Autodesk has released 3ds Max 2025.3 release. Improvements include updates to the Array Modifier and Boolean Modifier for significantly faster processing times, enhancements in animation workflows, and the introduction of the OpenPBR shading model. This release also brings a new update to the Universal Scene Description plug-in, as well as improvements to the Arnold for 3ds Max rendering engine.
The Array Modifier now delivers up to 250% faster processing, a notable increase from previous versions. The Boolean Modifier has also been optimized, achieving a 20-50% speed boost for volume-based meshing operations.
For animators, 3ds Max 2025.3 addresses long-standing issues in the Character Animation Toolkit and Biped. Several fixes target stability and functionality, such as resolving FBX warnings about unsupported controllers and fixing issues in the CATMotion Editor related to rig evaluation and cloning. Biped-specific improvements include fixes for translation errors in extra bones when loading FBX animations and improvements in MaxScript functionality for copying and pasting animation data.
3ds Max also introduces OpenPBR, a new shading model co-developed by Autodesk and Adobe. Positioned as the successor to Autodesk Standard Surface, OpenPBR introduces physically realistic material presets and the promise of interoperability between different applications. The new material is available in the Slate and Compact Material Editors and is supported by the Arnold rendering engine in the 2025.3 release. Other renderers will need to add support for this material.
The updated Universal Scene Description plug-in now offers users more control over prim properties, allowing for easier inspection and editing of USD assets. Additional features include the ability to import USD curves as 3ds Max shapes and enhanced snapping options for USD mesh prims, plus much more.
The Arnold 5.7.5.0 plug-in for 3ds Max has been upgraded to include a variety of new features. Notably, as mentioned, the release integrates the new OpenPBR surface shader, improving surface realism with better reflectivity models and support for AMD GPUs in denoising through Intel’s Open Image Denoise technology. Other Arnold improvements include enhanced volume rendering, faster startup times for GPU-based rendering, and the introduction of a customizable toolbar for quicker access to frequently used Arnold tools. Additionally, new volume scattering parameters allow for more efficient and visually accurate rendering of complex scenes like clouds.
To get a full list of all the new features and improvements, visit the 3ds Max 2025.3 help pages and the release notes.
Very cool, I’m still enjoying 3ds max almost 30 years later! Still a workhorse and always delivering. Now, here come the blender boys, letting us know how this is just another lack luster release and that we should move over to their software.
Yeah Blender is the best, it’s free… but somehow still never saw it in production in over 12 years of work.
For version 2.8, they made blender less blender and more standard and to this day, that was the most exciting update they ever did, then they went back thinking blender is great being weird and getting inspired by Autodesk is evil…
Blender devs, if you are reading this. Make blender like an open source maya like with a shelf and the same outliner system, similar animation workflow and you will see your fund double in a year…
what a weird pathetic fan fiction.
use what you want man, nobody cares.
might want to update your anti-blender arguments though, very 2010.
Haha 100%
dude no one cares what you are using, get over yourself.
Pah…this is just another lack luster release and that every 3dsmax user should move over to Blender, which is far superior in all regards…
Is there something similar to Ornatrix in blender? Tyflow? Blender has couple of nice modelling addons, that’s far from ‘far superior’…
But those are not 3DSMax, they’re all plugins.. That’s what’s keeping max alive, it’s thriving plugin ecosystem. Let’s be honest here, AD could try a bit harder..
That’s exactly My question. Blender have couple of nice modeling plugins that look interesting, I’m asking if it has some good hair and simulation solutions too. Barebones blender without plugins is nothing special.
What’s wrong with a plug-in ecosystem?
No reply to my comment? Did I hit vulnerable point?
MS paint ftw!
If you want to make real-time assets, Blender has all you need and, in some cases, more than Max. I’ve had enough of Autodesk’s disrespect toward Max users and the uninspired development of Max, so I started using Blender. My customers are switching to Blender, too. Blender is not the holy grail. It’s complicated in many areas. If Autodesk is treating their customers like that, how will they treat their employees? Max feels like a headless, confused chicken with many untreated diseases.
Wow constant releases sure are great! Not like before when you had to wait about 6 months for a service pack to fix the new release bugs then another 12-18 months for them to get around to fixing all the new feature bugs. Looks at calendar…Heyyyy wait a minute.
Biped’s Last anything update in the year of our lord 2001.
Biped Update in 2024:
FBX thing + some bone rotation fixes.
Biped expected Update from users for over 20 years:
1 – Updated interface so we don’t rely ona million scripts each half functional. simple floating interface that shows layered animations and all other fucntions correctly.
