Maxwell is a new render engine based on the physics of real light. Its algorithms and equations reproduce the behavior of light in a completely accurate way. All of the elements in Maxwell, such as light emitters, material shaders, cameras etc., are entirely based on physically accurate models.

Maxwell’s method of calculation always converges to the correct solution without introducing artifacts due to the fact that it is an unbiased renderer.

It can fully capture all light interactions between all elements in a scene. All lighting calculations are performed using spectral information and high dynamic range data.

Maxwell operates as a stand-alone command line application that targets many different enviroments like high-end rendering, architectural, production, and scientific.

Maxwell Render 1.0, The Light Simulator has been released for Windows 32 and Mac OS X platforms. This version includes plugin connections to 3D Studio MAX, Viz, Maya, LightWave, Rhino3D, SolidWorks, ArchiCAD, Cinema 4D, formZ and SketchUp. Additionally, other file formats such as .obj, .lwo, .nff, .3ds, ,dxf, .xms, and .stl are supported.

Maxwell includes features such as material editor, light editor or tone-mapping (all based in physically accurate models). The 1.0 version provides both GUI and command line functionality.



BASED ON REAL PHYSICS

One of the principal characteristics of Maxwell is that the rendering technology is strictly based upon the real governing physical equations of light transport. Maxwell is capable of producing incredibly realistic illumination results without having to resort to the illumination tricks used by other renderers. Consequently the results produced by Maxwell are highly accurate renditions of the real world.

SPECTRAL CALCULUS FOR THE LIGHT AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES

It is very usual, even standard nowadays, that most rendering engines perform calculations in a specific color space (typically RGB). However, this is physically incorrect and therefore Maxwell avoids this approach and considers real world behavior instead. In harmony with reality, Maxwell considers light as an electromagnetic wave defined by a frequency spectrum. Maxwell considers a spectrum which ranges from the Infrared to the Ultraviolet.

Once Maxwell has completed the rendering procedure, each pixel in the output image contains different amounts of spectral energy. This energy was sourced from the lights in the scene and arrives at the conceptual film/ccd of the virtual camera, or at the retina of the viewer. Maxwell stores this information in a new internal format called MXI. The pixel color which is generally the final desired result is an interpretation and sensation of the different frequencies which arrive at the film/ccd or the retina. Maxwell simulates this process and ultimately transforms the spectral measures into known color formats such as XYZ, RGB etc.

FULL GLOBAL ILLUMINATION

Maxwell calculates all possible interactions between light and the objects within a scene. These interactions range from the usual indirect diffuse illumination now handled by most renderers to much more complex lighting scenarios such as indirect glossy caustics caused by volumetric objects which are participating media. The global illumination interacts with surfaces and also layers beneath the surface to produce translucency and subsurface scattering effects. It also interacts with the space between objects when a participating medium exists (causing absorption and scattering) and all combinations of this behavior are possible.

SHARED BASED ON REAL OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Inside Maxwell materials are modeled in a physically correct manner. They are defined from their BSDF curves (Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function) and they can be programmed by third parties using the Maxwell SDK.

UNBIASED RENDERER

Maxwell is an unbiased renderer. Unbiased means that with sufficient render time the rendered solution will always converge to the correct result without the introduction of artifacts. Other rendering engines based upon widely known techniques such as photon mapping, radiosity, light maps, irradiance maps or other interpolation methods always produce biased renders. Consequently, they cannot guarantee convergence to the correct solution no matter how much time is expended on the rendering process.

VERY FEW PARAMETERS TO CONTROL THE RENDER

Learning to use Maxwell is extremely easy. The user need only specify the amount of time to spend processing the render and Maxwell will automatically optimize its internal calculations to obtain the best result in the render period.
MULTIPROCESSOR

Maxwell can exploit all of the processors available on your system and can make the work simultaneously on the same render to provide faster renders. For example, on a multiprocessing platform with 8 processors a user can expect up to an eightfold increase in render performance/speed.
REAL 3D MOTION BLUR

Maxwell doesn’t produce motion blur as a post-process or using various tricks. Instead Maxwell considers the moving objects to have random positions along their trajectories during the camera shutter speed time. This creates a natural and realistic motion blur. It also can compute the full global illumination effects for the moving object i.e. a moving glass object producing caustics will produce blurred caustics and even volumetric blurred caustics if a participating medium exists.

SIMULATION OF REALISTIC AND COMPLEX CAUSTICS

Any scene containing complex caustics can be simulated. These include reflection and refraction caustics produced by indirect or direct lighting, caustics produced by dielectric materials, plastics or glossy metals. No restrictions at all are imposed on the nature or the number of caustics in a scene.

REALISTIC CAMERA MODEL

Cameras in Maxwell operate totally differently to those in other renderers. Traditionally, most renderers use a pinhole camera. This type of camera simulates a tiny hole that allows light rays coming from the scene to reach the viewing surface. Maxwell simulates a real camera with the associated lens set, diaphragm aperture, diaphragm blades etc. By using this type of camera model Maxwell can automatically simulate depth of field, motion blur effects, image distortion and color dispersion due to the lens set, glare, lens flare, etc. All other renderers currently on the market use post-render filters or special tricks to create these effects.

OBJECTS LIGHT EMMITERS AS LIGHT SOURCES

Maxwell is a physically-based renderer and it only uses objects whose area is greater than zero as emitters emulating what happens in the real world. This approach produces a higher degree of realism in comparison to traditional renderers outputting smoother shadows and increasing the overall quality.
Another important characteristic of the Maxwell rendering engine is the number of lights that can be placed in the same scene. Most other renderers cannot handle a large number of area lights without incurring a significant performance loss. Light sources in Maxwell are defined by spectral characteristics. Thus a light source can possess a lot of information about the intensity of emission at any of the possible wavelengths.

PHYSICAL SKY

Maxwell incorporates a physically-based sky simulator: the user simply specifies the geographical location and the time of day for a scene and Maxwell will automatically handle the rest.


COMPATIBILITY

Continuing the tradition of its previous products Next Limit Technologies will release Maxwell as a standalone application. This tool will give the user a broad range of capabilities and 3D applications will be used solely to import scene geometry and other scene information. This application runs on a variety of operating systems including Windows 32/64, Linux 32/64 and Mac OS X. Plugins connecting Maxwell to the most popular 3D applications are already available. Additionally, other file formats such as .obj, .lwo, .nff, .3ds, .xms, .dxf and .stl are supported. Maxwell includes scene editors, light editor, tone mapping process, a material editor, render manager, a distributed rendering tool, an MXI viewer and a physical sky editor.

good
super