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| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Automatic | This is a material's default type. It provides a Roughness parameter; as Roughness is decreased, the material will shift from a pure diffuse to a smooth plasticine material. |
| Plastic | This type describes a hard plastic. It provides Roughness and Nd parameters. As Roughness is decreased, the plastic will become smoother. The Nd value controls the reflective response of the material; lower Nd values result in weaker frontal reflectivity. |
| Lacquer | This type is designed to create a material which resembles a lacquered surface, and is generally intended to be used in conjunction with a woodgrain texture. It provides a Finish type, of which there are five: Rubbed, Satin, Semigloss, Gloss, and Polished. |
| Car Paint | This type is designed to produce a metallic car paint material. It provides a Metallic parameter; as the value of this parameter is increased, the material will behave as though it has more metallic flake in its composition. Such paints exhibit a rather unnatural reflective response (not at the surface, but within the layer-thickness of the coat), because the flakes suspended in the coat are not oriented in a random fashion. |
| Metal | This type produces metallic materials, which are defined using Roughness, Nd, and K parameters. Additionally, it provides presets for several pre-defined metal types. Please see the regular Maxwell Render manual for technical information on the Nd and K parameters. |
| Liquid | This type simply produces a liquid material. It provides an Nd parameter, which is set to the refractive index of water (1.33) by default. Being a true dielectric material, this type should only be used on objects which have a closed volume. |
| Glass | This type is similar to the Liquid character, but it adds a Roughness parameter. Its Nd is set to the refractive index of standard glass (1.51) by default. As with Liquid materials, Glass materials should only be used on objects which have a closed volume. |
| AGS | This type creates what is known in Maxwell terminology as an AGS, or Architectural Glass Solution, material. This is a glass-like material, which possesses no refractive properties; it is especially suitable for use (as opposed to the Glass type) with single-face glass mesh geometry, since real dielectric glass in Maxwell requires an enclosed volume. This character also provides an Nd parameter, which allows for adjusting the reflective response of the material; this is set to the refractive index of glass (1.51) by default. For more information and examples of AGS, see the Architectural Glass Solution (AGS) page in the Knowledgebase. |
| SSS | This (SSS stands for Sub-Surface Scattering) type produces a material which possesses complex internal scattering effects (as this is a dielectric material, it should only be used with objects which have a closed volume). This type provides Roughness, Thickness, Density, and Asymmetry parameters. Thickness is used to scale the material based on the basic size of object on which it will be used; lower values will cause light rays to terminate closer to the surface of the object. Density describes how many particles per volume the material contains; this affects how light is scattered inside of the volume with more dense materials looking more opaque and less translucent. Asymmetry determines the back- or forward-scattering characteristics of the material; positive values cause light to bounce back toward its source, and vice versa for negative values. |
| SSS (Single Sided) | Single Sided SSS (or SSSSS, for purposes of this discussion) is a special Sub-Surface Scattering mode designed for use with single-face meshes; regular SSS is unsuitable for use with such geometry, due to its dielectric nature and the resultant requirement that it be used with an object which describes a closed volume. The SSSSS character provides Roughness, Thickness, and Asymmetry parameters. Thickness determines the theoretical thickness that Maxwell will give to single-face meshes such materials are applied to. Asymmetry, as with regular SSS materials, determines the back- or forward-scattering characteristics of the material. |
| Satin | This type has no parameters, and produces a material which behaves like satin cloth. |
| Velvet | This type has no parameters and produces a material which behaves like velvet cloth. |
| Complex IOR | This type has no properties other than Roughness; rather, its rendering characteristics depend on the selected Complex IOR file. See the IOR files page in the regular Maxwell Render manual documentation for information on Complex IOR files. |
| Emitter | This type produces an emitter material using the supplied Watts, Efficacy, Temperature and Roughness parameters. Watts determines the total wattage output of the material, while Efficacy describes the efficiency of the emitter. As Roughness is reduced, a glass-type BSDF is mixed into the material, such that at a Roughness of 0.0, the material will resemble a light bulb. |
| HDR Image | This type produces an emitter whose light source is an HDR, MXI, or EXR file. Intensity and Roughness parameters are provided, with Intensity adjusting the power output of the emitter. Similar to the regular Emitter character, as Roughness decreases, a glass-type BSDF is mixed into the material, allowing materials like an LCD screen to be simulated. |
Color
Where the Character determines the physical properties of the material, its Color determines its basic color.
Mode
The material color can either be linked to the color of its associated SketchUp material, or it can be set independently. If the color mode is set to Link to Application, then any changes made to the color here will be sent to SketchUp, while any changes made via SketchUp's own material editor will be reflected here. If the color mode is set to Use Specific Color, then this link will be broken, and the color of the associated SketchUp material will be disregarded.
Of course, when the color is not linked, what is seen in SketchUp's viewport may not match what is seen in the rendered Maxwell image.
Color Picker
Colors may be entered manually, using either the sliders or numeric inputs, or by click-drag on the color-picking surfaces. There are drop-down lists containing named and numbered preset colors, and there is also a list of custom colors available. At any time, the current color may be added to your list of custom colors; you will be prompted to provide a name for the color.
Texture
Similar to the Color parameter, a material's Texture determines its basic color, when a texture is present (if there is no texture, then the material's Color will be used).
