3DS Max indie?

Pioldes · Dec 2016

Hey! I was wondering if anybody had heard something about Max proposing something similar to Maya LT?

I've been using Max at work for years and I was looking at getting a personal license for personal week-end work, but the current pricing is absolutely insane. I'm at the point where I'm considering the switch to Maya LT, which is disappointing, because I genuinely love Max(and all its silly problems) and I've grown to work pretty fast with it.

While I have no problems with the $30 Adobe Suite or the $150 one-time deal of the Allegorithmic softwares, I cannot justify more than $200 Canadian dollars per month on it

So, time for the switch?

AtticusMars · Dec 2016

Not that I've heard of. Part of me wants to believe Maya LT was sort of a test-run to see how profitable consumer targeted software would be for Autodesk, so maybe Max LT would be coming in the future... that's just wild speculation on my part though and I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

...and so I didn't. I had the same issue and my solution was just to switch to Blender rather than pay a subscription fee for Max. The modifier stack really makes Max a bit unique as modeling software goes, but there are plenty of more reasonably priced alternatives that get the job done just as well. Really up to you to decide if learning a new piece of software is worth avoiding the Max subscription fee.

JordanN · Dec 2016

Max user here and yeah, it sucks that there's no light version of it.

But you might as well go with Maya, especially if you plan on working in 3D anyway. Every studio I've seen around here is Maya based which is somewhat annoying. The same places are ok with accommodating Mudbox/Zbrush users, but for modeling/production it's a Maya only pipeline.

Mant1k0re · Dec 2016

*IN BEFORE SOMEONE MENTIONS MODO*

Yeah, no... alas. And stock Blender compares to stock Max in some ways but good luck finding the same variety of scripts with Blender so if like me your Max workflow includes a couple dozens, Blender just feels slow and clunky.

Maya LT at least supports MEL I think. Not 100% sure.

PolyHertz · Dec 2016

Mant1k0re said:

stock Blender compares to stock Max in some ways but good luck finding the same variety of scripts with Blender

That's partially because Blender has no where near the quantity or quality of training materials for scripters that Max/Maya do. I know how to script in all three apps, and Blender was by far the most painful to learn due to the aforementioned (just because you know Python doesn't mean you can jump right into Blender and start scripting...a fact I think is lost on the Blender Foundation).

PyrZern · Dec 2016

I wish Max and Maya comes in a DLC form. Base software with modeling capacity. Sculpting DLC, Animation DLC, Particle/Simulation DLC, etc etc. If Maya were a book and I scan it, I would currently use only a few pages of the whole thing.

Pioldes · Dec 2016

PyrZern said:

I wish Max and Maya comes in a DLC form. Base software with modeling capacity. Sculpting DLC, Animation DLC, Particle/Simulation DLC, etc etc. If Maya were a book and I scan it, I would currently use only a few pages of the whole thing.

Ugh, I wish.

A modeling/unwrapping solution without all the simulation that I'll never use? Yes please.

Yeah, seems like Maya LT is where I'm gonna look. Anything to know regarding that version versus the regular one?

Zack Maxwell · Dec 2016

Pioldes said:

PyrZern said:

I wish Max and Maya comes in a DLC form. Base software with modeling capacity. Sculpting DLC, Animation DLC, Particle/Simulation DLC, etc etc. If Maya were a book and I scan it, I would currently use only a few pages of the whole thing.

Ugh, I wish.

A modeling/unwrapping solution without all the simulation that I'll never use? Yes please.

Yeah, seems like Maya LT is where I'm gonna look. Anything to know regarding that version versus the regular one?

No scripts, which is fairly problematic. It can use Mel, but no one seems to create scripts in that format. You can't even use GoZ with it.

PyrZern · Dec 2016

Maya LT limits export to 100k Tris, I think. Can't be sure.

RaptorCWS · Dec 2016

PyrZern said:

Maya LT limits export to 100k Tris, I think. Can't be sure.

yes but if you set up a unity or UE4 project and export to that folder it lets you get around it. its dumb i know, but it worked back when i was using maya Lt. I tried asking if you could just move the .fbx out and use it for whatever you wanted on the autodesk forums and they would just ignore that part of the question and repeat about the export limit. so i subscribed and just tried it out. this was a year ago so they may have changed it but i doubt it. its hard to market something as a tool for indie games and not allow highpoly exports.

apollo580 · Dec 2016

RaptorCWS said:

PyrZern said:

Maya LT limits export to 100k Tris, I think. Can't be sure.

yes but if you set up a unity or UE4 project and export to that folder it lets you get around it. its dumb i know, but it worked back when i was using maya Lt. I tried asking if you could just move the .fbx out and use it for whatever you wanted on the autodesk forums and they would just ignore that part of the question and repeat about the export limit. so i subscribed and just tried it out. this was a year ago so they may have changed it but i doubt it. its hard to market something as a tool for indie games and not allow highpoly exports.

I actually purchased Maya LT for my workflow and was pretty irritated when I learned that I cant export my high Poly models. Luckily for me my workflow sort of avoids that.

