[Off Topic] The Future of 3D Max

[Wayne]

While I was at the end user event in Utrect Holland to give some Masterclasses on Mudbox, about 20 of those of us teching or at the 'sharp end' of 3D were given the huge privilidge of being specailly invited and allowed to see the future of 3d max.

While I'm banned from giving away anything remotely 'interesting' feature wise...(The NDA is very very tight and I never break NDA's anyway) We were shown in detail exactly where 3D Max is headed in the future and shown lots of examples of 'things' in action. The entire 3d max roadmap was laid before us.

Now... no one in that room have been using max for less than 10 years and all were old hands at max, and maybe more jaded than most users. But without exception every single one went 'WOW!'. We're not talking just one or two things that you may see from one release to the next..but something far, far greater and ultimatly far more ground breaking.

So I thought it would be good to let those max users here know that there are some very very big things going on behind the scenes that when they see the light of day will leave you very pleased indeed.

From my perspective, I can simply add that it invloved revolutionary stuff for the future that we'll all end up relying on and wont be able to imagine ever being able to do without. I can promiss you that there's a 99% chance that no matter what you think I and others who have been in that meeeting are referring to...that you will be dead wrong.



Wayne...

[Whirlwind123]

:| .... bribe?

[Wayne]

:| .... bribe?

Alas no..... this is like an NDA 'plus' lol...its that top secret. Those who attended have been allowed to let people now that important stuff is happening without any actual specifics.

Wayne...

[spindraft]

That's great to hear. It's been quite a while since I saw a 'new' feature and thought 'I have to have that'.

If it's truly as 'wow' worthy as you say, then I can't wait. ;)

[Whirlwind123]

so much fun stuff coming!! -- modo 401 -- zb4 (ducks for cover in a mud forum hehe) lightwave core.

now max stuff

and im still a crap artist who cant sculp to save his life!! i need to get better before all this stuff comes out!!

[rick]

i'm not qute sure where auto desk is trying to go with 3d max, ive not used it to 4 ages as ive always been told its second best compared to maya, also always thought that max was more 4 games, the are some videos on you tube of the new features, looks pretty cool.

so whats going on why have two simula 3d softwares, owned by the same company?

[spindraft]

i'm not qute sure where auto desk is trying to go with 3d max, ive not used it to 4 ages as ive always been told its second best compared to maya, also always thought that max was more 4 games, the are some videos on you tube of the new features, looks pretty cool.

so whats going on why have two simula 3d softwares, owned by the same company?

I don't think you could really say one is second or first, it depends what you're doing really. It's funny though, I always got the impression that the game-dev industry was where maya was more prevalent, w/ max being more-so in things like vfx/viz. Only one I can say for sure though is that max is far more prevalent in arch-viz.

so whats going on why have two simula 3d softwares, owned by the same company?

Both max & maya were originally made by independent companies. But autodesk being autodesk, purchased both of them. Same thing happened w/ mud '). They have a similar situation after purchasing revit & still producing architectural desktop. It is a good question though. I'd be interested to know as well if they have some sort of coherent plan laid out. It does seem silly to continue parallel development of app.'s that are intended for the same purpose, it'd be nice to see a clear direction for the two. At the same time though, a hope for this isn't encouraged much w/ the recent attempt to split max into 2 different versions (I still don't understand why they're trying to do that).

[Wagner]

What's the point of this thread Mr "sharp end" of 3D? ;) If you're not telling us what it is and you say that there's 99% chance that we're dead wrong anyhow?

Just gives a feeling you're using your bragging rights on us. Stop teasing us lowbies! ;)

What comes to assuming what it might be, my wrong guess is that they fully implement mudbox into Max and add something more to it. Hopefully this new "WOW Max" will be shown to public soon though :D. I've been using 3D studio since it was on DOS and version number 2, long before Max even existed, so it is close to my heart and I really really reeeally do hope they finally bring up something really great. Currently many other softwares offer a lot more interesting sollutions, so it's about time Autodesk brings something new with Max. This secret Max sounds interesting even though the only info we've now have is "WOW" :)

Anyhow, currently the thing I wait the most is ZB4, just because the GoZ really smoothens the workflow and I'm pretty sure there's plenty of other goodies coming out from Pixologic with ZB4.

Interesting times, even though Autodesk soon owns everything and that kills competition :\

ps. What I do hope is that they would kill all the current softwares, mudbox, maya, xsi and max and cook up something really good in one package, but that's just a bit too far fetched.

[Wayne]

What's the point of this thread Mr "sharp end" of 3D? ;) If you're not telling us what it is and you say that there's 99% chance that we're dead wrong anyhow?

Just gives a feeling you're using your bragging rights on us. Stop teasing us lowbies! ;)


The reason is simple...very little has been heard or hinted at of late on the future of max. Some max guys assumed that meant nothing was happening, this is a simple way of saying 'yes there is a lot of stuff happening'. Info about the upcoming things for max's to come should start being let out soon-ish.



Interesting times, even though Autodesk soon owns everything and that kills competition :\

Hasn't so far I think its safe to say. If they wanted to kill the competition a proprietary map for mat would do the trick as they are the main players in the entertainent industries. The fact that they haven't says a lot..although that is does say depends on your point of view.

ps. What I do hope is that they would kill all the current softwares, mudbox, maya, xsi and max and cook up something really good in one package, but that's just a bit too far fetched.

Off the bat I can tell you thats not an option in the short term..long term...well who knows.... Taking the massive market share they have right now and putting all their bets on one single uber app would be very bad business and make little sense form a finacial perspective. 3D has been going more and more into a sort of ' app for each job' type of thing for a while now.

Plus remember that mudbox runs some amazing optimisations behind the scenes to do what it does that are not meant to do stuff like full animation etc etc.... so simply put its not something you can just try to intergrate into any app. An app like that would take a long long time to write and leave autodesk users in the wilderness for years while it was wrote and tested. In that time others would fill the gap. So I doubt we'll ever see it unless the 3d universe drastically changes.

I think that the idea of jamming every feature from the entire range into one app would be a huge mistake for users as you would end up with an app that was so complex to learn and so resource use heavy that chances are no one would use or learn it.

Wayne...