[bonjavi]

Hi!

I don't find any info on how to use the new instances feature of maxwell 1.6 on maya.

Thanks

[bonjavi]

It just works doing normal instances on maya? I mean I thought it would be something like vray proxys. If they have to be normal instances, it's use is limited by maya's own memory and viewport limits...

[Jorge Alix]

Export instance is activated by default in Render Globals panel, if it´s switch off the instances are exported as copies.

[bonjavi]

But those instances are the same than maya's; I mean, I duplicate something as instance and them maxwell, with the instance option on, takes it as one of the new instances and doesn't spend memory on it, right?

is there anyway to do instances on maya that are not real geometry for maya? I mean, new option is great for maxwell, but if maya hangs on duplicating 100 times the same object, then it's not useful as are the vray proxys, that don't take same amount of memory, or at least of viewport memory than real geometry in form of instance.

so is there any way that maya duplicate the instance just as a bounding box, or a proxy geometry object or something like that and then maxwell use it as real instance?

[Jorge Alix]

But those instances are the same than maya's; I mean, I duplicate something as instance and them maxwell, with the instance option on, takes it as one of the new instances and doesn't spend memory on it, right?

Right

Code: Select all

is there anyway to do instances on maya that are not real geometry for maya? I mean, new option is great for maxwell, but if maya hangs on duplicating 100 times the same object, then it's not useful as are the vray proxys, that don't take same amount of memory, or at least of viewport memory than real geometry in form of instance.
so is there any way that maya duplicate the instance just as a bounding box, or a proxy geometry object or something like that and then maxwell use it as real instance?

I see, you want to duplicate proxies objects with very dense mesh.
I think you could do it with some mel scrpting as postprocess. But I´m not sure how to do it, I´m not an expert in mel, but I think you could do it in this way. Have you tried using the layers option to display as bounding box and then duplicate the instances?
This could solve the problem with viewport.

[Mihnea Balta]

Maya instances don't take extra memory. They slow down the viewport because it has to draw lots more polygons, but the memory usage will not be a problem.

To work around the viewport slowdown, you can simply select the instances and go to display -> object display -> bounding box. Isn't this the same functionality you get with Vray proxy objects?