old application versions on current windows?
hero character
hi,
for a project starting soon, the team would like to stick with a rather old version of 3ds max: 2011. it'll run on new hardware though that by default ships with windows 8.x. however it is an option to obtain windows 7, if required for compatibility.
and that's the question, really. autodesk's website references 2013 as the first version supported on windows 8. is anybody running old ones like 2011 - or even the gold standard
2009 - successfully (in production) on microsoft's latest & greatest?
if max 2011 turns out to be incompatible - any strong benefits of running windows 8 over 7 in the first place? any features we can expect will become popular with developers and not be made available in older windows releases?
bear with me - i don't follow this stuff, i just doodle on a tablet with a plastic stick. and prefer OSX anyway.
for a project starting soon, the team would like to stick with a rather old version of 3ds max: 2011. it'll run on new hardware though that by default ships with windows 8.x. however it is an option to obtain windows 7, if required for compatibility.
and that's the question, really. autodesk's website references 2013 as the first version supported on windows 8. is anybody running old ones like 2011 - or even the gold standard
2009 - successfully (in production) on microsoft's latest & greatest?if max 2011 turns out to be incompatible - any strong benefits of running windows 8 over 7 in the first place? any features we can expect will become popular with developers and not be made available in older windows releases?
bear with me - i don't follow this stuff, i just doodle on a tablet with a plastic stick. and prefer OSX anyway.
Replies
From what I've read (not personal experience), <2013 versions *sometimes* run on Windows 8.x. It seems to depend on drivers more so than the OS itself, but I may be wrong. Some people seem to be able to get them run without any dramas, and others can't even get the program to run in the first place. YMMV
The main benefit that I can see to using windows 8 instead of 7 is mostly the 'efficiency' - 8.1 seems to use quite a bit less memory than 7 ever did. It's also a bit prettier to look at and feels a bit snappier, which is nice for anyone who uses it for more than a few hours at a time!
I'd suggest that if the workstations that the team will be using all have identical hardware, give the 2011 version of max a go on windows 8 and see how it goes?
worrying that experiences seem so different but i think while we would fancy going with a recent windows release over a five+ years old one, it appears the safe bet is to just run windows 7 and not even concern ourselves with the problem.
while the initial batch of our machines will be identical hardware-wise, we might add team members later on which would likely receive ever so slightly differently configured systems.
so is just autodesk software plagued with windows 8 headaches or is it a general issue? has something internal changed drastically in windows 8 over previous versions (not thinking touch interface here
i cannot remember ever being confronted with problems like that and have been running max on windows NT3.51, NT4, 2000, XP, XP64 and 7.
edit - on second thought - i used to look forward to new max versions, now i dread them. perhaps that's why i never ran into problems previously.
Some tips so you don't drive yourself insane:
-Install .NET 3.5 and the latest directx9 redist before installing Max
-To make viewport driver preferences and some other settings "stick", you'll need to disable UAC completely. And this is different than in windows 7. To COMPLETETLY get rid of UAC in Win8, you'll need to make a registry edit. See here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/38257-HOW-TO-Disable-UAC-completely
for the first team members however, we have now settled on windows 7 already.