3DS Max 2021 new features revealed
Updated Added official Autodesk videos
Autodesk has announced the release of Max 2021, with several new features and enhanced workflows.This release includes some solid improvements, including a brand new Bake to Texture tool that promises faster performance and a new streamlined workflow. It also supports more renderers (including Arnold), error validation and compatible map filtering, OSL texture maps and Blended Box maps, and MikkT normal mapping.
A new Weighted Normals modifier is also added that improves the shading of models by altering the vertex normals to be perpendicular to larger flat polygons and generates explicit normals for meshes better and faster than ever. Weight options include Area, Angle, and Largest Face with full control over smoothing and blending values.
Two new PBR materials have been added to simplify the creation of materials from standardised map types. One material supports the Metal and Rough workflow, and the second supports specular and glossiness. It is also possible to drag and drop downloaded PBR maps straight from Windows Explorer into the Material/Maps Browser as the materials take care of correct gamma settings automatically.
Several new OSL shaders have been added including an HDRI Environment map to control the positioning and final look of the environment both in the viewport and the final render; HDRI Lights to place HDR photos of real-world light sources that dynamically update the scene; Uber Noise for several complex types of noise such as Perlin, Fractal, Cell, fBm, and Worley; plus many more new and updated shaders including Color Correction, Float and Color Curves, plus Camera, Object, and Spherical Projections.
Arnold 6.0 is now the default renderer instead of the Scanline Renderer. As mentioned it supports the new Bake to Texture workflows as well as new AOV workflows and includes new Scene Converter scripts for converting V-Ray and Corona Materials to the Physical Material.
Finally, Max 2021 features the updated Substance 2 Substance2 map featuring the latest substance engine to allow users to natively load .sbar files. The new loader allows for up to to 8K output and includes scripted tools to quickly set up Substances with a particular type of material. The documentation mentions that it supports the renderers included with 3DS Max including Arnold, ART, Scanline and Quicksilver. Whether this will also work with 3rd party renderers is unclear.
Many more changes are listed including improved viewport settings and quality, Python updated to 3.7.6, significantly faster file saving, pro sound improvements, further enhancements to the Chamfer modifier, new Sketchup import options plus in excess of 80 fixed defects.
To find out more, visit the 3Ds Max blog or take a look at Changsoo Eun’s unofficial but very detailed list of all the changes.
Steady progress with every incremental release, there are some useful changes, of course we would like some more features but let’s hope we see them in the next point releases.
I really appreciate the work that 3dsmax team has been doing the last 2 years.
Man I was hoping for bifrost integration tbh,,,
Not a single word about bifrost (fire/smoke sim.) ofcourse. Still to many perpetual licences on the market to implement it.
It’s part of the 3ds Mas beta right now. Not sure if it will drop in a point release but it’s definitely in the works! The waiting sucks but there’s a team focused on it 🙂
Are you saying for sure that it wont come in a point release?. i mean, do you work with autodesk to confirm this?
I don’t know the release schedule for it. I’m just part of the beta, so no I don’t work for Autodesk. They haven’t hinted that it’s coming soon so people getting their hopes up for that should just be patient and wait. They’re making strides in getting it ready but not just yet!
thats as bad as it gets…obviously, our future is everyone else’s past.
I was expecting it as well …very disappointing again.
Join the beta!
http://makeanything.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/public-roadmap-25B1-201DB.html#animation-beta
we’ve seen all of it in the updated roadmap. a lot of the much desired features says “future”. they wont be coming this year, thats for sure.
If you are really interested to try bifrost.. I am just saying its as easy as joining the beta and trying it now. If you just want to complain that its not yet integrated, I can not do anything to help you.
FYI; Bifrost and new modeling/retopology tools were discussed in the 3ds Max 2021 webinar today, and are on their way. The webinar was also recorded, and some new features videos from it will be released later.
Nice job with the viewport. This could be the 4th time i’m saying this online so far.
i particularly wanted that, and i know a lot of the max users complaining like me, are secretly excited about how much has been accomplished in that area.
However, i hope its still going to be worked upon.
some of the things that would make this total, would be shadows on the hdri environment ground projection, and also making arnold lights as accurate as possible, in the viewport.
On animation, which can not be yelled any louder, max users would appreciate even the smallest improvements like updating skin morphs or giving us the rivet tool that maya has. yes, we could use attachment constraint, but its not as straight forward as you just selecting a vertex and automatically creating a point helper attached to that vertex on a deforming mesh.
Once again, you guys are awesome! 🙂
…also, how soon would the webinar video be released?
“[…]further enhancements to the Chamfer modifier”
At this point, I would expect nothing less, haha.
Well, it’s clear that AD’s path and focus right now is to get rid of perpetual licenses and get as many customers as possible over to Arnold so they can keep showing positive numbers to the shareholders.
Wonder when/if we’ll see the FULL bifrost integration, USD support and such.
Complaining because Autodesk dont update the tools, then complaining because Autodesk update the tools! XD
For bifrost, join the beta!
Thanks Eloi! It wasn’t as much complaining as poking a bit at the strange focus on what’s “New Features”. The chamfer tool should really be the ultimate tool by now, haha.
But Future enhancements.. what is that specifically? 🙂
No, honestly, I also think 3dsMax has the best dev team it has had in over a decade right now. And the best features in the latest releases are the ones not really talked about, or further down in the list. Interoperability with 2020 plugins? That’s really awesome! Viewport improvements are always welcome too, along with both scripting and i/o improvements. Things that are not highly visible, but actually does help in productions larger than one man viz jobs. I know that’s sort of a joke, but I’m just exaggerating a bit to show my point.
Max is great for high poly counts, no doubt about it. On the other side, there are a ton of things. I.e. just a high object count, that can slow max down to a crawl. Yes, it’s still the best tool available for some types of jobs, and thankfully it Imports a wide range of file formats. But I don’t know how many scenes I’ve touched that every click, selecting an object, or just rotating the viewport took a long time of Max hanging and “Not responding”. Our 3dsMax files are usually around 2-4GB before they go to render. They’re massive, because the team doesn’t want to touch the broken reference system. That’s not a viewport issue, it’s a core issue. Yes, there are naturally ways around this, but for example is Max missing a Performance Mmonitor where you can pinpoint what’s actually bogging down everything. I am afraid the core of Max might be the main issue when things starts to become production heavy.
You can tell me to join the Beta, but I’ve stepped away from Max. We still have it in our pipeline though, and I still have to work with the production scenes coming my way. I still have to fix and listen to the teams’ issues, and I’m forwarding my concerns and thoughts. I’ve been actively voting on features I think is important.
I do have 15 years of 3dsMax experience. I do want everything well for the package. Competition is good for everyone too! AD just have to put action behind their words. And I’m definitively not bashing at the dev team. I appreciate their efforts for sure! Right now, I’m seeing some improvements, but Autodesk is still far from proving what they claim they want Max to be. In the roadmap I still see a lot of features that benefit quick turnaround viz productions. I don’t see too much of large production and large team tools and improvements.
