Cinema Scene Object

Exporting and rendering of MXS files with the Maxwell for Cinema 4D plugin is always accomplished through the use of a Scene object. A new Scene is created using the 'Scene' item, found in the plugin's main menu:

A C4D document may contain as many Maxwell Scene objects as you wish. Each Scene holds a complete set of parameters, and the values for any given Scene object are used when that Scene is exported to an MXS file. The various parameters are divided into four basic tabs:

Tab	Description

Tab	Description
Output	Contains parameters which affect properties of the MXS file being exported, and how that export is to be accomplished.
Engine	Contains parameters related various options exposed in the Maxwell rendering engine, Maxwell Render.
Environment	Contains parameters related to the MXS environment, i.e. whether the Scene will use the Maxwell Sky Dome, Physical Sky, or Image Based environmental lighting.
Cinema	Contains parameters which control how the plugin exports native C4D lights and procedural textures, as well as a global scale modifier you can use to scale the exported mesh geometry.

At the top of the Scene object's user-interface, you will find several buttons which are used for exporting that Scene to MXS files and rendering in various ways:

Icon	Command	Description

Icon	Command	Description
	Render (Render View & Active View)	The 'Render Render View' button exports this Scene to an MXS using the resolution defined in C4D's Render Settings > Output section. The 'Render Active View' button does the same, but uses the resolution of the active viewport. When the export is finished, the resulting MXS file is then rendered using the Maxwell Render render engine. If these buttons are disabled, it means that the plugin was unable to locate Maxwell Render on your system; in that case, you should check that Maxwell Render is properly installed.
	Export to Studio	This button exports this Scene to an MXS file and then opens it in Maxwell Studio. If this button is disabled, it means that the plugin was unable to locate Maxwell Studio on your system; in that case, you should check that Maxwell Render is properly installed.
	Export to Network	This button exports this Scene to an MXS file and then sends it to the Maxwell Network Render system.
	Export MXS	This button simply exports this Scene to an MXS file.
	Send to Maxwell Fire	This button exports and links this Scene to Maxwell Fire.

In addition to these per-Scene MXS-export controls, the plugin also provides duplicates located in the plugin's main menu/toolbar:

These commands will act on the Scene that was last 'touched'; if no Scene has yet been created or selected, they will be disabled.

Output Tab

The Output tab contains several groups which control how MXS files are written and exported.

Name

This is the name which will be used to generate the various filenames required to write MXS files. This includes the file name of the MXS file, the image-output file, and the MXI file. This should be specified as a name with no extension; the appropriate extensions will be inserted as necessary by the plugin. The Name should therefore also not contain characters which are illegal for use in file paths. If no name is entered here, the plugin will first try to use the Output Name specified in the Preferences page, or else it will try to use the current document name. The image format (the main RGB output) which will be written may be chosen from the drop-down list

Folder

This is the root folder used for the plugin's output. MXS, image, and MXI files will be written to this location. If procedural textures need to be exported, they will be written into a 'textures' folder located inside the one specified here. If no folder is specified here, the plugin will try to use the Output Folder specified in the Preferences page, or else it will try to use the current document location. If it is unable to determine the current document location (for example, when the document has not yet been saved), it will try to use the current directory, which will likely be either the location of C4D itself, or the location it was started from. To open the current output folder, just click the folder button at the right.

Export Options

This group holds parameters which affect how the exported MXS file will be written.

Parameter	Description

Parameter	Description
Disable Maxwell Instances	This option simply disables the export of Maxwell Instance objects on a global basis.
Auto-generate instances	This option is not related to the Maxwell Instance Object provided by the plugin. Rather, what it does is to automatically identify objects which are candidates for instancing during export. For example, if there are two cubes in the scene, both with the same name and mesh-topology, then only the first will be exported as a mesh – the second will automatically be exported as an instance in the MXS. This is suitable for use with things like emitters, which generate a great number of similarly-named objects, the topology of which is identical between instances, with the only difference being each object's transformation. Note that use of this option has the potential for producing confusing results. This can happen when geometry is created by a generator, where that geometry effectively has no local transformation. This could include situations such as those where a spline is swept or extruded, with the resulting polygons simply being created in global space. A quick way to check whether this is going to be a problem is to run Current State to Object on the generator; if the generated polygons have no local transformation, they will not work well with instance auto-generation. Generally speaking, this option should only be used in versions of Cinema prior to R11.5, before Cinema had true instancing.
Protect MXS	This option determines whether or not Maxwell Studio will allow the meshes in the MXS being written to be exported or not. If this is enabled, the MXS will be 'locked'; that is, third-parties will not be allowed to extract meshes from the MXS via Maxwell Studio, thereby providing a way of providing third-parties with actual MXS files for various purposes while still offering some protection of the intellectual property they contain.
Pack and Go	When this option is activated, the plugin will scan through all files referenced in the scene (i.e. texture, ior, hdr, etc.) and copy them to the output directory during export. The paths contained in the exported mxs will point to the new copies, rather than the original files. This makes it much easier to transport an entire scene to another location.
Strict Mode	When this is enabled, while writing an MXS file, the plugin will enable textures which are not able to be found. This will result in error messages being reported by the render engine.
Check Paths	This button brings up a dialog containing a report which shows all external files referenced by Maxwell materials and objects, indicating which were able to be found, which were not, and which missing files were able to be found using search paths.