3dsmax 2018, I am afraid Max demise will accelerate.
interpolator
The 3Ds Max 2018 release seems to have almost no new functionality and not even bug fixes. They did not upload videos to highlight new functions. The 'what's new in 3Ds Max 2018' is laughable. I had a little bit of hope with the great Nitrous performance of 2016-2017. But Autodesk seems to have laid off the entire Shanghai team who were responsible for Nitrous so bye bye :-(
I think Autodesk made a very bad decision. I know they want 3Ds Max to die and move users to Maya. Max could have been saved by implementing a shared code base with Maya so new featured could easily be implemented in both programs. Maybe they should have started a project to rewrite one common core for both programs, but keep the separate UI so users could retain their workflows.
I think I will slowly have to phase out 3Ds Max over the next 5-10 years. I use 100th of shortcuts, I have written about 50.000 lines of Maxscript code to streamline and automate all sorts of modeling tasks. 3Dsmax still has such a great community support with so many awesome plugins and script. I don't think it's even a good business decision.
Does anyone have any suggestions for the best applications that are complementary to 3Ds max. Modo seems the most suited since it has meshfusion. I need a program with the same modeling tools as 3dsmax, and I would really like to configure it with the same controls/hotkeys as 3dsmax. Blender seems ok, but also very alien to me. I can't say I want to learn Maya with users leaving that program for Houdini
I think Autodesk made a very bad decision. I know they want 3Ds Max to die and move users to Maya. Max could have been saved by implementing a shared code base with Maya so new featured could easily be implemented in both programs. Maybe they should have started a project to rewrite one common core for both programs, but keep the separate UI so users could retain their workflows.
I think I will slowly have to phase out 3Ds Max over the next 5-10 years. I use 100th of shortcuts, I have written about 50.000 lines of Maxscript code to streamline and automate all sorts of modeling tasks. 3Dsmax still has such a great community support with so many awesome plugins and script. I don't think it's even a good business decision.
Does anyone have any suggestions for the best applications that are complementary to 3Ds max. Modo seems the most suited since it has meshfusion. I need a program with the same modeling tools as 3dsmax, and I would really like to configure it with the same controls/hotkeys as 3dsmax. Blender seems ok, but also very alien to me. I can't say I want to learn Maya with users leaving that program for Houdini
Replies
3dsmax 2018 - Excuse Me, i seem to be looking at 2017
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-F687E23D-6FBA-4C8A-9202-C30F2860E5BE
(EDIT: Okay, direct linking seems to be impossible somehow, follow the "What's New" link on the left hand menu)
This is because of dynamics stuff and not so much because of modeling....but then there is MASH (can be used for modeling purposes too) and Bifrost seem to go in the right direction so that might also change eventually...we'll see how though.
As for modeling and since you are very modeling orientated i would still consider Maya, give it a try and see how it goes. You also seems to be ok with scripting so learning MEL will also be super easy which you can use to automate huge amount of stuff for modeling.
My favorite part is listing the removal of mental ray as an 'enhancement'.
Interesting, I sure hope so. But it does not really make sense. Why waste resources now creating a version for other platforms instead of making the current version stable and adding important features.
Honestly, lately I've been very content. Along with a load of new plugins being made by some very skilled makers ( @WaYWO and @Fansub are leading the way). Honestly, I think Maya has become more formidable than ever.
Though Modo is apparently also lovely. So if you dislike autodesk, or Maya's way of doing things, I don't think going with Modo would be a bad idea at all.
Alternatively, stick with Max. Maybe they've got big stuff in the pipeline, and this update was more about behind-the-scenes changes.
Just wished they would have slimmed down the UI at some point...but after having tried my hand on Maya recently...i have to say that that seems to be an Autodesk wide problem.
I've been using 2018 for a few months and I rarely open the Curve Editor. It doesn't support frozen transform, but all my rigs have dynamic parenting so I just parent constraint to an unfrozen object.
The UI got so much work done. I just wish they had updated the layout instead of remaking it the exact same way. But docking and pullout menus make 2017 feel super old when I try to use it.
They ditched mental ray but you can still get it free from Nvidia.
- There were many under the hood core work was happening. Qt5 conversion, new rendering API, MCG core work, Converting Paramblock 1 -> 2, security update...
- There was a big effort for bugfixes and stabilization.
- Last year layoff had a big impact. They are rehiring now.
For the future of 3dsMax.... it makes too much money to die.
At least, you would not need to worry about the "death" of 3dsMax.
the max usebase is GIGANTIC. there are 3 main 3d programs Max, Maya, and Blender. and Blender users don't spend money, so you could (if you want) exclude them. Houdini, Modo, Cinema, their use bases are so small compared to max/maya that it would be such a huge effort to "phase" out max, I can't imagine even thinking about it.
Also people seem to forget that they JUST redid the entire UI skin for 3dsmax.. idk why no one thinks this is a big deal?
this is the first 3dsmax UI skin in 22 years!!
