Added support for 3ds Max 2023 and 2024
Updated the library file libeay32.dll in Maxwell Render installation.
Built for Maxwell Render 5.2.1.49
Added support for 3ds Max 2022
Maxwell Render denoiser "Feature Influence" parameter default value is now 0.25 so it better preserves texture detail.
Built for Maxwell Render 5.2.0.45
New Denoiser implementation in Maxwell Render. Only one pass is needed, the denoiser information is now stored in the mxi file as another channel, better memory management for the denoising process, and more consistency in general.
New Denoiser options in Render Setup > Renderer tab > Denoiser section:
New Tiling option with maximum tile size option.
New fine-tuning options: Color Influence 1 and 2, Feature Influence, Final Pass, Filter Radius and Firefly Remover options. Check this link for more information: Denoiser documentation page.
New Denoiser channel added in Render Setup > Renderer tab > Channels section as now the Denoiser is treated as another channel. This channel activation is synced with the Denoiser enabler in its section.
The Denoiser “Start with SL” maximum value has been changed to 50 (from 10).
The Denoiser “Start with SL” default value has been changed to 7 (it was 4).
The Denoiser output path field was removed from its section. As now the denoised is treated as another channel, the output location will be the same of the main image and its name will be the same + _denoiser. You can choose its image format from the channels panel.
Built for Maxwell Render 5.1.1.33.
Stopped supporting 3ds Max versions from 2011 to 2015 included.
Built for Maxwell Render 5.1.0.29.
Added support for 3ds Max 2021.
Built for Maxwell Render 5.0.2.21
Now the plugin also allows for loading LDR image formats besides HDR ones in the Image Based Environment (although we still strongly suggest not using LDR images to illuminate the scene). This is specially useful for the background, reflection and refraction channels.
Now the Export to Maxwell Cloud feature is capable of sending all the frames of an animation for rendering in the Cloud.
3dsmax crashed when opening MW4 scenes that contained MxLights.
The plugin was not storing the values of Bump, Scale U and Scale V in Global Properties section of the materials.
The Maxwell sequence render feature was not launching Maxwell in frames mode (only rendered one file and not the whole sequence).
Inconsistency with the material layer enable/disable state when adding new layers.
3dsmax crashed if Maxwell could not find a valid license.
Built for Maxwell Render version 5.0.1.16.
Added Multi-GPU configuration button in Render Setup > Renderer tab next to the engine selector when the GPU is active.
Added button to launch the job to Maxwell Cloud.
Added Multilight Group feature in materials emitter component.
Added new button to launch a render in Maxwell.
Added new button to send the render to Studio.
Added new button to launch Fire window
Added new button to make a Pack and Go
Renewed the toolbar icons.
Added support for 3ds Max 2020.
The bounding box of a referenced mxs is not including the origin of the scene anymore so if you try to center the pivot on the reference, it will actually center on the geometry.
The plugin was ignoring Max's region render parameters when launching the render to the network. Now it should be taken into account.
Launching animation renders directly (without using Maxwell sequence rendering) sometimes skipped some frames when doing it from 3dsmax 2017, 2018 or 2019. It is now fixed.
3ds Max crashed if you tried to export to mxs without having Maxwell set as render engine.
The asset tracking tool now is aware of mxm and mxs references so you can use it to repath the references to a different folder easily.
The latest update of 3dsmax (2019.3) crashed if our plugin was installed.
One of the Maxwell Proxies created did not cast shadows (it was actually hidden to GI) if the original object was hidden.
Maxwell toolbar did not remember its position in 3dsmax 2019 from one session to another; this is actually only partially fixed as there's a bug on the Autodesk side related to Qt SDK; we've managed to make it remember its position but not it's docking state (we are waiting for a solution from Autodesk).
3dsmax crashed after using the "Send Job to Network" button from Render Setup window.
3dsmax crashed if you added Maxwell Scatter or Maxwell Grass without having Maxwell set as render engine.
