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Good interview, was “lite on details” but he has his hands tied as a public company, would have loved to hear the response to the question of moving toward rental only in 2016 (“desktop subscription”) but i guess we’d get a corporate answer on that.
He’s coming back for another interview once max 2016 is revealed which should have more meat to the conversation.
Eddie does seem like a very nice guy. Hope he gets a chance to stay long on top of the 3ds Max to improve it a lot more.
When this guy talks he says nothing, its truly amazing. He rabbits on and on you wound how in the hell anything positive is happening behind the scenes with a guy like this incharge. He is the ultimate smokescreen. Unfortunately for max users not much has happen behind the scene for a very long time. We have been down this road before with all the promises of Xcaliber. That was nothing but a smokescreen. I think this release for max will be the death of it and it will just be a architect tool.
A lot of guy’s I know have start on maya or houdini as like myself they just can trust a guy like this or Autodesk.
Talks like a politician. Dodging questions left and right.
Funniest one was when he was asked how big the max team was. Com’on is that really under NDA too?
I put a similar question to Autodesk reps, when we were effectively told ‘subdivs and alembic aren’t for you’ mainly
“subscription fees for Max and Maya are roughly equal, is the subscription money divided equally between the teams?”
I didn’t get an answer.
He can’t talk about what’s coming up.
I’ve no idea what’s going to be in the next release (beyond the subscription stuff).
Since they’ve publicly announced a downgrade for everyone in the form of forced rental, I’ll keep one eye on 2016 to see if there’s anything worthwhile, as a stopgap to eke a few more years out of Max.
I’m tired of talk from the past few years of Autodesk amounting to very little – XBR, Oleg’s ‘multi year partnership’, (which has amounted to what, a change in the UI and buying in existing plugins, one of which I already had), the return of Frank Delise as PM…
Amidst the talk of bullet-proof screens, Eddie was saying he’d rather people be passionate than not care.
Well, I’m past passionate.
I used to eagerly await the Siggraph release, that feeling is long gone.
Wafer-thin carrots and a big stick isn’t going to win people over.
I’ve noticed that there seem to be far fewer people on forums that even discuss Max’s future, and I think they’ve moved on.
Of course 2016 could be a stunning release.
*** Of course 2016 could be a stunning release. ***
Would be really great but I doubt this is going to happen. I think there will be some archviz-aimed features and some tweaks here and there.
Well, there was one feature shown under NDA which looked interesting, whether it’s ready in time for 2016 or not, I don’t know – mind you there was also something which I thought was a waste of time as well…
steering wheel…view cube, ribbon edit bar, scene templates…hideous bland icons…
we need meat and potatoes…not fluff
2016 is the make or break release for me..i didn’t renew subs last june…this is their last chance to get me to renew.
Don’t forget a location change for the undo button and moving Create Preview Animation out of the Animation menu, plus all the great tools REMOVED from the Curve Editor to make it more like Maya’s! Boy, do I LOVE not having tools I used everyday gone by default and having to load the “classic” layout every time I open the Curve Editor (because it won’t remember my preference)! Keep the amazing innovations coming, guys!
Most of Max’s animation key management tools were BETTER than Maya’s, so quit trying to “Maya-fy” Max’s animation editors. It should be the other way around. Do you know how long Maya had to wait for Auto-Tangents, something Max had had since almost the very beginning? Get a clue, AD!
…Sorry, that was pretty negative. I’ll take a breath.
I just really resent the removal of features qualifying as an “improvement”, especially when it’s in an effort to make it more like the program I’ve intentionally avoided precisely for it’s less friendly workflow. I don’t know why people prefer animating in Maya, but I know it’s not because of the tools it’s missing.
Another example: Maya didn’t have anything like Max’s Trajectories for a really long time, either. When it finally got them it came with some significant improvements over Max’s version.
Very frustrating to say the least.
Lots of complaining goes on here by the same people, which makes it tough for people like me to come back and read on this site. Have any of you tried getting on the beta? 2016 is looking good and the beginning of something potentially very cool.
