If you are interested in completing 3D rendering projects successfully, you are probably looking for a quality, reliable tool. With hundreds of rendering and visualization software solutions on the market, you can easily get sidetracked.

Trusting online sources that recommend one tool over all the others can be risky, primarily if they don’t elaborate on the reasons for choosing a specific tool.

Today we give you Maxwell and five compelling reasons you should use it for 3D rendering.

What is Maxwell?

Maxwell is a rendering engine from Next Limit Technologies. This rendering engine is based on mathematical equations. It simply means that Maxwell Render delivers physically accurate models, whether you use a couple of elements such as materials and emitters or very complex models.

Since it uses a mathematical model to calculate the lighting, Maxwell can create renders as close to photorealistic imagery as possible.

The model enables the renderer to capture the scene’s light interactions. That’s why Maxwell is the number one choice for architectural visualization and rendering. However, it has also found uses in scientific research, film production, and product design.

Designed for architecture

When choosing a rendering engine, you need to know which models and scenes it supports. Consider using Maxwell for 3D rendering because it comes with either built-in support or support through plugins for many popular 3D and CAD applications, including SketchUp and Rhino.

If there is no support for your favorite app, you can still use Maxwell, thanks to the Maxwell Studio, which allows you to import the geometry from your designs. Thanks to this support, you will have an uninterrupted workflow and be able to live up to your architectural visualization goals.

Then, we also have the mathematical model mentioned above for rendering scenes in Maxwell. This model allows Maxwell to generate high-end visualizations whether you need them in architecture or design. Its excellent lighting interaction calculations can help you see how natural and artificial light affect your scenes.

Once you get comfortable with Maxwell, you can use advanced features such as Multilight to improve your workflow further. We will come back to Multilight shortly.

Multi-GPU

Before comparing Maxwell vs. other render engines, you should know that Maxwell is a GPU engine. It uses the processor on your graphics card (GPU) to compute the renders. GPU rendering is much faster than CPU rendering and enables you to render big, detailed images. Maxwell takes GPU rendering to another level by offering multi-GPU rendering.

Maxwell can use all the graphic cards in your PC build to speed up rendering and deliver outstanding results. The multi-GPU feature allows the software to use all available GPUs to create renders.

Although it may sound like a feature for more advanced users, multi-GPU is pretty simple in Maxwell. You can access it in Render Option by clicking on the gear icon next to the Engine drop-down menu.

Maxwell GPU preferences will allow you to choose which graphic cards you want to use for rendering. If all your graphic cards have CUDA support, you can use them all to complete your renders faster.

Interactive multi-light rendering tools

You know how crucial light is when creating 3D visualizations. It can help make the scenes look alive, facilitate a specific look and feel, and make renders look photorealistic.

That is where Maxwell’s Multilight comes into play. It’s an excellent feature that allows you to play with the intensity of individual lights and emitters during and after the rendering process to achieve the best results possible.

While it is one of the best time-saving features you’ll use if you choose Maxwell, the software also offers several additional perks to help you benefit from Multilight. For instance, you can use Multilight with light groups. You can group all light sources and emitters into one group and control it like a single emitter.

This feature becomes highly useful in complex scenes with many emitters and lights. It can help you streamline customization while reducing memory footprint and delivering better performance overall.

Very realistic renders

As we mentioned earlier, Maxwell can produce very realistic renders thanks to the mathematical model it uses. It also uses GPU rendering to reduce the time needed for making a render. Multilight is there to help you adjust the light on the go to create even more realistic renders. However, it doesn’t end there with Maxwell.

Users can also benefit from coatings in GPU. That is a particular layer on top of your BSDF. You can use coatings to add that exceptional brightness on top of your renders.

Furthermore, Maxwell has support for realistic camera models. While it allows you to position the camera wherever you want, Maxwell will also enable you to customize the camera’s optical properties. You can go into details and even customize f-stop, shutter speed, focal length, film size, and ISO. Thanks to these settings, your renders will look even more realistic.

Many experienced professionals use it

When selecting the software for 3D renders, you should consider one more factor – how many experienced professionals use it. That is necessary because it tells you how reliable, robust, and trustworthy the tool is.

Maxwell is well-received in circles of professional 3D visualization experts, architects, and designers. It’s mainly because of all the features we’ve outlined so far.

Plus, since it’s one of the most popular render engines, it’s well-supported. You will find dozens of written guides and video instructions to help you master Maxwell features, which is an essential factor to consider if you are about to use it for the first time.

Conclusion

Maxwell is a powerful rendering engine with multi-GPU rendering and excellent lighting rendering capabilities with built-in multi-light rendering support. Plus, it supports all popular 3D and CAD applications so that you can easily import and render your models.

Do you want an easy-to-learn rendering engine that can deliver photorealistic renders? Then seize the opportunity to try Maxwell and explore its fantastic features.