MxLight in Area mode was pointing to the wrong side when using the GPU engine.
Updated the Vray to Maxwell converter script so it can handle Metalness parameter correctly.
Tweaked some Vray to Maxwell conversion details in the case a falloff map is used in Reflect when doing metals so the converted material resembles the original more closely.
In the case of Assistant Materials, when loading a bitmap the parameters disappeared from the UI.
Maxwell bitmap was showing only part of the parameters when loaded into an assistant.
Override Map functionality was not working at all in the case of assistants.
Occasional crashes when manipulating the Maxwell bitmaps parameters in the assistants.
Still, there are some quirkinesses in the interface when using the assistants that would require a bigger restructuring of Maxwell bitmap.
Maxwell was not available as render engine in 3dsmax 2015 or older.
Maxwell Parameters camera panel was missing from Target and Free cameras.
The channels' output formats were including HDR and BMP, which are not supported by Maxwell; it was saving the channels as EXR. Now those formats are not available.
Some of the channels' output formats were not showing in their drop-down menus in Windows 7, as they didn't fit in the box.
3dsmax was crashing when the Object Properties dialogue was called and Maxwell was not the current render engine.
Scenes made with the previous versions of the plugin were not opening in 4.2.2. Now they will. (WARNING: please, notice that most probably the scenes saved with version 4.2.2, which was removed from downloads, won't open in 4.2.3; the ones made with 4.2.1 and older will)
The interface of the new Material Preview Options in the Material Editor, was a bit misaligned and too tight on the sides.
3dsmax 2019 was getting frozen when previewing Maxwell Bitmap in Material Editor in Slate mode and in some particular cases.
MxLight target line was disappearing from viewport as soon as the Mxlight gizmo was moved out of the viewport.
Some lines in MxLight Projector Gizmo were showing too big or too small depending on the units used in the scene.
The radius of the MxLight, Area type, with Geom set to Sphere was not changing in the render according to the radius shown in viewport.
The falloff and highlight cones of the MxLight Spot type won't show in the viewport when the light is not selected (so the viewport is cleaner and ligther).
MxLight Improvements
Create MxLight with or without a target
Enable or disable the target
Manipulator for adjusting the MxLight parameters. Area Light Width, Height and Sphere Radius can be manipulated. For Spot Light, Cone Angle and Falloff can be manipulated from the viewport
Projector gizmo support for Spot Light with projector texture
Hidden To Camera and Hidden To Reflection/Refraction options on the MxLight panel. These can also be accessed from MAXScript
Handle to adjust the intensity value for MxLight.
VRay to Maxwell Scene Converter
Convert the VRay materials, lights and environments to Maxwell on a single click. It includes an option to bake unsupported maps and another to work only on selected objects.
A toolbar button to launch the converter script launches a dialogue for running conversion script
Custom Alpha Channels Editor
Centralized the creation of custom alpha channels
Now user can easily associate objects, materials with custom alpha channels in a single panel with great convenience.
Replaced current panel in Render Setup > Renderer > Channels > Custom Alpha by a button to open the new Studio-like panel.
Linked custom alphas channels information between new panel and current related information in Objects Properties and Material Editor
Added right click options (in quad menus) to create a custom alpha channel out from selected objects or from selected objects’ materials.
Override Map Parameters
The texture projection parameters like offset, rotation etc. in the Global Parameters section of Maxwell Material are now removed. The user can set the override parameters from Maxwell Bitmap dialog itself and toggle between overridden texture parameters and regular texture parameters. If you change projection parameters with Override Map active, you are changing those parameters for all the maps that have it active in that material (this is currently not working for the Assistants).
Material Editor Improvements:
The UI is made responsive when a material preview is updated. It does not freeze anymore. This is very convenient as automatic update gets much more usable while working with Maxwell materials. The floating preview image window now shows a better quality image.
Added a separate roll-out page for accessing the Material Preview Options per material.
