[sms]

If my basic knowledge about Maxwelll counts I would say that I would use Maxwell for any renders but I am not that quick with Studio as with LightWave. My images getting better and better but I still have to learn, so it will take a while until I can show them my clients. I am totally happy with the results Maxwell renders images and I hope I will be better soon (or maybe I am to ambitious...)

[sms]

Oops, sorry, I am not in the LightWave forum... But I would have said the same thing if I used Rhino(ll)

[Thomas An.]

I own both VfR and Maxwell as well. I'm a bit new to both, but have been doing renderings for years with other software. I'm getting nice results from VfR, but have yet to get an image from Maxwell that didn't have an unacceptable amount of noise. The two images posted above show the power of Maxwell, but one is noisy, and the other took 2.5 hours to render! Is it just me, or is it absurd for so simple a scene to take so long to render? I am an industrial designer and I am always pressed for time. My clients don't want to pay a ton of money for images of their projects, so time is a real concern. I can't afford to wait 2.5 hours for a render to finish, especially if (as often happens) I discover I don't like a particular material or I messed something up.

If I can't figure out a way to do faster renderings I may have to consider the possibility of abandoning Maxwell. $500 down the drain....

Fast speed in Vray (or any) actually means "no reflective caustics" ... and this in return means not true photorealism. Basically what you are saying is that Vray is giving you good enough "illustrations".

If your eyes cannot distinguish the difference between 95% and 99% of realism then Maxwell was never the tool for you in the first place. (its a virtual photography / light simulator)

Also, ultimately, there is no such thing as slow render ... it is a matter of CPU horsepower... and ultimately hardware cost.

The deal about Maxwell speed is known (due to its use of more rigorous lighting algoritms) ... and has been known since november 2004, when the first testers made their first comments. I knew about the Maxwell speed before even pre-ordering it (even back then). People buying Maxwell now have no excuse that it is $500 down the drain due to speed. Also as NL promised back then ... speed has increased over the early alphas to several hundred percent (at least 400% or 4x).

[JDHill]

Also take into account...this particular scene has alot of elements in it that you wouldn't be getting any faster with your other renderer, and everything in the scene was created within the 5h timeframe (no cheating -> no pre-made geometry, maps, or materials). Optimize the materials/scene, simplify the requirements a bit, and the speed gets much better...have a look here. I'm perfectly willing to let a 2 year-old 2-core machine work 10m on an image like this:



...or 40m on this:




~JD

[hyltom]

I can't afford to wait 2.5 hours for a render to finish

I'm industrial designer and i use maxwell everyday. I figure out the problem of rendering time simply by organising my work according to maxwell timeframe. I make most of my rendering during the night.

[sms]

Mee too, hyltom. Maxwell, the over night renderer

[acquiesse]

Maxwell, the over night renderer[/b]

Maxwell, the over the weekend renderer

[hyltom]

Maxwell, the over night renderer[/b]

Maxwell, the over the weekend renderer

Yes also...

[Siegfried Kircheis]

I'm a Product Designer ( my boss regard me as a Industrial Designer actually ), I'm happy to see that the rendering speed of MW got improved so well from alpha to the latest version I got.

From the moment I purchased MW I'm mentally prepared that it's gonna be much slower than other rendering engine such as MentalRay, many other designer/artist keeps teasing me on the time I wasted on waiting for rendering, and they told me they don't really care that 99% reality ( from (MW) over their rendering engine which gave them just 60% reality. They're happy with the existing result as the client think it's good enough, it's just a sense of value if u wanna pursuit and strive for excellence.

In the mean time, I'm happy with the outcome that MW brought me, and I'm still having fun with the material editor, though my slow computer ( liek snail ) is the source of serious headache.

[ivox3]

To be absolutely cliché and ridiculous: ...good things come to those who wait. hehehehe. ...sometimes and sometimes not. .