This section explains the basics to create a Maxwell Render plug-ins. The SDK can be used for many things as:
- Create plug-in
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- connectivity between 3D applications and Maxwell Render
- Create and Read MXS files.
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- A MXS (Maxwell Scene Format) file contains all the information needed for Maxwell to render a scene
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- Integrate the Maxwell Render Engine inside 3D applications
- Read and Write MXI files (Maxwell Image format)
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The public SDK contained in the Maxwell Render Package does not include rendering capabilities; so it cannot be used for integrating the renderer inside other applications. This function is available only in the private SDK |
How to use the SDK
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The Maxwell SDK is composed of header files and libraries written in C++. To compile your application, you need to include the header maxwell.h. The maxwell.h header is main header files are self-documented and contains contain descriptions and examples of the most important functions. To link the application, the following libraries are available:
maxwell_plugins.lib // Windows (Visual Studio 2008 compatible)
libmxs.a // Mac OSX (Universal Binary)
libmaxwellsdk.a // Linux (x86_64)
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The most important headers are:
- maxwell.h: It contains all the methods needed for reading and writing Maxwell scenes (MXS files).
- maxwellrender.h: It contains all the methods needed for rendering.
- maxwellmxi.h: It contains all the methods needed for reading and writing Maxwell images (MXI files).
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Check the header file maxwell.h for latest changes that are not described in this document. The header files are always self documented. |
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When using Visual Studio it is recommended to set the Struct Member alignment to 8 Bytes (/Zp8) (Under project properties/C++/code generation). This was needed with old Maxwell SDKs and now it is not essential but recommended. When using Visual Studio it might be needed linking against WS2_32.lib When using the OSX sdk, compile with the following flags: -D_MACOSX --DCOMPILER_GCC. The sdk is compatible with GCC 4.0 and upwards. When using the Linux sdk, compile with the following flags: -D_LINUX --DCOMPILER_GCC. The sdk is compatible with GCC 4.1 and upwards. |