[voxelpictures]

I have check fryrender and have notice that this package is offering a really complete manual for new users.

You have demontration on how to use specific workflows via plugins and standalone same as Maxwell studio and demo video tutorial right on the site. Also, Network rendering is covered very clearly in tutorials and many issues on the maxwell forum are covered clearly in manuals there ''for fryrender of course''.

This is not an attack of any kind but a suggestion of how our manual may be layout to avoid simple issues that a newcomer may fix himself by reading tutorials and watching videos.

By the way, Fry is not better than maxwell in quality but has a better organisation on manual and tutorial issues. This is my opinion. Is this redirecting a lot of people over there just because of user friendly and clear workflows like network rendering and so on...?????!!!????

Many maxwell users are over there on the Fry Forum.

What are the maxwell users think about that?

[Jan]

As wish it's ok, but maybe for 1.8 instead of 2.0
Anyway, with Think web page and this forum you can resolve your problems in easy way.

[JTB]

If it improves the way we learn Maxwell, especially the details, the tricks that make our images better, we want it of course.... But as Jan wrote, this forum can solve almost everything.... The next step is Tom in my office!

[cgbeige]

one of the glaring omissions from the manual is how to get network renders working on the Mac. You have to use mxcl to specify the path according to afp:// paths for mxi and image output or it fails. It still fails a lot even with that but I had to have a staff member log into my machine to show me how to do it. pretty lame

[yanada]

[JorisMX]

I would also apreciate more detailed documentation, as the Maxwell Manual for 1.7 hardly ever goes in depth on settings/functions and parameters.

Esp. when it comes to parameter dependancies etc.

Its nice to know what Roughness is but if noone explains the relevance to the other parameters you never get the whole story.

Mike Verta has done a great job doing this in his video tutorials!

[def4d]

Maybe we user should do that ourselves?
That would be a big sharing between us for tips and the result would be as we want it to be

[JorisMX]

I dunno.

I mean I think its all about community and such... but there are always people and situations where sitting on some online forum all day is not an option.

The 1.7 manual is nice, but its not detailed at all.

One thing I could think about though is there should be template scenes suplied with a new version/manual.

Like a scene utilizing how SSS works with different kinds of materials setup allowing the user to switch through and try a load of stuff and learn from that.

In an ideal world there would be a scene to every more extensive feature.
These scenes could be provided by forum users with credit of course.

just an idea.

[kami]

Maybe we user should do that ourselves?
That would be a big sharing between us for tips and the result would be as we want it to be

imho it's not the job of the users to do that. a decent software for which we pay a lot of money should ship with a usable manual ...
but it's not so much the manual that a miss but better explanations inside the programs. i don't want to have to look for the pdf manual, open it, look for the needed page etc... several times a week. it takes a lot of time and i'm quite impatient.
maybe a quick link to the necessary pdf page or a help document near the settings would be better. those environment settings for example are way to cryptic to be understood without explanation nearby.

[yanada]

Maybe we user should do that ourselves?
That would be a big sharing between us for tips and the result would be as we want it to be

I hope you are joking
It's NLs job and NOT the users, Maxwell is not opensource is a commercial product and not cheep one. So you bet they should do a much better job on Documentation among other fields...

Is not the first time someone request a feature that FryRender has, so that made me to look in to it.

One think is for certain.The support is top notch and you know whats going on with your investment.

Chema Their lead programmer or only programmer is all over the place helping and releasing new updates every 2 months to fix bugs and to add features. You can PM him with any problem and get a response just as fast as you would asking a buddy for help.

ps.I understand some people here are allergic to the word FryRender but if you want to compere apples with apples that is the one

[-Adrian]

Maxwell is not opensource is a commercial product and not cheep one.

Let's change that and integrate it into Blender

[Jan]

Chema Their lead programmer or only programmer is all over the place helping and releasing new updates every 2 months to fix bugs and to add features. You can PM him with any problem and get a response just as fast as you would asking a buddy for help.

You forgot to say some words about this bugfixes, like we have lost some important (and paid) features like IBL or volumetric layer at this time.
I'm a fryrender user and not allergic to the word, but some things are not so good as before.

Anyway, I agree with you on the documentation issue. It's only I prefer better features.

Regards

[def4d]

As you know, i'm always a bit ironic, and saying we could do ourselves, i was thinking we SHOULD do it, knowing NL and their constant way to do things and answer questions...

Fortunately, what we have is a great help from very talented and pro users here on the forum
I use Maxwell from the Alpha, lived the different releases since RC like a nightmare
Now for me 1.7 is as stable and simplest as the beta, i mean i think i have Maxwell back as i loved it at beggining, but i must say i'm a bit confused with all the old/new tricks, old limitations etc

Ex:
Physical Sun couldn't produce refractive caustics trough glass (we were used to replace it with an emitter), so NL did the AGS
I recently made a simple test and discovered it works now, i just dont remember the time it was corrected

In a few words, i'm sometimes confused, and it's like i should learn it from scratch to clean my knowledges ,and a very updated and detailed manual on each option would be the minimum...

I've watched the Fryrender turorials, and i'm with you to say it's so clear, that the first thing we think is "why don't we have that?"

[def4d]

another example :

http://www.treddi.com/forum/index.php?a ... _the_guide

[Maximus3D]

Perhaps they should consider updating the Maxwell help site, the Think thingy more often. I haven't seen many updates posted there since the site was created so if they drop more new fresh content every month on it then it would be a more useful resource for us all. It doesn't have to be huge tutorials but small tips and tricks that help solve everyday problems we all encounter when we work with Maxwell.

As it seems now they let us users help ourselves here on the forum instead and then they don't need to bother about helping us out, and the betatesters also got to shoulder customersupport now, it can't be their job to do that can it..

Come on NL, shake life into your Think tank site and give us the customersupport we all paid for.

/ Max