Added a dropdown menu to select the preview scene instead of a file browse button.
The options in the Customize->Preferences section will now work as global parameters (default options). When creating new materials, global values like Quality, Scene, Sampling Level will be used.
The same parameters can be set per material basis from the Material Preview Options roll-out.
MxBitmap layout has been reorganized: projection properties on the left (channel, tiling, offset, etc.), image properties on the right (hue, saturation, etc.)
Support for 3ds Max 2019
Added support for 3ds Max 2019
Object ID overrides for MXS References
Now you have three options:
Container ID: with this option, it will show the object ID of the mxs reference object, so you can specify it in Appearance tab; it will be the same for all the objects inside the reference; the object ID color of the objects inside the reference won't be taken into account.
Content ID: with this option, the reference will show the object ids of the objects inside the reference, so they can be many different ones; the object ID color of the mxs reference object itself (the container), will be ignored.
Recolor: this option will give new object IDs to every object inside the mxs reference in a consistent way, so every time you launch a render they are the same.
Dependencies included in MXS references were not taken into account when doing a pack and go.
In material editor, you could not drag and drop textures from the slots of a coating component (layered material).
Preview scene zoomed out on updating material selection.
Built with Maxwell SDK 4.2.0.3.
Built with Maxwell SDK 4.2.0.2.
Added channel "Triangle ID"
Added Maxwell SDK 4.1.1.1
Added options to the Windows installer
Added button "Open Maxwell Render Setting"
Denoiser options weren't saved properly in scene files
When rendering animation only the last denoised image was saved
Some syntax errors have been fixed
Added support for 3dsmax 2018
Added improvements to the Lights Panel
Button "Change to Layered Material" didn't work properly.
The Layered Material preview showed the last Material Assistant preview rendered.
Objects without material were rendered with roughness 0 instead of 100.
Added Maxwell SDK 4.1.0.4
Added Maxwell Lights Panel
Added Maxwell SDK 4.1.0.3
Added Denoiser options in render settings
Added Xrite AXF Material extensions
Added Table BRDF Material extension
CPU Threads can have negative values.
Integrates the 4.0.0.12 render engine.
Added support for Maya 2016.5
Integrates the 4.0.0.11 render engine.
Integrates the 4.0.0.8 render engine.
Added support for Maya 2017
added support for the UV rotation and hue adjustment texture options
rebuilt with the latest SDK for compatibility
Added support for Maya 2016 Extension 2
Fixed: FIRE did not work if the viewport driver was set to DirectX 11 or OpenGL core profile
Fixed: environment preview did not work in Viewport 2.0
Fixed: objects with semitransparent Maxwell materials did not appear correctly or at all in Viewport 2.0
Fixed: area lights did not appear in the "Block Emitter" dialog.
added support for Max 2016
if the time output mode is set to single, Export MXS writes a single frame even if animation is requested
pack'n'go resolves missing file paths in the same way the renderer does, before attempting to copy the files
the exporter looks for missing IOR files and MXM files in the same way it does for textures
fixed: pack'n'go crashed with some types of materials
fixed: the hue adjustment parameter was inverted in the bitmap preview window
fixed: crash on export when the Maxwell extensions cannot be loaded
fixed: the animation setting in the export MXS dialog and maxwellExportMXS command was not taken into account
renamed the "appendFrameNrToImg" flag for the maxwellExportMXS command to "appendFrameNr", because it also affects the output MXS file name, not just the image files
added support for extra sampling
updated the range of the devignetting parameter to match Studio
added MAXScript functions for manipulating visibility flags: maxwellGetObjectFlag and maxwellSetObjectFlag
added support for UDIM (tiled textures)
the MXS extension is always appended to the name of the output scene files, even when they already contain a dot in their names
added a frame offset parameter for the volumetric object
fixed: clicking the "hide to camera in shadow pass" checkbox could set it to an indeterminate state (checked but grayed out)
the environment intensity multiplier is exported to Maxwell so that the value correctly appears in the multilight panel
renamed default item in the FIRE window camera menu to make its purpose clearer
