This section explains the basics to create a Maxwell Render plug-in to read and write MXS files. The MXS (Maxwell Scene Format) contains all the information needed for Maxwell to render a scene (geometry, cameras, materials, render options, sky...). This SDK can be used, for example, to create plug-in connectivity between 3D applications and Maxwell Render, or for other purposes.
How to use the SDK.
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 self-documented and contains 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)
NOTE: Check the header file maxwell.h for latest changes that are not described in this document. The header files are always self documented.
NOTE: 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.
NOTE: When using the OSX sdk, compile with the following flags : -D_MACOSX --DCOMPILER_GCC. The sdk is compatible with GCC 4.0 and upwards.
NOTE: When using the Linux sdk, compile with the following flags : -D_LINUX --DCOMPILER_GCC. The sdk is compatible with GCC 4.1 and upwards.