HySPH - Maxwell Render

The Maxwell Render preview engine, called FIRE, is an integrated part of RealFlow. With this renderer you are able to create high-quality previews with physically correctly lighting and surface properties. Maxwell Render/FIRE is not only capable of rendering surfaces, but also particles. It even supports the “MultiPoint” feature from the RealFlow RenderKit (RFRK). "MultiPoint" adds particles at render time to create the impression of dense particle clouds. These particles are virtual, because they are not saved or change the original cache file. The “MultiPoint” feature's procedural approach can add millions of particles within minutes.

Renderable

Each emitter can be excluded from the render with this switch. With “Yes” (the default setting) the node will be visible in the preview. Please note that the node's viewport visibility is not taken into consideration by default, and the “Yes” and “No” states work independently from the “Set Selected Visible” and “Set Selected Hidden” options. If you want to use the current state of visibility in the viewport for the node, choose “Same as display”.

Material

As mentioned in the introduction, RealFlow already provides many common materials, for instant usage, but there is more: with “From Node”, Maxwell will take the colour from the “Node” panel's “Color” parameter. There you can specify any colour by simply using the operating system's colour picker. Please bear in mind that colours are always rendered opaque (non-transparent).

“From File” gives you the possibility to load a Maxwell material file directly from your hard drive. If you already use Maxwell Render in your production environment, you can create your own material definitions with the “Mxed” application – the Maxwell material editor. You can also find a lot of ready-to-use materials in your Maxwell application folder. Another method is to freely register on Maxwell's online material database and download files:

http://resources.maxwellrender.com/

The “From File” option also unlocks the “@ File” field where you can browse your disk to search for a material file. Maxwell materials have the extension MXM. The last option is to choose from one of the listed materials which come with RealFlow. When you have a closer look at the drop-down menu you will notice that we have also included some light emitters. These materials can be applied to an object to light your scene.

@ File

This field is only available when “Material” is set to “From File”. A click into the empty field opens a file picker and you can load any valid MXM file.

Multipoint

The number determines how many additional particles Maxwell Render/FIRE will create per already existing particle from the simulation. A value of 0 disables the “MultiPoint” feature.

Dispersion

The additional, virtual particles from the “MultiPoint” option are scattered within a certain distance from the source particle. “Dispersion” controls this distance and is given in metres [m]. If the value is too high, the results might look unnatural.

Radius

Here you can specify the render size of the particles.