the material displacement component is exported even when it is disabled, so that it does not disappear when editing a material with MXED
fixed: the density parameter for the scatter modifier did not allow decimals
fixed: wrong file names for custom alpha channels
fixed: crash in Max 2012 when changing a viewport to ActiveShade
fixed: crash in some cases when closing the object properties dialog when Maxwell is not the active renderer
fixed: viewport slowdown when using many MxLights set to correlated color emission
fixed: the range of the emitter correlated color and coating thickness parameters did not match Studio
added support for multiple selection in the light linking UI
added support for per-material custom alphas
decreased the time needed to open the object properties dialog on scenes with many referenced materials
fixed: the "use global settings" texture parameter was not set correctly when importing a MXM file
fixed: constant density volumetric objects were not exported correctly
fixed: floating reflections/shadows were not working when rendering in draft mode
fixed: visibility flags were not exported correctly for Max instances
fixed: incorrect names exported for Max instances, causing blocked emitters to break if they were instanced (among other things)
added the maxwellGetCorrelatedColor() MAXScript function
fixed: maxwell MAXScript functions didn't work anymore
assistant materials retaui their name when converted to layered materials
added the Hair appearance for the material assistant
the plug-in no longer reserves a license when Max starts. The license is acquired when exporting or rendering for the first time.
fixed: wrong UVs when importing a mesh with multiple UV sets from a MXS file
fixed: the flip flags on the global normal map of the Maxwell material were not exported correctly
fixed: wrong Nd for the the ghost BSDF component created for MxLights
fixed: the Maxwell object properties rollup for MxLight objects was truncated
fixed: area light rectangles created by MxLight objects were twice as big as they should have been
fixed: emitter textures (HDR and projected image) were not copied by Pack'n'Go
Pack'n'go now exports asset files introduced with the new v3 features
fixed: Maxscript error when calling MaxwellRenderer()
fixed: assitant materials couldn't be cloned
fixed: maxwell material import and export functions couldn't be called from Maxscript
fixed: axis conversion wasn't applied to scatter values
fixed: converting assistant materials into layered materials removed top level multi materials
fixed: No viewport display for maxwell nodes
fixed: Crash in mxlight
fixed: Displacement was always exported as on
fixed: Location settings were disabled when the sun was turned off
fixed: Maxscript error when cameras contain newline characters
Changes
added support for Max 2015
re-added support for Max 2011
Max double-sided materials are exported as front/back face materials
added pre- and post-animation behaviors to referenced MXS nodes
added controls for selecting the padding and format of MXS sequences
added region rendering controls to cameras
added support for hue adjustment to MxBitmap
MultiScatter instances use the render flags from the original object
added focus camera button to FIRE window and toolbar
added the name of the material to the backface material button
added rotation parameter in MxBitmap
negative values can be used in the offset attribute of MXS reference nodes
double clicking a material in the MXS material overrides window selects the material for that override
added a way to set the MXS reference material overrides from MAXScript
exposed gsChannelDeep and gsUseGlobalMaterial to the maxwell renderer MAXScript interface
added global settings for textures
added use global, mirror X and mirror Y flags to MxBitmap
increased the limit for the depth channel max depth
added back the MXS sequence rendering flag
Fixes
MAXScript error when loading some scenes with corrupted cameras
incorrect export of particle flow motion data
particle flow systems with a dynamic material node were exported with a default material
crash in the MXS reference object when no material overrides are set
MXS references didn't display in the Nitrous viewport
wrong bounding box for Almebic reference objects
emitters beneath an IES emitter in the material tree got assigned the same IES file on export
UV scale wasn't exported when tiling was off
material overrides weren't saved with the proxy object
crash when previewing some materials
crash with vray cameras
IES files were ignored when importing materials from MXM
Alembic and MXS material overrides disappeared when the mesh was reloaded
Alembic material overrides were exported improperly
