[Becco_UK]

Faceted Render Engine Ingredients.

$495
Unrealistic development targets.
Misleading promo' Images done with different product.
A sprinkle of 'in the future...'
Rubbish installation.
Build it to crash before cooking the Christmas Turkey
so on and so on...

[fuso]

great guys. Thanks for spoiling this.

[Becco_UK]

I didn't forget that. Today I have been helped by one of the testers a great deal. Only one saw fit to make a badly timed joke out of the RC sham.

The owners of Next Limit are to blame not the beta testers.

It is very amusing watching how some testers and moderators are performing through Dick Wittingless. Not worth $495 for the panto' entry fee though!

[fuso]

Whoever did it... thanks for removing that crap

[mverta]

Wow -

I step out for a few hours and...

I missed whatever went down, but Becco, last I heard you were getting through things okay. ?

_Mike

[fuso]

what happened to whiskey? It's probably past his bedtime now. Jesus,
what a relief...

[Becco_UK]

mverta: Thanks for the help earlier. Yes I can now output a faceted render which has renewed my earlier annoyance. It was really good to hit render and see things firing into life- since then I have read more posts where its admitted the RC we have is not the same ones as produced the pre release promo pics.

Thinking positive through the sham though - I suppose tomorrow a render of a diamond or two will be a good excercise with the faster engine and improved dialectrics (if true). Surely Maxwell will be able to do that? Might get me in a better mood. If it works I will make a seperate post.

[mverta]

since then I have read more posts where its admitted the RC we have is not the same ones as produced the pre release promo pics.

Mmmmm.... this is a bit muddled and misleading here. The promo pics were exectued by the same engine and materials, but the rest of Studio wasn't in place yet. It was basically a stripped-down version. Even with everything else going on, you could still do the promo pics with the exact RC that's out; nothing's missing. But a lot of stuff went in, and that's what's causing the headaches. I may be speaking just a touch out of school here, but that's how it went down for me, anyway.

Keep playing; I know they're already working on patches.

_Mike

[leoA4D]

This is the forum for success stories, isn't it? I read five pages and did not see any. Even if there had been one "success story", would it really qualify as a success when Mac and Linux users may not see their paid for M~R until well into 2006?

You people just do not get it! "Success"?

[fuso]

Jesus! Another one. Read this post again carefully from the beginning.
There was a little sarcasm in the headline.

[fuso]

mverta... thanks for clearing this up a bit. But I honestly still doubt that these images were created with what we have on our hand right now.
Since you seem to know a bit more about he background, do you know if
they were created in the so called studio or entirely in any external app?

[mverta]

Our last incarnation of Studio was far less feature-rich...

as I've said many times, and Tom has echoed, it's the assemblage of all these various new components that makes the complexity skyrocket and the bugs appear.

The images were not produced in an entirely different app. Just a stripped-down version of the current app.

_Mike

[fuso]

aaaah... With different app I meant if the materials / cameras were set up
within studio or if the scenes were set up in MAYA/MAX.... etc and then
rendered straight from there just with the core renderer??? Sorry maybe
I didn't make that clear enough... However looking forward to new patches
hopefully soon

Jost

[mverta]

Well, Adam -

Anyone who doubts the saying, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" need only read a few posts on this forum from the last couple of days. But in this case, the rest of the quote reads, "...but just beyond Hell lies Heaven."

Maxwell -and therefore this situation- really touches a nerve with people, and not just because of the money. People feel very personally disappointed, and very passionate. I've never seen this sort of vitriolic hate or lavish praise generated by a piece of software before. People aren't just upset, they're fuming. Just the way that when Maxwell produces those images no other engine can, people are giddy like kids on Christmas.

I imagine it's like a parent with a problem child, who's anger is amplified by the sheer waste of potential. It's not a bad analogy, because Maxwell is young, and it, too, can still grow to fulfill its promise.

For what it's worth, here's my prediction: In time, Maxwell will get its bugs fixed. We'll again produce the best looking images in the shortest time, and return to the days of "everything should be this simple!" excitement that has always been at the heart of the experience.

And slowly, we'll have a harder and harder time staying connected to these hyper-dramatic days. Sure, we'll remember, but it'll feel less and less relevant.

Because everyone likes a hero, especially the underdog.

I've been a graphics professional for a long time, and working with Maxwell, even now, reminds me of Photoshop 1.0. You can just feel that everything's going to be different. I believe it represents a paradigm shift in philosophy for our industry, and we'll all get to brag one day for slogging it through the hell of the "old days". That's my call... guess only time will tell.

_Mike

[Mihai]

Just to learn how the new material setup works will take us at least a week, even with no texture support. So if I'm allowed to say something constructive, start making tests, simple tests just to learn how the materials react. You would have to do this with a fully working RC anyway. Tom has posted what the material params mean.