[Half Life]

Check it out! This is fun to play with
http://www.hdrlightstudio.com/blog/hdr- ... /#more-130

Best,
Jason.

[Aniki]

well, its not working actually, as it says Demo Mode.

Crashes when I apply it and disable emitters etc in the simball scene with fire.

I'd rather have this removed from studio, just feels wrong to have a button in your licenced software that tells you to buy another one. Kind of Adware, if you ask me.

going to reinstall without it now.

cheers

Aniki

[Maximus3D]

This looks really sweet! too bad i don't have HDRLight Studio.

/ Magnus

[Half Life]

Works great with with Fire for me -- aside from the red watermark...

I think the integration is very unobtrusive (and optional) -- for users who will use it I think this is a mega cool thing... to me, no different than using plugins in many other apps.

Honestly I'd like to see more stuff like this as there are many great apps out there that could tie in nicely with Maxwell -- no reason Maxwell needs to re-invent every wheel...

Best,
Jason.

[brodie_geers]

Looks interesting. Too bad they used a diamond with .ior for that sample video - the color changes were really distracting. How do you use the demo, btw? I opened maxwell briefly and nothing jumped out at me.

-Brodie

[JamesColeman]

I'm looking forward to the Mac version in "winter 2011".

[gotoxy av-media]

this is a really great combination!
once you start playing with it - you can`t stop...

what is the next limit?
maybe an integration for all plug-ins?!?


thank you
munch

[Seggy]

Hi all,
Just in case you are struggling with the Demo...
To use the HDR Light Studio Demo in Maxwell Studio, simply enbale the HDR Light Studio check box in each IBL slot - i.e. Background, Relfection, Refraction and Illumination.
Then launch the HDR Light Studio Demo (using the 'HDR Light Studio' button) and the real-time lighting design from HDR Light Studio will be used by all of the IBL maps and you can see the results update as you make changes in the Fire view.
Hope this helps... it is not 100% obvious to do this.
Regards
Seggy

(Please note: In the full release plug-in you can save the HDRI designs as hi-res HDR or EXR files, and then the name and location of the referenced HDRI map is updated automatically into the IBL slot. So your HDRI map is on disc for final rendering in Maxwell Render. In the Demo version, a stand-in file is used called 'white.exr', this simply enables the demo mode to work without any render functionality)

[Aniki]

I used it the way seggy described above, and got the crash.

so how much is the plugin, is the full version needed to work with this ?

approx 1000 $ seems way to ridiculous to be believable...

I wonder who gets more out of this, Lightmap or Next Limit. And if I buy that plugin, will Next Limit receive some tip, too ? After all, they are exclusively advertising this tool inside the main application.

just curious..

aniki

[Polyxo]

That Software is really great and I've asked its Creator to make it available for Maxwell.
I especially like that Life-Bridge without having to write bitmaps first- that gives really awesome control
and suits Fire extremely well.
However - Studio-Only...is there any chance to make this Software available in Plugins
too? Then I'd buy right away.

Holger

[Polyxo]

While I was always amazed by the results of HDR-Light-Studio I'm asking myself for years already why Path-Tracers obviously
much prefer Lighting Data fed in with Images over classical CG-Lights.

Why is that so - is that a conceptual limitation which is there to stay?
Or could the introduction of a special kind of Maxwell-Lights maybe take elegant care of this Limitation?

While the output-quality of HDR-Light-Studio is obvious I'm just wondering whether this blind tapping in an unwrapped
2D-Environment and without seing the Scene is absolutely required....

In terms of Intuitiveness/Real World Workflow-Resemblance CG-Lights will always win over a Software-Concept like
HdrLight-Studio and fit the Maxwell -"Everything works like in a physical-Camera" -Appoach much better.

Just wondering aloud. Comments?

[Half Life]

Aniki, There was a wish list item for this:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... ght+Studio

Your insinuations that this was done as some sort of money grab on the part of Next Limit is pretty insulting and paranoid -- people have been using this software separately from Maxwell for quite some time, and the price of the product is well known. The only difference is now they have a quicker workflow for setting up their Maxwell scenes.

If you do not like it you are free not to use it, there is nothing but a simple button which you will never have to click...

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

While I was always amazed by the results of HDR-Light-Studio I'm asking myself for years already why Path-Tracers obviously
much prefer Lighting Data fed in with Images over classical CG-Lights.

Why is that so - is that a conceptual limitation which is there to stay?
Or could the introduction of a special kind of Maxwell-Lights maybe take elegant care of this Limitation?

While the output-quality of HDR-Light-Studio is obvious I'm just wondering whether this blind tapping in an unwrapped
2D-Environment and without seing the Scene is absolutely required....

In terms of Intuitiveness/Real World Workflow-Resemblance CG-Lights will always win over a Software-Concept like
HdrLight-Studio and fit the Maxwell -"Everything works like in a physical-Camera" -Appoach much better.

Just wondering aloud. Comments?

I don't know about intuitiveness, but as far as speed of setup I can't imagine it ever being faster/more efficient... and in a production environment I think that wins every time.

Best,
Jason.

[Polyxo]

I don't know about intuitiveness, but as far as speed of setup I can't imagine it ever being faster/more efficient... and in a production environment I think that wins every time.

Well I think one can't compare with equal conditions - as of yet Image based approach clears up faster and looks richer than traditional Lights moved around in
a 3D-environment. But do you know why this is so - technically?

[Half Life]

I meant in terms of setting up the lighting itself -- the setup and modification of these HDR Light Studio IBL is lightning fast, almost anything can be done and changed instantly... huge amount of flexibility and speed which I can't see as even remotely comparable to the time it would take to setup "physical" lighting, even in the form of simple planes.

If I was doing commercial product, car, or advertising renders then this workflow is a "no-brainer" as It would likely take me many hours to set up and tweak "physical" lighting which I can set up with this plugin in Studio in just a few minutes.

Particularly of interest to me here is the ability to work with these lights over any HDR or EXR background... the combination really makes setting up complex lighting super quick.

I want to get this, but I'll have to wait until later in the year... I don't have the money right now

Best,
Jason.