturally bright/saturated. And remember that stuff like SSS and Dispersion contribute very strongly to noise. Bad lighting conditions matter equally as much. Indirect light, as seen in a dark apartment lit only from outside, is reasonable only when you have a super-computer at your disposal, like e.g. daros.

2) Intel Core i7 > * (Benchwell)

3) You didn't focus (j/k). Maxwell works just like Camera, no way out of realism hell. If you're using MXStudio, you need to bring the distance cone (similar to light cones in 3D apps) onto your object. In the position parameters of the Camera, there's a focal distance dial. Familiarize yourself with the aspects of photography if you haven't (aperture, focal length, iso,...)

4) Very noisy indeed. As mentioned in 1), indirect illumination is tricky. A Pentium 3 is probably 50 times slower than Intel's latest desktop processor.

[Bubbaloo]

First let me say, "Welcome!"
Congrats on getting started with the best render engine available.

1. You are correct.

2. I recommend at least a quad core. More processing power = faster clearing renders. Load it up with RAM too, and don't forget you NEED a 64 bit OS to utilize all the RAM.

3. If you are working from Maxwell Studio, adjust your camera's focal point to be on the object. Also, raising the fstop from the default 5.6 will help.

4. Pentium 3? Don't even bother! Take a look at the times on the benchwell.com site. You'll see the difference a good quad core makes.

Good luck!

Edit - Damn, Adrian. You win.

[archipeter]

Thanks for the great replies...anxious to get better with this product!!!

Perfecting the RHINO, REVIT, MAXWELL workflows ... HOPEFULLY

[jvanmetre]

archipeter-

Hi...not sure if anyone else calls Philly home on this forum?

I work with Rhino on a PC and use an 8 core MacPro for rendering...works pretty well -- I'm able to export from the older pc (multi-threading variety) to the MAC pretty seamlessly.

Anyway, good luck and welcome to the forum!

jvm

[MarkM]

Welcome to the forum..

I'm about 20 mins from Philly

[Leonardo]

HI Everyone!
This tool is amazing...just a few questions:
1) I will avoid the ever-present, basic "noise" questions; my understanding is you simply need smarter materials, smarter geometry, or more rendering time. Is that accurate???

Yes, yes, and yes... It's accurate, but you forgot to add in the list: "Big bad Computer" A good computer will make a big difference

3) Out of focus image??? What did I do?

The picture seems to be in focus... however you focused/aim the corner not the ball

4) Noisy image after 20 hrs on a P3, 1.5 gB RAM...still the best lighted rendering I have ever done

I'm sorry, what do you mean by "P3"? Like Pentium III????

20 hours in a PIII must be like 5 min in a Core i7 get a new pc and put the P3 out of misery

[archipeter]

Appreciate the great responses! Well, today I got my new quad core going; reaching those SL's so much faster now...LOL...imagine that?!?! What tooks hours before is simply minutes now. Thanks for the guidance

I am using a similar workflow: Rhino/Revit out of the old PC, and then allowing the new one to do dedicated tasks. What a breeze (compared to my extensive experience with VIZ, VRAY, Accurender)--Next Limit has really raised the bar with Maxwell.

Cheers to the locals chiming in

[choo-chee]

hint: out of focus images can happen if you work with wrong units (e.g. your modeler is at meters but maxwell is at cm), so you can change the global scale attribute.

[Leonardo]

Appreciate the great responses! Well, today I got my new quad core going; reaching those SL's so much faster now...LOL...imagine that?!?! What tooks hours before is simply minutes now. Thanks for the guidance

I am using a similar workflow: Rhino/Revit out of the old PC, and then allowing the new one to do dedicated tasks. What a breeze (compared to my extensive experience with VIZ, VRAY, Accurender)--Next Limit has really raised the bar with Maxwell.

Cheers to the locals chiming in

what part of Philly?

I went to Temple Univ.

[archipeter]

I'm just outside of the city in Jenkintown/NW Philly, and went to Drexel. How long in Coral Gables?