wrong normals for Alembic objects imported with CRATE
objects with no name or that only contained numbers in their name were exported incorrectly
the plugin reserved a license in node mode when the active renderer wasn't Maxwell
wrong camera position in FIRE in some cases
Alembic crash when the abc file had material references
the enable sequence checkbox in MxBitmap gets disabled when turning off viewport preview
xref scenes that are hidden in the viewport were still exported
MXS references updated their geometry even when show in viewport was off
MxBitmap previews appeared darker when using show in viewport
Maxwell material viewport preview ignored the hue shift parameter
3dsmax 2012 used a seat license even in node mode
MAXScript error when loading scenes made with older versions of the plugin
custom bokeh was not exported
the offset parameter of the MXS reference object wasn't working correctly
wrong output paths in some cases
render error when materials contain empty bitmaps
the viewport preview of MXS references still showed the old object after trying to load a new file or sequence which contains errors
crash when displaying Maxwell materials in the slate editor
the textured material wizard created materials with empty bitmaps
garbage text in the log window when material translation failed in FIRE
IES file names weren't saved
crash when converting wizard materials to layered materials inside the slate editor
crash when the wizard material was loaded as part of a multi-material
memory leak in the material UI
wrong size for the viewport preview of the volumetric object
missing frame number in channel file names when rendering sequences
added support for ornatrix v2 and removed support for ornatrix v1
hair vertex colors are gamma-corrected
the plugin no longer checks the save file flag, only the existence of the file name
the V texture coordinate was flipped when importing MXS files
the viewport texture display used the wrong UVW channel for referenced materials when the display driver was Direct3D
improper mesh import when it has a single material assigned per face instead of being assigned on the whole mesh
the proxy and RFRK objects crashed when used with some modifiers
crash when using multiscatter with MXS references and proxies
wrong transformation matrix for Max instances of Maxwell proxy objects
objects imported from MXS were invisible when the viewport was set to wireframe mode
objects imported from MXS became corrupted when converted to editable poly
added support for Max 2014
added support for Multiscatter
camera manipulation in FIRE uses an orbit camera model now
the UI of the Maxwell material isn’t shown if you select sub-components in the material navigator
gamma was applied twice in the Max render image view if the alpha channel was enabled
the draft quality setting in the render options panel wasn’t working
wrong position for Max Hair objects with non-identity pivots
added support for moving camera in FIRE
the link camera FIRE option is accessible directly from the ActiveShade window menu
added support for solo layers
a warning is issued when PFlow instances cannot be exported due to duplicated group names
fixed: the API methods MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetIntArray() and MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetDoubleArray() did not work correctly
fixed: Chinese characters in exported IES paths
fixed: wrong camera used by send job to network
fixed: crash when rendering a RFRKMesher without any files
fixed: not all PFlow particles were exported when a system contained empty groups
fixed: the "extra particles" parameter of the MxParticles object was not exported
fixed: send job to network didn't start when the output file didn't already exist
when importing MXM files, the plug-in looks for missing textures in the "textures" subdirectory of the MXM path
added the "maxwellRestartFire" MAXScript function
meshes and materials can be imported from MXS files
Max gamma correction no longer affects Maxwell material preview slots
added support for meshes with specified normals
added an object setting on legacy particle system which controls if they are exported as meshes or Maxwell procedurals
the exporter writes all the cameras present in the scene to the MXS file
added 2048 and 4096 to the list of allowed resolutions for viewport preview
the viewport preview looks for textures in alternative paths when they cannot be found, just like the exporter
the send job to network button supports animations
fixed: MAXScript error when trying to render from the command line
fixed: grass modifiers were exported even when they were disabled
fixed: crash on systems with video cards or drivers that don't support DirectX 9
