[jsf]

Why is it when I use the new plugin with my version of Max8 that all the materials disappear? A window named "Maxwell Translation Window" pops up and says "Old MXM Material Translation Error"

I understand why we lost materials when changing from beta to R1, but this is only a plugin update.

Since I am not updating to MAX9 until there is more 3D party plugin support, it seems my choices are either to stay with the previous MWR plugin and have MAX crash every time I open the material editor, or to go with this plugin update and lose all of my materials.

As far as I am concerned both options are bad, and certainly not progress.

[Bogdan Coroi]

Could you please copy&paste the errors from the "Maxwell Translation Window"?

[jsf]

I got most all the materials to load in 3dsMax by using Customize-configure path. Maxwell couldn't find the proper AGS material even after I set the correct path, so I replaced it with a new AGS and that seemed to work.

The maxwell cameras don't function anymore so they will have to be set up again. The old camera settings of f8 at 125 were better in my opinion, than the new default of f5.6 at 250.

The time and date resets to when the file is opened, so I guess we will have to wait for a fix for that.

And finally none of the textures are visible in the viewport all the objects are pink but they seem to render okay.

While none of these problems are insurmountable, alot of previous work is lost (such as camera setup), and time is required to reconfigure things (materials, and date and location for example).

Maybe NL is making things better, but it doesn't feel like they are making them easier.

[Fernando Tella]

The time and date issue is due to an old render preset. Open a new max window, change to maxwell renderer and set all the parameters you want without using the presets; after that overwrite the old preset with the new one. Done. At least it worked here and fixed other issues I had with time and date; maybe it has to do with your other issues too. Good luck.

[Mihnea Balta]

Maybe NL is making things better, but it doesn't feel like they are making them easier.

A complete rewrite of the plug-in was released in December last year. We had to go for this rewrite in order to integrate Maxwell more closely into Max and ultimately to make things easier. Unfortunately it also meant introducing some compatibility problems with scenes saved by the old plug-in, but we felt it was a necessary step. We do not expect further compatibility problems; updates released after December 2006 will not make major changes to the data formats being used so you won't have problems loading scenes made with version 1.0.x of the plug-in after installing an update.

You can display the textures in the viewport in the same way you do it for all other composite Max materials: navigate to the Bitmap object in the Material Editor and click the "show map in viewport" button.

Most of the differences introduced with the rewrite have been discussed on this forum before but if you have other problems and can't find an answer, please tell us and we'll try to sort things out.