3dsmax 2014

cw

Anyone have any hugely negative experience with it?

I only ask since it seems ok so far and I'm wondering whether I am tip-toeing over a pit of snakes..

Cheers,

Pac_187

I'm using it since the student version is available,
the viewport performance is way better compared to 2012 and overall it feels a little faster. They finaly fixed the "StepLoop" tool, in 2012 it randomly selected one other edge when executed.

You can find all of the changes in the Help file:
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/16/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/contexthelp/WHAT_S_NEW_TOPIC.htm


Only thing that bugged me so far, if you isolate something, that nice little floater ("Exit Isolation Mode") that I'm used to from 2012 didn't popup.
Instead they put a little lightbulb icon in the bottom status bar thingy, which gets hidden if your are in Expertmode....

I wrote myself a simple maxscript to get the old floater back
Here it is, in case you want to use it too: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8dmsjce2c0ge1p3/Pac_187-IsolateSelectionOld.mcr

Just drag 'n drop it into your Max viewport and you should find a category named "Pac_187" in your "Customize User Interface" settings.

Mark Dygert

They also put "End Isolation" in the right click quad menu.

I like the improved viewport performance and the quick search feature "X".

I don't use the modifier list quite as much and I've managed to get rid of quite a few icons because the search feature makes them just as easy to use. I also like that the search includes custom scripts.

I also like the "enhanced menu" system.

I just wish I could rip out commands and dock them in a custom toolbar, same thing for the enhanced search. Right now you can only rip out menu groups which is nice but they aren't dockable and you can't get individual commands out of them, maybe someday...

Pac_187

Nice mention Mark, totally forgot the global search.

Also thanks for "End Isolation" info!

solar

I agree with what's been mentioned already except that I found the new enhanced menus to be significantly slower than the regular ones so I switched those back to the old defaults.

cw

The X feature is really good, standard menus are still available also - maybe not as fast as 2009 though.

Viewport shaders work as long as you switch the tangent and bitangent in your shader from what was working in 2013 and previous. Haven't tested dx11 viewport yet. You can select TBN in options as max, maya or directx type, which is nice. Not sure how this works with exporting files etc. yet. Let's assume it's fine.

Isolation works nicely now.

I reckon it might be worth a try. I can't go back to 2009, and 2011 creaks a bit these days. Here's hoping there is not a landmine in there waiting to catch me out. ;-)

Mark Dygert

perna wrote: »

lol, that's funny.. I was just talking to someone about how much I like the menus. They're fast, fully configurable, and Autodesk haven't f***ked them up yet with silly icons and slowdowns.... guess I was wrong!

Well, they were slowed down around the time Nitrous was introduced. You often get like a 1 or more seconds of lag when trying to use the menus. In 2009 they're always instant... sigh...

Agreed, the ribbon introduced lag was annoying. They've done a lot to speed it up quite a bit now so the lag for me isn't noticeable, the horribly inconsistent UI is what keeps me from using it. I Disable the ribbon and set keyboard shortcuts for the few things that I need.

The "old menu system" is still there and active by default, mostly because there are so many grumpy old schoolers who shit bricks when they update anything legacy.

The new "enhanced menu" needs to be enabled for it to even start up. It runs on similar tech as the ribbon but runs much faster. You can also set it to display text only.

As far as the old max menu's being 'configurable' the Customize UI interface is so 1989, slow to customize and annoying to work with. I should be able to customize the pieces I'm working with not use some jacked up pseudo menu system.

I still treat the "Keyboard tab" like its the "toolbars" tab, "Why isn't this command dragging out of the the... FUCK!" Now I have to set the category all over again, so retarded that its two separate tabs that look identical.

The UI should be configurable without having to enter a crazy customization mode. you should be able to grab the piece you are actually interacting with, tear it off put it where you want and keep moving none of this edit a pseudo menu system that looks similar.

Not to mention:

Pac_187

Dunno if you knew it, but you can actually customize the Graphite Tools Ribbon:


You can save it and share it with others.

Even though you would have to sit down for a day and set everything up...

