[Mihai]

Well the other thread is 18 pages of ranting so here is what I found so far:

Do not use the "Render" dropdown option, this makes my mxst.exe crash every time. Use instead the render button. If nothing happens when you press it, your environment variables are not set up correctly. Right click My computer, properties, advanced, Environment variables.

The MAXWELL_ROOT entry, should point to:
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\

The Path entry should point to:
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\

Preview works for me with physical sky, but sunlight doesn't seem to appear.

Although I still get no visual output while rendering, so I tried using command line to render, and got the same thing, stopped the render and got a list of error messages: error: opening targa fileMemory
several times, I guess each time it refreshed the render window, so possibly an r/w error.

[paxreid]

Thanks Mahai..you basically summarized that 18 page thread. We are in the same boat now...basically I think I should wait for a patch.

[RedRaven]

I have managed to get a render out of the mikeshiney.mxs after changing the variables. Still trying to figure out how to navigate. Cant get any other import to work - obj, 3ds, dxf. They all crash out with the ms bug report thingy. My one hope and wish is that i will be able to import a sketchup file direct!

[max3d]

Did you point to your new license? As far as I can see after reading all the topics the renderer crashes if you omit this step.

[pluMmet]

Did you point to your new license? As far as I can see after reading all the topics the renderer crashes if you omit this step.

Just put the .dat file in the maxwell folder. Piece of cake.

[Tim Ellis]

Here's all the other useful info from that thread.



Mike,

It's working for me now! Let me tell you what I did. I DID NOT uninstall the beta. I just doubled clicked the RC1 .exe, it installed and off I went. I did have to do the license thingy seperately.

I then updated the environment varialbles like you said (in XP it's in Control Panel>System>Environment variables.

I think you should post a sticky somewhere telling everyone to update the variables. That alone would have saved me and others going nuts with the pissed off comments.

Great work buddy!!

EDIT: The installer should have done this by the way.




One thing guys... check your environment variables... you want to make sure that in your MAXWELL_ROOT variable, your path is to "whatever"\Next Limit\Maxwell

But you want to add, additionally, "whatever"Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\ to the Path system variable.

whiskey wrote:
doubleclicking my mxs doesn't work either mverta..i even went to the folder options in windows and went to the file extensions and told mxs to open with mxcl.exe..

it halts the render with 'unknown argument'


Whiskey --

This is exactly what I saw before. It was awhile ago; trying to remember what solved it. I know I had to make sure that I only had ONE path in the MAXWELL_ROOT environment variable, that was the Next Limit\Maxwell\ with no mxcl and I only added the Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\ variable to the PATH system variable. That allowed me to open Studio with no problems and launch real renders from the little Render icon in Studio. Does that work for you?

_Mike

**EDIT: CONFIRMED, I cannot launch a render from the .mxs directly ("unknown argument"). I CAN get the render using the little render icon in Studio.



this is what I used to render mverta's file:

mxcl -mxs:MikesTest.mxs -o:test.jpg -d -th:0

whiskey wrote:
when i cahnge the ROOT path as you said studio cannot open the default layout..and opening scens don't seem to work..when doubleclicking on one of toms mxs, it sais license not valid :/ so i went back to the old ROOT..il try the little render icon

Make sure your MAXWELL_ROOT USER environment variable does NOT point in any way to \mxcl it can't be a part of that variable anywhere.

This is mine:
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell

This my USER environment variable, called "Path":
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\RealFlow3\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\

My System Variable, Path, doesn't point to ANY NL stuff whatsoever

_Mike

when doubleclicking on one of toms mxs, it sais license not valid :/


i sorted that out by coping and pasting license.dat in the subfolder mxcl, this way mxcl stars. i feel i'm almost there.





ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES -

Forgive me guys, this is the Win2k way, but you'll know how to get to it in your XP's I'm sure...

Essentially, I'm right-clicking on My Computer to bring up Properties. For me, it's Properties>Advanced>Environment Variables, but I'm pretty sure it's in a slightly different heirarchical location on XP.