That being said, You may go back to your resentment again.
my complaining is based on previous “fluffy lite” updates…not on 3ds max 2016 as i know nothing about it at all right now…i’ve not experienced the subscription advantage pack for 2015 as my subs ran out in june 2014…so missed seeing them.
I’ll stop moaning once there’s a bit of good news/excitement to get my teeth into once we hear and see what’s due for 3ds max 2016. I’ve been using max since 1999 so have in the past seen some great updates…i’d like that to be the case for max 2016 too please. not just tinkering around with the U.I. some REAL updates worth my £600+ subs.
Exactly how many releases with little to nothing new are we supposed to let slide? Now answer the same question for the situation where we need to upgrade sight unseen each year with no real understanding of what might be coming, just promises of “great stuff”?
I DID renew, but I am 80% sure it was money wasted. It’s possible that I will miss great things in 2017 but this is just stupid…all Autodesk seems to do anymore is hurt my opinion of good people…Ken was forced to play this game, then Frank D., now I worry that the new crew will be associated with lots of talk and no results…Sadly Eddie and I BEGAN on the wrong foot when he basically dismissed the desire for fluids.
Just sad, but I am getting better with Houdini so it may be a non-issue soon.
at this point i cannot get excited about max. no disrespect the great people in the dev team.
the whole sub thing demonstrated autodesk has little respect for its userbase: by choosing to hold their work ransom instead of working on significantly improving their products in order to meet their projections and whatnots, i was very close to buying the suite a couple of times but this seals it. i am paying subs because i cant afford to drop out of it. thats it.
“beginning of something potentially very cool”
Yeah, sorry that sounds very similar to the previous ‘jam tomorrow’ that we’ve had for the past few releases.
I have no beef with the developers, I don’t have the spare time to beta-test software, so it seems pointless taking up a spot that could be taken up by someone who has.
I’ve been on the beta before, and couldn’t contribute much since the direction was pretty much locked in.
I’m opposed in principle to the SAAS model, 2016’s quality is a case of whether I upgrade (or practically a new seat) and leave it at that, if it’s a ‘beginning’, that sounds like XBR MK2, and I might be better spending the money elsewhere.
I’m sorry that an anonymous user finds complaints so irritating that it stops them coming back here, you could just ignore the complaints – The higher ups at Autodesk seems to manage that pretty well.
This is more than disappointing. At this times Autodesk is more famous for destroying technology than delivering. They promote Software til the last second before they dump it without any respect for partners and customers. Autodesk is solely interested in Numbers, people are irrelevant! SAAS sucks and if Autodesk wants to force it, customers will dump Autodesk forever. It’s one of the most arrogant and unresponsive companies on the planet. Their primitive orientation to shareholders is showing through in every action. Furthermore there is no service. If you have a problem, you can open a case and have to wait – that sucks!!!! If you are lucky you get a reply after a few weeks. For instance customers on subscription have the right to use older versions. But to get the serial number you have to open a case and – yes wait! Haha! Not to forget 20 “How did we do?” Spam Mails you will recieve in the next weeks.
Eddie seems to continue Ken’s work 1:1. [Edited] Lot’s of announcements and in the end we might get the 7th crappy renderer or maybe the brandnew “X-Bins” where you can throw containers in ? – haha. None of Ken’s XBR stuff showed up. The “NDA Sessions” were a joke! But users payed subscription all the time!
Result: Our customers are more than willing to change!
If they continue like that, then in the near future Autodesk will sit on “infinite computing power” to calculate its losses!
Congratulations Carl Bass! Hahahaha.
get a grip of yourself man. if this mess is anyone´s fault it´s the corporate system or the carl bass bunch. insulting the product manager is just incredibely juvenile.
fwiw i have logged a couple of problems and support is really responsive.
can´t say they are efficient until the bugs have been solved, but they seem to be trying.
i am disappointed as anybody else but please keep name calling for taverns.
btw. what is the deal with the NDA´s and public trading company laws? i do not know any company that brings this up (to this extent anyway). for instance the gaming publishers are all publicly traded yet they put out plenty of information about the upcoming products and features. they even straight up lie about them, without any consequences.
why is it different with autodesk?
the reason is because it suits them ofcourse. keeping the user in the dark about the features yet having this blackmailing system of subscriptions in place is really devious and disrespectful. it will take me time to switch to other software but autodesk has completely lost my trust. apparently it is something that they are willing to lose in order to make their projections. to eddie perlberg and the team: good luck.
to the autodesk hydra: burn in hell.
