NextLimit Maxwell 5 version 5.0.502 (5.0.6.3) for Rhino

The Next Limit development team is pleased to announce the availability of Maxwell 5 version 5.0.502 (5.0.6.3) for Rhino. This product has been designed for rendering in Rhino with a Maxwell toolbar. It brings you advanced Maxwell Render technology in a simple package.

Version 5.0.502 – 06 Feb 2020

COMPATIBILITY:
– Built with Maxwell Render 5.0.2.21 SDK

ADDED:
– Re-written Maxwell Material with an integrated material editor (in the previous version it was called "Maxwell Referenced"). This new material works similarly to Maxwell’s Mxed materials, and it is fully integrated into the Rhino UI. You can now choose from a full-fledged Maxwell material editor or the referenced materials; as in Mxed, you can change from one to the other from the Material’s Global Properties > Type dropdown. The Maxwell Material is fully compatible with the Rhino undo/redo mechanism.
– New Maxwell Texture. The Maxwell Material by default uses this texture to provide a similar interface as we have under the Mxed texture editor. But the Maxwell Texture is a normal Rhino texture too, so the user can use it for other Rhino materials too.
– New command "Maxwell_MaterialReplacer" (intended to help Rhino 5 Mac users to load all the materials from older scenes). After the user calls this command and selects the folder with all the mxm files, the plugin replaces the Rhino materials if it finds an mxm file with the same filename as the material name. (For example material "BlackPlastic" is replaced with an existing "BlackPlastic.mxm" file from the selected folder).
– New UI control in File menu > Properties > Maxwell for Rhino > "Displayed Texture Size". The users can now control the resolution of the Maxwell Material textures displayed inside the Rhino viewport.
– New UI control in File menu > Properties > Maxwell for Rhino > FIRE Settings > "Baked Texture Size". The users can control the resolution of the baked Rhino textures under the FIRE view (for Rhino procedural textures).
– New UI control in Rendering tab > Maxwell for Rhino settings > Global tab > "Baked Texture size". The user can control the resolution of the baked Rhino textures under normal Maxwell Render.
– New Maxwell "Document Properties" page (Maxwell for Rhino > Material Preview) with material preview controls.
– New UI control in File menu > Properties > Maxwell for Rhino > Decimal Precision.

IMPROVED:
– 4-5x faster export in the case the scene contains lots of block instances.
– Maxwell Render parameters undo/redo handling is faster now.
– Rhino texture export is faster and FIRE more interactive.
– The plugin now exports the meshes with all of its UV maps (Multi-UV).
– Maxwell Undo text is more informative now (it shows the name of the changed parameter).
– In the case Maxwell sends multiple errors or warning messages, the plugin shows all the received messages (not just the last one) after the user clicks on the FIRE view bottom area "* ERROR: CLICK here to see message *".
– Objects are now exported with their name (if any) plus the id of the object.
– Block geometries are now exported in block groups.
– The Document Properties Maxwell pages now have the "Restore Defaults" button.
– Maxwell for Rhino Document Properties parameters now have default values.
– (WIN only) The labels of Document Properties Maxwell pages now change to blue if any value has been changed (to show there is a new value to Accept or Cancel).
– (WIN only) The Maxwell UI controller steppers are now draggable (similar to normal Rhino steppers).
– (WIN only) When dragging or changing steppers, it doesn’t fill the undo stack with in-between data (otherwise, the undo content would be filled with useless data).
– (WIN only) While changing the color value in the color dialog, it doesn’t fill the undo stack with in-between data (otherwise, the undo content would be filled with useless data).
– The plugin now uses the Eto color button for color properties.
– Drag and drop between color controls. (Under Windows it is now possible to drag and drop also Rhino colors into Maxwell color buttons).
– Added warning for the two-point perspective camera (Maxwell doesn’t support it).
– On the command log panel, the plugin writes out the time required to export the scene.
– Rhino to Maxwell material Texture coordinate export (Known Limitation: rotation works but rotation+scale only in 0/90/180/270 degrees).
– Maxwell to Rhino material Texture coordinate export (Known Limitation: rotation works but rotation+scale doesn’t work – only rotation or scale).

