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3DS Max 2018.4 released bringing improvements to fluids and Max Interactive
Autodesk has released 3DS Max 2018.4, the fourth update since the initial release in April 2017. Improvements are focused on the recently introduce fluid simulation tools which gain the ability to load and save presets including the addition of several built-in common fluid types, as well as improvements to the UI which now displays the current frame number instead of a percentage, along with additional information to help users to understand what’s happening in the simulation.
3DS Max interactive also sees many improvements in this release, including a new physical light that support IES profiles, updates to the live link improving inteoperability when using V-Ray, custom tone-mapping post effects, and updates to the texture manager to make finding and sorting assets easier.
Finally 3DS Max Batch has been redesigned to support error reporting, logging, user defined output messages, and the ability to inject data from the command line.
In addition to the new features over 100 bug fixes reported by user are listed in the release notes and you can read the announcement in full on Autodesk’s 3DS Max blog.
Fast update! since release 2018 after about 8 months 4 update …
What do you think? Maybe the Max’s train back to the rail?
It’s more like the replacement bus service trying to catch up to where the train should have been years ago…
hahaha that’s a good one 🙂
3ds max and all autodesk went rental.
I went elsewhere
You went elsewhere, but you are still here commenting about Max?
Yep, so we can warn others about the rental trap, also cgpress is not 3ds Max or Autodesk…
Thanks for the warning!
You are welcome! 😀
I also don’t support the rental-only model, and yes, this isn’t a Max or Autodesk site, but sorry, it’s become comical seeing your comments on every Max news especially since you claim you’ve fully made the switch to blender and Houdini. You don’t comment half as much on other software news. It’s like watching a jilted lover claiming he’s gotten over his ex and has found someone much better, but still bad-mouths his ex any chance he gets. Really, what’s the point of all this – you still hope Autodesk would provide perpetual licenses. Even if they do that, will… Read more »
I would go back to max is they offered perpetual licences again, at least until I fully embrace another package!
Well said.
Then… enjoy the comical situation! The point is not to make Autodesk change it’s behaviour, it’s to warn as much people as possible, specially newcomers, against Autodesk software because they will invest A TON of money and effort just to get their creations held as hostage in Autodesk software. I won’t stop, yes, and I’m sure many others won’t stop either, you are happy with your rental? Great, go on, we want people to make the switch and don’t support this abussive business model, you may be aware about all this because you’ve been here for a long time, everyday… Read more »
I am a former softimage user since softimage 3.0 on sgi irix. What should i say ? AD is just something to avoid…
I went elsewhere and i’m still here. First of all, CG Press (and even Max Underground) is for way more than just one app. Even though there are a lot of Max people here, I see more and more people mixing and matching their apps and disciplines. It far from the “software loyalty” of +10 years ago. Secondly, I think that criticising Max for where it is compared to it’s competition is very important. I too, was under the assumption that Max is as good as it gets, because people kept fighting for it, but people (and Companies) should know… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GHsnv0UcfU
Interesting video,
When asked why people loved subscriptions as opposed to maintenance, AD CEO’s
answer was, listen.. Big companies are all going to the cloud and they love that model, they can activate and deactivate licenses..etc.. It’s great for them. The people that complain are mostly the smaller companies.
Smaller companies dont matter… Got it.
Exactly! Autodesk doesn’t need small business so I’m going with someone else.
They really aren’t casting the net for the little fish.. (unlike Adobe).
Activate and deactivate licenses, just like they activate and deactivate jobs. Great.
Max rules, dev team is doing amazing progress,
keep up the good work!
Over 100 bug fixes, sounds cool but with every new version I would like if we could know how many new bugs will be introduced. And it’s not a comment only about max but almost all the softwares (windows 10, max plugins, etc) these days are coming out with so many bugs introduced at every new update and it looks like the software companies think that the user are gonna be their free workforce to test these softwares and debug them… Please test your softwares and debug them before releasing updates: takes 2 year, 3 year 10 year if needed… Read more »
Quite – not sure about the latest update, but before that OBJ import didn’t work properly and their solution was to install an old version or not bother with UV mapping.
Shoddy.
I can’t see any 2018 updates in my account, only up to Max 2017. Are these for subscribers only now, or can maintenance users download the updates too?
We are on maintenance and have it installed. Make sure you are logged in if you are using the Autodesk Desktop App. But…one of our nodes wouldn’t show it no matter what I did, so I had to download and install it manually in that instance.
I`m on maintenance and got it through Autodesk desktop app.
It was an issue with my account. I found it through the desktop app, but Autodesk support fixed it so its in my online account as well. Been very happy with Autodesk support the past years, by the way.
Interesting to me is the difference between SideFX and Autodesk…
Autodesk institutes a rental ONLY model, and clearly only cares about big business.
SideFX institutes a rental OPTION, that is specifically created for SMALL business.
That’s the simplest way to express why I’m saddened by AD.
Aaaaaaaand… stingray died… and here we have an announcement of “3dsmax Interactive” improvements… wow! great! let´s develop something on it… oh well… we won´t be able to maintain it because:
“For now, Stingray will continue to be included with Maya LT but will no longer be developed”
But.. hey!! Not all is lost! they did not specified that the max version will cease development!… right? if they don´t say something they won´t do it… right?… like… with Composite!… oh!… wait… yes… mmmm… well…
… you know what… the bird is the word…
Nobody will use 3ds Max Interactive, when UE4/Unity is available. I think that it will be ripped away too.
And let me add… keep defending and using Autodesk… your money has a great value to them, maybe not to you, but you can bet that it has value to them.
