[jdp]

+1...

but I wonder if it is feasible with MLT strictly orthodox approach...

[lichtwerk]

give it to me, baby

[chrisvconley]

This would be great, especially for Sketchup. Just to help read the edges. All edges in real life have some radius on them...

It is not meant as a means of modeling, but as a way to achieve real-worldism easily.

Chris

[Mr Whippy]

I'm a bit surprised there hasn't been a greater interest in this particular feature. For all the photorealism Maxwell is able to achieve, I think the "geometric sharpness" of many otherwize realistic models in the gallery is such a giveaway.

If possible one can bevel the geometry manually, but sometimes the models are just too complex for that. And if you're working with CAD-models from an external source, then it is likely you are totally out of luck in this regard.

Here's an example from a project I'm involved in. I had to abandon Maxwell due to the fact that I wasn't able to use the plugin F-edge. I think the model looks relatively dull and flat in Maxwell without f-edge - plus it loses some of it's definition.




Thomas

Thats a very good example, the bevels work nicely and such a piece would have bevels like that in real life. I could also imagine modelling them might be a pain here and there. It's benefit is it's axial symmetry which means you'd only have to do a small section and clone it.

However, if this were to be shader driven you would need many many duplicate shaders if for example the cog wheel and end bearing had a different radius bevel, and you have a few more parts with the same material with varying bevels. You'd have to split meshes or assign sub-materials, and manage alot more duplicate data for one small alteration in a single parameter.


I'd like to see a feature like this, but where would we actually apply it. Doing it via shaders is clever, but if we are using it across our entire scenes and not in isolation it would be massively time consuming and hard to manage.

I like the idea of almost some kind of editing on the edge via 3d program.

OK, dreaming here but my view would be like in 3ds max, select edge, apply a "maxwell bevel", have a few controls like in photoshops 2d bevel parameters, and assign different edges to different "maxwell bevel groups", like internal smooth groups. Maxwell see's the edges and does something magic with them. This way you can have one shader and near infinite variety in bevels.
Remember, bevels will start to look fake just like no bevels at all if they are all perfect and the same radii!


For all the hassle of doing it via materials I'd have to agree with Mihai that I'd prefer to model them and get them just how I wanted with noise and randomness thrown in.

I guess for the odd model with simple bevels all over or minimalist work then it'd be ok, but why make a feature for maxwell that is limited to such applications on a small scale?

Dave

[deadalvs]

This would be great, especially for Sketchup. Just to help read the edges....
Chris

ah, so this could be a reason to change from maya to StetchUp...

[bewick]

Mr Whippy: I don't quite get it. Where's the hassle? You could easily instance a couple of f-edge`s over any number of materials. You don't need that many levels really.

F-edge is ridiculously simple to use. It actually consists of two elements - the f-edge parameter set where you have the option of selecting all sharp edges or just a custom selection, define bevel width and so on. Then there's the "stack" modifier which is actually the first thing you assign to your bump map slot. This allows you to stack F-edge over any existing bump map, adding to it in a way.

But why ask NL to re-invent the wheel? It shouldn't be impossible to make Maxwell compatible with this inexpensive plugin. As far as I'm aware it's already compatible with many other renderers.

[deadalvs]

could something similar be used to «melt together» two intersecting polygons ?

like this, intersecting pipes could be rendered as a fake instead of solving 5th degree equations...

[lllab]

something like f-edge would be definitly nice.
but with conrol per object. or per material.

cheers
stefan

[bewick]

deadalvs: Yes you can, provided they are properly booleaned together...

[sms]

I'll vote for it, too!

[deadalvs]

deadalvs: Yes you can, provided they are properly booleaned together...

okay...

but i thought about polys that just intersect and have no other relationship but maybe the same material. so this feature would act like an «automatic melter».

imageine the cool images with a lot of weird steel plates that intersect and all the intersection would be melt (technical word ?) together...


BUT i would want to add a bump/normal map feature to this just to increase the reality, since these seams never are perfectly as «normal» fillets

[Xlars]

something like f-edge would be definitly nice.
but with conrol per object. or per material.

cheers
stefan

If that is possible in Maxwell it would be a fantastic addition ..

Would also be a great competition advantage as more and more renderes seem to include this like eg. the build in MentalRay renderer in 3ds max 9 having a "Round Corner" special effect in the shader settings now.

[deadalvs]

for maya users:
maybe check this thread:

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... p?p=261724

[simmsimaging]

+1
It's a great feature of the Mental Ray A&D material.

b

[yanada]

oh yes