[Hybaj]

Now i'm very intrigued by the output of this new photon mapping technique.

for more details check the thread at cgsociety
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... 7&t=621727

It looks much better than any of V-ray's GI techniques in terms of GI detail and artifacts (none to see in the IP brute-force mode) and with the newer tone mapping schemes, MR became a much much tastier renderer. It gets even close to the 100% photorealistic approach Pt,Bipt,Metropolis unbiased renderers (not to mention it's much faster).

I hated MR for as long as I can remember but the developers really hit the nail on the head this time. Check it out for yourself. I guess this technique is available thru CTRL's shader with the demo of Max 2009.

[Mattia Sullini]

I guess i have seen that material ball somewhere else...

[jespi]

I guess i have seen that material ball somewhere else...

Me too

[JDHill]

I guess i have seen that material ball somewhere else...

Hmm, well people everywhere have been copying that thing since Thomas created it, but imho this one goes a bit too far, considering that:

Notice:
Object/Scene (c)08/2006 Thomas Anagnostou All rights reserved.
The scene and object is for free use only with Maxwell render with the provided MXS file and textures. No reverse engineering for use in other platforms (this effort is a donation for the Maxwell community only).

[Bubbaloo]

There's another model on there too that was created by Mark Couture on the VizDepot for a charrette... I just posted over there to to let him take a look-see.

That mental ray "simball" is a complete ripoff, it looks to me.
Maybe Thomas re-donated it to mental ray?

[polynurb]

... now that's ridiculous..

it only shows that some people are still jealous

[Hybaj]

... now that's ridiculous..

it only shows that some people are still jealous

Or that someone just had a great idea about creating that simball.

Bah.. but nobody really commented on the technology yet.. just the simball issue..

[mverta]

The simball thing is shameless. The technology is what mr has always been, and why I left it: pages and pages of tests trying to find the counter-intuitive settings necessary to teach the renderer how to render. No, thanks. After M~W, it looks like Jurassic Interface.

_Mike

[Hybaj]

The simball thing is shameless. The technology is what mr has always been, and why I left it: pages and pages of tests trying to find the counter-intuitive settings necessary to teach the renderer how to render. No, thanks. After M~W, it looks like Jurassic Interface.

_Mike

People curse Zbrush for having an horrendous GUI. What they do is basicaly implying, that "Hey this GUI prevents me from doing anything". But the reality is that people who do take the time to learn it and have some talent, create insane things.

Anyway, MR is easier to use then in the past but the main focus should be on this specific GI technique. It's like a little piece of unbiased rendering heaven in a biased package. I wouldn't really mind learning how to use it if it's needed - and I do really imagine using it for some animations. Actually I'm playing with the 2009 demo right now and I can honestly say it's really something else.

[JTB]

The simball thing is shameless. The technology is what mr has always been, and why I left it: pages and pages of tests trying to find the counter-intuitive settings necessary to teach the renderer how to render. No, thanks. After M~W, it looks like Jurassic Interface.

_Mike

I believe what is more important is that quality is not a privilege of Maxwell now... Vray becomes a lot better, Mental Ray is great already, free renderers like Indigo, Luxrender, and others like Kerkythea, produce great results....What can be used as a strong argument for marketing purposes, is the simplicityof M~W, the powerful material system, the fact that it is standalone, the fact that the setup time is practically 0.00mins etc... Computers will always get faster and stronger (and cheaper) so for professionals this won't be a problem... After all, Maxwell was never ment to be a tool for amateurs.
Just listen to what clients need NL, and things will be OK.

[numerobis]

...Just listen to what clients need NL, and things will be OK.