Source
Just as a material's Color may be linked to its associated SketchUp material's color, its Texture may also be linked to the SketchUp material's texture. When Source is set to Use Specific Texture, this link will be broken, allowing you to choose a different texture map.
When Use Specific Texture is activated, there is also a checkbox provided, by which the texture may be temporarily disabled.
Texture Editor
The texture editor provides means by which you may adjust the textures Saturation, Brightness, Contrast, and Minimum & Maximum RGB values. You may also Invert the RGB values and instruct Maxwell to apply a cubic interpolation to the texture's pixels at render-time using the Interp. (i.e. interpolation) switch. These changes (with the exception of interpolation, which only applies at render time) will be shown in real-time in the texture preview.
Additionally, if you click the texture preview image, you will be presented with controls for setting the texture's Tile, Offset, and Repeat U/V values, as seen above. To adjust texture tiling, drag the grip at the lower-right; to adjust texture offset, drag the grip in the center. To turn on and off repeat, toggle the two buttons at the top right. Specific values may be entered directly by selecting and typing into the numeric inputs.
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The amount of light the emitter material will output is determined by two parameters: Watts, which specifies how much electricity this emitter would consume, and Efficacy, which determines how efficiently the emitter converts that electricity into lumens (a unit of measure for light output). This allows you to set your emitters using real world values, often found on light manufactures websites. Temperature is optional: when disabled, the normal RGB color of the material will be used. As Roughness is reduced, a glass-type BSDF is mixed into the material, such that at a Roughness of 0.0 (and if the emitter is weak enough to reveal the glass-type BSDF), the material will resemble a light bulb. For more information on using emitter materials in Maxwell Render, see the Lighting with Emitters page. | |
| HDR Image | This type produces an emitter whose light source is an HDR, MXI, or EXR file. Intensity and Roughness parameters are provided, with Intensity adjusting the power output of the emitter. Similar to the regular Emitter character, as Roughness decreases, a glass-type BSDF is mixed into the material, allowing materials like an LCD screen to be simulated. For more information on using HDR emitters see the Textured emission (HDR emitter) page. |
| IES File | This type produces an emitter whose light source is an IES or LDT file. Intensity and Temperature parameters are provided, with Intensity adjusting the power output of the emitter. As with the standard Emitter Character, Temperature is optional, with the normal RGB color of the material being used when it is disabled. This type has no Roughness parameter, since IES/LDT emitter materials are intended to be used on geometry which has been hidden to the Maxwell camera. For more information on using IES emitters in Maxwell Render, see the IES emitters page. |
Color
Where the Character determines the physical properties of the material, its Color determines its basic color.
Mode
The material color can either be linked to the color of its associated SketchUp material, or it can be set independently. If the color mode is set to Link to Application, then any changes made to the color here will be sent to SketchUp, while any changes made via SketchUp's own material editor will be reflected here. If the color mode is set to Use Specific Color, then this link will be broken, and the color of the associated SketchUp material will be disregarded.
Of course, when the color is not linked, what is seen in SketchUp's viewport may not match what is seen in the rendered Maxwell image.
Color Picker
Colors may be entered manually, using either the sliders or numeric inputs, or by click-drag on the color-picking surfaces. There are drop-down lists containing named and numbered preset colors, and there is also a list of custom colors available. At any time, the current color may be added to your list of custom colors; you will be prompted to provide a name for the color.
Texture
Similar to the Color parameter, a material's Texture determines its basic color, when a texture is present (if there is no texture, then the material's Color will be used).
Source
Just as a material's Color may be linked to its associated SketchUp material's color, its Texture may also be linked to the SketchUp material's texture. When Source is set to Use Specific Texture, this link will be broken, allowing you to choose a different texture map.
When Use Specific Texture is activated, there is also a checkbox provided, by which the texture may be temporarily disabled.
Texture Editor
The texture editor provides means by which you may adjust the textures Saturation, Brightness, Contrast, and Minimum & Maximum RGB values. You may also Invert the RGB values and instruct Maxwell to apply a cubic interpolation to the texture's pixels at render-time using the Interp. (i.e. interpolation) switch. Please note that only images able to be shown in your browser are able to be previewed here.
Bump
Where the Color and Texture parameters control the basic color of the material, the Bump parameter controls bump-mapping effects.
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The Bump texture may use one of the following modes: Bump Mapping, Normal Mapping, Displacement (On The Fly) and Displacement (Pretesselated). Normal mapping should be selected when the specified map is a normal map. If Displacement is used, then the map should be a black and white map, preferably 16-bit or better. As mentioned previously, when Displacement mode is used, the Strength parameter specifies the displacement height in millimeters, rather than in percent, as is the case for the Bump and Normal mapping modes.
Pretesselated displacement may render significantly faster than On The Fly displacement, but it may also require substantially more memory.
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Source
Similar to the way that a material's material’s Color texture may be linked to the associated SketchUp material's material’s texture, the material's material’s Bump texture may be linked to its Color texture. If it is desired that a specific bump map be used, switch Source to Use Specific Texture and browse to the desired texture file.
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This button is only enabled when an MXM file is present. When clicked, it will open the MXM file in Maxwell MXED for editing. When MXED is closed again, the plugin will check to see whether the file has been update or not; if it has, the MXM preview image will be updated to reflect the new state of the MXM file.
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