Very interesting, I'd like to pick the programmers' brains on the way they get the dynamic viewport functionality, it could be similar to Unity's way of compiling then changing variables on the fly.
And the new paiting software, the Substance painter, could he do that? OR Mari might have such functionality...? (it should be the most advanced painting app as far as i know)
thank you for the advice, but the way I see it using the "offset function" is not a solution at all. It is a cheap way to fix something that should not be needing a fix in the first place.
Update: I'm getting some strange artifacts when I take screenshots with the "High Resolution Screenshot" functionality in the editor, so I decided to use printscreen...
afaik max doesn't offer this feature, you could do what you said or maybe xnormal might be an option for you, as it offers the functionality you are seeking
cryrid is right. Micromesh is completely polygon-dependant. What you could do is use the ZRemesher function to generate a mesh with less polygons whilst preserving the silhouette.
For your top icons I'd use text. No one wants to sit and hover on the icon to figure out what the function is, because right now it is a guessing game.
cut a mouth in to the head using 3ds max? Well, extruding function of max is really great, so do it by selecting the faces and intruding or Shift+LMB+drag.