Huh, I never knew - been ages since I last uninstalled Blender after another frustrating hour or two. Waiting for their next big version with the supposed UI overhaul, then I'll give it a try again!
without turning this 3ds max 2016 thread into more of an advertisement for other software you could get the current blender now and have a look at blenderartists.org for their ui customization subforum to see if anything catches your eye. it's easy enough to test somebody else's entire setup by replacing the prefs folder.
as said, the defaults even for basic interaction are completely perplexing and unlike other 3d apps. like made on pluto. i was turned away plenty of times over the years myself by that.
To preview the final turbosmoothed result, i have to press 3 key combinations, it should be one "preview end result" hotkey. Then i have to press them again, to re-enable the wireframe, hide turbosmooth and re-enter sub-object mode and sometimes just that process can be very temperamental.
Assign "Show End Result Toggle" to a hotkey. Essential.
I'm another person migrating to Blender or Modo. Mainly because of the ridiculous cost of Max/Maya. Unfortunately Max/Maya usage will probably still be required for jobs.
well from a quick glance the zbrush modelling tools require you to remove all subdivisions on the mesh before you're able to use them. when these were announced i expected to be able to change the topology of a sculpt while preserving it's subdivisions and layers. in the current state and unless i missed something major these modelling tools seem quite pointless especially where precision is required. more of a starting point to base a sculpt on.
As far as changing sculpture topology goes it's a bit of manual work but you can make topology changes on a duplicate of the subtool and then use ProjectAll or whatever it is to project your other sculpting on the newly modeled duplicate. If you have the patience you should be able to reproject each layer individually.
The projection can be a little bit hit-or-miss at times (ie ray distance needs adjusting) so I recommend projecting each subdivision level one at a time. But it's definitely possible with existing tools, even if it's a little fiddly.
Assign "Show End Result Toggle" to a hotkey. Essential.
I'm another person migrating to Blender or Modo. Mainly because of the ridiculous cost of Max/Maya. Unfortunately Max/Maya usage will probably still be required for jobs.
I have "show end result" assigned to spacebar, but i also must toggle off sub-object mode so the vertices go away and toggle the wireframe off so a can properly see the resulting form/s. For some reason, think when Max is also doing something in the background, these keys sometimes don't work on first press, which is very annoying for me. But that is just the one tiny example of the things they could/should do to improve their program imo.
Huh, I never knew - been ages since I last uninstalled Blender after another frustrating hour or two. Waiting for their next big version with the supposed UI overhaul, then I'll give it a try again!
I don't really know what these rumors are or where they are coming from, but I personally wouldn't count on a UI overhaul : considering how consistent and integrated the UI currently is, I don't see how or why the would attempt to change it in any significant manner. The concept of collapsable, non-floating universal panels sure is pretty unique, but that doesn't make the UI any less sound.
That being said, the default navigation scheme is, indeed, really awkward. The issue is that they went way to far with their Maya-style input scheme option, which not only changes viewport navigation but also other areas of the program which should have been left untouched. This issue can be adressed by following this handy tutorial :
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=12fqTUyDts0[/ame]
Good luck ! And sorry for the thread derail, but I thought I'd mention it.
Still curious to see where Max is going after all these years, even if the program has been stagnating of late.
I like it when people want more by trying new softwares but ask for the same or similar UI and controls of the previous software they were using. Such irony. In the end, the techniques are more important then the software you are using since they are the same.
well from a quick glance the zbrush modelling tools require you to remove all subdivisions on the mesh before you're able to use them. when these were announced i expected to be able to change the topology of a sculpt while preserving it's subdivisions and layers. in the current state and unless i missed something major these modelling tools seem quite pointless especially where precision is required. more of a starting point to base a sculpt on.
Great for concept presentations and a terrific design tool. I just took the model brush for a test run and was very impressed with it. The non destructive dynamic smoothing is great and something akin to a modifier in other apps. Not sure I see the problem with stepping in and out of sub d meshes in z, you can reduce the form to a poly cloud where edgeflow becomes irrelevant or ceases to be a limit, do your stuff and step back into sub d with remesh. Also not sure what you mean by accurate. Zbrush and other 3d poly packs are visually accurate but not engineering wise. If you want .000001 mm (or is it more? )accuracy then you have to have cad, or solid works or something spline like that. As far as appearances zbrush holds its own while offering you the opportunity of turning your sketch into an attractive presentation piece fit to impress any boardroom . Now with the keyshot connection z has never looked better. I dont see zbrush replacing standard modelling software in a traditional sense, it is something different and offers a different way of working and I think it has opened the area of high quality 3d sketching as a part of the design process.
tl;dr
If you use the same version for more than 2.5 years, you pay less with perpetual.
I upgrade more often than 2.5 years, so subscription is worth it for me. Also, my annual subscription renewal fee is around $625, a lot less than what's on that chart.
Great for concept presentations and a terrific design tool (snip)...
shortened your quote for readability, hope you don't mind.
i was not talking about concepting, sketching and so on. quite clearly zbrush is very capable for that. maintaining a production mesh in it however as it changes over the course of a project is an issue and this is were i would have expected built-in poly modelling tools to come in handy.
if you do the remesh, reproject, retopo-dance you'll have a battle on your hands every time to preserve the data stored in your ztool and it's layers. deadly for assets that are reused frequently and worked on by multiple people.