To take a specific example;
Fluids. Great addition, but where’s the roadmap specifically just for this? Is it left like so many other “features”, or is it going to be continuously developed to be on par with other AAA solutions? The claim is Max is an AAA package, right? Not only for viz. Then the tools should be expected to be on that level too. Right now, I don’t know what is the plan with it.
Thankfully most people don’t hold long grudges once you prove your intentions and give them a reason to trust you again. Bifrost might be a saver for Max. (Same with USD, can we hope that it’ll be a proper referencing fix?) I hope so, for the future of Max, and as a tool you can use and combine properly in a pipeline.
I am waiting and expecting to see two things here. Bifrost fully featured, on par with Maya, and once there – I expect to see updates and fixes released on both Max and Maya as we go. That way AD can start to prove their words that Max is in fact a tool side by side with Maya.
And as stated in the beginning. There are good things in this release..
I don’t trust the company but you can also be a shareholder…
I agree. They just try to add these features to get most of their old customers to subscription trap. And its still quite poor update compared to Houdini or Blender.
Only Modo and C4D “upgrades” looks worst. And i don’t understand that why someone would like to be paying betatester? Well.. “The crazy person is not the one who asks but the one who pays.”
It’s not beta when it’s released. We may have future plans, but we do our best to make what is released work as expected with hopefully no bugs. Have you ever purchased more than one car? Was your first one a beta version since you had to get a new one?
are there any good resources on how to use OSL nodes ? I failed in even making a non-tiling grass using OSL noise node. (supposed to be pretty basic stuff )
no mainstream tutorial portal has published anything on them. official max learning channel is also slacking as usual.
Its true there is no much OSL in max so far, the cool think is that you can follow anything really. check how Unreal engine artists create shaders, you can replicate the same workflows in 3dsmax and OSL. If you area asking for “coding” OSL then check for zap anderson tutorials.
Logan, if you have a chance to watch the webinar tomorrow, I highly recommend it. The new OSL shader stuff that Zap Anderson will be demonstrating is really nice.
https://autodesk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EniSHfdWQd2rWYLsTfzt5g
Have you seen this from the 3ds Max Learning Channel?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnKw1txyYzRmwRgMF1UXdbyBVaQrzTAje
Also this OSL handbook if you want to get insanely technical:
https://github.com/imageworks/OpenShadingLanguage/blob/master/src/doc/osl-languagespec.pdf
Just watched all of it. Learnt some but still fail to make non-tiling grass with noise. Checked Zap Anderson’s stuff and facebook page. His content is unorganized and all over the place, he jumps over basic stuff because he is a senior. Which makes it impossible to crack for a non-coder archviz guy like me.
Hope this helps: https://imgur.com/a/qJRpFnc
You can do in multiple ways, Here I blend 2 different images based on an osl noise, giving an offset on uvs to one of them.
Thank you
they have their eyes set on something and nothing can deter that
FYI, the webinar on new 3ds Max features is being held tomorrow (Wednesday), so if you want to see demos of the cool new stuff, check it out:
https://autodesk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EniSHfdWQd2rWYLsTfzt5g
In addition, a more comprehensive list of features and fixes in 3ds Max 2021 should be available soon as well.
So they switched the default renderer from scanline to Arnold and count it a new feature. What a joke. As for texture baking, Substance, Marmoset and XNormal all does it better and faster. Maybe in the next version, they will finally get it of Nurbs in 3ds max and call it a bug fix.
How do you know? I saw multiple game studios that after trying the new features from 2021 are moving some of the workflow that before was outside max back to max because they found it better. Check the webinar tomorrow!
Kind of hard to say they do it better if you’ve never even used it, isn’t it? I do love Substance’s baking, so that’s what I’ll be testing it against.
I’m just here for the 100+ comments shittery.
Same here.
ok that looks really bad…
I am repeating myself every year
What a Joke!
😀 yup… and that joke is never getting old 😀
So 3dsMax is slowly catching up to Blender!
And losing any leads they had at an impressive pace. Comparing this list to the 2.82 release notes (https://www.blender.org/download/releases/2-82/) is hilarious.
Yes, just need to crash or hung for 20 minutes when you do control+z on a medium size scene to be at the level of blender.
So you’re getting paid by the amount of comments? Is Autodesk a good master to you?
@maxis that’s wrong to imply “master”…Eloi is an influencer, and if he’s being paid for the comments, its fine by me. if not, its also fine by me. You should see how some of us defend max privately when its compared with maya or even houdini, talkless of blender.
I’ve been using max now for 8 to 10 years now, and it has so far been sufficient for me, especially with the plugins that are compatible with it.
Its worth the Defence.
Also, Eloi uses max to generate the bulk of the contents on his popular youtube channel. the more he convinces people that Max is the best, the more people would be interested, and watch his videos too.
Its a worthwhile endeavor for him, anyhow you look at it.
you also have to admit that he provides a lot of useful information about the software as he engages us. please, dont discourage him.
Lol, I will not call myself an influencer. I am not doing neither a living with youtube and I dont try neither, I just like editing videos and found a lot of negativity around 3dsmax. Sure I understand the pain, we had a lot of years max being underdeveloped, but things are changing and I wanted to show that max is more alive than never has been. Just trying to get a positive community together, and If I can help people on any way I am glad to do it.
No, I dont get paid for comments. When I see a some I can add some information I try to add it, I am on isolation for the 2nd week now, so its something to get distracted as well, XD. If I see someone giving false information I try to fix it, I will say negative and positive things about max, you will see also me saying positive and negative things about any other software. Max has lots of things to fix for sure! But also blender and any other software. Saying max is just catching up…. its simply not true, if you say max is catching up on x feature, then I can agree or not but its just not another empty comment to add trash over max because its funny.
hey hey hey!
This is something that is being fixed as we speak, here is an example:
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-2-8-undo-improvements-it-last-45-seconds-to-undo-an-object-movement-in-a-big-scene/2554/81?u=juangea
Still under work, it needs polishing but… soon enough that won’t be a thing anymore 🙂
I know! And thats awesome! Its just that max is not catching up with everything in blender! Blender is excelent in some areas where max is behind, and the other way around also applys.
Oh, I’m not going into the argument.
I justs chimed in to say that about the UNDO, which is one of the worst things of Blender right now.
But I will say that, yes, I agree, no software is perfect 🙂
But you know me… the licenses thing, the “perpetual-gate”… uuuuf, but as I said… I’m not going to enter into the argument here.
