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Yes, it's very important that we have some documentation on RC2, please make an effort.

Andrew, I thought the glass creating was covered?

Just because there is yet no official documentation for Maxwell Studio doesn't make it unusable. Most things regarding the UI are pretty straightforward. Just hover the mouse over icons, and try and right click to see what you get.
Ofcourse docs are good to have but the lack of them doesn't stop you from exploring. "Apply material"....I wonder what that does...."Split window vertically".....what do they mean?

Regarding materials, here's what I found so far:

- each "basic material layer" can contain one bsdf component and several coatings

- you can add more than one basic material layer, and change the influence of each one using the weightmap setting. For now though don't bother creating more than 1 basic layer because the weightmaps don't work properly, it doesn't blend them.

- You already have 275 materials included in the materials database >complex ior. Use that pdf or look in Maximus 3D thread in Off topic to find out which materials those ior presets represent. To apply them, simply check the Complex IOR in the material editor and load the .ior file. When using complex IOR, the other params like transmittance, IOR, reflectance are ignored. You can still change roughness though, and anisotropy.

- to make glass, just make sure the attenuation value is large enough so light is not absorbed too quickly by the material, but instead is transmitted through the object. High attenuation values mean light can travel further through an object before it is absorbed. Transmittance color is basically what color you want the glass to be. So for example you can leave the transmittance color at complete black, as long as you have a high enough attenuation setting, you will get black tinted glass. Don't forget to lower the roughness from the default 0.8 to about 0.05-0.1, so you get clear, reflective glass. If you leave it at 0.8 it's like you have extremely rough glass which will not seem transparent at all.

Mihai Iliuta wrote: Don't bother creating more than 1 basic layer though because the weightmaps don't work properly, it doesn't blend them.

it works for me all the time, just adjust them manually (from what i gathered the sum of all layers can't exceed 1).

Well for me they get 'stuck', I tried a very basic mat, bright red and bright blue so I could see any changes. I set them both at 0.5, only one is showing through.

that's weird, i've been using them quite a few times. a scene i posted a while back contained two different multylayerd mats, and they blend one into each other just fine. you may want to have a look at it, just to see if it works or not. here's the link:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... 2&start=15

It seems to work for me too, for example when I first add the second layer. But then when I try and change the weights, it doesn't correspond. Could you try a basic blue/red mat please? Change them to be 50/50, then 90/10 for example.

also i use two layers to get a good looking plastic: one almost diffuse layer (weightmap say 0,700), and another one (weightmap say 0,300) totally transparent but highly reflective (roughness 0,05/2). this second one only gives you "highlights" or bright specular reflections.

Mihai Iliuta wrote: Could you try a basic blue/red mat please? Change them to be 50/50 than 90/10 for example.

of course i will, as sonn as i get home. i don't have the rc installed here.

i just installed it. here's what i got:

only 1 layer, red one:



two layers, red and blue, weightmaps 0,5/0,5:



the same as above but this time the blue layer is a bit more reflective:

Thanks for testing this Rivoli. I would propose that a moderator add this thread to the existing http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9581 topic so that the knowledge about the new material editor keeps centralized.

BTW: I still have some questions open in that topic

Ok I think I figured it out now. I can also create a mat with two bsdf layers, change their weightmap to 50/50, so far so good. But then try and set one to .100 and the other to 0.900. Nothing changes, at first. But, if you change now also the roughness of one of the layers, the material updates.

Could somebody try that, see if it works the same for them?

i see what you mean mihai, i just tried. looks like a preview bug, it doesn't update when changing the weightmap values.

yip, there are more circumstances when the automatic preview doesn't work as advertised. Sometimes I have to revert to the manual refresh. Couldn't find a systematic pattern so far, so too early for a good bug report.

It's not just a matter of the preview but the renderer itself. It doesn't update. But I'm really pleased layers work, for now you just have to change the roughness (or perhaps also anisotropy works) to force the material definition to update.