@thomasp
Ah so, ok. Hmm, I would have thought altering meshes (at least the hipoly ones) would be easier in z. But I am a freelancer and dont work in a team, so I havent encountered the problems you are referring to.
Yea the memory issues in Max2016 are somewhat well known, I think. Another big issue is that for some people Max2016 seems to have a tendency to make things disappear spontaneously, whether it be UI elements or objects in the scene (though that could be directly related to the memory leak issue).
The end of the year is approaching, and I am not sure if I should buy 3dsmax 2016. It seems that this is the last chance to buy a stand alone license version. The problem is that 3dsmax 2016 costs almost 5000 euros (more than 5000 dollar) where I live. This is not even including the almost 900,- for a subscription. The second question I have is, if I buy the Maintenance Subscription (can I keep upgrading in the upcoming years?)
Max Subsciption is about 2000 euro's a year here :-(.
Can you order 3dsmax in the US, if you live in europe? I am always automatically directed to the European store.
But if I use a proxy server I can get to the US website. When I would buy in the USA the price is: 3451,- + 20% vat = 4200,- euro. I imagine that they check your address, or credit card address. But the price difference is very large.
Could it be an option to buy 3dsmax at a third party retailer US store like Amazon.com? And where do you buy the Maintenance Subscription then?
Can you order 3dsmax in the US, if you live in europe? I am always automatically directed to the European store.
No - at least this was never possible. You have to buy in the region you plan to use the license in. AFAIK it even goes that far, that you have to ask them to transfer the license , if you are moving to a different continent/region. But not sure how this is handled in practice
Replies
without turning this 3ds max 2016 thread
as said, the defaults even for basic interaction are completely perplexing and unlike other 3d apps. like made on pluto. i was turned away plenty of times over the years myself by that.
Assign "Show End Result Toggle" to a hotkey. Essential.
I'm another person migrating to Blender or Modo. Mainly because of the ridiculous cost of Max/Maya. Unfortunately Max/Maya usage will probably still be required for jobs.
As far as changing sculpture topology goes it's a bit of manual work but you can make topology changes on a duplicate of the subtool and then use ProjectAll or whatever it is to project your other sculpting on the newly modeled duplicate. If you have the patience you should be able to reproject each layer individually.
The projection can be a little bit hit-or-miss at times (ie ray distance needs adjusting) so I recommend projecting each subdivision level one at a time. But it's definitely possible with existing tools, even if it's a little fiddly.
I have "show end result" assigned to spacebar, but i also must toggle off sub-object mode so the vertices go away and toggle the wireframe off so a can properly see the resulting form/s. For some reason, think when Max is also doing something in the background, these keys sometimes don't work on first press, which is very annoying for me. But that is just the one tiny example of the things they could/should do to improve their program imo.
I don't really know what these rumors are or where they are coming from, but I personally wouldn't count on a UI overhaul : considering how consistent and integrated the UI currently is, I don't see how or why the would attempt to change it in any significant manner. The concept of collapsable, non-floating universal panels sure is pretty unique, but that doesn't make the UI any less sound.
That being said, the default navigation scheme is, indeed, really awkward. The issue is that they went way to far with their Maya-style input scheme option, which not only changes viewport navigation but also other areas of the program which should have been left untouched. This issue can be adressed by following this handy tutorial :
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=12fqTUyDts0[/ame]
Good luck ! And sorry for the thread derail, but I thought I'd mention it.
Still curious to see where Max is going after all these years, even if the program has been stagnating of late.
http://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2015/01/this-is-how-much-more-youll-be-paying-for-autodesk-software.html
tl;dr
If you use the same version for more than 2.5 years, you pay less with perpetual.
I upgrade more often than 2.5 years, so subscription is worth it for me. Also, my annual subscription renewal fee is around $625, a lot less than what's on that chart.
shortened your quote for readability, hope you don't mind.
i was not talking about concepting, sketching and so on. quite clearly zbrush is very capable for that. maintaining a production mesh in it however as it changes over the course of a project is an issue and this is were i would have expected built-in poly modelling tools to come in handy.
if you do the remesh, reproject, retopo-dance you'll have a battle on your hands every time to preserve the data stored in your ztool and it's layers. deadly for assets that are reused frequently and worked on by multiple people.
Ah so, ok. Hmm, I would have thought altering meshes (at least the hipoly ones) would be easier in z. But I am a freelancer and dont work in a team, so I havent encountered the problems you are referring to.
I figured everyone might be interested in seeing this.
Q U A L I T Y S O F T W A R E .
Max Subsciption is about 2000 euro's a year here :-(.
But if I use a proxy server I can get to the US website. When I would buy in the USA the price is: 3451,- + 20% vat = 4200,- euro. I imagine that they check your address, or credit card address. But the price difference is very large.
Could it be an option to buy 3dsmax at a third party retailer US store like Amazon.com? And where do you buy the Maintenance Subscription then?