Lul 3ds Max never had an Undo Problem ahahha
Lul 3ds Max never had sculpting tools ahahaha
Eeeh that’s not true, you could say that 3ds Max never had such a slower undo, but what 3ds Max had along the years, specially in complex scenes or in situations with many plugins (or with CAT or particle flow) it’s an unstable undo, maybe fixed now of course 🙂
Max also had a big problem of corrupt files some time ago, blender never had that, that problem could break up not just your currently being used file, but also the backups, Max has never been bug free or super stable, so better don’t play that card because we all know the Autodesk report window 🙂
And a big problem that max has: if you modify a file with a newer max version you cannot open that file with an older version UNLESS you save it as an older version, which allows you 3 versions back, but for example a client could not be able to send me a max file from max 2021 so I can open it in 2017, not even merge the file contents… that’s not a problem with blender, you can append contents of files saved with Blender 2.83 in older versions of Blender if needed, not need to save in an “older file format with the same extension” 🙂
All software have their pros and cons 🙂
They seem to have one developper only, this zap anderson, the guy seems brilliant but everything is on materials or renderers…
Where are the animation improvements ?
Why do they have Maya and Mudbox and don’t share more tech ?
The indie licenses would come to Europe and I still wouldn’t upgrade.
No money from me, it’s wait and see.
I am not Quite sure what to say. On the one hand, i remember the days, when each release brought to us outstanding new features… ok long ago.. also i see other packages..
On the other hand the pluginzoo still makes max the best Architectural Visualisation Tool on the market for high quality renderings so far.
Of course i dont speak for animaiton stuff..
on the other hand everyone has to be aware, that each new Softwareconcept over the time comes to a hold in inovation, because all the big ideas tend to be implemented first, and whats left are allway only the minor enhancements.
So it is with all technical developement.
and this is also the reason why all big companys at one point have to go to a subscripton model if they want to survive, becaus no one ever will by new Proramms for minor features.
On the other side those companys if they are big enought easily tend to become lazy. if they hold a big enought share of the global cake of programms .. And that for sure true with max as we all know.
Never the less they DO make progress. So i dont mind to much. From Architectural side, they rather come into danger from realtime tools like Enscape and twinmotion.
And theres also Blender.. which i very much like … even when it doesnt allready comes close to max and plugins for architectural purposes…
speechless..not funny at all.
Ahahaha
I am so happy I migrated to Blender a year ago. What a joke this great software becomes… awful to watch.
Everything is so worthless. Avtodesk offers Arnold, as a base render engine, but is silent about the fact that all maps that are not standard for the Arnold render are rendered 30-70% slower, while Arnold’s maps are not displayed in the viewport, AO and noise are simply terrible and impossible to use. Nobody has been trying to solve this problem for 4 years already.
OSL works very well with Arnold. Shows in viewport as well, at high performance running RT. Many of the Arnold nodes are ported to OSL, we can write new nodes very easily.
If by OSL you mean to have a color correction node that plugs into Arnold Uber shader then fine, but please let’s not pretend serious shading artists will use “Autodesk physical shader” or the “OSL presets” , we are going to use Arnold default uber shader, the SSS, a hundred node custom shader with custom noise patterns, AO, Material layering! Will those display correctly on the base level in the viewport?
This is my problem when Autodesk features in their webinar bunch of drag and drop OSL shaders! And I asked then, What happens to the viewport when you use the default Arnold shader becuase very few of us will use OSL presets in production.
I don’t expect the uber shader to display its nodes correctly all the way in the viewport that is not easy to pull off, but again my issue with them is that outside base game models and bunch of viz, no one in the VFX and cinematics and high end character, environment shading work will use those OSL shaders for anything.
I know quite a lot of Shader artists doing VFX that are quite excited and happy with the OSL implementation in 3dsmax. And yeah, they dont even care about the viewport representation, because OSL is not only for that, you get low level math nodes, you get independent uvs per object, drive shaders with custom attributes, easy to tweak shaders code, cross platform shaders, and a big etc… and in top of that, fast viewport display.
https://www.racoon-artworks.de/?p=913
I wasn’t complaining about the nodes as I have said before we were using noise, color correct… from the 90’s. I was refering to the viewport shading in combination of the materials you need to use to get that shading.
I pointed out that since most serious users wont benefit from viewport shading neither would they from autodesk physical materials and instead use arnold and vray shaders mixed with the new osl nodes, then why put emphasis on viewport display, call it a feature and neglect all the real issues still in Max?
I am tired of these superficial icing on the cake features. I want tools not pretty viewports that I can’t even use because I will be rendering in Arnold. Again I know OSL works with Arnold/Vray I just don’t use OSL Materials but only the nodes, so look deving in viewport becomes impossible which means using them in the first place is useless.
I dont know what even are you complaining about now….
“superficial icing on the cake features”… As stated, I dont think adding OSL support, with QT interfaces, with over 150 nodes in max its a superficial feature.
“Using them in the first place is useless” , again I am sorry but sentences like this only show that you dont have a clue of what OSL integration its giving to 3dsmax. Just check the link before. I saw OSL making a huge difference being used in production. And yes they didnt care about using it on viewport neither, but again, OSL benefits go way further away than “nice viewport”, being used together with vray or Arnold materials.
3dsMax 2021 unofficial what’s new + all list from 2017
http://cganimator.com/unofficial-3dsmax-whats-new/
Thanks for posting your link, Changsoo! And in case people didn’t see his page, here is his comprehensive list of the 3ds Max 2021 new features, including the 2020 Product Updates which were improved for 2021.
Full MikkT Space Support for Normal Maps
• Baking – the Scanline Renderer can output normal maps in MikkT space (see http://www.mikktspace.com/)
• Rendering – Normal map in MikkT space can be rendered in Scanline Renderer
• Viewport – Physical Material supports MIkkt space normal map in viewport
• API – Normal bump mode is now exposed as a part of 3ds Max API
New BakeToTexture
• Brand-new tool for baking maps and surfaces offers streamlined workflow with full queue control
• Extensive renderer support including Arnold
• Error validation and compatible map filtering
• Faster performance
• MikkT normal map baking
• Override map
• Extensive renderer support including OSL and Blended Box Map
• Bake element viewing in VFB while baking
New Simplified PBR Material
• Two simplified frontends to the Physical Material has been added that are intended to mimic shading models commonly used in game engines
• PBR Material (Rough/Metal)
• PBR Material (Spec/Gloss)
• Drag-and-drop downloaded PBR maps straight from Windows Explorer into the Material/Maps Browser.
OSL
• New dynamic UI generation – Simple Gradient and 1-of-N supports dynamic entry
• Qt-based custom UI support
• New HDRI Environment map – Environment shader with exposure adjustments, ground projection mode, and separation between Background and Environment.
• New HDRI Lights – Allows using a set of HDR photos of light sources as an environment map.
• New Environment/Background Switcher
• New Camera/Object/Spherical Projection map
• New Curve(Color), Curve(Float) map – Transform an input using arbitrary curves. Can be used for gradients or as a color correction tool. Each color channel is mapped individually by the curve.
• New Uber Noise map – Combines many noise functions in one. Can do classic Perlin, Fractal, Cell as well as fBm noise and multiple flavors of Worley noise.
