Judging by the latest job description on the Autodesk Careers site, it would seem that a port to OS X is finally being taken seriously. One of the job requirements is “Experience with developing for the Mac”. I did some checking before posting this, and instead of pulling people off of the (not very large) Max development team, they are apparently actively looking for people with Mac programming experience to get things moving. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out, and what the resonance among the users will be.
CGPress is an independent news website built by and for CG artists. With more than 15 years in the business, we are one of the longest-running CG news organizations in the world. Our news reporting has gathered a reputation for credibility, independent coverage and focus on quality journalism. Our feature articles are known for their in-depth analyses and impact on the CG scene. “5 out of 5 artists recommend it.”
I see max’s dedication to one os as a major strength. I’m sad to see any resources pulled away from the core.
Those job posts are often written by naive human resource personal who lack any technical knowledge. So I wouldn’t read to much into a single line of text that was likely copy/pasted from a template the person uses for posting jobs.
If you were looking for someone to port existing source code to the Mac platform, then you’d be looking for someone with XCode or OSX experience and you wouldn’t state .NET as a important requirement.
Autodesk has painted themself into a corner for years when it comes to making 3ds Max portable to another platform. I can’t picture an OSX developer even wanting to work with a team that is mainly made up of .NET developers.
I would have preferred to see a Linux version first, but hey, I’m sure this move will make many people happy. 🙂
Like I said in the post, I did some research on this and didn’t just assume everything because of this one line in the job post. It seems like the Max port is going ahead, and so that they don’t need to pull any resources from the Max team, they are hiring people with OSX experience…
I think is great, I coincide a Linux version would be more interesting, but not having to re-boot my MacBookPro on Win7 will be VERY nice.
I’ve never been that fussed about a Mac release, but I’d much rather the focus be on getting XBR done and dusted and the neglected features addressed first.
Presumably this is chasing the CAD market again.
If you want an outdated, overprized and inflexible PC – go out and buy a Mac.
I also would prefer Autodesk focusing on XBR and the overall featureset. Especially a unified and comprehensive mental ray connection and licensing is long time overdue.
The problem is you get more issues with it: Slower Graphics because of slow graphics hardware AND Drivers on MAC, Missing features because of missing tools like Nvidia PhysX and much more. This all cost money and WE Windows users have to pay for it, because this money could also go in better products. Have a look at the 2012 release, full of bugs even after the SP1, Nitrous is half baken, Havok missing with stuff like rope sim, water sim, cloth sim and much more. And now you want to use OUR money and spend it in a side branch we don´t even use instead of fixing this ???? I can´t belive it, my disappointment with Autodesk grows and grows, I just hope blender will fill this gap one day and then you will see no money from me again.
Sure it starts out as just a port. But over time compromises will be made to both sides diluting the original. What about all the other support issues that come along with a second os? That money should be focused on XBR instead.
What’s the market share for Max on OSX? As an example what’s the numbers of Maya on Win to Maya on OSX? How many Max OSX seats could AD sell?
either autodesk has unlimited resources so they develop Mac Version on the fly, or they just want to look “sexy” and create some CodeWarriror App for Ipad (there was Maya for Iphone or something like that, i still remember the news about this useless toy).
We did a test and ported from the start Unwrella for both max and maya – it is by all means no measure or example of software to compare anything – but the numbers are 100 sold licenses of max for one maya (mostly Maya educational). Imagine the aspect ratio Max for PC and Max on Mac: this will be 1:10000 probably – against Apple… why this investment?
I don’t think this is about a Mac port, but more about running Max in an Mac environment running Bootcamp or Parallels, which Max does already… http://download.autodesk.com/us/3dsmax/documentation/3ds_Max_FAQ.pdf
Since Max is really windows centric programmed (DirectX, .NET framework), I don’t see Max being ported natively to the Mac ever.
How would a max OSX port effect max plugins and scripts? This is why I left apple for the ms world. I was tired of waiting for hand me down ports.
It amazes me that someone would want to run max with in a emulated OS mode. There must be some tool set in max that people want in there pipeline that other mac native 3d software doesn’t fill. I could not imagine doing a serious project in emulated mode. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
XBR has nothing specific to do with windows or not.
One of the top 5 requests over the years has been a Mac version.
XBR in the long run means a complete re-write of 3ds Max.
Re-writing means that you can write something with all platforms in mind.
OGS/Nitrous/Viewport 2.0 means portable graphics: OpenGL on Mac or Linux, DirectX on Windows. In the end the graphics display should get faster with newer versions.
One of 3ds Max’s strengths is it’s modularity; you can completely remove and/or replace portions of 3ds Max that you choose to. If the file loader or animation controller are not multi-threaded enough for your purposes you can write your own. This is not so for many other competitive products.
As for Blender, I would suggest that you go and use it!
Be a pioneer, Autodesk needs the competition to continue to innovate.
My opinion is that users need Max on Linux than in Mac OS. By the way, both windows and mac are commercial operating systems and I see no need of porting 3ds max in to mac.