Licensing FAQ

You need more than one license to be able to render in on more than one computer at the same time. If you hold 2 or more standard licenses then you can install them on the machines you have available and render in network. If you have 4 standard licenses for example, you can set up your scene on one machine and use this machine plus 3 more machines to render in network.

Yes, you can use as many standard licenses as the number of machines you have to speed up your render. However if you plan to use some of the machines only as render nodes, a render node license is enough. The node license only renders the scenes and does not allow you to work in Maxwell GUI or Maxwell Studio.

No, Maxwell Render licenses are non-transferrable, according to our End User License Agreement and the General Conditions of Sale. In addition, licenses are sent out on the name of the purchaser, and that information cannot be changed.

No, you are not allowed to sell your license. Please see our End User License Agreement and our General Conditions of Sale.

Yes, we offer educational licenses, faculty licenses, and classroom packs. Please see our standard price list for pricing information. Special discounts are available for classroom packs, starting from 10 licenses and up. Also see the Educational licenses section for further information.

Yes, Maxwell Render licenses work per machine and do not have core/CPU limitations.

Yes, Maxwell Render licenses are floating, so they can be installed on as many machines as you like. One standard license can only have 1 concurrent user - you can only run one instance of Maxwell at a time.

Yes, you can install Maxwell Render just on your laptop, or on a desktop computer and a laptop, using either one of the machines at any one time.

You have four licenses. It is important to understand the difference between your license file and the number of actual licenses you own. The license file is just a file where your licenses are collected. The number of actual licenses you hold is mentioned in the "licenses" field on the splash screen when you open Maxwell Studio.

No, Maxwell Render licenses are operating system independent. As long as you have licenses to run the software, Windows, Linux and Mac can use the licenses if you have installed the correct version of Maxwell Render for your platform. You can install one license on different platforms, as long as it is only being used by one machine at a time.

Yes. Maxwell Render is available for Win32, Win64, Mac OSX and Linux. You can download Maxwell Render for any of these operating systems, and it is also possible to mix operating systems in network, or to have Maxwell Render on both Windows and Mac OSX on one machine.

Yes, Maxwell Render does support Windows 32-bit and 64-bit. Windows 7 has both versions.

No, it is not possible to manage multiple licenses in a network from one server machine. Each computer in the farm must have the license file locally installed. The license file includes information about the number of licensed computers in the farm, and is the same file used in all of them.

Maxwell Render can manage its licenses without the need of any external license manager.

The new license doesn't replace the old one, but has to be added to the old one.

To merge them together, go to your main computer (the one that currently has your old license) and open the Maxwell application (not Studio).

In the Help>License Info panel, you should see that Maxwell recognizes your current license.

Press the "Add" button to add the new license info to the old one. In the blank panel that will pop up, paste your new license info (that came in the confirmation email you received after purchasing your new license).

Press "Ok" and Maxwell should recognize and sum both licenses. After closing this panel, Maxwell will merge both licenses into one single license.txt file.

IMPORTANT: The same license.txt file containing all the licenses you own must be placed in all you computers. So, find the license.txt file in your main machine and copy it to your new computer, place it in your Maxwell application folder (where the Maxwell application is) and run Maxwell after that. This forces Maxwell to recognize the new license file.

Having the merged license file in all your computers using Maxwell is the way to manage several licenses.

If you purchase more licenses in the future, you will have to reproduce the same process: add the new license to the existing ones, and propagate the new merged license.txt file to all your rendering computers. 

Maxwell Render commercial licenses come in Standard and Rendernode versions. Educational licenses for students and teachers are also available (see below). For definitions of each license and further explanations on which type of licensing will suit your needs, please see licensing.

Standard licenses are GUI licenses for customers who want to actively use Maxwell Render and the plug-ins to prepare scenes and send to render. Standard licenses are floating and work per concurrent user. This means that 1 license can be installed on as many machines as you like, but only 1 person can use it at any time. If 2 licenses are installed, 2 people can use Maxwell Render concurrently.

Rendernode licenses are non-GUI licenses for customers who want to add additional machines to speed up the rendering process. Rendernode licenses are floating and work per concurrent machine. This means that 1 license can be installed on as many machines as you like, but it can only run on 1 machine at the same time. A standard license is required before customers can purchase rendernode licenses.

No, we don't offer network licenses. Anyone interested in running Maxwell Render on an in-house renderfarm or in a network should purchase the necessary number of standard and rendernode licenses - see above.

You would need 1 standard license (to work in Maxwell on 1 machine) and 4 node licenses (to be able to also render with the 4 remaining machines). The machine with the single standard license can also be used as a render node so in total you will be able to render on 5 machines.

You need 3 standard licenses so they will be able to use Maxwell Render concurrently.

The software may only be installed and used on computers in the country in which you have your principle place of business, or if purchased by one of your branches in another country, only in the country in which this branch is located. The license may not be transferred to another country. Companies with multiple branches in multiple countries must purchase enough licenses for each country separately. So sharing between offices is OK, as long as these are within the same country.

This issue can happen when having several users accounts on the same computer.

When you license Maxwell and you run it (i.e. as Administrator), Maxwell takes your license file from the Maxwell application folder (and removes it from there) and pastes it to that User account (to Users\<current user>My Documents\Maxwell). This is fine for computers where only one user is allowed to run Maxwell (which is common).

You hold 8 version 1 licenses. The Beta counts as one license and the plus one counts as one license. Both were converted to 4 version 1 licenses each when we released version 1.5 of Maxwell Render, due to a change in our licensing policy. So that makes 8 total. You can upgrade as many of these licenses to version 2 as you like, and it is also possible to upgrade version 1 standard licenses to version 2 rendernode licenses.

Yes. Any educational license holder who can prove they are still in education will be able to purchase an upgrade to version 2. We request you fill out the application form and send it to the Next Limit sales team, together with a copy of your current student/ faculty photo ID and a copy of any other type of photo ID to prove that you are still in education.

Upgrades are not available from our online shop. To purchase an upgrade, pleaselog-in to the Customer Gateway using your registered email address and password you should have received. If you do not have a password, please contact us. In your private area, you will see an upgrade button to purchase the upgrade.

No, you need to buy a Standard license.

You can upgrade as many (or as few) of your current licenses as you wish. It is possible to upgrade version 1 Standard licenses to version 2 Render node licenses, provided you upgrade at least one version 1 Standard license to a version 2 Standard license.

Yes, you can upgrade as many version 1 Standard licenses to version 2 Render nodes as you wish, as long as you upgrade a minimum of one version 1 license to a Standard license of version 2.

Yes, we will still support Maxwell Render version 1.7 in the immediate future, although we can’t guarantee support for older versions or continued support in the long term.