• New Wireframe map
• New 4-Point Gradient map
• New Spec/Gross to Physical map
• FBX export will embed OSL code
• “Version” metadata support
• Proper UDIM support for Asset Tracker
• Paths in OSL shaders can be edited in Asset Tracker
• OSL compilation at startup runs on separate thread
• Fixed OIIO file lock. Bitmap files used in an OSL map can now be edited outside of 3ds Max, as the file no longer locks (PU3)
Physical Material and Arnold as Default
• Physical Material and Arnold are now set as the Defaults
• Previous defaults are still available with MAX.Legacy default
• Physical Material for imported models
• Support PBR Wavefront MTL extension from Exocortex for Obj import
• API support for 3rd party for new default
• VRayMaterial to Physical Material support
• CoronaMaterial to Physical Material support
Viewport
• New “HDAO” mode – gives a “tighter” AO appearance revealing smaller details.
• AO (when enabled) is always on, and does not disappear while navigation
• New Progressive Skylight viewport menu option can turn on/off the progressive mode (same as the old “Skylight as Ambient” but with the opposite polarity of the switch and a better name)
• New Progressive Skylight visible option in the Per-View Presets viewport menu dialog
• New slider for the fading factor in the Per-View Presets dialog
• Physical Material Coating support in the viewport
• Synchronize with Display Mode (PU2)
• Image-based lighting (IBL) is now automatic when an environment is added to the scene. This saves time as there is no need to add a skylight to the scene to have to enable this feature
• Roughness for Physical Materials is now supported in the viewport in “Realistic” mode (PU2)
• improved shadows supported in “Default” lighting mode (PU2)
• Floating viewports (PU1)
Float up to 3 viewport windows
Provides more flexibility in how you work by leveraging your multiple-monitor setup
Floating viewports are fully functional and can be configured separately
Rendering
• Updated Substance plug-in
• QT re-write of Physical Material UI to increase performance.
• New 2K UV template image(color/Grayscale)
• Single-click map select in the Slate Material Editor
Python 3
• Python 3.7 integration (3.7.5)
• 3rd party Python module compiled with different version of compiler support
• Both Python 2.7 (2.7.17) and Python 3.7 interpreters are supported. Python 2.7 can be enabled through a command line switch or environment variable.
• PySide2 was updated to 5.12.5 for both Python2 and Python3
• qtmax helpers – GetQApplication() returns PySide2.QtWidgets.QApplication, GetQMaxMainWindow() returns PySide2.QtWidgets.QMainWindow
• Connect VS Code to Max’s python and debug scripts
• Virtual Environment support
• Startup script support with package entry-points
• MAXScript global variables can be created from Python through pymxs.
• New items can be added to MAXScript arrays and dictionaries directly from Python.
• The command-line renderer (3ds Maxcmd.exe) now supports Python 3. Use option ‘-python3:on’ or set environment variable ‘ADSK_3ds Max_PYTHON3’ to use Python 3 when using 3ds Max command-line renderer.
• Python 3 Alert Mode (PU2)
Will assist in preparing for the Python 2.7 to 3 transition. With mode enabled, users will be informed of exactly which scripts needs to be updated. Both users and automated tool are easily detected as warnings are logged to the MAXScript Listener, the 3ds Max system log file (Max.log) and the console when running 3ds Max Batch.”
New Weighted Normal Modifier
• Improves the shading of models by altering the vertex normals to be perpendicular to larger flat polygons and generates explicit normals for meshes better and faster than ever
• Area/Angle/Largest Face-based
• Full control over smoothing and blending values.
• Hard edge detection by smoothing group/UV/edge angle
• Snap to Largest Face (face-aligned normals) – allows for coplanar faces contribute to the weighting. When active it will snap the normal to the face with the highest weight, among the faces sharing that particular normal vector based upon the detected hard edges. This option can be used in combination with Area and Angle weighting
• Using the existing UV seams (and channel) – as an additional hard edge detection option to generate smoothing results for weighted normals.
Explicit Normal Preservation
• Editable Poly – Detach to Clone, Detach to Element, Detach to Element as clone, Clone to Object, Clone to element, Attach
• Edit Poly – Detach to Clone, Detach to Element, Detach to Element as Clone, Clone to Object, Clone to element, Attach
• Editable Mesh – Detach to Object, Detach to Element, Clone to Object, Clone to Element
• Edit Mesh -Detach to Object
• XForm modifier Preserve Normals option – ensures that normals are maintained when the XForm has a negative scale.
Performance
• Accelerated the data structure for AnimHandles — speed up on Max loading, scripts that deal with large scenes, interacting/loading large scenes, working with many animatable things, etc.
• Modernization of TrackView utilizing new AnimHandle data structure. Faster and more stable TrackView
• Speed up selection of object while TV open by caching all animatables of a scene
• Improved multithreading of asset resolution on scene file load, implemented multithreading of asset resolution on scene file save, and disabled asset resolution on hold and autobackup
• Improved selection performance with many instances
• Intersectray has been reworked. Subsequent raycasts are now multithreaded and can be up to ~3x faster (depending on CPU)
• Deleting helpers with many objects selected is faster (PU3)
• Further optimization of duplicate messages (PU3) — the new improvements accelerate all message propagation in Max, which should improve overall interactive and playback speeds. This optimization gives us many small gains (roughly 20% of message costs), so results will vary. Should be noticeable on bigger or very complex scenes
• Optimization of duplicate messages (PU2) — 3ds Max now avoids sending duplicate messages to plug-ins using the 3ds Max referencing system. This improves performance in many areas of the software, including: Creating keys, Trackview, Slate UI, File Reset
• List controller evaluation is now 15X faster with average weight on or off (PU2)
• Better handling of REFMSG_CHANGE for TrackView to prevent unnecessary TrackView update caused by non-scene objects (PU1)
Modeling
• Improved hit detection when using Swift Loop
• Improved the distribution of Vertex Paint, improved the efficiency of the calculation, and apply blending between approaches when a brush overlaps only some of the vertices of a particular face. This should now allow vertex painting to be applied more consistently to an object
• Bitmap sampling for the Edit UV window has been multi-threaded to help improve bitmap file loading times
• Fixed performance issue with Snap in scenes with Body Objects
• Fixed TextPlus performance with lots of text
• Improvements to selection when using backface culling, which make it easier to select what you need and avoid accidental selections (PU2)
• Editable Poly Command panel display further speed up (PU1)
• Double-click element selection (PU1) — faces, vertices, segments, etc. Supports Editable Poly, Editable Spline, EditSpline and EditPoly modifiers, Unwrap UVW Editor. It also supports modifier hotkeys to add/subtract selection and works in Maya Interaction mode
• Nearest Preview Selection (PU1) — When SubObj preview selection is enabled in EditPoly, the nearest edge/vertex will be highlighted and selected when clicking. When shaded – only the front facing/visible items will be highlighted and selected. This also disables ‘ctrl’ paint selection behavior to avoid changing hotkey behavior in preview mode
Chamfer
• The triangulation of the chamfer output has been updated to produce better non-concave results when applied to faces with concave/co-linear vertices.
