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This is my first Maxwell render..I was under the gun to get it done for a presentation and so had to do some cleanup in Photoshop on the storefront frames as there was not time for second render.

Image size was 2048x1536, SL 19+, render time 58 hrs on an eight core machine. I imported a Sketchup model into Cinema4D, which I won't do again, but will start fresh in C4D in the future. The import brought in some unwanted tags which I overlooked to fix and so gave me some black faces.

Glass is low grade glass from the library. I made the floor materials (grey surface in front is a doormat which needs some more work).

MW sky was enabled as there is outside light coming in, there are quite a number of C4D spotlights as well as nine C4D omni lights. I will do my next render of the same scene replacing the spolights with triangular emitters placed in the "can lights" and use a simple emitter object to replace the omni lights ("chandelier" and wall lights at the back).

I've got some other things to cleanup and want to to another render this coming weekend while I'm out of town, and wonder if there is anything else to consider to reduce the render time (I will probably render this one out on my dual-core desktop). Everyone in the office was very impressed with the image (it presented well), but need to cut the render time down somehow. Really thought to get better results with the 8 core machine

The textures for the floor look too low res and kind of blurry. If you have sunlight coming in you need to use AGS. This is very important! If you don't use AGS, you will be lighting your scene with caustics. That geometry from Sketchup is really causing some problems like you mentioned. I think if you also optimise your interior lights like you mentioned, it will be a big improvement also.

It's a good start!

Thank you for your comments.

I'll put in some higher res texture maps.

AGS...I could not find a reference to that in the index of the MW user guide and a search did not produce much to help me. Is there a tutorial that tells what AGS is, where to find it, and how to best use it?

I saw in another post about hiding unseen geometry...where would that "switch" be, if there is such a switch?

Also, saw in another post about merging all emitters of same output (multiplying the watts by the # of lights). Does this speed MW up significantly?

AGS is architectural glass system, an alternative to dielectric material.... It is important to use AGS if you want sunlight to come through your glass and it reduces render times... There are some AGS materials in material library that comes with Maxwell.... Check Maxwell download section for this if you have not installed them yet...

The easiest way to get an AGS material is to use the wizard.

found the AGS...thx....a few questions...

In architectural applications...ie when using glass for window glass, when would you NOT use AGS but a dielectric material (like low grade glass) with thickness?

I'm assuming that AGS is used with a SINGLE (no thickness) plane?

Also, not related to AGS.....does merging all the emitters that are alike into one object noticeably reduce render time?

Thank you in advance....these forums are indispensable

I never use single plane glass panels. I always try to model accurately to the real object.
Also, I usually test render with a glass material to see if it is going to cause too much noise and if not, I'll keep it (because it looks better with refraction). The only time I always use AGS is on exterior windows of interior renders (anywhere there is sunlight that will be penetrating the glass).

Thx Brian.

I understand what you said. For exterior arch shots, you would use "real" glass (not AGS)?

Are you using MR for all your arch renders?

Joe

I try real glass first, then if I see any noise/caustic problems, I switch to AGS.

I have been using Maxwell exclusively for over a year now. I used to use mental ray. Luckily, we only do still renders. If I had to do an animation, I would probably go with mental ray.