Poll for next release of Scarab (for Maxwell Render)

I'm thinking of the how to move on with the priorities for the next release.

Originally I planned multi-layer materials for 0.3.

Looks like some of you would rather have a better way to start rendering and animating from GH.

So, what's it for you:

Multilayer materials or
Scene manager control and render export?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by CongChien on March 10, 2012 at 6:51am

Hi Hannes Löschke! I have found that the problem is it does not appear on the toolbar of the Scarab grasshopper

Permalink Reply by Hannes Löschke on March 10, 2012 at 7:05am

Scarab installs under the "Extra" tab.

Permalink Reply by Martin Dembski on March 10, 2012 at 7:48am

Hi Hannes,

best would be both. ;)

But if you need a priority list my private opinion is:

1. Scene manager control and render export

2. Multilayer materials

Best,

Martin.

Permalink Reply by Holger on March 10, 2012 at 8:40am

Hi Hannes,

I needed to play a bit more with your Tools before I could tell. Instinctively however I would rather want to control everything not being Material and their assignment from JD's Editors.

Frankly - I was already completely satisfied to assign existing mxm's to parametrically defined Geometry. Then again it was cool not only to read existing .mxms from disk but also to somehow harvest current settings from non externally saved Scene-Mxm's (from the open Rhino-Session). I found this a lot more helpful than a complete Material-Editor Rebuild inside Grasshopper. How about also hooking up Fire in a smart way?So that one makes Maxwell the displayed Render-Mesh available (which can even get tweaked in terms of density inside of Grasshopper). This of course without actually baking...

One thing might deserve a change: Your Tools assume that one has the Material-Library inside the Maxwell Installation-Folder. As I chose not to put it on my System Drive all your sample-files throw errors.

Holger

Permalink Reply by Hannes Löschke on March 10, 2012 at 10:28am

Could you please specify the errors you are getting? I'm not assuming anything but get the Folders straight from Maxwell.

Permalink Reply by Holger on March 10, 2012 at 5:19pm

Well, Maxwell at Installation-Time gives Users the Choice where to put the Material Database.

The default location in C:\Programs however may not be ideal, when having large Libraries, so I put it on another, much larger drive. Some of your Components however look for the Material Database in the default location and obviously don't find the assigned path. The Component appears red.

Permalink Reply by Hannes Löschke on March 11, 2012 at 2:10am

The only component, that relies on maxwell paths is Folder. Folder returns the default paths from Maxwell, which schould be wherever you put them during the installation.

Please confirm the output of the Folder Component.

"split path.gh" demonstrates building MXM from the arroway textures. You have to manually give the path to those textures in the very first panel.

Please check if everything works with this path set correctly.

Permalink Reply by Holger on March 11, 2012 at 7:30am

I think it is actually the MxRoot-Component which has the Material-Database "hardcoded in it.

Yes, I can set custom paths and search for custom File-Types by exchanging the Search-String in the Folder-Component.

Edit: Well - setting paths seems not to work properly - I've tried it with splitpath.gh.

See attached Screenshot. I thought it was maybe the capital letters in the Folder-Name but the Component also did not find a .jpg on my Desktop.

Permalink Reply by Hannes Löschke on March 11, 2012 at 8:09am

Well, actually the Folder component was intended to search folders for images.

I'll modify it so it can handle full paths with filenames and so on. For now, remove filename and extension from the input and it should work.

Permalink Reply by Holger on March 11, 2012 at 8:34am

Stupid me.

Permalink Reply by Holger on March 10, 2012 at 9:17am

While at it - if you don't mind me getting carried away with further wishes...

I also found a something along the Lines of Lightsmith extremely neat (as an alternative to HDR-Light-Studio - which I personally find less than ideal). I imagine parametrically defined Lightsources which can

get changed via Sliders and inside the Rhino-Viewport get represented by Proxies which get repositioned with Gumball or numerical entry. This Helper would not only be interesting for Maxwell-Users.

Permalink Reply by Fred Becquelin on March 11, 2012 at 8:58am