• 0 segment Chamfer
• Supports new Chamfer features in Edit Poly
• Supports new Chamfer features in Editable Poly (PU2)
• Vertex Chamfering (PU2)
• Patch and Radial mitering (PU2)
• By Weight chamfer amount type (PU1) allows you apply an absolute weight to an edge rather than interpolating between vertices
• Chamfer Depth (PU1) — can be set on a per-edge basis
• Radius Bias (PU1) — blends the chamfer size to the radius amount to help handle sharp corners
• Data Channel modifier support for Edge Weight and Edge Depth (PU1)
ProSound
• ProSound now supports 24-bit wav files.
• Fixed ProSound issue causing audio to play at 50% volume after frame 100.
• Removed 100 audio clip limit with ProSound.
• Removed ProSound popup dialog when changing animation range.
ATF Import (PU3)
• JT 10.5
• CATIA V4 files created from CATIA V5-6R2019
New SketchUp Importer (PU2)
• ATF based new importer allows any version of SketchUp files to be imported into 3ds Max, whereas the legacy importer can only import files up to SketchUp 2014
• Able to maintain compatibility with future versions.
New Hot Key Editor and Hot Key (PU1)
• New Hotkey Editor tool replaces the Keyboard tab in the Customize User Interface dialog
• Search for action by keywords or by current hotkey assignments
• Clear current assignments and conflicts with undo history
• Filter actions by current customization status, and by groups
• Migrate legacy keyboard shortcut files without missing out on updates to the defaults
• User hotkey settings are saved separately from defaults in a dedicated and accessible User Settings folder
• Configuration selector allows easy and quick switching between hotkey sets
Core
• OSL and AMG shaders will now also be loaded from the directory C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins
• All message boxes pause auto-backup, real-time animation playback, and viewport refresh until dismissed, bringing consistency and predictability to the user experience (PU2)
• Decimal separator improvement (PU2) — Users from various geographic locations (geos), can now trust 3ds Max to use the decimal separator symbol specified in their Windows regional settings when displaying floating point numbers in the user interface.
• standardized file extensions (PU1) — file extension will be always lower case unless user specified
UI
o Main menu bar contents no longer appear white and inconsistent with dark UI styling.
o PU3 Upgrade Qt component version to 5.12.4
o PU3 Restore Dialog on off desktop space in main window
o PU2 Lock UI fix
o PU2 Fixed spinners jumping when wrapping screen borders
o PU1 Command panel multi column speed up include Editable Poly
Maxscript
• Added ability to modify scripted attribute definitions during scene file load
• Fixed MaxScript accessess python modules with wrongly capitalized identifiers (PU3)
• Maxscript edittext support multiline (PU1)
• Autocomplete for MAXScript (PU1) — Autocomplete is now on by default in the MAXScript editor. The new generateAPIList MAXScript API makes it easier for users to enable autocomplete for MAXScript in 3rd party editors.
• Maxscript edittext support multiline (PU1)
Arnold
• Update to Arnold 6.0.2.1.
• Help isolating materials with void or invalid connected textures
• Improved Material Editor preview performance
• MaterialX operator updated to support material assignments
• New USD procedural
• New string_replace operator
• Supports Physical Camera’s tilt correction and lens distortion
• Controllable auto-instancing on .ASS procedurals
• Faster procedural initialization
• Reduced noise on smooth transmissive thin-walled surfaces
• Autodesk analytics program available for Windows
• OpenEXR updated to version 2.4.
• Better animation support UI for procedurals and volumes
• Supports normal maps space and orientation parameters
• Uses the Arnold’s viewport API for procedural display
• Arnold GPU
• New AOV and Light Groups interface
• Extended the Arnold Properties modifier for cameras
• OSL version of the Physical Sun and Sky shader
• Export/Import materials as .ass/.mtlx files
• Expose aov_write_vector.
• Arnold core 5.4.0.1. (PU3)
• Arnold procedural and alembic objects now have a viewport representation (PU3)
• Arnold alembic object supports layer information (PU3)
• You can change render settings while in ActiveShade (PU3)
• shader_override node (PU3)
• Baking Normal and Height maps now supported (PU3)
• Exposed the clip_geo shader (PU2)
• Arnold lights viewport support (PU2)
• Initial OSL OpenVDB support on GPU (PU2)
• Most lights supported on GPU except IES (PU2)
Fixes
o 3ds Max 2021 – 84 Fixes
😀 that was funny list.. like poor joke getting more and more poor in the end… How is that even possible? oh.. one developer? well.. then thats pretty amazing upg..date.
Rendering upgrades are cool! but 3ds max isn’t only render tool. What about animation base users after these years ?!…
Are on development:
http://makeanything.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/public-roadmap-25B1-201DB.html#animation-beta
I’m sorry to say that after going through the list of beta and future releases of currently in development animtion tools for 3ds max on your page, it plainly demonstrates that the team at Autodesk does not take animators and Riggers seriously.
Please name me one animation feature they have showcased that proves otherwise.
ALL the tools there are plainly meant for “plug and play” archviz basic motions and super basic rig functions “Inertia, re-targeting and directed animation” seriously?
Also they consider Bifrost an animation tool??? who wrote this?
-Where are the muscles?
-Where are updates to Biped?
-Where are the updated spline IK tools (similar to Maya’s)?
-Where are the proper tools for skinning! We are still dealing with an archaic Skin modifier.
-Animation Layers without that awful 1990’s interface and functions?
-Updates to CAT maybe?
-They mention “FireFX Smoke and Cloth” First fire and smoke NOT animation tools, Cloth -I will believe it when I see it! but the fact that they threw cloth in a sentence with Fire and smoke somewhere shows nothing serious is happening there either.
Aah I see what they are doing here, givin all the “animation tools” that archviz users can use for their populate crowds and calling it a day.
As for Max 2021 I simply don’t care because all the features mentioned here I can live without and so do majority of Max users. Arnold will get updated regardless, render to texture is a good addition but It was working so I could live with it for now, Polygon modeling updates is nonexistent again and I could care even less about OSL shaders and viewport speeds!
I don’t mean to come off as negative but it’s the truth and not subjective, I could weigh the pros and cons and priorities for a software like max and let the best win if anyone is up for the challenge.
Dont get angry with me! just trying to give you the information I have.
On an “inside the factory” they showcase they are fully commit in to improving animation in 3dsmax. Not sure when all this will be visible but they know its a key feature.
There will be internal changes that will upgrade all max animation systems and unify them somehow, not sure if I can tell anything else.
About Bifrost as an animation… Yes its suposed to become the ultimate tool. Need advanced rigging? Use bifrost as a controller. Need advanced muscles? do it with bifrost with MPM. Bifrost will be not only for FX. They just showcased during the webinar a tool Clovis write in less than a day for advanced crowd systems in Bifrost… inside Max.
Feeling your frustration, you can join the beta and make more vocal your concerns.