VESIUS

Mark Dygert wrote: »

Question, how did you get rid of the animation bar on the bottom?

cptSwing

^
^

I went to the trouble of doing that way back when graphite was shiny and new, only to run into that common error of getting your maxstart.ui (?) corrupted. So yeah, never spent a second in that customization menu ever again ;-)

cw

cptSwing wrote: »

^
^

I went to the trouble of doing that way back when graphite was shiny and new, only to run into that common error of getting your maxstart.ui (?) corrupted. So yeah, never spent a second in that customization menu ever again ;-)

Haha, sounds familiar!

Mark Dygert

cptSwing wrote: »

^
^

I went to the trouble of doing that way back when graphite was shiny and new, only to run into that common error of getting your maxstart.ui (?) corrupted. So yeah, never spent a second in that customization menu ever again ;-)

With some simple maxscript:

Drag this code from your web browser into your 3dsmax toolbar and click the button. Use the button as a toggle between both states.

(-- Toggles on and off the bottom toolbar
	fn togglebotoff = (
		trackbar.visible = false 
		timeSlider.setVisible (true) 
		statusPanel.visible = false
		MaxRibbon.SetRibbonDockState #BottomDock
		MaxRibbon.ShowRibbon true
	)
		
	fn toggleboton = (
		trackbar.visible = true 
		timeSlider.setVisible (true) 
		statusPanel.visible = true 
		MaxRibbon.ShowRibbon false
	)
		
	if trackbar.visible == false then (
		toggleboton()
	)
	else (
		togglebotoff()
	)
)

If you want the ribbon docked at the top just change the line that says:
#BottomDock" to #TopDock"

If you don't want the ribbon there at all, just remove the lines that say "MaxRibbon".

Mark Dygert

Pac_187 wrote: »

Dunno if you knew it, but you can actually customize the Graphite Tools Ribbon:

You can save it and share it with others.

Even though you would have to sit down for a day and set everything up...

This is nice, but doesn't go far enough.

For example:

Pac_187

Yea, dunno why they don't allow you to pin them when they float.
In docked state there's an option to pin it, looks like they didn't think that far...

cw

Reviving this thread - having problems saving custom UI etc. in 2014 - keyboard shortcuts have all stopped working. Looks like the workspace stuff and old CUI stuff is kind of overlapping uncomfortably - anyone had any similar problems? And fixes?

cheers,

cw

WarrenM

And fixes?

Modo is 40% off right now. :P

monster

cw wrote: »

Reviving this thread - having problems saving custom UI etc. in 2014 - keyboard shortcuts have all stopped working. Looks like the workspace stuff and old CUI stuff is kind of overlapping uncomfortably - anyone had any similar problems? And fixes?

cheers,

cw

Everyone I know with this problem has the same fix. Try running Max in Administrator mode when modifying your UI. Or save your new UI files somewhere that Windows is cool with you modifying. Like the My Documents folder, or the desktop.

cw

I'll double check, but I don't think it is the usual suspects. All other max versions work fine.

What is strange is that when saving the UI the panel never appears to select the various parts of the custom UI to save.

Interestingly, setting a new workspace and then saving the CUI prompted the panel to come up.

I'll keep fiddling tomorrow, and I'll check the permissions are all good just in case. Thx for the ideas.

Mark Dygert

They keep shuffling around the places that max can save and store files, icons and scripts, it drives a lot of people nuts and they really should settle on something that actually works. But yea I've run into permissions problems like what you're having and it was solved by setting a shortcut to max to run as admin.

I've also run into issues with the new UI/WorkSpaces saving that I wasn't able to solve, hopefully they get that mess straightened out someday... soon.

cw

Cheers Mark. If I figure out the problem I will post up instructions.

rv_el

So far it is pretty decent!

I've had to set FBX 2014 to FBX 2013 or I was getting scrambled maps in XNormal.
Also 2014 seems to auto-weld overlapping verts upon exporting an OBJ. Kinda odd.

Always update with all the service packs.

rv_el

I'm running into a strange issue right now where MAX RTT normals look way different than XNormal. I don't recall such discrepancy in January when I was using Max 2012 and Xnormal.

I have no idea what the difference is now or if it is even Max related.