So i'm guessing that autodesk considered the new UI a big portion of their new features for max.
Already up to 5 (3dsmax, vray, unreal, substance, zbrush)
Blender has same WASD navigation , same modifier idea with many actual modifiers being just twin sisters. Similarly working bones imo. Similarly working curve shapes. Similar "preserve UV" being "correct UV". I felt much more comfortable in Blender after Max , than in Modo, Maya, XSI or Houdini.
I actually think many recent Max innovations are borrowed from Blender. As of modelling I just can't recall what of my modeling approaches in MAx are impossible to do in Blender.
2018.1 Stingray with hundreds of fixes
2018.2 SplineTools with more fixes
Meanwhile..
Maya 2018 has 0 feature after the last 2017 PU
Maya 2018.1 released with no feature and 80 something fixes
Hmm...
I doubt very much that Max is being killed. The move to QT5 is more likely more to do with moving to an online model than offering cross-platform support.
J.
It's been "dying" since they cocked up version 5 iirc.
That's the problem ... By merely looking to replicate a specific tool/feature, you'd miss out on much more powerful ways to do the same thing.
Sure, there's no shift extrude ... but the case could be made that there is no need for it when off-hand transformation (no need to grab a manipulator) along with the very clever interaction system (no held clicks needed during transformations + click to confirm the last action) makes the whole process not only more fluid, but also objectively faster.
This was of course way off topic, but the point here is that any discussion about what a software can or cannot do (and from there, whether it is "dying" or not) really ought to be taken with a grain of salt, since anecdotal evidence and individual user experience never really reflect the full story.
http://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-8A1FC708-5D40-4B50-B88E-592C4B6DAC23
Blender is a great tool, and I use it often enough. I like that it's lightweight and never ever crashes, for one thing. But I still think Max is a better package overall for what I'm doing and I like it best!
I personally don't think that Max will disappear anytime soon, but the landscape has definitely changed (for the better).
This sort of stuff is definitely not something that should prevent anyone from transitioning. The benefits far outweighs the downside of having to research how things work for a few weeks.
your excuses sound more like lazyness, which is fine
i am also too lazy to learn blender
but your toggle question sounds like something that can be scripted easil and put to a shortcut, which is how show end result toggle started out many years ago as well, i think it was part of the meshtools and later integrated into max as a shortcut
As someone who has experience in pretty much every other 3D package. What does Blender have going for it that Max, Maya, Modo or Houdini doesn't have? I'm curious about the uptick of usage and want to know what I'm missing.
On topic:
Max is looking better than ever these days. I switched to other software 2 years ago, when Max doomday prophets were at their peak. I don't see as many people claiming it's demise anymore, which is good, I think the majority of the community is getting happier with the releases.
Other software is more competitive than ever though, and Autodesk have 2 pieces of software that tend to compete more against each other, than against other packages. It's worth keeping an eye on their business practices, but I haven't seen them do anything too bad lately, besides the subscription plan.
speed, stability, memory consumption, install size/update procedure and multi-platform availability are other advantages in my book.
community activity is another. i don't know what happened to max in this regard but all i see these days is commercial script packages and plugins which add another layer of $$$ and version compatibility requirements. and you just know what tends to happen to 3rd party plugins and encrypted scripts after a few years when the developer loses interest.
i'm under the impression that it used to be a lot different - either that or i'm hanging out in all the wrong places these days.
At the end of the day there's really no point lamenting about one app going the way of the dodo or not since us users can't control that. People just need to stop obsessing over installing the latest buggy release of this or that program and start thinking about the long term more. Find something reliable, get a permanent license for it (or download it for free if it is open source) and ... that's about it, problem solved. The writing has been on the wall for close to a decade when it comes to Adobe and AD going subscription-based and pushing for pointless yearly releases anyways so there's nothing new here.
Once one has a reliable suite of software working well for a specific set of needs it's then possible to focus on getting work done without having to worry about anything, literally for years. Software and hardware are both amazingly powerful days ...
Of course it all falls apart when one is forced to use buggy/underperforming apps. But then it's just a matter of analyzing one's options, doing a thorough cost analysis and picking the best.
@Axi5 : just to briefly cover that one point, one advantage (which is a major one as far as I am concerned) is fluidity. Over the years all major apps started to introduce more and more UI glitches (micro stutters, refresh issues with UI panels/ribbons/popup dialogs, and so on). It is fully quantifiable and very obvious when reviewing high framerate footage. Some users seem to not be bothered at all by that sort of stuff, but the faster one gets the more irritating this stuff becomes. Last time I checked Max/Maya/Modo/Houdini/3DCoat/Fusion360 were all riddled with such issues (Fusion probably being the worst offender, it's unbelievably bad in that regard). Personally this sort of stuff is as much if not more important than a mere feature list when picking a tool to use for hours end.