2 – Laoding times of motion panel takes a second or two with each biped bone selection since it needs to load the entire interface again.
3 – Biped copy paste pose is broken since forever, it doens’t take into accoutn the Bip Root.
4 – Better handling of IK FK switch with proper interface.
5 – Spline IK support for the lower pelvis!
Can someone at Autodesk atleast get the first 3 done please before we move forwardw ith the others. Its been 25 years already, is there really no one out there to give us a proper interface for this awesome toolset!!???
I really don’t know what to make of your comment. CAT (Character Animation Toolkit) replaced biped in 2013. Max kept biped around but CAT is the go-to tool for character animation. It is far superior to biped to me. No contest.
Biped has some uses. I use it to bring bip. files into max and then I can load from biped to CAT. I don’t think you’re going to see too much development in biped moving forward.
However, I would love to see secondary motion in CAT. If InstantRig (now free) can do it (Overlapping Action Feature), I don’t see why AD is having such a hard time with it. An improved muscle system in CAT would also go a long way.
I would love to know how you’re using biped these days. Am I missing something?
Biped is amazing !!!! So much easier than CAT, it’s very much used in the gaming and film industry.
Sure it has some shortcomings, like no native squash and stretch, but some scripts do help. Like the free springmagic for secondary animation and follow through.
Check this guy’s channel, he’s got amazing tutorials on Biped ! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otb1CX2akR4
Check this and you will see what i mean.
https://80.lv/articles/characters-in-dark-souls-iii-armored-core-vi-were-rigged-with-the-same-tool/
Also CAT while its certainly powerful and has its uses, is also very buggy and needs a big update itself.
Biped has no competition when it comes to bipedal characters, stability, mocap, copy paste and posture flexibility, custom pivot placements even for fingers! Something even the loudest of custom rigs lack, not to mention the unmatched retargeting.
Overall gets the job done everytime and i never experienced it bugging out on me and no gimbal locks. Did i mention ik and fk at the same time without switches?
“Did i mention ik and fk at the same time without switches?”
i got spoiled by this animating with biped for so many years. having to manually switch this instead of just moving the rig how you need to still bugs me 🙂
3ds max developers are a bunch of bums
That’s a very unfair characterization. They are all hard working people doing what is being asked of them within the confines that AD sets for them. None of them are slacking off, and I’m sure there is way more things they would like to bring to the table if given the time, resources, and opportunity.
This is the worst 3ds max team of all time that only updates Chamfer and the interface, they became a joke on the internet, they are not just bums, they are incapable and were hired by Autodesk because of this, you need to be very innocent not to realizing that Autodesk gave up on 3ds max a while ago, now they have lost their shame and even put tutorials as part of the Updates because they have nothing to show!!!
Says andre vieira lmao
Just a few thoughts from a 25-year 3ds Max user (unfortunately, clients and jobs – I am still tied to the Autodesk world). I’ve been following Blender for a long time, but it was only last year that I really started diving deeper into it. Almost every month, I download a new 400MB build packed with fresh features. I unzip it into a folder, and it starts up in 3 seconds. Geometry Nodes are amazing, and the overall performance is much faster than in 3ds Max.
The only few things I miss in Blender are autodesk software compatibility (mainly dwg import), some kind of the distance texture (but its vray thing) and an Edit Poly modifier. After a few months of learning Geometry Nodes, I was able to create a roof tile generator ARCH TILER for bender 4.0.2 [pavement, wall and roof tile generator] V_065 opacity masked booleans – YouTube . Here, you can see the performance in real time, from the push of a button to generating geometry and rendering. 3ds Max’s RailClone is much slower (of course ready for more tasks). As for unwrapping? I could have a coffee while waiting.
Every time I open 3ds Max now, I feel like I’m using an old, dying dinosaur… Sorry 3dsmax my half century friend…
blender mostly relies on plugins for everything , there so much of them that me personally have no idea what to choose , good thing i found a reseller that sold me a verified student one year maya and 3ds max licenses for only 15$
there are*
you are right its hard to get oriented in such amount of the adds and nodetrees available there, but for me max is plugin oriented as well, I pay for railclone, forestpack, vray + 3dsmax freelance license, +some small plugs and free scripts, together its not small amount. Everyone can choose his own way result is the most important, I just wanted to share my opinion at this moment. The days when cgtalk was live and 3dsmax few years ahead seems to me are over…
hello, it seems that i,ll have to switch to blender eventually because it,s mandatory for the game design diploma that i enrolled in.
i,ll become an indie game designer after it.
In the paar they called it hotfix. Now its an Update.
Back in the days they call it hotfix