[JDHill]

Maxwell for SketchUp
Version 3.0.0 Release Notes

Changes

• Scene Manager
  
  • Added new Opaque Character.
  • Added new Transparent Character.
  • Added new Translucent Character.
  • Added new AGS (now Assistant-based) Character.
  • Added new Metal (now Assistant-based) Character.
  • Added new Car Paint (now Assistant-based) Character.
  • Added new Image Projector Character.
  • Added Texture Mirroring parameters.
  • Added Texture Rotation parameter.
  • Added Texture Hue parameter.
  • Added Camera Lens type parameter.
  • Added Custom Sun Type and Color parameters.
  • Added Sun Radius Factor parameter.
  Object Properties Window (new)
  
  • Object Opacity.
  • Boolean parameter.
  • Object ID color.
  • Post-export normals smoothing.
  • Render-time Subdivision.
  Maxwell Sea Window (new)
  
  • Produces a sea surface generated using RealFlow technology.
  Maxwell Volumetric Window (new)
  
  • Produces a Constant Field or Noise 3D procedural volumetric.

Fixes

• Some UI parameters were not initialized correctly.

[stefan_kaplan]

Wow, JD.
Christmas i here!

[JDHill]

I hope you like it. Now let's try and consolidate all these loose plugin windows.

[stefan_kaplan]

A few questions/requests:
1. Will Double-sided materials, Procedurals and Maxwell Scatter be a part of the plugin in the future?
2. If a volumetric object (eg. a group) intersects another object (eg. a ground plane) the volumetric effect seems to be disabled!
3. You mention "consolidating the windows". The new Object Proporties window is great! It could contain Maxwell Grass, Maxwell See, Volumetrics, Maxwell Scatter (!) as tabs, as all these features relate to specific object proporties. And the Object Proporties window could even contain all the Hide-settings that you find in the context menu. Now that would be cool.
4. I love the new possibility to set the Object ID Colors! But I still really miss a way to set custom Material ID Colors! It's already there in your great Rhino Plugin
5. There (still) seems to be a problem with the detailing of large geometry (eg. ground plane) when zooming out to see it all while using the new Parallel Lense feature or very low Field of view when using Thin Lens...

But hey - the new features are just amazing!!!
Can't wait to play more



/Stefan

[JDHill]

As usual, thanks for the feedback, Stefan.

• 1. That is the plan, but this exporter is very convoluted, and I did not yet have time (of course everything needs to be done twice, with the Ruby & C++ exporters) to do so, while making sure it would not break other things.
  
  2. I'm not able to observe this yet, could you please send a simple SKP showing it?
  
  3. Yep, you got it about exactly, except that I see Object Properties as being a tab, next to Materials, in the Scene Manager. Grass, etc, would not be tabs, but would show up in a list, in Object Properties. So we would be back to having just the Scene Manager, and the Maxwell Fire window.
  
  4. Sure, just a matter of there not being enough time, yet.
  
  5. Yes, unfortunately I have not yet seen any progress on that problem.

[numerobis]

No scatter for sketchup for now? This is really sad...
Any ETA when this will be included?

But procedurals can be used via MXM? No?

[JDHill]

Yes, procedurals can be used via MXM (and currently, only via MXM, in any plugin, afaik). On scatter, it is in the plans, but by now, you should know I don't give ETAs.

[stefan_kaplan]

2. I'm not able to observe this yet, could you please send a simple SKP showing it?

My SKP can be downloaded here.
The same render with ground plane turned on:


When viewing it from outside the volumetric object, the "fog" is visible both with and without the groundplane turned on - but it appears in a strange positions! (my volumetric object completely encapsulates the objects in the SKP-model):

3. Yep, you got it about exactly, except that I see Object Properties as being a tab, next to Materials, in the Scene Manager. Grass, etc, would not be tabs, but would show up in a list, in Object Properties. So we would be back to having just the Scene Manager, and the Maxwell Fire window.

