[Peter Shupe]

I am using Max 9 SP2, Maxwell 1.1, - When I render an image without ALPHA channel checked it runs through the voxelization, and starts rendering very quickly. When I have Alpha checked it seems to take a very long time to start rendering. Is that common? I almost thought it was frozen.

Please advise.

Regards Peter.

[JTB]

I haven't noticed but I don't think there is any difference... You mean, more than 15 seconds? Was the scene very big? Some more info would help

[Peter Shupe]

Yeah - it was like 3 to 4 mins. I actually stopped it a couple of times because I have been having problems with lock up. Now I know it will, after 4 mins or so, keep rendering, it is fine. I don't have time to test it out, for this render anyway.

Also is there a way to apply matte material in Maxwell to output alpha channels to composite later? Like I have cars, and people, and trees, etc that I would like to render out in a separate pass and that way I can modify them independently from the background?? I guess this is a separate question really. I will probably post another question.

Thanks.

Regards Peter.

[Bubbaloo]

1.1 does it differently that 1.5.
1.1 renders the alpha first then proceeds to render the main render.
1.5 renders them both at the same time.
But yes, it's supposed to do that. I remember I didn't like that either because you just have to sit and wait and there is no indication what it's doing.