You guys are truly something
)
First of all, if you really think that Maxwell needs saving - you couldn't be more wrong. Maxwell, as a software, is still state of the art. Many, many other render engines, that are considered "top industry standard" are lacking "essential" features, that Maxwell had for years - or just barely starting to implement them.
In fact - Maxwell is the ultimate inspiration when it comes to innovation in rendering and user's experience - many, if not all, developers (of other render engines) are looking at what Maxwell is doing.
Speed - oh boy - it might be hard to understand, but for what Maxwell is doing - it is damn fast. Yes. F@CKING FAST. Maxwell is a heavy-lifting beast. If you increase (samples, bounces, quality settings, etc) in other render engines - to barely try to match to Maxwell quality - you'll see how Maxwell kicks asses left and right.
Quality - there might be times when you don't need Maxwell quality. Or your clients can't appreciate it - so naturally cost / time comes into game - in those cases - just go and use other engines that you're comfortable with to get your half baked results. It is NORMAL - to have different tools for different needs. And come back to Maxwell when you need its iconic quality.
Lumion and other arch-type nonsense - Now, If you think that Maxwell is suppose to compete with Lumion and other architecture specific software - you're delusional. And most likely using Maxwell in a wrong way. Maxwell is unbiased light simulator. Architecture ? Yes! Automotive ? Sure. Key visuals ? Absolutely! And Maxwell have truly cutting edge material editor system - that none ... NONE other render engines even closely matched. It is the most intuitive, powerful and physically accurate material creation tool of all that are publicly available. And if you think otherwise - you just don't understand it.
Materials, presets, library - oh boy. Can't believe anyone these days is still talking about it. Beside the fact that Maxwell spoils you with one of the best material creation tools out there, it also has a library of more than 5k materials - available to you. And physically based high quality presets (via Material assistant). And sample scenes, and sample objects. And yes you can easily create your own libraries of materials, objects, scenes, etc - and make a dedicated tab for that right in the studio. Beside the fact that there is practically unlimited amount of all kinds of textures available to you online - there is now also SBSAR support. In one click.
Price, licensing, etc - Maxwell is one of the cheapest engines on the market. It is shameful to complain. It is not subscription based. And folks from NextLimit are always quite supportive, flexible and understandable on licensing matter - beside some crazy sales from time to time. So for once - please stop complaining about it.
Marketing, Tutorials, Community - well .. community is literally you. You ARE the community - maybe the forum and YouTube channel would have more content if you guys would not just take but also give. Just saying. I agree that marketing and open forum are the future - but here's a perspective for ya - they look at you, how you rant here and there - and think "why would I do anything for them, when they don't appreciate our effort ? They clearly see that people are not interested in giving something in return.
It should be us - who supports them. So they could do better things for us. One can't go without the other. It might be hard to understand, but we need them not less then they need us.
So instead of crying - "ooh they promised this and that" - why don't you just wander why it wasn't delivered and what can you do to support them ?
It is silly to assume that Maxwell team promised something and haven't delivered because they were too busy having Margaritas all day long.
Why don't you ask how you can help? Maybe you can help with beta testing ? Or with fine-tuning the presets ? or with creation of a starter assets ?
Oh, and one more thing ... those of you who are afraid of nodes spaghetti - I've got a bad news for ya. Literally, the only way to make render engine to process code faster and more efficient is to make it based on a node system. So every time you ask to make it faster but without nodes - you sound like a kid in a store who wants same candy to be bigger in size and cheaper in price.
I love Maxwell, and I love you, wonderful people, who uses Maxwell and creates wonderful things, but for f@ck's sake stop complaining and take a moment to actually appreciate what you have in your hands. What Maxwell team does (not the biggest team in the world, but surely one of the toughest ones). I was introduced to Maxwell in 2012 and was totally blown away. Even today - it feels like cheating when I'm using Maxwell - it is too easy. It is unfairly easy to achieve amazing render quality in this piece of software. And if you don't feel the same - please - ask - me, personally, (and developers themselves) are always happy to help you to understand how can you master this wonderful piece of software.
And lastly, if you're having difficulties with your workflow / project (there is a high chance that you're simply using this software in a wrong way or there is another software that can do that faster) instead of complaining - post your situation here and together we can find a solution. I don't think moderators will ban anyone for mentioning tools that can help you guys to be better at what you do.
After all - Maxwell, being the great tool is not the ultimate answer to all things and to the meaning of life itself ... we all know the right answer is "42"
Cheers!
for what it's worth (still main rendering is done at nights and weekends).
- By Andreas Hopf
- By Forum Moderator