3D Studio Max 9..

adam

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7658360

Seem's that 8 just got released. Anyone with a beta have some impressions?

Pedro Amorim

Well, Max9 is what you expect from it.. Another upgrade without nothing realy new to add.
The only thing that might look decent is it PolySpeed thingie, similar no XSI gigapoly (or something) except XSI is better. Oh. And now there is a 64bit version. I which they would do a UI makeover, in the kinks of modo or something.

motives

its pro booleans for 800$

robioto

"Anyone with a beta have some impressions?"

Hey you can download the trial version here

http://nct.digitalriver.com/fulfill/0049.050/download/2006-8bc5e87becdf911db596093b01ecdf0c-3

Rick Stirling

After the v8 release, I won't install it at work until at least 8.1.

Looking through the feature list also left me feeling 'meh'. At this point I'll settle for very little less that a full core rewrite with a good deal of the legacy code removed, an improved UI, and a maxscript listener that doesn't have selective hearing.

Ninjas

I have the understanding that this one is a core re-write with vastly improved polygon performance... I'll let you know when I get it. Just got an email saying they shipped it.

I have been waiting for the 64 bit version over a year now, so I am happy.

arshlevon

i have been using 9 for awhile now. the preformance increase is worth it alone. everything happens at least twice as fast as it use to. i am more than happy with the update, i also like the new hidden wire view and the various mental ray updates are very nice. if you just using it for low ploy work you probably wont care too much.

if you want to get super dense meshes from zbrush in the viewport its not a problem at all. i use max for modeling, animation and rendering and dont just do game art, for me its a nice update that improves prefomance and productivity. there have been some little things from maya imported, like scene management, and that dumb window that pops up when you start that teaches you how to navigate the viewport and make boxes.

Sean McBride

thanks for the useful feedback arsh. I was hoping they would optimize the rendering pipeline. Bringing zbrush models into max is a friggin nightmare sometimes. Even with polycruncher.

oXYnary

What do you guys use mental ray for? Lightmap renders or something?

Ninjas

Yes, but then it is really better at rendering everything, so I use it for rendering flying logo animations or film special effects for my friend's movie, etc. Last time I checked, scanline could still not do area lights or decent displacement maps.

oXYnary

But specific to game assets Ninja. Last time I tried mental ray, it couldn't be used to render to texture at least how I tried it. Wondering if thats changed since then.

arshlevon

you can use mentalray for render to texture, but i use it to render scenes. like i said game art is only part of what i do with max, i have been making more music videos latley so game specific enhancements are not as important to me as they use to be. i would take stability and speed over new features anyday and max 9 delivers both. i hope autodesk continues this trend of making the software solid and fast over new buttons to press. i can already do everything i want in max, i just want to be able to do it faster with less crashes. max 9 is also the most stable version out of the last few releases, hasent crashed once for me, but i havent really been stressing it out too much either.
i have only used the 32 bit version, i would love to see how much faster the 64 bit version is.

motives

yea i tried out the trial last nite and i must say i was impressed by the speed and stability. I got a crap computer at home but it handled stuff really well. Stuff that i know would have messed up my copy of 8.

Besides, who needs new functions when we have crazybutcher writing us scripts

Eric Chadwick

All the 3rd-party plugins have to be recompiled.

Anyone know if it plays nice with previous scripts?

arshlevon

eric, all the scripts i have tried seem to work fine, havent had any problems with them. they have also all been macroscripts, havent tried any ms files.