no one?

This may require more than 30 minutes at this hour...

Good luck. (Use V-Ray for Rhino myself)

figured i hit this a little late...

i tired maxwell once ... gives realistic rendering but takes forever.

Number of threads defines how many processors will run the rendering, so it is only releveant if you have a dual or quad core machine. I have a dual core, so it is usually set to 2. If I want maxwell to render in the background, I can set it to 1 and free up a processor for other apps I want to use. If your a single core cpu, then its gonna be a default 1 for you.

Sampling level, in general terms, defines how detailed you want your rendering before maxwell stops. If you have no feel for this number yet, I suggest you set it high (15), but it will take awhile to finish. Keep in mind you can stop the rendering at any point, or when you feel the rendering is detailed enough. I find 11-12 is adequate enough for me; rendering times increase exponentially after hitting level 10. Experiment and adjust according to your needs; scenes with complex lighting and reflections may require higher sample levels to clear out all artifacts.

Also be aware of render time; it limits the amount of time maxwell will work on your render, so if it is set to 60, maxwell will stop after 60 minutes regardless of which sampling level it has reached. I usually set it to 360 or more if I am unsure how long a scene will take to reach my specified sampling level.

As always, you can set both values high and stop the render manually when you think it is adequate. Remember how long and which sampling level it reached, and you'll know what values work for you in the future.

much thanks balagan, last night i devoted both cores [duo] and had a sampling of 50 [as you said, didn't have a sense of the number] and let it go for 10 hours.

looks great. but thanks for the breakdown, that helps me alot.

Haha, yeah, I bet it run for 10 hours. What sample level did it reach? Just curious to know.

you know i didn't even think to look this morning is there anyway to tell after closing the renderer?

Oh and don't forget to troll the pushpullbar forums for some great starting tutorials, tips and tricks to get yourself acquainted.

And of course, the official maxwell render manual would help. Although IMHO they REALLY need to rewrite their documentation, its way too cryptic as of now. I learned most functions by trial and error.

you've been a great help, thank you. and i agree with you on their own site, its tough to find what it is i really need. i do like to pilfer their materials though. ;)

thanks again.

Hmm, you're directly rendering from Rhino right?

I actually exported my files and rendered them in Maxwell render, so it shows in the top status bar, last render.

I'm not sure about the plug-in though, never used it so can't help you with that, sorry.

yeah i go right from rhino, i've gone from maxwell...but preparing the model for polygons takes too much time and i find the orbit and zoom interface to be weird. yu should try the pug-in, they have it for maya, max, rhino, sketch-up...

thanks again.

You're welcome, have fun, its a great program with abysmal support, but once you learn it you'll love the simplicity of setting it up and getting gorgeous renders.

And........you'll hate how slow it is. I just go to sleep and let it cook.