Next Limit has released two new Maxwell Render plugins for Softimage and Maya! Check out both plugins to see what all the fuss is about…

Next Limit has just released two new Maxwell Render plugins for Softimage and Maya.

Last year, Next Limit released an update to Maxwell Render, its standalone physically based renderer, adding new primitives for hair and particles, improved displacement, a standalone Python editor and more.

The update also saw a new displacement algorithm, including vector displacement, improved motion blur, and workflow enhancements and a standalone Python editor and scripting examples for pipeline integration.

Left: Version 2.6, Right: Version 2.6.10. Both rendered for 40 minutes. Model courtesy of Artec 3D

Now the plugin has been further updated. Maxwell Render 2.6.14 for Softimage adds:

• RFRK primitives: mesh and particles
• support for MXS references
• the ability to set default camera shutter speed to 1/750 seconds

The update also see fixes made to the following complaints: image adjustments were not imported when loading a MXM file, scene not cleared between frames when exporting an animation, ICE strands were exported incorrectly, animated textures did not work.

For full details of the fixes and new features in the new Softimage plugin, visit the Next Limit Support page

The latest update to Next Limit’s physically correct renderer includes improved subsurface. SSS now clears much faster in difficult indirect lit areas. You will see the most dramatic improvements when the SSS object is lit only by indirect lighting

Maxwell Render 2.6.27 for Maya was released today

New to the Maya plugin:

The updated plugin for Maya sees the following additions and enhancements:

• added “off” to the display mode list of the BIN mesh loader, which prevents the BIN files from being accessed for viewport preview
• setting the LOD to 0 in the particle objects and MXS reference prevents the plug-in from reading anything from disk
• added shelf buttons for creating and assigning Maxwell materials
• added help and about buttons on the shelf
• added an API which can be used to customize the export process
• the transparency of the native materials is used as layer weight instead of transmittance color in the Maxwell approximation
• the IOR parameter of Blinn and Phong shaders is taken into account by the translator
• fixed: crash when trying to run Maya with non-accelerated OpenGL drivers (e.g. under Remote Desktop in Windows, or with Mesa on Linux
• fixed: errors on Mac OS and Linux when the RealFlow plug-in was also loaded
• fixed: some AE controls did not work correctly on Mac when a material had multiple layersadded Maxwell render flags for hair nodes, particle systems and instancers

Read the full release notes on Maxwell Render for Maya 2.6.27 via Next Limit’s website

The plugins are available for download now from the customer gateway

READ 3D WORLD’S REVIEW OF MAXWELL RENDER 2.5