[jeffpatton]

Thomas & everyone else, I just wanted to find out what are you thoughts on allowing the use of your material test scene outside the realm of Maxwell? It's obvious that a lot of thought went into that scene and it would be useful to all rendering solutions.

So, should that scene remain a Maxwell specific item or could it be opened up to the other solutions (Vray, mental ray, fR, etc)?

Jeff

[Tyrone Marshall]

I frankly disagree with this effort to adapt the scene mentioned above as it is different in two manners:

While there have been render optimization scenes for testing offered in a open file format such as wavefront and 3DS in the past, this scene was not created in my mind for this kind of purpose.

For the past 2 years, Maxwell Render has received some of the harshest criticism from all over the CG world and in most from other developers and those users of varying render engines.

While now, should someone who created a scene with rigor, hard work, and a goal to standardize and make uniform the presentation of materials for the Maxwell Render community now make this scene available to those same people and users who in the past have walked very purposely over this forum, the developers, other users, and most of all this render engine?

What kind of goodwill has the Maxwell Render community received from Vray users or Mental Ray users? Why is there now an immediate rush to develop such a scene when there has not been an emergent or an awe inspiring effort in the past? What is the motivation? Is this an endeavor in good faith or something else?

I suggest before this step can be taken, a wider consortium of a larger kind be put forward to bring together the users of all these render engines in good faith, if your goal is to establish some kind of universal scene for render engine comparison and study. Then Let this be the move that brings good will instead of more criticism based on render speed, and visual quality that comes from an effort to debase rather than stimulate, or offer intense analysis and critique that seeks to advance development in render technology.

The task to bring people together rather than further push them apart should no doubt be done with the same rigor, research, creativity, and ingenuity that was put forward by the creator of the scene file in question that has brought the Maxwell Render community closer together.

[jeffpatton]

Thanks for the reply Tyrone. Thomas has made it clear that he wishes to keep this particular scene specific to Maxwell. I certainly don't fault him for that at all. It would probably turn into yet another pissing contest between software packages and that's the last thing I'd want to see.

Why is there a rush now for others to develop something similar? Well, I can only speculate...but I guess it's because people can see how darn useful it is (I'm in that group)...and realistically I'd also say there's a part of the community that see's those beautiful Maxwell materials and say's "pssssh, I can do that, and in 1/2 the time...give me the file and I'll prove it".

So it's probably for the best that this particular scene remain a Maxwell only deal.

[Thomas An.]

Thanks for the reply Tyrone. Thomas has made it clear that he wishes to keep this particular scene specific to Maxwell. I certainly don't fault him for that at all. It would probably turn into yet another pissing contest between software packages and that's the last thing I'd want to see.

Why is there a rush now for others to develop something similar? Well, I can only speculate...but I guess it's because people can see how darn useful it is (I'm in that group)...and realistically I'd also say there's a part of the community that see's those beautiful Maxwell materials and say's "pssssh, I can do that, and in 1/2 the time...give me the file and I'll prove it".

So it's probably for the best that this particular scene remain a Maxwell only deal.

Hi Jeff,

First of all thank you for inquiring here first.
I appreciate this gesture more than if people just start to copy on their own accord.

There has been some thought in making this scene available to all, but currently I am leaning towards keeping this as a donation to the Maxwell community only.

It would be advantegeous if other platforms were to develop their own designs. This way each platform will have its own materials trademark (so to speak). Just looking at the object we can know where it came from.
Also, I have good respect for the efforts of these german fellows:
http://www.3dmax.de/neu/forum/neues_for ... mp=+199885#
http://www.3dmax.de/neu/forum/neues_for ... ump=200081#

... They seem to understand and respect other people's work ... and they are putting a good deal of designing effort (particularly with their second design iteration) in making a scene and an object that has sufficient differences.

In regards to engine-for-engine comparisons ... there have been (and still are) open challenges in the past.
For example this challenge is still ongoing and it has its own website as well. Anyone is welcome to do it better and prove the capacity of theor engine.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... ht=jewelry
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/doehtal-r ... eIntro.htm

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[Frances]

I think Thomas' scene is an excellent demonstration of form following function. In this case, the thoughtfulness and thoroughness put into the function has produced an excellent form. It is undeniable that it is scientifically based, but it is also really nice to look at.

[Tyrone Marshall]

I think Thomas' scene is an excellent demonstration of form following function. In this case, the thoughtfulness and thoroughness put into the function has produced an excellent form. It is undeniable that it is scientifically based, but it is also really nice to look at.

Frances this is a point that has been lost in translation with the rush to mimic Thomas' work. Thanks for putting it in perfect sense!