But once I'm in Environment Variables, you can create new ones, either USER ones, or SYSTEM ones. Here, you just want to make 2 User variables, called MAXWELL_ROOT and one called Path. The "value" for the MAXWELL_ROOT variable is the path to the files - in my case, C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell

The "value" for the Path variable is the path to both hierarchies of the NL stuff, in my case:
C:\Program Files\Next Limit\RealFlow3\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\

Now, the plug-ins, at least my Maya "mayall" plug-in needed its own variable too, called MAYALL_ROOT... but this may be just a Maya thing..

_Mike

Another little tip I just noticed:

I updated the image size in my Camera Params, from the default 320x240 to 800x600 and hit the render icon. It still came out as 320x240. I had to hit SAVE first for it to update when I click the Render icon. Expect that to change REAL soon, but for now, that may save you some headache.

BITMAP TIP:

So far, it appears that only .png files are recognized. I've tried .jpg, .tiff, .tga and .png. The .png files reliably load in. Nothing else does.

The next issue is getting those files mapped onto something, which is currently proving very obscure.


MATERIALS -

There is, more or less.. only one type of material now. BSDF. Coatings are very special.

For things like carpaint, you just stack Basic Materials. But don't look at the "Material Layers' Window like it's actually stacking, top to bottom. In fact, that's going to be relabeled so it's not confusing. You don't have to think top-down, like in photoshop.. you just make all the various elements of your overall shader, and control the blending through the BASIC WEIGHT MAP. Make sure the sum total of all your shader's elements Basic Weight Map values don't exceed 1.

So in my shiny ball, it's just two elements: a transparent gloss coat, and a satiny blue anisotropic thing. But they're just two tweaked variables of the same basic material - Basic BSDF. Each one's Basic Weight Map is set to .5. .5+.5 = 1. There are only two layers, you see...

Gone are specific models for types of materials. You can do them all here, and you can stack as many layers as you want! ALL PHYSICALLY ACCURATE.. control the blending with maps.. it goes on and on. And if you have the complex IOR data for a real-world material, you can just plug it in. Look for a library of that to be available. They're a little slower to render because of the extra complexity, but you can't touch them for realism.


Voidmonster wrote:


Here's what I've done:

Uninstalled the beta and installed RC1.
Set the User copy of the PATH variable to C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\

Is there anything else?


Yes, you ALSO need to create another USER environment variable called MAXWELL_ROOT and set its value to C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\

I initially had same problem as everyone else with the crashing upon clicking the little render icon but after doing exactly what MVerta said...
Here's what I've done:

Uninstalled the beta and installed RC1.
Placed license.dat file in both c:\Next Limit\Maxwell folder and in c:\program files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl folder.
Right-Click MyComputer>Properties>Advanced>environment variables
Set the User variables for PATH to C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\;C:\Program Files\Next Limit\Maxwell\mxcl\ and made sure MAXWELL_ROOT was set to c:\Program files\Next Limit\Maxwell
After that
Launch maxwell studio and opened Mikestest.mxs
Preview works fine
Moving camera around works fine
Render preview works fine
Little Render icon opens new mxcl window
and launches Render works fine

Hope this helps a bit . . .
BTW new network manager and mxcl look dope


Tom wrote with regard to black and white renders from inside 3DSMax.

IMPORTANT: Use custom emitters from max plugin to avoid black / white results like above.



Tim.

[Mihai]

It only crashes if I use the drop down menu Render option, if I use the button it opens mxcl, but output remains black.

[rivoli]

are you rendering with emitters or sun/sky/skydome mihai?

[Mihai]

Ok, I only installed it a few minutes ago, I haven't tried with emitters yet. So i guess I'm getting a black render because neither dome or sky work at all?

edit: works with emitter, although the preview window in mxcl is black and changing iso/shutterspeed doesnt do anything.

[rivoli]

they work in the studio preview but don't seem to render via mxcl, emitters work.

[Mihai]

Also, if I move the camera and render, it renders from the old view. I need to first save, and the hit render so it shows the updated view....

[smeggy]

I'd like to know that too

[rivoli]

yes, and if you open a new scene (open a mxs for example), it'll keep rendering the last scene rendered till you save the new one.

[Mihai]

Is this right, textures aren't supported yet?

[rivoli]

as long as i can tell only bitmaps are supported. by bitmaps i mean .bmp