Public alpha release of IndigoMax

[subpixel]

Hello all,

Here's a public alpha release of Indigo for Max. It's still quite limited, but should give some basic idea, where it's going.
Keep in mind it might be unstable, so take extra care with valuable data.

What you might expect:
Pros:

• Fast Indigo SDK connection
• Geometry handling as poly and triangle meshes
• Fast instancing routine
• TurboSmooth and MeshSmooth will apply only at render time (no excessive geometry transfer)
• Animation and motion blur support (an introduction to ActiveShade)
• Simple light objects support (and default lights)
• Materials are supported with Indigo Material and Indigo Blend
• Standard camera as well as viewports are supported
• Textures are supported (for now only bitmaps)
• Scenes might be exported to IGS format
• GPU rendering support
• Multiple UVs support

Cons:

• Material editor is being reconstructed, so only dummy images are presented

Installation:
Use appropriate installer
IndigoMax 0.1.2.63
IndigoMax 0.1.2.63 RT
If for any reason installer fails to find Max path set it manually to Max root path

Usage:
In Render setup goto Common\Assign renderer tab and assign Indigo Renderer

Notes:

• Renderer is world scale dependant
• All renders are affected by tonemapping settings
• For size/sanity reasons there are IndigoMax versions only for max2011 / 2012 / 2013 64bit. Drop me a line, if some other is requested
• This version uses Indigo core files from "<max root>\plugins\IndigoMax" folder

Hope for some comments, suggestions and descriptive bug reports.

Cheers,
Jake

[MartyMart]

Hi

Does this work with Indigo RT, because I'm having no luck at all.
Crashes when opening Material Editor.

Cheers

[subpixel]

I haven't tried it with RT, though I believe it shouldn't be any different.

Could you be more specific about crash. Is it a new scene or loaded? What are materials in material editor? Also have you installed indigo_sdk.dll properly? Where there any errors in MaxScript Listener?

A perfect bug report would consist of minimal number of steps to reproduce an error and a platform specification (max version, system).

Thanks,

[MartyMart]

Sorry I wasn't more specific but I wanted to check that Indigo RT would work.

Specs - Windows 7 64 bit - Max 2012.

New scene- add plane and box. Select Indigo as renderer.

Select Material Editor - Crash Application Error. Nothing in listener.

I have had indigo_sdk not found although it is in indigo directory.

Will do some more investigation.

[subpixel]

Could you clarify, if indigo_sdk.dll was properly installed? I didn't get this one.
Just to make it straight:
indigo_sdk.dll is in a separate archive (for update reasons) and once unpacked should be placed in Indigo folder (usually C:\Program Files\Indigo Renderer\). Without it IndigoMax won't render.

Also have you tried renedering without opening material editor? Does it crash?

[MartyMart]

OK after further investigation it seems that we can't find indigo_sdk.dll although I have put it in the following:

c:\Program Files\Indigo Renderer\

From an empty scene I select Indigo as the renderer, press render button and then get the message "can't find indigo_sdk.dll".

It is definitely in the directory you give above.

Cheers

[subpixel]

Than it seems Indigo RT uses a different registry entry (which makes sense). I'll fix it later.

For now you can either add registry key using (regedit): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Glare Technologies\Indigo Renderer\InstallDirectory a key of type REG_SZ with your indigo path.
Or you can install Indigo trial version (which I would suggest).

Hope it will work,

[MartyMart]

Hi

Thanks for the above information, I will await your further work.
Just for your information it seems that you cannot have Indigo RT and Indigo Full(Demo) on the same machine there is a license clash. It is on the developers list to do.

So as said above I will have to wait for you (I'm not a regedit man)

Cheers

[subpixel]

I'll add this bug on top of my TODO list. Stay tuned
Thanks,

[kdarius]

Hey Im sorry i dont know how to get an error report out of max. But mine crashes as soon as I hit render
I can get into the material editor but as soon as its time to render max just crashes out.

windows 7 64 bit
two Xeon X5650 processors
24 gig ram

[subpixel]

Which max version? What is scene setup? Hit F11 to show MAXListener are there any messages?

Thanks,

[kdarius]

max 2012
I just would create a cube add a material and rendered.
Is it because I dont add any lights to the scene?
MAXListener shows nothing befor crashing out.

[subpixel]

Hello all,

I've uploaded a new version, which addressed a couple of issues:

• Indigo RT incompatibility (couldn't check it properly though)
• implemented scaling term and fixed rotation data
• disabled rendering of other materials (ones that are not being edited), to make editor more responsive
• some minor UI bugs

Again thanks for your effort
Cheers,
Jake

[MartyMart]

Hi

Update on Indigo RT situation.
Since your latest update I am pleased to announce that I am now up and running

Many Thanks

[subpixel]

I'm glad it's working. Thanks for the report.
Cheers