The animation tools showcased in the roadmap, what rigs would they be used on?. what rigs are the chappie models on?…i hope its not something that has to be imported from maya, because that would be a serious let down.
How about improvements to skin morph to put it on par with pose space deformers in maya, or the rivet tool that attaches objects to deforming meshes?
i think autodesk knows what its doing by avoiding even the simplest accessible tools within the company and pretending we have to officially ask for it before it can be considered.
We’ve asked for skin improvements, skin sliding for so long on the ideas forum that it has been relegated either because we got tired and stopped voting for such features or because the people who are interested are moving to other softwares.
Year in year out, we gather here to complain so loudly on how we need better animation tools, but autodesk pretends like they arent seeing these threads and continue to improve chamfer.
we never see the archviz guys complaining because they are over-content. but for years now, its we the animators that wail the loudest. yet, autodesk would pretend that it listens.
***i love the viewport improvements though. but maya even has shadows previewing on HDRI environment maps, right in the viewport. And also, permanent AO is not something we should highlight in a release because viewport2.0 has had it since forever.
we are so terrible even at playing catch up…
my suggestiong on vieports is for them to implement everything in one fell swoop.
– volume lights
– object reflection in the viewport.
these additions would make it a complete feature.
“rivet tool that attaches objects to deforming meshes” is already here. Attachment constraint..
really?. attachment constraints would require atleast 6 clicks to what rivet does in like 3 clicks.
Also, attachment constraint is destructive.
maybe you need to see the point to surface tool in maya again.
Every software has his own timeline to add features. “but even maya has shadows previewing on HDRI environment maps” And??? 3dsmax had this since 2012?
Animation yes, I hear you, there has been not improvements for a while, but there is a team working on it right now. Join the beta, complain there, get some feedback of what is going on.
3ds max has this since 2012 how?. it never has.
let me explain. its nice we can now create the grounds for the hdri environment maps.but how about it recieving shadows as you can in maya viewport 2.0?
Oh gotcha, you mean a shadow catcher. Max had shadows from HDRI images since 2012. But yeah right no shadow catcher yet.
I didn’t get angry with you at all.
Regarding Bifrost, I’ve seen similar tools and I don’t believe it is a way forward regarding muscle systems or rigs. As an artist I don’t want to assign a hundred nodes in a convoluted interface to create muscles, I need a system that works as muscles by default similar to Ziva plugin for Maya or what skin FX was at a time.
Instead of streamlining and making artist friendly yet complex tools, we either get nothing or it seems some super node based complicated all in one type solution.
Anyway pointless.
Again, you should join the beta or watch the webinar.
3Dsmax is working on integrating bifrost in max and create tools with it. You will get a nice interface to adapt to artists needs for specific tasks, but using under the hood Bifrost system. This way you can not care about nodes if its not what you want, or go messy with it if you need specific things.
But yes, I get your point, everything is pointless no matter what I say.
when would the webinar video be released?. also you didnt answer my question about the rigs used in the demonstration for the roadmap videos.
Rigs are 3dsmax rigs. Bipeds or Cats, you can read them on the description, I guess more information will be given soon!
when do you think the full webinar video would be released?
lol no dude he’s not angry with you. maybe you feel like you’re some sort of representative for autodesk and you’re taking it personally.
being a developer is hard.
but in my opinion, that whole list (what’s new) is a whole heep of nothing, most of it looks like fixes. am i wrong?
anyone who is expecting 3ds max to be anything other than a visual/vr tool for autocad/revit/cad is a fool.
it’s not maya, if u want tools from maya go to maya.
3ds max is not for vfx/games/indie studios. its for big/small architecture firms.
i love the software too.
but autodesk has a different stance and purpose when they bought 3ds max.
“Max is not for vfx/games/indie studios” Really? Because I have been using it for vfx/indie studios for a while and is widely used, and as far as I know still one of the most used on videogames.
3ds max has been always shipped by autodesk
I am not taking anything personally, I am not defending anyone here, just trying to address misinformation like yours.
Perhaps Jake is referring to ADSK buying MAX from Discreet back in the day?
Autodesk never bought max form discreet. Discreet was an Autodesk Division. Nowadays has been renamed to Autodesk Media an Entertainment.
Small correction : Autodesk did buy Discreet (which was called Discreet Logic then, a Montreal company making editing tools), and then renamed Kinetix, which was the name of the division Max was under, to Discreet, and later to Media & Entertainment. But yes, Max was always published by AD.
@eloi and the devs.
my apologies. guess im just a toxic talker and im not reliable (im stupid).
what i dont get is autodesk buying up a few software and burying them?
3dsMax is Autodesk’s own child from the beginning. There was a management who tried push Maya. But, they are all gone now.
Totaly Agree
Thanks Elio! list is cool! but this list can be disappointing for many artistic base users and studios, these upgrades are more technical and arch&design tool set. Arch&design user find their way today and have their powerful package also TD and VFX artist if use max, using some powerful plugins and never use these tools.
But on the other hand Max haven’t many basic and foundation tools for managing an animation projects like suitable reference tool, rig, Fluent animating, hair, up to date polygon modeling and sculpt etc…. Animation is a base of some sofwares like Max but this software have many problem in this part, sorry but its like a joke!
If you search in net, can see Arch&Design users are Satisfied from max, most of VFX users use houdini or plugins in Maya and Max and today for them not thinking about their base 3d software but game and animation artist in max are Unhappy and want to Migrate cause modeling and animation inefficient or not up to date in Max. After these problems today Autodesk strategist team have a strategy to more support for Arch and VFX users! why? because they want to shift artistic users to Maya! but they never think they user completely disappoint from their company and migrating to another company not to other software from their company!
You can see most of Unhappy users in net are from game and animation industries and instead Autodesk let their capital on this part of users to provide their satisfaction, after these years they see they lose many users but Still do they work!
Another things are about their expensive softwares, user spent much many and wait for golden Max roadmap list for future but after 2 years have some small updates! (VS other companies package and MAx golden roadmap.), user have repeatedly say their opinion: Autodek movement like turtle!! For exam you can compare to speed of Tyflow updates but Autodesk do their work like a turtle again… .
You will see very important updates in animation soon! How soon? I dont know. Join the beta, and complain directly to them, maybe you will get excited with the things coming.
Eloi, nothing personal and don’t get me wrong I am not upset at you or see your points “pointless”. But please understand this.
When you say join the beta team and sea changes or contribute, here is what my feeble mind computes instead:
1 – I see the roadmap for animation = it’s a joke and I noted my reasons above.
2 – people have been joining and voicing their concerns on Beta for decade now and so no results on ANY animation or animation related sim tools AT ALL!!
3 – What good would my personal contribution make by joining the beta now when all these years others far more dedicated in Autodesk circles have voiced their opinions regarding the same points. So should I choose to join the beta team it will be a waste of time given the track record.
I want to know Why Autodesk keeps neglecting these tools.
D*amn it Autodesk, Arch viz and VFX users are Over supplied with tools in Max for many many years now.
