Softimage - Render options

After switching the renderer to Maxwell from Render>Render>Scene options, you can access the render options of Maxwell Render as usual from Render>Render>Renderer options.

This documentation will cover render options that are specific to the SI plug-in, for more information on the other parameters please see the regular Maxwell Render documentation.

Render Time/Sampling level

See the Render Options page

Nr of threads

See the Render Options page (CPU threads)

Global scale factor

Since the SI unit is a generic unit, the Global Scale setting in Maxwells render options lets you specify what you want a generic SI unit to represent. If Global Scale is 1 it means 1 SI unit = 1 meter. For example set the global scale to 0.01 and each SI unit will represent 1cm (100th of a meter). 0.1 will be 1 SI unit = 1dm. 0.0254 means 1 SI unit = 1 inch (since 1 inch is 2.54cm).

If you want to make sure the MXS file has been exported at the correct scale, you can open the MXS in Maxwell Studio and use the procedure described on this page.

Motion blur type/Motion blur steps

Maxwell Render supports both transform motion blur and vertex deformation blur - the transformation motion blur has unlimited sub steps while the vertex deformation blur is limited to two sub steps. If your scene only has transform motion blur, set this to Motion, if both transform and vertex deformation blur should be taken into account, set it to Motion+Deformation. The motion blur steps control the number of steps that should be taken into account for the motion blur. If the motion blur doesn't looks smooth, increase the number of steps. For more information on using Motion Blur see the Motion Blur page.

The amount of motion blur is controlled by the Shutter Speed or the Rotary shutter option in the Maxwell Camera custom parameter set.

Maxwell Render supports both transform motion blur and vertex deformation blur - the transformation motion blur has unlimited sub steps while the vertex deformation blur is limited to two sub steps. If your scene only has transform motion blur, set this to Motion, if both transform and vertex deformation blur should be taken into account, set it to Motion+Deformation. The motion blur steps control the number of steps that should be taken into account for the motion blur. If the motion blur doesn't looks smooth, increase the number of steps. For more information on using Motion Blur see the Motion Blur page.

The amount of motion blur is controlled by the Shutter Speed or the Rotary shutter option in the Maxwell Camera custom parameter set (Softimage - Camera settings). If you want to mimick a photo camera you can use the Shutter speed to set the length of the exposure, even several seconds long. To mimick a film camera, use the Rotary shutter setting (more info in the Motion Blur page).

Save lights in files

This setting allows you to save each emitters influence in a separate output, if you have enabled Multilight. For example if you have two materials with emitter components applied to some geometry, the render will output two image files in the formats you have specified in the output settings (Render>Pass options) . This option can be useful for compositing to individually control the opacity and other filters applied to each emitters influence. Another option you have though is to enable Multilight and then simply import the resulting MXI file in one of the supported compositing applications which have a Maxwell render plugin (Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop). The MXI already contains separate light channels and so can be easier to manage, instead of having several files per frame (one file per emitter material in the scene).

Enable Displacement

Globally enable/disable displacement.

Enable dispersion

Globally enable/disable dispersion

Multilight

Enable Multilight and set the mode of Multilight - Intensity or Color+Intensity mode.

Read back Multilight

After you sent the scene to Maxwell Render and you had Multilight turned on, you can adjust the individual sliders of the emitters inside Maxwell and when you stop the render and close Maxwell, you will get a pop-up which allows you to import your updated ML settings and apply them to your camera and/or emitter materials. This option can be very useful to save time transferring the new emitter settings from Maxwell to SI, especially if you have many separate emitter materials. You can click on each line to select/deselect it, or also select/deselect all.

Import Multilight settings dialog

Use Low priority

This option is useful if you plan to continue working on your computer while Maxwell is rendering on the same computer. It doesn't mean the render will be slower - when you aren't doing anything at the computer it will use all the available CPU resources. It simply gives Maxwell a lower priority to let you work smoothly on other tasks while its rendering.

Save MXS / MXS Path

Allows you to save the MXS at the specified location, when the SI plugin converts the SI scene to an MXS before sending it to Maxwell Render to start the render. If it is off, the plugin will export an MXS to a temp location which it will use for rendering. This option can be useful to make sure the MXS is saved at the specified location, which you can then open in Maxwell Studio, or add it to a network rendering job.