I do all my sculpting in Zbrush and use Maya LT for UV unwrapping and animation. In my situation it doesn't seem to be that big of an issue but I still don't understand the logic of limiting the poly count exports if not to screw over indie devs.

gandhics · Dec 2016

If it is for non-commercial work, I know people just using educational version.

Geonome · Dec 2016

Rather then letting Autodesk railroad its Max customers into choices they don't necessarily want to make, why not ask these guys why Maya is getting all of the love from the company when Autodesk accounts for last year show that Max is the one keeping the M&E division in money? .... http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_ADSK_2015.pdf - check out pages 136 and 138

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-hamaker-05878327
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcandreferguson

Mant1k0re · Dec 2016

Geonome said:

Rather then letting Autodesk railroad its Max customers into choices they don't necessarily want to make, why not ask these guys why Maya is getting all of the love from the company when Autodesk accounts for last year show that Max is the one keeping the M&E division in money? .... http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDF/NASDAQ_ADSK_2015.pdf - check out pages 136 and 138

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-hamaker-05878327
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcandreferguson

I really do like Max, although I'm lucid about its many quirks and issues, but I feel about Autodesk the same way I feel about politicians in general. They won't listen, won't care about what the user base really wants or needs. I don't vote irl, and I don't submit feedback to ADSK for the same reason.

I don't want to say what you're trying to do here doesn't have value, it really does, I just think Autodesk as a company is completely hopeless, unfortunately.

Pioldes · Dec 2016

The no-scripts thing is a real bummer.

Hmm, I'll have to think about it. Does anybody have a good ressource to get started? Hopefuly something that assumes you already have a knowledge of how to do modeling? Skipping through what a polygon is on basic tutorial videos isn't optimal, haha.

Visum · Dec 2016

Maya LT supports 250K POLY export limit not 100K tris.
If you want modeling it's all you need anyway. You can render it anywhere else these days.
Turtle baker is ok.
Every MEL plugin works, animation got cool/ok upgrades, bonus tool work (for most part) and etc.
For the money it costs me - I love it

PyrZern · Dec 2016

Oh, did they change the limitations ? That's quite neat.

Eric B. · Jul 2019

*cough* #StackGroupFB
https://area.autodesk.com/3ds-max-indie/
(limited to certain countries)

HeadClot · Jul 2019

Eric B. said:

*cough* #StackGroupFB
https://area.autodesk.com/3ds-max-indie/
(limited to certain countries)

Is this the full version or a cut down version like Maya LT?

oglu · Jul 2019

grr not Maya Indie for me.
https://area.autodesk.com/maya-indie/

musashidan · Jul 2019

Got this today from the Max beta forums:

I was told that this is a pilot program for certain period of time.
Depending on success, either it will go away or expand to everywhere.

It's the full version(same with Maya Indie) limited to 100K per year. Aimed at freelancers and students. Smart move. Limiting the regions? Not so smart. VPN? Smart.

Why do Adesk continually piss people off? Why not just release it globally?

oglu · Jul 2019

Cause i cant see the Page could someone tell me how much it would cost?

musashidan · Jul 2019

I'm currently living in Australia and the price is Aud$354.79, which is around 218 Euro per year. Max/Maya are same price.

PolyHertz · Jul 2019

It's $250 for a yearly sub of either Max Indie or Maya Indie.

oglu · Jul 2019

Its the same price as maya LT.?

oglu · Jul 2019

Hmm the Cinema 4D users would be in trouble with there new subsciption.
https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/cinema-4dr21/

musashidan · Jul 2019

oglu said:

Its the same price as maya LT.?

LT will more than likely be dropped if this initiative goes permanent.

Andreicus · Jul 2019

I'm in eu so I can't access the site but I read the news from here: https://cgpress.org/archives/3ds-max-and-maya-indie-licensing-announced.html

And yes same price as Maya lt but it's full featured like houdini indie so if they continue, maya lt will probably be dropped.
I understand the limited time offer to test if it's a good business decision or not but I don't understand the region limitations.

Mark Dygert · Jul 2019

Well, any adjustment to their batshit crazy pricing structure is welcome. I'm kind of surprised that Autodesk would think to do this, now. For so long they've tried to treat everyone on every level like they where a huge film studio or billion dollar arch/vis firm building mansions on man-made islands near Dubai.

They've pushed a lot of users away from their software and lost out on a lot of chances to expand their user base. It might be too little too late at this point, but it seems to be a decent move in the right direction. So... they'll probably kill it off, ha.

lurked · Jul 2019

I love that they put this in small print on the page:

"NOTE: IN ORDER TO AVOID AN AUTOMATIC RENEWAL AT THE FULL SUBSCRIPTION PRICE OF 3DS MAX, YOU MUST TURN OFF THE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL ONCE YOU SUBSCRIBE TO 3DS MAX INDIE."

Eric B. · Jul 2019

There's a proper thread for this over here. .. in case you seek more discussion on this.

https://polycount.com/discussion/213243/3ds-max-indie-limited-to-australia-canada-new-zealand-the-uk-or-the-us

3DS Max indie?

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