Hi Ron
Login to the subscription center, click on that yellow button “Get your Upgrade”. There should be a list of all your packages with little buttons, showing the different versions (years). Every buttons has little Subtabs: Software, Documentation, Language Packs, Extras and Voilá: Serials!
cheers
Michael
Hi Micheal,
obviously this has been changed. 🙂
@Ron: Thank you for voicing your opinion, but please keep your criticism free from personal derogatory references. Criticism and dissent are welcome, but always keeping discussions civil. We all have to feel comfortable talking here.
on a positive note when i installed max 2015 i had a real issue getting it to authenticate.i posted my problem to the area forum and someone came back pretty fast and they fixed it remotely for me…the PEOPLE at the sharp end from Autodesk are good, they even followed up with asking if everything was cool now i had it running so no complaints on the people doing the day to day work for Max.
I’m EVER hopeful the new team can deliver a good update with 3ds Max 2016…not long now i guess…we may see something at GDC which is only a few days away.
It`s interesting that Eddie mentioned the ‘ease-of-use’ of the software.
Even after 20 years of using 3dsmax i`m often thinking ‘Why does this stuff always have to be so complicated’?
Why do i have to wade through tons of operaters,tests and spacewarps when all i want is a drippling water-effect?
Why do i need a PHD in physics to understand some MR or Vray shaders parameters if i just want a wax candle.
This stuff must be really alienating to new or part-time users. And you can see this in the postings on Area or CGtalk.
For me 3dsmax was always a good compromise between complexity and ease of use.
Build on that.
Haters gonna hate.
Didn’t want to get involved with this one, but what the hell, first off, it’s always nice hearing interviews like this, for the simple fact that you get a bit of more insight(be it a tiny bit in the case of these guys) into the whole process and the team, for instance I didn’t know Peter Watje was involved, it’s a bit of a relief having a veteran like him near the helm, it was a relief with Tom Hudson and it’s a relief now(even though we all know exactly how much the higher ups care about their opinions), and ultimately I hope they continue this trend of taking advantage of all the great veterans that Max has out there, and so thanks for this interview.
Now there are two things that worries me here(and I’ll hold on to the rest until the next release), first the whole business with Bitsquid which I feel was a risky move and one of those things that they kinda got greedy with looking at the games market, and the fact that they seem to be trying to tie Max to that somehow, the prospects of that kinda scares me, but again it’s one of those things that can go both ways, but please don’t make a hybrid abomination out of Max just because you think the whole ‘Games/Real-time’ business is profitable, please, I beg you.
And the second is their new motto that ‘Max is for quikies and fasties and ninjas, etc, etc’, while that has a ring of truth to it to a certain degree the way that they are using it these days really(REALLY) frightens me, because it can mean that we’ll never see features like Bifrost in Max because ‘It’s not a tool for quick work, it’s complicated and not good for you’, I’m hoping with all my heart that I’m wrong on this and that’s not the direction that they want to take with Max, having a user-friendly tool is one thing, depriving it’s users from increasingly useful features in the name of that idea is another.
One could ask WHY does Bifrost have to be so complicted?
Do you enjoy sticking tons of nodes together? Does it satisfy some kind of inner nerdiness?
I am not talking about 3dsmax specific but all modern dcc applications.
And users seem to want even more complicated stuff. (And i mean complicated, not complex.)
You see there is this principle in object oriented programming that`s called Encapsulation. You hide the complexity of the inner workings and expose only the fundamental, important one.
Yet i have to face node-editors, dependency graphs, contraints, cryptic parameters and endless tweaking.
How many different types of explosions, water, somke, dust and debris are there?