And even if you missed a tool you can find a reservoir of a billion plugins that provide the tools for you.
Join beta and pay subscription.. Sound like shareholders commercial.. but “The crazy person is not the one who asks but the one who pays.”
paying beta tester.. 😀 that is so crazy idea..
I’m on the beta and I’m not a paying customer. So I can see what’s happening while learning Max. For me it’s fair.
You mentioned Blender. Do you use the official ones of the alpha/beta ones?
If you join the beta you can ask all this directly to the developers /product owners and ask why your voice has been neglected. Maybe its better than do nothing?
You are complaining about valid points, I am just saying… You can keep complaining every year on an online forum, where the maximum you will get is: “yes, you are right”. Or you can complain on the place where you can make a difference.
“Archiviz and vfx are over supplied with tools” You see, here I disagree with you (and at the same time agree with you), I am totally not happy with the state of VFX tools in 3ds max its something I am fighting to get improved.
Good stuff guys!
I think that viewport looks really awesome – well done guys and keep up the all the good work it is greatly appreciated, and I dont even work in archviz 😉
NOW get that indie license to EUROPE pls
During the we inar they said 3ds max indie is coming worlwide this year. They was not able to say a date, but this year.
The viewport looks really good. Those who cannot see it are far gone and should be on other forums and not here complaining.
I am excited about the viewport advancements…its almost as if now its possible to do production work thru viewport alone… am I mistaken? i just saw Zap’s demo video of max viewport and its really impressive… What can’t the viewport represent in 3dsmax2021 that will make it not a renderer replacer?
Viewport can`t do true reflections/refractions, pixel displacement, GI, post fx, etc…
Indeed but it’s a great start and will only improve. I’m excited about that.
Are you serious??? Renderer replacement! Jesus.
How can you even be contemplating that! Unreal engine is 100x more powerful than any viewport renderer out there and it 1000000 times behind any modern render engine and in 10 years time it will still be behind any production renderer!
And Unreal is being used for photorealistic realtime applications in film and television shows. I’m trying to find ways of using it on the shows I’m working on.
No it is not being used the way you think, It is only being used in a very very very limited way for background elements and some previz, ILM tossed in there a very basic robot model for fun after modifying the engine code and applying their RnD on it coupled with a $$$$$ graphic rig to run it for fun, it took them longer to do that than if they had decided to just render it in Vray.
such things are sort of used by bigger studios as an experimental whenever they got time to kill or approached by Epic for a marketing stunt. They always have their offline crew on standby should anything slightly more complicated is suddenly required.
I should know..
By all means use it but keep your expectations in check.
There I agree with you, but when it’s Max, it’s stupid, when it’s Blender, it’s OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH the world has changed.
I would prefer a faster viewport for objects and polygons + faster interactions from the renderer, that should be enough.
I don’t know much about Blender but I do know this:
If I want to use realtime or near realtime then I will export my project to either Unity or Unreal and get the job done there if I want to build I need my 3d software to do just that. Pretty viewport? don’t care as long as it displays gradients, noise tiling and textures and backgrounds and basic lights would be nice. I don’t care about AO, SSS, reflections, and all that fancy stuff in the viewport.
You know when I will start caring about them though? maybe after AALLL the important features have been met in Max from animation,rigging to updated modeling tools to finally cohesive material shading workflows (not in the viewport but in the material editor) we just got a F*ckin color curve, a new procedural noise shader! After 15 years! yes count that for 15 years your gradient shader was so slow it drags the entire software and your noise was from the 90’s doesn’t even display correctly in the viewport, you had to render to guess and your color node is archaic! I’m not sure if they bothered with that horror “Composite” shader yet.
Total joke. People who defend it are funny.
Serious question – i read that max has only 1 developer… Is that true…? That cannot be…?
Seriously… how many developers – PROGRAMMERS (not PR) are working on max…??
FYI; for people who didn’t see the 3ds Max 2021 webinar live on Wednesday, you can watch it here: https://autodesk.wistia.com/medias/ny4mu3r2n0
Judging by Blender’s rate of development lately, I would guess no more than 2. What I’ve learned throughout the years as a long term Autodesk customer is that Autodesk are about getting your money, not about spending it on real product development and improving their products in a meaningful way. This is obvious by the not so recent decision of completely removing the perpetual licenses. Autodesk now want to milk their customers by offering only subscriptions when more than 90% of their own clients protested against this and made a HUGE deal about it which fell on deaf ears. This tells you how “concerned” Autodesk really are about their customers (more like cash cows).
I’ll tell you one thing about this company. Intel once ignored the capabilities of amd and continued to boast of its high cost and its old manufacturing. To see for himself. The opponent has moved far ahead of himself. This is exactly what the company has been saying .3ds max when you open the cat, cat and fabric. Exactly out of date. The other thing to do is to update the Max by adding textile and hair extensions and maximizing Maya to your Max and deleting all of Max’s unnecessary options.
limping behind a free tool like Blender is just pathetic. even trying to use the same demo scenes and styles to make your slaves think you are on the same track is quite silly, you lost another slave…
Blender copies max features for years…aaaaaand still sucks:D
Do you use Blender?
i tried, it’s so painfully slow in edit poly, and then i waited 2 minutes for undo to work. Thanks but no, thanks. And i didn’t have to pay for 3ds max, company pays for my software.
You tried it, great, for how long?
Also, have you tried Maya? or Cinema4D? or Modo?
What do you think about them in comparison with 3ds Max?
And yes, blender stolen modifiers from max, just made them worse…
Modifiers are just operations, and if they work well, why cannot be used in general in other packages?
Do you mean that if a software like Maya or Cinema4D has similar “modifiers” to 3dsmax, even when the stack concept is not the same (not the same in Blender either), they are stealing them also? and they are doing them also worse?
Now you assure they are made worse, again, for how long have you tried Blender to be so sure about this?
For the love of god, can you Blender fanboys stay in your own area? Do you see anyone pushing 3Dsmax on you like you guys are pushing Blender on other people? Stop comparing the two. Blender can’t do all what 3dsmax can, and vice-versa. In the construction industry alone the interop between software packages is essential and no, Blender does not have anything remotely approaching this. Yes I know about BlenderBIM. And this is just one of the many fields Max covers.
No I am not an Autodesk shill, I agree with many of the criticisms outed on this page, but the Blender community really needs to mature and be more self-critical. I get it’s fun to hate on a big company, but at least make it well-founded and constructive instead of vomiting out baseless insults. So just because a product is free, it is good?
This just shows what you get when you have a free tool, Dunning-Kruger effect all over your community, since the bar of entry is so low.
TL;DR: blender cannot replace max
For the love of god, no! 😉
This is not your area, It’s a public area, you are free to speak but thankfully not to censor anyone, just ignore the comments you don’t like, you are free to do that too 🙂
BTW I’m not “compairing”, I’m making a point, a person who tried blender for a day or two it’s unable to properly know if it’s good or not, a person that never tested used Blender is unable to know if Blender can be compared with something or not, a person who defends the software he uses for the shake of saying “the software I use is better because I use that software” is unable to compare that software with other packages, so saying blender “…still sucks” without knowing it it’s a non sense.
