(Updated) 3DS Max product manager Eddie Perlberg and senior QA Kelly Michels have added more information on the reasons behind the move to the new Max Ideas site. Read their comments for more.
(Updated) 3DS Max product designer Martin Coven has stated that they are “transferring the top ideas to the new system”. Read his comment for more.
Autodesk has retired their old Uservoice site, used for gathering feedback and ideas to influence the development of 3DS Max, in favour of a new Autodesk Ideas system. The new site operates similar to Uservoice but with unlimited votes with one vote per idea. This is a fresh start, most existing suggestions have not been ported to the new platform. You can read more about the change in a blog post by Sr. QA for 3DS Max Kelly Michels, or go directly to the new feedback site on the Ideas page.
3DS Max Ideas 2.0 site now live
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Nice…so after years of fluids being near the top, the proper way to address this desire is “Let’s scrap all that old user voice and start again”….so I guess if I upvote fluids enough I can probably get Autodesk to abandon this system, too.
They’re becoming the Sears-Roebuck of 3d software.
Part of this move is to revitalize the system and the gathered feedback. Various teams such as Design will be monitoring this system closer as well.
What are the odds that they ever actually ‘port’ over the original ideas?
We moved over a list of the top fifteen ideas and not all were directly movable as the user accounts no longer existed. We also set all top ideas we moved with fifty initial votes. The missing ones without accounts will be put in manually shortly.
Come on, if any of the old Uservoice suggestions were any good they they would have been implemented before they were binned. Having the internet dump random ideas on you will work much better this time around.
/sarcasm
There are many factors that go into what can be implemented and when, some items could even span more than one release. Others may be due to different code areas needing to be updated first.
For some reference:
3ds Max 2016 Ext1 closed over 700 votes
3ds Max 2017 closed over 2,000 votes
Those votes weren’t closed by accident. We take the customer voice seriously and rely on uservoice data to help us shape our priorities. That’s why we have been paying attention to uservoice and that’s why we took the opportunity to give you a clean slate to get your ideas seen and discussed. Lot’s of really good ideas were being lost under the weight of how many repeats and similar ideas there were.
And the fact that you can go back and continue to voice your opinion on new topics and ideas with an unlimited number votes makes your voice louder and stronger.
Please read Kelly’s post to better understand the reasoning behind this move.
Could you provide some more info as to how the votes break down into features? Sounds like a lot of votes but under the uservoice process those weren’t single vote issues. Perhaps you could also give us some indication of the the time it took to close some of those items. Also is there any criteria for when a new item is promoted to active development? Since votes are unlimited is a reasonable threshold 50 votes, 500, 1000? If popular old uservoice items are being added what happens when low vote feature requests get recycled on the new site?
We are transferring the top ideas to the new system. One issue is that if the user is no longer in the system, it doesn’t automatically happen. I think I know the one you want up there Jim. I’ll get it added. 🙂
OK it’s added and we will add points to it to make it one of the top. Please add your vote if you think this is important to you. I assume you will be adding some Jim!
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-ideas/more-robust-fluid-system/idi-p/6796030
Yeah…that one’s mine. Honestly it’s something I’ve been screaming to get for years, but in my second year on Houdini honestly I’m close to just keeping my current version of Max, cancelling my sub, and using Max as a modeller in support of Houdini. That opinion is based on my 99% certainty that fluids are NOT in the works for Max so long as Maya exists.
I’m with you, Jim, 100%. It’s a damn shame that the top selling 3D app on the market, and a $3700 ($2400/yr sub)app can’t even provide native tools to create a decent set of clouds, a missile/meteor trail, or campfire. One has to pay and additional $900 for a plugin to fill the gap that the 3ds Max development team should have filled years ago. Maya has had fluids for years, and now has 2 such toolsets compared to zero for 3ds Max.
Combine that with Autodesk’s ultra-coercive upgrade policies of the past few years, to now include subs-only…I said good-bye to 3ds Max.
Thank you, Autodesk for ignoring your userbase and trying to strong arm us into staying in your fold. It pushed me right into the Houdini camp, where they are aggressively developing, listening to their customers, aren’t constrained by corporate, profit-driven directives.