is maxwell a better renderer?

matsta · Post by **matsta** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:37 am

hey guys

a simple but perhaps not so easy to answer question. taking everything into account (mainly the fact that its not free) is maxwell a "better" renderer on the whole. i mean i hate to say it but the maxwell gallery looks a lot more impressive than the indigo one. and if so. why do you think?

thats all
mat

EDIT: o and also take into account the fact that indigo is developed by one very hard working new zealander and not an entire development team

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:48 am

Indigo is better.
A simple test, I saw has shown this.

matsta · Post by **matsta** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:50 am

what test might that be?
o and also do you think that if this same post was submitted on the maxwell forums the results would be exactly the same? everyone favouring maxwell? it seems pointless to discuss which is better since users of the one will always prefer it to the other even if they have never used the other. im looking for some cold hard facts about the 2 that puts the one ahead of the other.

thanks kram

Post by **fused** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:05 am

both have their advantages and disadvantages...

dont they?

i think its hard to say: "this one is better because..."

indigos main advantage is, i would say, the truly INCREDIBLE price-performance ratio

maxwells price-performance ratio counts as a disadvantage for me personally

matsta · Post by **matsta** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:07 am

yea i understand that aspect of it fully. and also the fact that indigo is actively developed in a community dedicated to its improvment also helps. but, go to the core of the issue, if maxwell was free, which would you choose if you could only use 1?

Post by **fused** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:15 am

i think, for now, i would say maxwell.

because of the tools and the cool material database.

btw: where is ours?

edit: and sry, i didnt read your question very well

matsta · Post by **matsta** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:16 am

yea ive ben wondering about that to. any chance of a a nice mat database?!

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:28 am

it was a simple cornell box test, where there was a glass thing and the reflections on the indigo version was much more detailed than the one on the maxwell render.

It was Indigo 0.6 with Bidir.... and Maxwell free

There was more noise in the indigo render, however.

matsta · Post by **matsta** » Mon May 07, 2007 3:50 am

you wouldnt be able to post some pics would you?

vansan · Post by **vansan** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:14 am

Indigo has instances support, maxwell hasn't (and the latest BIH-tree feature looks promising).
Indigo has a great potentian and it's improving, NL is known for it's "specific" customers relationship. If oneday Indigo will have all the basic features of "standard" undiased renderer (standalone material editor, great and fast exporting plugins, stable and easy2use Violet) it will be a real opposite to m~r. And I see these days are coming...

arneoog · Post by **arneoog** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:06 am

Here's a new test with the scene Kram mentioned

Indigo 0.8 test2
Metropolis: true
BiDir: true
Hybrid: false

Maxwell 1.0 Demo
Default render settings..

I rest my case

Post by **OnoSendai** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:08 am

Freakishly similar...
Apart from the highlights on the torus knot. Not sure what's going on there

Kram1032 · Post by **Kram1032** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:15 am

the colour flow is much better in indigo
a few fireflyes, nearly invisible
the glass (especially the glass) is noisier, but the reflections are more accuate and better visible.

there on the roof, the colour bleed is stronger on the red side in Maxwell.... dunno, which is more realistic.

Noise in indigo in one hand is more visible, in the other hand, lee biased.
shadows in Maxwell seem to be very bad related to indigo....

Overally, I'd say: Indigo looks better

suvakas · Post by **suvakas** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:15 am

I think Maxwell gallery is better cause Mw is used mostly by proffessionals and the user base is a bit biger too.
Here we have more people who do 3D as a hobby and just for fun. I think that's where the quality difference comes from.
Indigo community and support is very good. (and i still don't have a clue from where Ono takes all his time to develop Indigo alone).
Also for me Indigo is the first render i can customize myself. The XML format gives so much more possibilities than other renderers have. I almost feel like I can program my own "renderer" into 3ds Max. That's all because of the XML.

StompinTom · Post by **StompinTom** » Mon May 07, 2007 5:41 am

youre comparing apples and oranges if youre comparing the two galleries. maxwell is a commercial render solution used by professionals and firms. indigo is an 'indie' renderer used by hobbyists and 3d CG fiends. professionals make money with their work, hobbyists have other jobs. which would be more inclined to produce better shit? technically they both seem to be very similar. as for ease of use, maxwell is more user friendly and 'packaged' with all sorts of goodies such as the Studio, Material Editor etc etc along with the price tag.
define 'better' and then compare the two on those terms.

is maxwell a better renderer?

is maxwell a better renderer?

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