Wasn`t software supposed to make things easier?
yup completely agree… there’s a place for “complex” when you are makin stuff no one has ever seen…but there’s also a place for “presets” where..”add camp fire” or add water hose/fountain or blow up building could be here..not just all the nodes laid out on the floor like it was a student’s bedroom!
A bit of BOTH would be welcome.
I understand. Real critics are not recommended and are defamed as “hate” and “derogatory”? Sorry – that is really crazy. Why not just admit that you are not interested in critics on a big guy like Autodesk? And you know what? I’m more than open for good news!
If you already feel that way about my post i don’t recommend to listen what many of our customers have to say.
My Tip: Don’t forget to put down the rose-clored glasses when grading! 🙂
@Ron: our message was aimed only at the personal reference you made regarding Eddie Perlberg.
I think our track record shows more than clearly that criticism is welcome here. Insults and personal attacks, however, will not be tolerated.
We expect everyone here to treat each other respectfully. The whole thing is quite obvious, really.
La politesse avant tout.
@Ron I’m not part of the site staff, but that’s not at all what you were told. Criticism is welcome and encouraged – if you look at any Autodesk related thread including this one, you’ll see mostly critical remarks. What is not welcome is a personal attack on individual people, which is not the same as criticizing their professional conduct. In addition to being offensive, these kind of remarks only serve to devalue otherwise legitimate criticism.
enough of these fancy interviews. release 2016 correctly and Max will survive. But if 2016 comes cheap, bye bye for autodesk products.
not long now until we see 3ds max 2016 and with the hint of “viewport enhancements” and the news of STINGRAY..1+1= ?
I hope so Steve because Maya is looking better every release.
.. And they may be fine with MAYA looking like the better choice. Easier to continue to treat Max like Softimage
Hope you guys like what you see when we announce. Sorry we can’t talk about what we’ve been doing. We are all very excited to show. Those are the rules though. :\
soon
It’s almost here if Autodesk stays current with the prior dates of release. I’m pretty sure all Max users are rooting for something great and I have confidence on what Eddie is saying and fighting for.
Autodesk, launch this thing already! 🙂
So stoked to hear about 2016. I know you guys have been working hard.
2014 was 26 March
2015 was 18 March
2016 is today!! Or not … :/
Hey Martin Coven,
as me, a bunch of max users are been far to being excited because they’ve fear of being forced to abandone a workmate who they are loyal from over 10 (15…20) years. Really hope that I’ll be more then excited after the max presentation.With great developer team comes great responsibility 🙂
Good luck to us all
I’m beginning to hear things that make me think that we’ve all been taken. The new crew has come in, but it sounds like perhaps NOTHING new is being added.
For the cost of my subscription, I could have THREE YEARS of Houdini Indie… man, do I feel dumb for listening to all the hype about the old crew coming back. I really hope what I’m hearing is wrong.
I heard about a sorts of Ephere Lab node editor developed by Autodesk. There’s probably other things.
I don’t know … it’s something, but isn’t this a little taking into consideration that 2016 is the last version you can actually buy?
Or (conspiracy theory) this is because it’s the last version you can own. If it’s too good, nobody will ever upgrade to rental! 🙂
Presumably if you bought it and a sub, you’d still own any subsequent releases if you stopped the sub?
I’ve seen links to what appears to be autodesk’s site (or masquerading as such) with the Creation Suite trial (Mudbox, Max etc)
Screenshots of the node editor are floating around as well.
Time will tell how good it is, and how easy it is to use – seems a little niche for anyone other than TDs though (I’d argue Box#3 is the same).
Well, ICE wasn’t that hard and you could create lots of cool stuff without programming a single line.
If it’s something along those lines, you could do lots of stuff, like recreate effects from other software (mograph comes to mind) within a ‘compound’. Softimage did that, so maybe Max will have that power as well.
The sticking point there is that didn’t save SI from the axe.
I don’t know how the kind of features that something like C4D has compares to others, but it seems like the mass market likes canned effects that can be modified, the sort of area that Greyscale Gorillia covers for broadcast/events graphics etc. with C4D.
I’d say it depends an enormous amount on whether people take it up (and how good it is), or if it’s just of interest to TDs.