[Rochr]

A rather crucial feature, yet neglected since the old beta!

[Kabe]

If you compare the material engines of maxwell and Cinema,
then it should be pretty clear that this would be quite a task...

Kabe

[Rochr]

I´m not talking about creating Maxwell materials inside Cinema, but the ability to use materials created in Cinema with the Maxwell renderer.
This is something every other plugin renderer can normally do.

You mean to tell me that we wont be able to accomplish this with the Cinemaxwell plugin???
If that´s the case, it´s another unannounced alteration of the plugin i bought and far from the promised product. This is definitely turning into a total joke. Talk about pissing on the customers...

If you can´t use native materials in a plugin renderer, it´s a flawed renderer!

[Mihai]

Which plugin renderer can use the native materials of a 3D application? Most are the other way around, you use special materials made for that particular renderer.

[Rochr]

Final Render is one.

[Mihai]

And the others?

[Rochr]

Darn, went a little to far there i think.

Still, buying it was a major mistake from my part. As it works now, i can´t use Maxwell for a single one of my scenes. Guess i´m done with Maxwell and consider the money wasted.

[Mihai]

Consider it an investment instead. I'm SURE in the near future you will have plenty of use for it. Getting such realistic images for only a 400 investment....

[lllab]

vray is one...(max)
stefan

[rivoli]

well, every plugin renderer which is hardcoded into the host app will use the native shaders (mray in xsi, max and maya, vray, brazil, frender, turtle... and this is not always true anyway, you don't use a raytrace max's mat when using other raytracers such as vray or brazil). but maxwell is not a cinema's plugin, the connection between cinema and maxwell is. being maxwell a standalone renderer it needs its own shading language.

[Rochr]

Ok, fair enough. But if you must use an outside standalone program to actually work with it, it´s not exactly a plugin.
A plugin is something you work with from INSIDE the native app, and material creation should also be one of those things here.

Do you have to export scenes to a standalone Vray studio for example? Do you need to jump back and forward between the apps just to create materials?

[j_man]

Do you have to export scenes to a standalone Vray studio for example? Do you need to jump back and forward between the apps just to create materials?

hmmm, VRay will be releasing a stand alone product after 1.5

"Furthermore, once we have released V-Ray 1.5 final, we will concentrate on the first release of the standalone version of V-Ray, as well as connections for Alias MAYA and other platforms."

http://www.vray.info/newsread.asp?ID=80

Makes sense really!

J.

[Rochr]

I was actually talking about the current version.
But it´s nice to know that some companies let people know what product they´re actually buying before they buy it.

I´ve noticed that NL have changed the webpage, but if you remember the old one, Maxwell Render was advertised as a plugin, not a standalone product, and there were no mentioning about having to work in something else to render scenes or create materials.
All that was supposed to be included in the plugin, and reachable from your primary 3D app.

That advertisement is very far from what we have today.

[rivoli]

Maxwell Render was advertised as a plugin, not a standalone product

um, not really. maxwell is/has always been a standalone renderer (like prman, just to give you another example), and was advertised as such since the beginning. the point is that maxwell being a standalone renderer (not developed as a plugin for a specific app), it can be connected to as many 3d packeges as you want via plugins that work as bridges between the host app and the renderer itself.

[Rochr]

[um, not really. maxwell is/has always been a standalone renderer (like prman, just to give you another example), and was advertised as such since the beginning. the point is that maxwell being a standalone renderer (not developed as a plugin for a specific app), it can be connected to as many 3d packeges as you want via plugins that work as bridges between the host app and the renderer itself.

Sure, and that´s not a problem. But i also believe that most people counted on the server, such as the case with beta, beeing the external part, and that you could actually work entirely from inside the primary 3D program and not having to go through a totally different program to render out a simple scene.
That´s not possible with what we have now.

And the material editor was infact advertised as part of the plugin, there were no mentioning of a studio.