Maxwell Render | Official public forum

Maxwell seems to ignore instances when rendering from the new Cinema release.

I cannot get any Instance to be visible in Maxwell, while Cinema renders them without problems.

(running Maxwell 1.7f on Cinema R11 Studio bundle)

btw: it was working in the demo as far as I remember.

AND something very annoying that is there from the beginning:
Maxwell always saves a small preview of the scene when the "save picture" is active. Thereby overwriting the last rendering with this name.

no reply? thanks NL.


But something else:

- Maxwell is not considering materials of Xrefs

I'm not too familiar with the current plugin, but I'll make sure to look into these issues with the new one. It will be easier to do that if you can provide a simple set of steps you are using when these errors occur.

Thanks,

JD

In Cinema I create an Object, then instead of conling it I create an instance of it.

When starting the maxwell plugin from cinema there is only the created Object rendered. The Instance does not appear in Maxwell. When rendered with Cinema the instance is rendered (as it should be).



To the other thing:
I use Maxwell and cinema renderings from time to time. So if I have a setup of a scene rendered in Cinema and use the "save" option from the render dialogue and afterwords have Maxwell render the same scene (and forgot to deactivate the "save" option) Maxwell renders and saves in the Maxwell output folder, but ALSO saves a small editor preview of the rendered scene with the name in the "save" dialogue, thereby overwriting the Cinema rendering with the same name. There is no question if I want to overwrite it or anything else. I just have the Cinemarendering deleted and a small editor preview of the scene handed over to maxwell.

Thanks for the extra detail. On instances in the current plugin, the manual says:

Instances

Instances support, at a very basic level. All Instances must hang from the hierarchy root (at the first level) and the objects they refer to must also hang from the hierarchy root. These referenced objects must not have any children hanging from them. The instance gets its material from the object it references.

I am looking into the ways that this can be extended. I checked on the 'save image' issue - what is happening is that the plugin is asking Cinema for a copy of the rendered image so that it can put a little preview into the MXS. As a result, Cinema is re-rendering this image, and overwriting your previous output in the process - I do not have this in my code, so it will not be a problem in the new plugin. The best policy in the meantime would be to render to the picture viewer and use File > 'Save Picture as...', saving to a different file.

when are we getting the new plugin for R11?

TIA

Adri

the instance advice - never saw this. Thank you!

Hi Adri, it will only be announced when it's ready.

JD

The present plugin works very good with Cinema 9.6 - it would be nice if the 'old' Maxwell material tags could also be incorporated into any future update.

well, i knew about the instance restrictions, i rtfm
(sorry, didn't see the thread until now)

one question though:
will the instance handling be improved?

will it be possible to use a null object with with poly objects in it as instance / proxy? this would ease the use of proxies a lot!

@Bekko: this plugin will read nearly all of your previous data - your mxm-assignments will not be lost. The new integrated material system is a hybrid - you can modify all of the material layers/params using a native material editor which is very similar to MXED, or you can forget about that and set the material to represent a hard mxm link, much as you do now. This doesn't mean that there are actually two types of materials, rather, you are just able to use the same material in two ways - so there is no reassignment necessary should you change your mind for any particular material.

@zoppo: I'm working on this area right now. I am not sure at this time exactly how this will end up - I am aiming for a more universal way of handling instances than the way used by the current plugin, but it is certainly not easy; there are about a million ways to build hierarchies in Cinema. So we'll see what happens...

One level group of instnces would be good enouhg for me...

JDHill wrote:there are about a million ways to build hierarchies in Cinema. So we'll see what happens...

I'm totally ok with some restrictions like e.g. having to leave them on root. It's just one those million ways I'd really like to have: using e.g. null object "tree" with poly objects "leafs", "branches" and "trunk" in it.

That would be great!!!!11!1

...or to add new special Maxwell tag for instances.

I am also dreaming about "placeholder" for external *.mxs files. For example - I have got a library of trees and shrubs in mxs format. It would be great link them from Cinema scene - (same way as materials are linked in current version of plugin). But solution for instances is much much higher in my personal wish list.

A better solution for instances would be very welcome here as well.

As I use instances in some null that are referred to in other references I cannot put them in another hirarchie place.