User manual

© Next Limit Technologies 2010
Maxwell Render 2.5 User Manual
Chapter 8. Setting up the render output | 33
will stop in 5 minutes. If you are not sure what SL or Render Time to put to reach the
desired quality, just put in high numbers for both so that the image keeps rendering. You
can then check every once in a while to see if you are pleased with the quality of the image
and stop the render anytime.
• Time (min): Set the maximum render time (in minutes) for the render. The longer
the time, the cleaner and more accurate your image will be.
• Sampling Level: Maximum sampling level required. The render will stop when this
SL is reached. As with the “render time” parameter, a higher sampling level will give
a cleaner and more accurate image. It is important to know that there is no standard
SL value to get an acceptable quality level, because it depends entirely on the scene.
Some scenes can be completely noise-free at SL=8 or even earlier, while others may
need to get to SL=16 or higher. It is important to remark that the Sampling Level
standards were re-written for Maxwell Render version 2, so it cannot be used as a
quality comparing parameter for images created in version 1.x and version 2.x. In
fact, the same Sampling Levels in Maxwell 2 show a much higher quality than those
in Maxwell 1.x.
• Multilight: Disabled / Intensity / Color enables the different Multilight modes. You
can even choose between exporting all the emitters contribution to independent
images (Separate), or saving only the composed render (Composite). For more
information about Multilight, see The Core Rendering Application section in Chapter
9.04.
• CPU Threads: Number of threads dedicated to the render. By default, “Automatic”
means that all available CPUs/ Cores will be used. In special situations you may
require less threads if the machine is working on other tasks. Note that one core in a
multi-core CPU is considered 1 CPU thread.
• Priority: You can set the rendering process to normal or low priority. This is useful
if you wish to work on your computer while rendering. Setting the render to Low
Priority does not mean the render will take longer to nish. If you are not using your
computer for other things while rendering, Maxwell Render will still utilize the full
capacity of your CPUs.
• Command Line: Pass command line parameters to Maxwell Render. More information
about the available commands can be found in Appendix III. Any of the commands
entered here will overwrite the render options. For example, you can render to a test
resolution from command line without losing the nal render parameters specied in
the Resolution parameter in the Camera Parameters panel.
8.02 Output
F.01 Output
• Depth: Specify the bit depth for your chosen output format. Some formats such as
.jpg only allow 8bits per color channel, others such as .exr and .tif allow up to 32bits
per channel. Note that you must rst write an output format in the Image eld for this
dropdown to become available. For example if you write myrender.png, the dropdown
will let you choose from 8b or 16b because the png format allows these bit depths.
Writing myrender.tif will let you choose from 8,16 and 32b.
• Image: Specify a name along with a sufx (.jpg, .bmp, .tif, .tga, .png, .jp2) and a
path for the image le, created when rendering.
• MXI: Specify a name and path for the MXI le, created when rendering. An MXI le
is always created when rendering. You can also drag n drop the folder icon from the
Image eld to copy/paste that path into the MXI eld. The name you chose for your
Image eld will be appended the .mxi sufx (myrender.mxi).
u Note: If you do not specify an output path, the image/ MXI will be saved according to the
settings in Preferences> General in Studio or in the applicable section in your plug-in. The
preference allows you to either save the image in the same folder as your .MXS le, or in
your system’s temp folder
Output paths support macros in the image and MXI paths, so users can include important
rendering information in the nal image le name.
The supported macros are:
• %scene% : the name of the MXS le will be included in the nal image le name.
• %scenepath% : the full path of the MXS le will be included in the nal image le
name.
• %camera% : the name of the active camera will be included in the nal image le
name.
• %date% : the date when the render was launched will be included in the nal image
le name, in mm.dd.yyyy format.