Cheers!
Not bad, but I hope for more modeling and UI improvements in 2019.
Max is winning momentum! Its good to have so many point updates. Fluids is getting better, is nice that now we can export any particle data to PRT, and a lot has been fixed here.
Can anyone tell me if I can use max 2018 from now till eternity if I drop out of the maintenance program? I would be happy with that, but I’m unsure if Autodesk would reauthorize after a reinstall if I had left the fold.
Yes you can if own the license and you are not in rental-madness mode
Cheers!
But be aware, just 2018, no improvements so far until 2019 when they are included
Serious answer: If you didn’t fall for the switch to rental for a reduced price scam and give up your old school perpetual license you should be ok “forever”. No maintenance benefits though (previous versions, home use license etc) Wade through the fun times on the Autodesk forum if you dare https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/moving-to-subscription/bd-p/2017 Snarky one : “Forever” for somewhat limited values of forever. So as long as your OS and hardware can run it you have a license. Also for as long as whatever plugins you require to actually get work done in Max are available for 2018. Also as long… Read more »
Yeah, that was my main concern. My reseller has told me that the license is mine, and I can use it forever, but all ADSK have to do is retire the activation servers and I will never be able to reinstall it. There is no way to know what they are going to do, but I’ve decided to drop off maintenance and use 2018 while I transition. The 30% increase in maintenance by 2019 is pretty steep. I imagine quite a lot of lone wolf animators like myself will be doing this. At least I’ll have the fluids as a… Read more »
Migrato to C4D, Houdini or preferibly Blender, we made the shift and we are happy as never before!
No more half-working tools, awesome toolset and A LOT of free or cheaply priced awesome tools, and much more tools than max of course.
The counterpart is that you won´t get some of the commercial plugins available for max nowadays, if the Blender userbase grows more they will do a version for sure, but so far there is nothing we needed that we did not have in Blender 🙂
Cheers!
I will do that. As I’ve said many times before, it’s the Biped system I like the best in Max. Once I can do mocap in Blender with the same ease, my path will be clear.
You are right with that, we are looking exactly into this, I´ll post my findings at some point, blender you can already do mocap, and there are easy rigs that are pretty capable, even more than biped, the only thing are the tools to handle the mocap data, we are used to use Motion Builder, but we are looking into alternatives, as I said, I´ll publish my findings in this regard 🙂
Cheers!
“No more half-working tools”???
Do you think CAT is fully working?
Do you think MassFX is fully working?
Apart is it compatible with the new bifrost?
Do you think the new Bifrost is fully working?
Do you think the mental Ray implementation that we had before was fully working?
Do you think the crowd tool inside max (forgot it´s name) is fully working?
And we can go one aaaaaaall day if you want…
Cheers.
What’s “fully working” feature of Blender?
I wouldn’t watse my time with not even half-working Blender?
So you agree that max is composed of half working tools and now you are comparing it to blender which is free !
Did I said “max is composed of half working tools”?
I just thought that it was funny to see recommening Blender which full of half working tools.
Can yo name them please? Blender tools are not advertised with features they cannot deliver, for example, the fluid simulator has clearly stablished limits, hence you cannot assume it´s a half working tool, it´s a feature limited tool. The difference here is that you can properly apply the tools you need for the projects you need, you don´t have to start a project with your toolset in mind to find out after some research and project executed that you eed X or Y plugin to complete it because Particle Flow is not working as expected, or because mental ray does… Read more »
I’m sorry to heat that 3dsMax crashed a lot for you.
But, I have seen thoudands and thoudsands of great works made with 3dsMax. I guess they are using special version of 3dsMax.
It seems you found a great solution with Blender. Then why don’t you move on instead of wasting yout time here?
I did not say that Max crash a lot, I say that max is filled with half working tools, and I asked some questions to you regarding your assumption that Blender is filled with half working tools. I also had very successful projects using 3ds max, why not? but how many plugins do you use? do you use Particle Flow or do you use a different plugin not included with max? do you use CAT or do you use some different plugin, or do you animate in maya or other package? do you use scene states to divide your scenes… Read more »
Just to chip in – I’m on 2014 still and haven’t had any issues at all with licenses, plugins or OS so far. Sure some more recent plugins don’t support my version but the more established ones do for now. Also remember a basic perpetual license also allows you to install on a laptop so long as you don’t ever run both installs at the same time (same as pshop cs6). Good luck! Given the number of legit old licenses still active I seriously doubt Adesk would turn the activation servers off for a good few years yet.
Can they SCRAP the hairs in max, wich are old and complete bullshit and add Xgen ?? That would be the greatest thing ever.. hairs in max is impossible to get realistic with existing tools.. and even hairfarm or Ornatrix are no competitor to Xgen.. trust me I use both of them . Also, they should add the viewport 2.0 of maya to max.. Maya has great update now.. max is lagging behind .. no proper muscles system etc.. they just add stuff for video games.. vr and arch viz.. pretty much nothing for vfx peoples… really bad management uyp… Read more »
It seems that what you want to do is to shift to Maya LOL
Viewport 2.0 huh??? Why do you want that?
Half baked XGen? I rather pay Ornatrix. Why do you think Ornatrix for Maya is selling well?
You want a better viewport?
Check this:
https://youtu.be/mQ0mPrNdZbA
Yeah… right… how many polygons this can handle? half million?
You can say anything about 3ds Max, but it’s VP is a powerhouse. Look what Gavriil Klimov posted:
https://www.facebook.com/gavriilklimov/posts/10216099831269064
I would be this scene won’t have a single instance.