Modo plugin - Preferences window

With the controls in the Preferences window you can customize general plugin behaviors. Preferences are categorized into 4 sub-categories. These Categories are Export, Maxwell FIRE, Workflow and Defaults.

Export

Default Export Directory

You can choose the place to where the plugin saves the exported Maxwell scene files, textures, log file, etc. This parameter defines the default export location but a scene can have its own location which overwrites this setting (read sub-chapter Render Settings).

The following modes are available:

• Default Export: plugin saves the exported files into the "<user>\My Documents\Maxwell\modo" (under Windows) or "<user folder>/Maxwell/modo" (under OSX) directory.
• Scene Directory: plugin saves the exported files into the scene directory.
• (Browse…): you can set a custom directory for the exported files.

Show pop-up window

Show pop-up window if exporter has sent error or warning messages during the export process.

Collect Images to export directory    

Auto convert images

Some image file formats are supported in modo but not in Maxwell - for example “*.psd” files. The exporter can convert these image files to a Maxwell compatible format. You can choose your preferred image file format from the drop-down list, or set it to disabled if you don’t want the automatic conversion. The converted images are saved in the scene export directory.

Clamp Reflectance 0° (color)

Maxwell materials with too high Reflectance 0° color value (close to RGB 255,255,255) can make your image noisy, not realistic. You have this option to automatically clamp the high color values.

                                   (image)

It is the same as the previous control, but it clamps the image pixel color values.

Skip Displacement component

Skip modo material Displacement components during the automatic material conversion.

Skip Emitter component

Skip modo material Luminosity components during the automatic material conversion. 

Texture Baking mode

You have two options:

• Internal: the bake process runs inside the actual modo session. You can visually follow the baking process.
• External: plugin creates a new modo session for the baking process which runs independently from your current session.

Maxwell FIRE

Set parameters for the Maxwell Interactive Engine.

Quality

The actual resolution at which the interactive engine renders. Higher value means better quality but slower preview.

Time (s)

Time in sec at which the interactive engine stops rendering

Sampling Level

The sampling level at which the interactive engine stops rendering

Use Multiple Threads

Allows the Interactive Engine to use multiple cores. If Use All Threads is off, the interactive engine uses all the available cores minus one. If both Use Multiple Threads and Use All Threads are off, the interactive engine will use only one core.

Use All Threads

Use all the available threads for the interactive engine.

Automatic Geometry Updates

Enable/disable mesh geometry update in FIRE mode.

Automatic Replicator Updates

Enable/disable replicator update in FIRE mode. (Replicators with a lot of particles are usually slow to update.)

Displacement

Enable/disable displacement calculation in FIRE mode.

Max Subdivision

Set the maximum displacement subdivision value in FIRE mode.

Dispersion

Enable/disable dispersion calculation in FIRE mode.

Motion Blur

Enable/disable Motion Blur in FIRE mode.

Show Status Info

Show status information (progress status, elapsed time, sampling level) in the FIRE window.

Show Log Info

Show warning message if Log file contains warnings or errors.

Workflow

Auto add Maxwell packages

Add Maxwell item packages to the scene items automatically. It is recommended to keep this control on, but - if you want - you can add, remove or reset these parameter packages manually in the Plugin Window.

Automatic rename

It is often easier to find the right item in the modo item list or Shader Tree if its name resembles to its functionality. For example the default name of the referenced MXS item is Maxwell Referenced MXS. This doesn't tell too much about the actual mxs scene it holds. In case Automatic rename is on plugin renames the item when you change its source mxs file. The new item name will follow the name of the mxs file. Similar automatic renaming can happen when you change the extension type of a Maxwell Extension Object, Maxwell Texture or the source file of the Maxwell MXM item.

Remove extension automatically

Maxwell Extension Object items, Maxwell Textures and Maxwell Material conversion types are interfaces to the Maxwell extensions inside modo. These items have drop-down list with the available extensions. When you switch between these extensions it depends on you what the plugin does with the previous extension data.

Set this parameter to "Yes" if you want the plugin to remove the data of the previous extension.

Set it to "No" if it is possible that you will switch back to it later.

You can choose "Ask" if you want to make the decision at the time you do the switch.

Defaults

You can set default values for some of the Maxwell item parameters.

Light Source Offset

This parameter controls how far the light source is in reality from the virtual light model. You can read about it more in chapter Directional Light.

Segments (quality)

Set the number of the polygons of the light object (cone and sphere side). You can read about it more in chapter Spot Light.