3ds Max 2012 Info here!

[bardo]

About the viewport performance, I'm curious if this improvements are related with GPU improvements or compared using the same hardware...

[Morne]

It seems they're suggesting Game cards could work, but recommend Quadros

[MathTheRender]

why does maya get this human IK feature and the cool real-time viewport simulations, XSI the all acsessable ICE + Lagoa, and Max just one "new" feature, the pin point uvw mapping tool. or as they cal it: peal.
for me it seems like max is getting very lost...

do just i got the impression?? all they really show of is: " we createt and reorganised the icons" and the super duper viewport shading options, which i dont really think i will use in the first place. i mean i still got to render stuff and dont send and sell screenshots to our customers...

[ghiom3d]

Why would you buy XSI and Maya if you addon to 3DSMAX the better pieces of this 2 software .
It's business i think ...

[MathTheRender]

i know human IK is available as standalone, but i dident know you could integrate ICE and Lagoa?
it's just so confusing to make sence out of it when i try to be up to date. ...and if your a max user and try to get the best of out it.

[rivoli]

at this point I only look forward to the the new unwrap features, which seem cool. for the rest I don't really care. well, as already pointed out, stability issues fixed, faster viewports, and and an overall less clumsy max would be more than welcome.

[raymarcher]

I don't think it will a lot better than http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/

[ior=0]

I don't think it will a lot better than http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/
I have to agree, yet another free add-on we're now expected to pay for to it being integrated. 2012 seems more of a bug/UI (XBR update) fix for 2011 than a fully fledged new version. Then with a service pack after 6mths of release it'll be time for 2013 and another years subscription!! I think they are caught in their own marketing product roll-out schedule and need to add some bling to justify the subscription, whilst really they're desperately trying to sort out and fix the huge tangled ball of string and sticky tape that max has become.
@rivoli +1 If they could sort out caddies/groups/the ribbon and all the other new(and old) features first THAT would be a worthy version release.

[rivoli]

I don't think it will a lot better than http://www.renderhjs.net/textools/

eh, guess you're right. and btw, thanks for the pointer, didn't know about it

[stevesideas]

I'd be happy if Autodesk released a version every 2 years but made sure that bug fixes and the other mentioned stuff was sorted. It seems to me though that its more about the money than providing quality fixes and solutions for the 3d artist.

[lukx]

well this is the last max edition ... it's THE END OF THE WORLD one if Mayan were right

[stevesideas]

You'd think they would be able to get all the bugs sorted before we die. Its just a complete joke !

[theedge]

I agree that releasing a so called new version every year is totally absurd and eventually only leads to customers frustration. I admire so much companies like chaosgroup or mcneel (rhino 3D) for placing the priority on the quality of the software.

[stevesideas]

Did anyone else recently do a survey for Autodesk ? They obviously do want to know what they need to improve upon but they didn't actually ask the question about release time-frames. Maybe thats more to do with competition.

[dlparisi]

What bothers me about the yearly release schedule is that it appears that they market it like they are selling just that product (i.e., Max 2012) and imply that it is the greatest thing ever since sliced bread. IMO, what they should be "selling", because I think it's really how their price structure works, is the yearly subscription for a great product, namely 3ds max. It always feels like autodesk is making the prior year's version sound like crap and that all of your problems would be solved if you just "upgraded" to the newer version, at least until next year. It's probably harder to market support for a product (i.e, subscritpion) than it is to market the actual product (i.e., 3ds max 2012) which leads to the way they push it. I guess it boils down that they are treating us like consumers (e.g., new car models every year) rather than professionals that understand when something is "new". They are not our partners in creating images, we're just someone to sell something to. I know they are a business and need to make money by selling things, but there are other ways to do it (i.e., chaosgroup). Sorry for the wandering rant.