fixed: wrong motion blur for PFlow instances when more than 2 motion steps were used
fixed: FIRE was not restarted after changing IBL settings
fixed: the material UI was not refreshed after importing a MXM file
fixed: the renderer was still started in some cases even though the export process failed
fixed: crash when a MXS reference object was using animation sequences
fixed: crash when switching to a non-Maxwell material after editing a Maxwell bitmap
fixed: crash when trying to export HairFarm objects with density textures applied
added support for textured material preview in Nitrous
added support for HairFarm
removed support for Max 8, 9 and VIZ
the Max gamma value does not influence the rendered image or material preview swatches
added plug-in API
FBX import and export supports Maxwell materials
set the default for use Max instancing to on
fixed: proxies and MXS references did not show the preview point cloud in Nitrous
fixed: crash when creating MXS reference objects with pivot snap enabled
fixed: the UV Mapping dropdown in the RFRK particle object contained Chinese characters in Max 2013
fixed: hidden objects referenced by Maxwell proxies were rendered
fixed: crash when adding a second sequence to a RFRK mesher under some circumstances
fixed: no viewport texture preview for referenced materials
fixed: search paths were not used when locating BIN files for the viewport preview of RFRK meshers and particle objects
fixed: the viewport preview of RFRK meshers was not refreshed after adding a new sequence
fixed: crash when unchecking and checking back the display in viewport checkbox in a MXS reference object
fixed: RFRK particles were skewed when rotated
fixed: the viewport preview of RFRK objects and MXS references were not using the same search paths as the render
fixed: crash in older versions of Max which sometimes occurred when loading a scene
fixed: legacy particle systems were not exported from Max 2013
fixed: extension parameters which were strings (mesher BIN path, mesher realwave path etc.) were not exported correctly in Max 2013
fixed: saving a sky to a HDR file didn't work in Max 2013
added support for custom bokeh camera parameters
added support for negative offset values in the IBL parameters
the particle loader can display PXY sequence files in the viewport
default axis setup for the RFRK mesher set to YZX
fixed: browsing the material library and gallery did not work
fixed: render options strings (MXI path, MXS path, default material etc.) were lost after reopening a scene in Max 2013
fixed: bogus characters in the geographical location dropdown in Max 2013
fixed: bogus names for the renderer properties in MAXScript in Max 2013
fixed: the legacy material was not working
fixed: plug-in preferences (preview scene path, preview quality etc.) were not saved correctly in Max 2013
fixed: the bitmap viewer didn't work in Max 2013
fixed: wrong maximum value for grass bend angle, root radius, tip radius and density
fixed: file -> export didn't work if a perspective viewport was selected
fixed: FIRE did not work in Max 2013
fixed: RFRK objects were flipped in the viewport compared to the render
fixed: the MXI path was not exported correctly in Max 2013
fixed: BIN mesh loaders without a file assigned printed a non-descriptive warning on render Version 2.7.4 - June 18th, 2012
added support for the Reaflow extensions: BIN mesher and BIN particles
added support for multi-step camera motion blur
added support for silent installs (pass /S on the installer command line)
custom Maxwell objects (MXS references, proxies etc.) are compatible with the Nitrous viewport
fixed: slowdown when exporting many instances
fixed: under some circumstances, PFlow systems were exported as a single mesh instead of using instances
fixed: crash when rendering a proxy that has no source object
fixed: the rendered image was offset by 1 pixel horizontally in the Max framebuffer
fixed: ActiveShade crashed when used in viewport
fixed: wrong output image format when exporting from the File menu
fixed: wrong state management for the IES controls in Maxwell lights
fixed: once the LOD of a MXS reference was set to 0, it stayed invisible even after the LOD was increased again
fixed: wrong bounding box for proxies after the objects they reference was removed
This build is incompatible with Maxwell 2.6.0, and the previous builds are incompatible with the newly released Maxwell 2.6.10. Due to some changes in the extensions (hair, particles etc.) mixing incompatible plug-in and Maxwell versions will cause Max to crash on startup. Please make sure you upgrade both the plug-in and Maxwell to the latest version. |