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The implementation of Maxwell Fire in the plugin serves two main purposes, depending on the plugin version in question: In the Standalone pluginMaxwell Fire is both used for scene setup, and for rendering of final images. When the Standalone plugin is licensed, you can choose whether Maxwell Fire uses its Draft or Production render engine. In the Render Suite pluginWhile Maxwell Fire can be used to render final images, its primary purpose is to provide real-time feedback during scene setup. It is assumed that an MXS file will subsequently be written, and rendered in Maxwell Render. |
Overview
The operation of Maxwell Fire in the plugin has been kept as simple as possible. To use Maxwell Fire, simply use the toolbar or menu to open the Maxwell Fire window:
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The engine will resume rendering once the error is corrected, though in some cases, it may be necessary to re-export the data. To do this, click the Re-export Scene button.
Engine Settings
Clicking the Settings (gear) button pops up the Engine Settings window:
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| Parameter | Free/Demo License | Commercial License | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| SL | Sets the sampling level at which rendering will be stopped. | ||
| Threads | Sets the number of threads which will be used by the render engine, where zero means auto-detect. | ||
| Max. Resolution | 800 px | 1920 px | Sets the actual size of the largest dimension of the rendered image. The aspect ratio of the output is determined by the aspect ratio of the Output Resolution of the currently-rendering camera. |
| Engine | Allows you to specify whether rendering be done using Maxwell Render's Draft or Production render engine. While both engines are entirely unbiased, and will eventually converge to produce the same image, they use very different calculation strategies, which are suited to very different purposes. |
Render Engines
The Engine setting is only available in licensed installations; unlicensed installations are restricted to using the Draft engine.
| Engine | Description |
|---|---|
| Draft | This is the default engine used by Maxwell Fire. It gives a basic idea of the final image as soon as possible, and also updates very frequently, in order to provide responsive real-time feedback. |
| Production | While the Draft engine is very good for real-time work, it will not, in fact, render a finished image faster than the Production engine, in many cases. This is especially true in situations which involve more complex light interactions: caustics and indirect lighting, heavy depth-of-field, etc. |
Interactivity
Not all types of changes can be handled in real time; currently, there are two different classes of scene alteration:
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Conceptual changes are accomplished in real time, and therefore, do not require the model to be re-transferred. Physical changes do. So, for example, changing the color of a material, the position or exposure of a camera, or the time of day are all things which will be reflected in real time in Maxwell Fire. Painting a face with a new material, or moving/deleting a component, on the other hand, are not handled in real time, and require that the scene be re-exported.
MXS Files & Memory (RS)
Whenever the Maxwell Fire window is opened, and the model has been exported, the MXS-writing functions of the plugin will behave slightly differently than normal; rather than performing a full model export, they will use the data currently held in the Maxwell Fire scene. This data will also remain in memory for as long as the Maxwell Fire window is opened, or until a different model is opened in SketchUp.
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The determination of whether to use cached data, or to perform a full export, is made using the MXS Cache Policy option.
General Notes
Following are some things to keep in mind when using Maxwell Fire.
2-Point Perspective
SketchUp's 2-Point Perspective camera mode is not supported in Maxwell Fire, due to SketchUp API limitations. However, this is not likely much of an issue, since Maxwell Fire allows you to pre-visualize the effects of Maxwell's own Shift Lens feature.
Using Threads
It is worth noting that there are actually two instances of Maxwell Fire used in the plugin: one for rendering models, and one for rendering material previews. Since they can both be active at the same time, it will be necessary to set the Threads parameters for each (Maxwell Fire, material preview) in order to achieve your desired performance. If you are on a single- or dual-core machine, it may be desirable to disable automatic preview refresh.
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