complaints about 3DS Max

[posterus]

hello,
next week our local 3ds max users group will be hosting a meeting with one of autodesk's application engineers. i'm supposed to compile a list of our complaints and grievances. i'm being told that they will be taking all the suggestions very seriously....we'll see.
if anyone has specific complaints about 3ds max i'll add them to my list and will try to have the app engineer address them at the meeting.
thanks,
-joe

[tricky]

1) FLM in 3dsmax9 (from ADT2007) is not reliable. It will work for a while just fine, but then it suddenly stops. Only way around is to start again from scratch (or use Max8 which is reliable with the same ADT2007)

[stilgarna]

With 3dsmax 9, the polygon display is more powerfull... very fast...

But with many heavy multi/sub (50 -80 shaders) the max 9 shading display is slower than max 8...
Only the wireframe display is a little bit faster.


This happens only with very heavy scene (10 000 000 poly)...

With a single vrayMtl apply on all object the same scene is very very fast ...

Why ?

Best regards...

[Dynedain]

When setting up Max 9 for multi-user machines, there's no way to configure a 3dsmax.ini file without forcing all users to use the same one, or modifying each user's individually after it's been created.


Still no node-based material editor! Node-Joe is a great plugin, but this should be available in standard Max.


Reactor UI is not consistent with the rest of Max.


Some duplicate things should be consolidated. ie, there is no need for a Sunlight system AND a Daylight system.


Autodesk Vault needs an OSX client.


Saved "My Network Places" shortcuts don't show up in the Tree-based system navigation windows (Select Project Folder for example)




And those are my gripes as of this morning... I'm sure there's many more I"m forgetting.

[dlparisi]

In my experience, the project folders are horrible. These should be saved in the Max file, not in a settings folder. So when I open a file it knows where to put the rendered images for that project. When I open another scene for a different project it knows where to put those files as well and not back to the old project.

[gilpo]

I second dlparisi's comments. We work on several projects at once and it's a pain to switch project folders every time you open a file. I would even go so far as to suggest a project browser dialog similar to Land Desktop's where you select a project name/number from a list and it shows you all the max files you can open for that project.

Along with this (and Dynedain's comment about the 3dsmax.ini file), the idea of keeping all the settings for Max in the Local Settings folder is stupid. We use roaming profiles with the application data folder redirected to the server so users can easily switch computers and keep their preferences. By saving Max's preferences in the Local Settings folder, it doesn't maintain a user's max settings from system to system since Windows wont let you synchronize the Local Settings folder.

I would also like to see a way to lock the toolbars once you have them configured like you want them. It's annoying to accidently drag one of the docked toolbars and screw up your whole layout.

[voltron7]

I had max9 32bit installed and was using incremental save, as usual.
But in max 9 the file would be called model17.max, but if I browsed to the directory where i save, there would only be like model4.max! So where were increments 4 thru 17? Nowhere, but there was a strangley named max file in a weird "temp" folder with the current date/time.
Maybe this only happens for me, but it NEVER did this with Max8.
Thanks

[Dynedain]

Here's another:

Please let us float viewports as independent windows. I'd love to be able to throw another viewport on a second monitor.

[posterus]

good stuff. keep em coming...i'll try to ge tthem all addressed.
what i have so far is.
-various backburner issues (still trying to nail down what i'm mad at )

- directX issues. what exactly should i ask regarding this? i dont know the technical side of it but i do know that if i start getting crashes i probably need to revert to open GL. i like the impoved viewport speed but some scenes just dont jive well with directX

- also lately (post SP1 install) i've been experienceing some odd problems when scrubbing the time slider. when scrubbing it, often it it will jump to and select random objects in the scene. or sometimes im moving an object around and the selection jumps to another object...frustrating. anyone else experience this?

[RErender]

I'd like to see them totally rewrite backburner, something more like deadline would be great

[posterus]

or just write frantic films a check for 2.5 million and and pass deadline onto all 3ds max subscribers

2nd the floating VP idea. that'd be great.
-joe

[dbuchhofer]

Stupid little bugs:
Isolate selection sometimes doesn't use the actual current selection
massive viewport display artifacting on Quadro 900/980's
Duplicate script problems due to the copying of all scripts to the local users' macroscripts dir
INI FILES. WTF WERE YOU THINKING.
No unified place to change and edit local texture paths on multiple machines since the 3dsmax.ini file is now in the user directory.
PLX PLACE THE USER DIRECTORY IN A MORE OBSCURE PLACE NEXT TIME. i mean, C:\Documents and Settings\dbuchhofer\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\9 - 32bit\enu is much too short and easily found/accessed.

Workaround or notification so as to avoid the 600 minute timeout when using a backburner manager that doesn't have the same version of Max installed on it as the job that was sent. (Problem comes up a FUCKINGLOT with new people and new farms)

Obvious wishes:
EditablePoly:
Divide Edge (2/3x.. meshtools scripts from eons ago).
Bridge Edges (Polymagus scripts from eons ago)

[studioDIM]

Rofl, David. ditto on all counts.

I just finished a fairly simple rig for a lamp model for a client.
I get the scene to pose the lamp into (it's a flexible lamp made with 7 LEDs with two bases which can be put on, say, a floor and a wall, to customise the lighting pattern), and no matter what i do, i cannot for the love of peace bring the rig in.

The bones shorten and the IK spline chain behaves oddily, breaking the links and parenting at odd places.
I ended up having to import the scene into the rig, rather than the other way around.
And no, i did not forget to merge in anything of the rig: everything seems there, and correctly named and parented; the only odd visual thing is the bones shortening up.

The slight issue is that the lamp should be given to the client's clients, rigged and ready to be imported.
Max 9 sp2 32 bit for both the rigging and the merging.

Lele

[dellis]

Linux support for backburner.

[RErender]

Stupid little bugs:
Isolate selection sometimes doesn't use the actual current selection
massive viewport display artifacting on Quadro 900/980's
Duplicate script problems due to the copying of all scripts to the local users' macroscripts dir
INI FILES. WTF WERE YOU THINKING.
No unified place to change and edit local texture paths on multiple machines since the 3dsmax.ini file is now in the user directory.
PLX PLACE THE USER DIRECTORY IN A MORE OBSCURE PLACE NEXT TIME. i mean, C:\Documents and Settings\dbuchhofer\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\9 - 32bit\enu is much too short and easily found/accessed.

Workaround or notification so as to avoid the 600 minute timeout when using a backburner manager that doesn't have the same version of Max installed on it as the job that was sent. (Problem comes up a FUCKINGLOT with new people and new farms)

Obvious wishes:
EditablePoly:
Divide Edge (2/3x.. meshtools scripts from eons ago).
Bridge Edges (Polymagus scripts from eons ago)

+1000