People like Eloi have tried and used Blender, he is learning it, discovering the pros and cons of the software for his specific workflow, may be enough or not (I’ll advance you… it’s not, he does lots of particles and VFX, he has not enough control, at least yet), and he can compare specific things because he tried them, he is not talking just from what he heard in a forum that someone has a friend that tried blender for a day and that friend said that the other friend that tried blender for two days say itˋs crap, so it must be crap…
Let´s keep things serious, my point is that yes, Blender has problems, Max has problems (or this thread would not be so filled up with max people asking about Autodesk ignoring many things), all the softwares have problems and limitations.
Regarding the BIM, yep, I agree with you, Max is king for some workflows in the architectural world, the Viz part is not Max exclusive, but some other areas are easier with max, specially because Autodesk wants it to be that way with it’s closed file formats, like RVT that only Max and Revit can read, it’s amazing that in 2020 Autodesk is still creating closed file formats when in general all the 3D industry goes through the path of open file formats, like Alembic, OpenEXR, GLTF and some others…. but it’s Autodesk, and no… specific features is not a reason, they can open the file format whenever they want, but they won’t, like FBX, a closed file format that makes you accept an Autodesk EULA to be able to use the SDK and access it, LOL, thank god we have GLTF slowly gaining terrain.
BTW you are the only one saying the product is free, it’s amazing how you embrace that the product is free to shield up behind that and decline any other thing about it.
Please read my post carefully, I’m not doing a direct comparison, I respect 3ds Max (I don’t use it anymore, and I’m sad because how Autodesk is treating customers, killing perpetuals, ignoring the law and starting to stop the activation of perpetuals, basically treating customers as short minded with things like “this will be cheaper” but the actual cost doubles, it’s very sad), I don’t like Autodesk at all, but what I said is that all softwares have it’s pros and cons, try to stop jumping over like any post mentioning Blender is saying “Blender is god, all the others are trash, go use Blender because it’s free” 😂
The fact is that Max is what it is and what it has been, since several years max updates have been a joke, that does not make the software worse, but older, and It’s loosing track in some areas, like animation, do you know that one of the biggest schools in Spain it’s not able to fill up the 3dsmax yearly curse for animation? People wants Maya, why would Autodesk invest in Animation in Max if there is commercial interest on it?
Now architectural? Yep, they fill up all the courses, and Maya animation? Yes, they fill up the courses.
Max is old, and it’s getting older and older, and it probably won’t get any proper animation feature, remember the days when the answer was “CAT is the future of animation in Max”?, I imagine it’s still the future, but who knows in how many years…
DR: Blender cannot replace max -> Be more precise, Blender cannot replace max FOR YOU, because it has already replaced max for many individuals and studios 🙂
I’m not even reading all that, the first sentence was enough. Thank you for proving my point.
Of course, how can you dare to read and inform yourself!
The fact is that you prefer to keep thinking that what you said makes some sense, even if it does not…
… your choice! 🙂
It’s that time of the year when I check what a joke of a release Autodesk came up with. And of course, I wasn’t surprised at all – it’s yet another boring and unexciting release. “Thanks”, Autodesk for the years of mediocrity. I “can’t” wait to spend another few thousand $$ on my ever increasing perpetual licenses’ upgrade cost for the same thing every year. What a joke…
I’m curious what your primary 3d application is assuming you haven’t been using 3ds Max now for some time it sounds like.
That’s not going to be a problem after next year.
They’re just working on the viewport. They don’t want to render anymore to get the same viewport.
They should be writing game engine instead of 3dsmax update
Poor old Zap, they took away his Mental ray, now he is so bored at Autodesk that he is putting his time on OSL viewport shaders and calling it a day.
I wonder about the workflow though, if you need to use OSL shaders to see some pretty viewport shading what happens when you come to finally rendering these in Arnold or Vray? Am I supposed to sit down and convert ALL my shaders to Arnold and Vray materials double check by test rendering them in those render engines and then move forward with final renders?!
Alas they keep telling me to join the beta and I keep B*tchin that its hopelessly useless and so the cycle goes on and on.
Oh wait here’s an idea for the viewport that can ACTUALLY be useful, you know that DECALMachine in blender? yes how about implementing a feature like that which makes functional sense!
Ok, you didnt understand anything.
You dont need OSL shaders to see some pretty viewport shading.
You can use the OSL shaders with Arnold, Vray or any other supported renderer, you dont need to do anything especial. You dont need to convert anything. In the case, you need to convert materials, you have scene converter for that you dont need to go one by one.
Sorry I think you missed my point,
I know you can use osl shaders with arnold and vray! but most of us use and want to use only mostly Vray and Arnold default surface shaders which can produce complex custom shaders they are built for NOT OSL unless specific situations call for it and not the other way around.
The question was, will the viewport look equally as good using those default shaders? correct me if i’m wrong my assumption is no. because you may need osl to get those fake reflections etc..
But if my project is 100% not based on osl then most of the fancy viewport you are showing off may not work. Is this correct in assumption? that is the question.
The problem here is not OSL, the problem is VrayMaterial and ArnoldSurfaceShader than they dont have hoockup yet their materials to the max viewport. Its only on his side to do that, not on Autodesk side (they offer the option so others can do it, but they can not force it). I dont understand the “Vray and arnold can produce complex custom shaders they are built for”, In general you will have the same or more functions in the OSL build nodes + being able to tweak it internally if you want + visibility on viewport. So I dont see any downside. Check the HDRIenvironment OSL, or the OSL tilemap. They have the same options as the equivalent in vray + you can use it in vray, Arnold, or any other compatible OSL renderer + its visible in viewport.
Weighted Normals is awesome, a much-needed update. Proper normals are vital and were always a pain to edit ;)!
It’s nice that the viewport is improved, however, there are so many more core functionalities that need to be updated before the pretty sparkly stuff. Like the basic ability to connect two vertices that are opposite each other properly. The amount of times that simple function breaks is appalling. Or even quadrifying a triangulated mesh properly.
The rigging, skinning, and animation tools are so outdated. They haven’t changed for a decade…. Q_Q. Maya’s are so good…..
Can we just stop pretending Maya and 3DS have to be two totally different programs? Why can’t Autodesk just merge the best ideas into each of them? Everybody would win by a unified Autodesk 3D product!
Because that would mean writing a brand new software from scratch. They actually ARE two totally different programs. You can’t just cherry pick features from maya and 3dsmax,”kitbash” them and expect to get anyhting viable.
Please make 3ds Max Linux support available! then it will be great!
nice, 120 comments, the most popular 3d soft ever:D. Long live 3ds max:D
Hi,i cant find material parameters in Compact material editor in 3dsmax2021,please help.