[HarverdGrad]

I'm not clear on something.
Are the plugins going away?
If so, it doesn't surprise me.
I thought they went the plugin route initially, and then had to give up on it when they realized how varied Material Editing was going to be in the different applications. Think of the development effort required.

Going this route of a stand alone app- they only have to worry about Object Importing. They can add plugins down the road for everything else (i.e Lightwave scene import, Maya Scene import etc). It centralizes effort. And the upgrades make them additional $$$ for development.

They can drop support for all the existing plugins and at least have some sort of product to sell. Without Scene importing though, I think I'm done with this application (at least until it's in a better shape).

Only annoyance? Feeling strung along. Not pissed at the Developers (they must be under a lot of pressure). Annoyed at Corporate.

[iandavis]

NL is guilty of classic bait and switch. I bought in when it looked like they were building this fabulous real world simulation renderer which would be tied to various applications including two I already use.. Shade and Lightwave...

Then somewhere along the line they decided it made more sense to invest THOUSANDS of man hours into duplicating the functionality of the software we already use to escape having to build type-specific plugins for each app...

so they could:
A- reduce the number of plugins supported and finish these plugins to a level of full integration, thus creating a truly spectacular rendering engine, but only for a few apps... or

B- freeze plugin development, or reduce it to bug fixes (insert laughter) and divert their entire development effort on creating a stand alone. Which as they have found out may very well be more work then creating flawless plugins for a large group of apps.

Obviously they chose B... And by the results and the people's obvious disregard for the concept of a stand alone app they made the WRONG CHOICE.

I bought one idea, but without my permission or feedback they changed the nature of the final product and are now trying to shovel a product I never actually bought. Give me what I signed up for... or my money back. It's not all that complicated.

disgrunted warp factor 9

[bathsheba]

I agree, I'm not interested in the stand-alone. I signed up for a working engine with a Rhino plug-in, I don't want to export geometry.

This doesn't look good -- I expect to hear soon that NL has dissolved and there will be no product. It's a pity, I liked the renderer.

-Sheba

[Mihai]

Maybe this needs to be repeated 10 times before people get it:

You will have a choice to either work with the plugins (while still making and saving material presets in the Studio), OR importing everything in Studio and setting up cameras and applying materials to objects there.

daros, tell me, how are your STANDALONE APPLICATIONS working with Maxwell? How do you set up things there? What happens if I need to remodel or change an object in my scene and then export it again to Matador????

[Micha]

you are all a kind of selfish, no????

you have bought a 3d standalone application as all users and now you want to change the development course??' who are you??

and what about the other people who just bought maxwell because of the standalone interface?

i am refering for example for ArchiCAD users...

this is a ridiculous topic

You can see the result now. The final release should be ready, but nothing works - plugins are buggy or not ready for the RC. The standalone is buggy. The engine will be optimized in some weeks.

As I have buyed Maxwell, the Rhino plugin was released - but I it was/is buggy. It is not ready to use for the RC. Do you like to get a product at this quality level to?

I only say: dosn't start new projects befor the old one are finished. First the render engine, than the plugins and than the standalone.

[rivoli]

you have bought a 3d standalone application as all users and now you want to change the development course??' who are you??

no, we bought a standalone renderer, not a standalone 3d app.

i am refering for example for ArchiCAD users...

i know, it's not fair, you were told an archicad plugin would have been there, but was never delivered. still we don't have anything to do with it.

this is a ridiculous topic

nope, this is a ridiculous post.

[Micha]

@ND: I wish you a plugin, than you would understand what a good workflow is. Your problem is, that no plugin is ready for you.

[sms]

"Add my vote for quitting work on the standalone until the engine and all existing plugins are working flawlessly. It's a total waste of time."

Yep, I agree!

[rivoli]

rivoli, you must be sleeping, there is an archicad plug in for months.

i know that, believe me i haven't been sleeping these last months. from what i gathered it doesn't work that well yet, does it? let me reformulate it: i'm sorry a fully working archicad plugin hasn't been released as yet.

i bought a maxwell 3d standalone aplication with a render engine.

we have different ideas about what a standalone renderer is.

About the topic, i insist, it is ridiculous

well, let insist here as well, it is not.

[daros]

x mihai.
You want to know wat happens if you import a model again in RemoteMatador After assigned all materials and texture alignments?

Sorry. Remote Matador mantains all the data even if you translate and rotate all the geometry. But only that was a two months developing process. Every RemoteMatador user is assisted by a central Remote server that simplyfies the workflow with no invasive operations.

[rivoli]

and remote matador doesn't import duplicate objects, am i correct david?
when importing the same scene with small changes maxwell studio duplicates every single object, importing them on top of each other.

[Mihai]

I don't think we are talking about the same things daros. I think you are talking about this:

In remote matador on my computer, if I translate an object, and then send back the scene to your servers, then only that info is sent.

I'm talking about:

If I have modelled an entire scene in my 3D software, I have made poly groups for all objects.

1. How do I import this scene into Remote Matador?
2. Do I need to do all the material assignments in RM?
3. Can I do material assignments per polygon groups?
4. If I change an object in my 3D software, changing even the poly groups, what happens now with my scene? Do I need to import the whole scene into RM again, or can I only import this object?
5. How is working with RM (besides the server thing and material libraries) different than working with Maxwell Studio?

[daros]

Exactly Rivoli. But the sistem has changed much internally to allow to recognize a translated polygon from a size changed polygon.

[jeso]

I think it's the main problem there. To make a 3D environment is a waste of time and resources. We all use a 3D modeller program wich we've learned to control. We want to model, apply materials, lights, cameras, and animation on our own program; we only want Maxwell to do what it's designed for: make great renders.

this is the reason why i bought maxwell, i don't want a new 3d environment!!!
let the studio lie and worked futher on the render engine and the plugins.damn!

[daros]

x Mihai,
no, we are talking about the same thing.

1. How do I import this scene into Remote Matador?

Like in MS Studio


2. Do I need to do all the material assignments in RM?

Yes, it is the only choice


3. Can I do material assignments per polygon groups?

No only by materials groups. You can make invisible polygon groups only for texture alignments.

4. If I change an object in my 3D software, changing even the poly groups, what happens now with my scene? Do I need to import the whole scene into RM again, or can I only import this object?

You can import only one single layer that automatically replace the previus one. But you can also import again the whole object and RemoteMatador recognizes automatically wat is changed and wath not, mantaing all material asignments and texture alignmetns.

Even with big scenes it is easy since RemoteMatador loads and replace 8.000.000 polygons in less as 15 seconds.

But stop talking about this argoment because it is OT.