I think it would make great sence to have a Scene Manager for the scene settings and an Object Manager for the object's settings. But that's just a thought.
Also, I guess the three MXM-buttons could be consolidated into a single MXM Manager window with the status report list and buttons for browsing MXMs locally or in the web gallery.
And perhaps the About Maxwell...-button could be removed from the toolbar; you'll find it in the pull down if you really need the info.

One more request/thought:
I would love to be able to set (with a button) and see (text-field!) the focal distance in the camera-tab in the Scene Manager. Focal Distance kind of belongs at the camera settings somehow.

/Stefan

[JDHill]

Thanks Stefan, I see that with your file. Could you please confirm that it only happens when using the draft engine?

[stefan_kaplan]

Well, when seen from afar the volumetric object stays in correct place using the Production Engine - with or without an active Ground Plane.
What might cause the "thin walls" in the right side of the volumetric object? They even seem to cast shadows..


But I can't produce the nice light beams as I did with the Draft Engine! The settings from earlier produces almost no light beams. Only a very weak diagonal line is showing.
I've been playing around alot with the volumetric object's Object Opacity and the Constant Field density value.
Settings used in the image below are very extreme: Object opacity: 80% and Density: 5. Common non-transparent, light grey, Automatic material.
Am I doing something wrong?


/Stefan

[JDHill]

I am far from an expert on how best to set up the volumetric itself -- it depends on the nature of the material you use, object opacity, and of course the volumetric settings themselves. As I understand it, doing something one way (say, by using object opacity) as opposed to another (say, by using layer opacity in the material), could have a large effect on the look you achieve, and how long it takes to calculate. However, I am only aware that such factors exist, and can't really tell you which types of strategies will be best in which types of scenarios, since I spend more time writing code, and less playing with all these toys. :)

In this part of the forum, I would prefer to keep the discussion to things that look likely to be specific to the plugin, if possible, both because I can only offer limited advice outside that scope, and because fewer other customers are likely to participate in, and/or benefit from the discussion.

[stefan_kaplan]

In this part of the forum, I would prefer to keep the discussion to things that look likely to be specific to the plugin, if possible, both because I can only offer limited advice outside that scope, and because fewer other customers are likely to participate in, and/or benefit from the discussion.

That makes good sense
I don't know if it's plugin-related (I thought it might be): Here is what I get from Draft (left) vs. Production (right) using the exact same settings:

If it has nothing to do with the plugin, I'll gladly ask why the results are so very different, somewhere else in the forum in the general Maxwell v3 area?

/Stefan

EDIT:
Issue solved!
In the draft render my volumetric object was moved downwards at render start, which caused the fog to appear only inside the room - generating sharp light beams.
In the production rende the volumetric object stayed in place at render start, causing light to be scattered before entering the room - hence no sharp light beams.
Sorry for the inconvenience, JD, you are welcome to remove those of my posts that are irrelevant.

[JDHill]

What I mean by a problem being plugin-specific, would for the most part be: if you export to Studio and don't observe similar problems there, it should be something specific to rendering inside the plugin. In this case, if you do that, you should (at least, I did) find that the behavior does not change -- it renders one way in FIRE (draft) and another in production (viewport render, or render in maxwell.exe), the same as we see in the plugin.

As far as the problems (parts of the volumetric missing, or being too dense in some area) you're seeing, you don't need to worry about reporting about those, as I've already boiled your scene down to essentials and filed a report on it with the core developers. For questions on topics such as about whether light rays propagate better or worse when using opacity, or a certain kind of material, or the draft vs production engine, etc -- that is the kind of thing I'd recommend posting about in main Maxwell forum.

[stefan_kaplan]

Cool, thanks!
And thanks again for a great plugin update

[Nicolas Rivera]

I'm having problems with both version 8 and 2013, after about 5 to 10 minutes it just quits and the applications closes, this only happens when the maxwellrender standalone plugging in in the plugin folder.