FIXED:
– (OSX only) The installer couldn’t install the plugin in the case the /Users//Library/Application Support/McNeel/Rhinoceros/MacPlugins folder didn’t exist.
– Rhino slowed down when a Maxwell material was applied to many objects.
– Some scenes could freeze Rhino on Maxwell export. It seems it is an issue with Rhino baking; as a workaround, some baking flags are disabled now to avoid this issue.
– When Custom Alpha was applied to a block, only the first object of the block was exported with the Custom Alpha applied.
– After changing the object parameter of a block object, FIRE only refreshed the first sub-object of the block.
– In the case the scene contained several copies of the same instance block, when the user deleted the original block from the scene, all the blocks disappeared from the FIRE view (the copies are handled as instances under Maxwell).
– Rhino crashed when creating block definitions while FIRE ran.
– Block inserted from an embedded file (or block with sub-blocks) didn’t follow the Maxwell Object settings.
– The parameters in the Document Properties page were not reverted when clicking the Cancel button.
– After undoing the Maxwell Environment Path channel change the value was a text "NULL" instead of an empty string.
– Camera exposure EV value was wrong if Iso value was not 100.
– The camera didn’t keep exposure correctly in the "Lock Exposure" mode if Iso value was not 100.
– In some cases, the Maxwell UI panels didn’t fit correctly into the parent UI container.
– Mouse scroll wheeling could cause panning the whole container control instead of spinning the value of the control.
– After the Rhino view was changed to named view the Maxwell camera showed the saved camera position instead of the active camera position.
– Rhino’s Gem materials were exported as Rhino’s Custom materials (this was a bug in the Rhino API, but found a workaround).

CHANGED:
– The camera exposure presets now change Iso/Shutter/F-Stop values too.
– Maxwell numerical UI controls value change is not immediate now, the user has to accept it with "Enter" or click out of the control. It is also possible to cancel with "Esc".
Maxwell Render is an unbiased spectral ray-tracing designed to simulate light and materials exactly as they behave in real world. Maxwell Render makes perfect images, films and animations from 3D models and scenes. It is the complete solution for anyone who demands immaculate results on a deadline. Maxwell Render offers maximum quality, speed, and compatibility for architects, designers and VFX artists.
Maxwell 5 includes several new features and improvements: procedural textures, multi-GPU rendering, Maxwell Cloud, 4K compatibility and much more.
Maxwell | Rhino offers seamless integration with Rhino for Windows, allowing you to work comfortably within the Rhino interface. This product has been specifically designed for rendering in Rhino with a Maxwell toolbar.

Check in this video how the new GPU fire feature works in Maxwell 5

Next Limit was founded in 1998 by engineers Victor Gonzalez and Ignacio Vargas with a common vision of developing cutting edge simulation tecnologies. RealFlow was the first product released. In the following years new products came to life, such as: Maxwell Render, CaronteFX and XFlow CFD. In 2018 Victor Gonzalez became the sole owner of the group, expanding the company portfolio toward new markets and industries. Since then the portfolio has been updated with three new solutions: Anyverse, BeGraph and RoomBox.

Product: NextLimit Maxwell 5
Version: 5.0.502 (5.0.6.3) for Rhino
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page : https://maxwellrender.com/

Language: english
System Requirements: PC *
Supported Operating Systems: *
Software Prerequisites: Rhino 5.x / Rhino 6.x
Size: 1.4 Gb

The minimum system requirements for Maxwell Render are as follows:
– Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016.
– 2 GHz Intel Core2 processor, AMD Athlon 64 or better
– 1GB RAM minimum. 16 GB of RAM memory is highly recommended
– 1.7 GB available hard disk space for installation
– Accelerated OpenGL drivers
– 3 button mouse recommended