Next Limit Technologies offers Maxwell Render 1.1, a render engine based on the physics of real light. Its algorithms and equations reproduce the behavior of light in a totally realistic way. All of the elements in Maxwell, such as light emitters, material shaders, cameras etc., are entirely based on physically accurate models.
Additionally, inside Maxwell, materials are modeled in a physically correct manner. Consequently the results produced by Maxwell are highly accurate renders of the real world.
Maxwell provides two alternative workflows. One method allows the users to use their favorite 3D application and the provided Maxwell plug-in for it to send the scene data to the engine. Plug-ins for 3ds Max, Viz, Maya, SolidWorks, Rhino3D, LightWave 3D, SketchUp, formZ, Cinema 4D and ArchiCAD are available in this version. The other method allows the users to import objects into Maxwell Studio where they create, edit and assign materials, set up lights and cameras and send the scene to the engine. The currently supported file formats are .3ds, .dxf, .lwo, .nff, .obj, .xms and .stl. This application runs on a variety of operating systems, including Windows 32/64, Linux 32/64 and Mac OS X.
Maxwell Render 1.1 is much faster than 1.0 and produces less noise in the same time. Long time persistent noise in particular areas has been improved.
The Harddisk option is back. The Harddisk option lets Maxwell use your hard disk memory in addition to physical memory. Now you can render big resolutions without worrying about limited RAM.
Other improvements include:
* Improved sampling pattern: Persistent noise pattern artifacts after many samples have been fixed.
* Improved dielectrics: Dielectrics improved regarding noise and Total Internal Reflections. Now they are much more brilliant and rendering faster compared to 1.0 dielectrics. Important problems have been fixed when used with roughness.
* Improved nd: Refraction Index expanded up to 1,000, which now even makes infinite mirrors possible now.
* Improved networking: The network has been improved and it will integrate flawlessly with your renderfarm. Cooperative merging problems are fixed. Multilight is now supported with cooperative mode.
* Improved bumpmap and normal map: Bump and Normal Map system has been completely renewed. Important bumpmap problems have been fixed. The possibility to configure the interpretation of Normal Maps coming from different applications encoded in various axes has been added.
* Improved SSS: SSS has been completely re-written for the best performance.
* Improved coatings: Coatings have been vastly improved and they now have a more accurate representation of interference patterns.
* Improved anisotropy: Angle Map interpretation method improved. Now it's possible to angle map objects without having unwanted poles.
* Improved caustics: Caustics with 1.1 are now faster than ever before. There's marked improvement with caustics generated by distant emitters. Upgrade to better representation of caustics in less time with version 1.1.
* Improved spectral conversion: RGB. Spectral conversion is highly improved for producing more accurate output colors.
* Improved EmiXer: ISO and Shutter controls have been added to the EmiXer and now it is possible to animate them.
* Improved/enhanced studio:Ability to toggle rendering of BSDF layersNumerous GUI improvementsHighly Improved Stability Added checkboxes of more cmd optionsCamera Hide/Lock New Pack & Go functionDXF material conversion tableSwitching between different layouts
* New material wizards: Numerous, easy-to-use material wizards are added. If you don't have time to deal with the advanced material panel, this doesn't mean it's not possible for you to make good-looking materials. Just use a wizard.
* Completely renewed material libraries: Material Libraries have renewed to provide you with better-looking, high quality materials. New preview scenes are added for previewing different kinds of materials easily.
* New plug-ins: Plug-ins have been improved and some of them are completely renewed in order to provide a better integration.
Next Limit (www.nextlimit.com), which is based in Spain, makes products that include RealFlow (fluid and physical dynamics simulation for 3D visualization), Maxwell Render (physical-based light simulation and render engine) and XFlow (a novel fluid simulation toolkit for engineering and scientific applications). All products are available for multiple platforms and connect seamlessly with most major applications in the DCC and CAD markets. RealFlows film credits include THE LORD OF THE RINGS, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and ROBOTS.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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