I have no idea what has happened to Maxwell Renderer other than the Maxwell users seem pretty pissed off about the latest release. Next Limit added something called Studio, which I gather is a standalone application, and alot of the users are not happy saying NL should have finished the renderer before adding this standalone app. At least that is what I understand reading some of the threads. Anyone here care to illuminate what has gone wrong with Maxwell and what Studio is?
There is some more on http://www.maxunderground.com/ and a few links, don’t know what it’s all about but they sure arn’t happy.
/Thomas
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=283136&page=7&pp=15
direct link to a interesting thread 
looks like someones lit an Aura fire in the forum hehe. its burning up in there. Hell vray went public alpha then when they thought it was ready to sell, they sold people the same thing the people were testing (with a few additions) they didnt cripple it or anything. so you basically bought what you knew. Im very happy i jumped on the vray band wagon rather than the fR one which i only purchased stage-0 and stopped there. looks like alot of people are unhappy about being on the waxwell band wagon now
Ohhh . . . reading some of the CG society threads it looks bad for Next Limit. Some people have got the credit card companies and banks involved and gotten their money back and most seem to feel really mislead. Ouch! Just glad I didn’t buy Maxwell! From everything everyone said here, though, it was far too slow to even consider.
Yep I think that regardless of the product being sold, customer service is quite key to a happy client and this is an area that a lot of small companies appear to be lacking in. Next Limit brought out a RC1 version of maxwell that had a lot of problem, and that for many was unforgivable. Instead of Next Limit making a statement ot two to smooth the ruffled feathers, they decided on the silent approach. I for one would say that there is nothing more annoying than lack of communication. When you write or call with queries or requests you expect a response of sort, especially if you have or are investing time and money into a product.
CUSTOMERCARE say it with me everybody …CUSTOMERCARE 
If anyone’s a fan of George Carlin, then you’ll agree that the attention NextLimit appears to be paying to it’s users fits his definition of “customer service” to a T. :lol: God help them!
Shaun
I have been an active Maxwell user since the alpha version of the software - the problem everyone is having is that they developed Maxwell to a point in the beta that everyone was very happy with the quality of the render (specifically light dispersion), albeit not happy with the speed and noise.
The Maxwell render engine now appears to be a complete re-write - the tests being done show the light dispersion is completely different than the beta - yes it’s faster, but many believe it is because they introduced bias (shortcuts) into the renderer. Bottom line is that the images look like crap. There appears to be a noise reducer built into it as well which makes everything blurry.
In other words it seems to be a different product and this is why people want their money back and are angry.
I say they brought it on themselves (the customers). They wanted an unbiased renderer and then complained that it took too long! Something has to give.
i read more than once about how proud they are with their unbiased renderer. so why are they complaining about render time. didnt anyone inform them that there is only so far you can go with unbiased when it comes to speed?
Two things I was personally angry about: the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the new engine, and the fact that several users tried to put it down to user error.
The knowledge that the engine is rewritten and not an evolution of the beta, answers a lot of questions. It is quite unnerving, but the best I can do is hope that they can make things right.
Next Limit’s main mistake? Calling this a Release Candidate. The Maxwell gallery needs to be dismantled until the same results can be had with the current engine. With the situation as is, new customers will come in expecting to be able to produce (in the most favorable of conditions), what is seen in the gallery.
If the next rc, expected today, can remedy the engine situation, then they can leave the website alone. If not, they really need to change their promotions.
Not to turn this into a maxwell forum, but can you post some examples. I’m curious how they screwed up their own product.
There are some renders on their forum at www.maxwellrender.com/forum
They are definitely missing the “life” that made maxwell special.
it can happen when rushing, having done quite a few beta tests for vray over the years ive seen new features added which mess with other features but just a quick message to vlado and poof, problem gone. maxwell’s problem is that they had a good beta, but then put out a different product (upgraded, re-written whatever) without it going thorugh beta testing.
That’s what I am saying… you can’t have the best of both worlds… it either continues to converge or it takes a shortcut… no middle ground.
Absolutely… a Release Candidate! Who was in charge of that? RC 1, RC2, RC3 c’mon… this is beta speak.
lol, love the flaming…
i’ve been ligting siggarests of of maxwell forum for about a week now.
Here is what happened:
They were unable to fix some of the issues beta engine had i.e. noise in the dielectrics. So they rewrote the engine. Now its a completely new engine. Untested and unseen in action. Plus this studio like a bomb on the head. Based on some renders around maxwell forum…quality is soo poor…Im about to return their maxwell to them too…
Damnit.
Looks like it is going to be a while before Maxwell gets back on it’s feet. Some nice images in their gallery though. Just what did NL use to produce them and how long did they take? :roll:
there is speculation about some key person leaving NL, which was what started this mess…
So all the RC probs are a result of this one key person leaving NL before the release of the RC’s or this key person is going to be leaving NL screwing up the development of Maxwell further in the future?
I guess the plot thickens :!:
well they are saying that some one left before rc came out, thats why it came out in the state that we have it now…useless.