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. 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)
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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.
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 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.