3dsmax 2017

[Companioncube]

i just can't think of a non autodesk alternative to 3Ds Max. it has such an amazing options of plugins and scripts both free and commercial. also i love the modifier stack and see some interesting things being developed using MCG.

C4D and modo have no appeal to me and their development isn't exactly exciting. Houdini is really just a TD and FX package, looks too complicated for me.

i'd maybe consider a combo of using blender to model and Clarisse for layout/lighting/rendering

[Deflaminis]

2017 SP3 Released

Just wanted to post here really quick and let you all know that 2017 SP3 is released. See more information here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-ma...d/td-p/6593126

Best Regards,
AJ DeFlaminis

[Alex_M]

SP3 is currently being tested on the Beta site and they have fixed this issue thankfully. It shouldn't be long before it's available to the public

But we are not supposed to talk about anything we know from the Beta Bruce. Another great concept straigh from the corporate way of thinking! Because they are listed on the stock market they have to work in secret!

When beta testing Blender you can speak to anyone about anything without worry.

What do you prefer?

sorry - won't happen again

Lawsuit for spreading insider info incoming...

Just joking, hehe.

[jstrob]

In europe the Supreme court think differently:

In Europe, the European Court of Justice ruled on July 3, 2012, that it is indeed permissible to resell software licenses even if the digital good has been downloaded directly from the Internet, and that the first-sale doctrine applied whenever software was originally sold to a customer for an unlimited amount of time, as such sale involves a transfer of ownership, thus prohibiting any software maker from preventing the resale of their software by any of their legitimate owners.[4][5][6] The court requires that the previous owner must no longer be able to use the licensed software after the resale, but finds that the practical difficulties in enforcing this clause should not be an obstacle to authorizing resale, as they are also present for software which can be installed from physical supports, where the first-sale doctrine is in force.[7][8] The ruling applies to the European Union, but could indirectly find its way to North America; moreover the situation could entice publishers to offer platforms for a secondary market.[5]

[jstrob]

I think he eventually lost.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...software.shtml

LOL!!! I didn't remember that. It was in the US and I don't think they would win in Canada.

That's very strange cause in the case of reselling used books (Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), the same US Supreme court did the exact opposite by reversing previous lower court rulings and confirming the first sale doctrine (=you bought it you own it).

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit and held that Kirtsaeng's sale of lawfully-made copies purchased overseas was protected by the first-sale doctrine. The Court held that the first sale doctrine applies to goods manufactured outside of the United States, and the protections and exceptions offered by the Copyright Act to works "lawfully made under this title" is not limited by geography. Rather, it applies to all copies legally made anywhere, not just in the United States, in accordance with U.S. copyright law. The Justices said that the first-sale doctrine applies to all books, wherever made. So even if you buy a book made in England, you can resell it without permission from the publisher. [4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtsa..._%26_Sons,_Inc.

Anyway I won't tell you what I think of supreme court, 6 or 7 people who decide what's good or wrong in everything in a theoretical democracy?

Anyway another very honest company is Maxxon. I once won a C4D license and they allowed me to resell it since I did'nt need it.

[jstrob]

Yeah Im also hard ZBrush user but somehow cant get use to zmodeler. Btw ZBrush was my best software investement. I bought license almost 10 years ago and all updates till now were free !

Absolutely! the best investement!!!! A true honest comany run by a genius!

[lukx]

Yeah Im also hard ZBrush user but somehow cant get use to zmodeler. Btw ZBrush was my best software investement. I bought license almost 10 years ago and all updates till now were free !

[gandhics]

The court smacked Autodesk over the right to sell used software on eBay. The judge confirmed that we have the right to sell old softwares. So if we can sell them I guess we can also use them!
see this:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...used-software/

I think he eventually lost.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...software.shtml

[jstrob]

also see array mesh building in zbrush:

[jstrob]

I watched some youtube videos about modeling in Houdini and it looks horrible ... I would be totally lost if I had to switch

this is some nightmare : https://vimeo.com/112114913

For sure when doing any software switch you are always as lost as when you began but if you have a lot of experience in any soft it never takes as much time to find your way out.

3D models are really the easiest thing to transfer from soft to soft. Personnaly I used to be a great fan of 3dsmax modeling for years, but since I bought Zbrush and now that we have the zmodeler feature, I do really all my modeling in Zbrush. I can imagine if you do architecture you would prefer to still use max for modeling (or Blender with the archimesh included addon). but zbrush can also do impressive architecture modeling as well as hard surface. 3D sculpting, dynamesh and automatic retopo is the way to go for modeling anything without any doubt in my mind.

Made in zbrush by the great modeler Sebcesoir who the first guy to teach me something in zbrush while we worked together at Ubisoft many years ago..:



On the other hand procedural modeling can also do amazing things in the architetural field. Think procedural struture or cities.

[lukx]

I watched some youtube videos about modeling in Houdini and it looks horrible ... I would be totally lost if I had to switch

this is some nightmare : https://vimeo.com/112114913

[jstrob]

I contacted SideFX to know about their fine prints before I buy a full perpetual license and they told me this:

If you buy a perpetual license it will always be yours.
The license will be upgraded to the newer version as long as you are paying for AUP (maintenance). If you stop paying for AUP, the licenses will no longer be upgraded, but they will still be yours to use.
Our licensing system is a big different than 3ds Max. If you have licenses for, say, version 16.0, these will allow you run all previous versions of Houdini, regardless of the fact you never bought licenses for the previous versions.

Good to know! If you buy Houdini it's like if you are buying any other product (with the added bonus of all previous version) and it seems more is in synch with how the Law considers these types of transactions.

[jstrob]

I just found out in the max 2012 agreement this:



So if we are not on subscription, we must destroy all previous verions 120 days after installing the newest one! LOL what a bunch of <CENSORED>.

No way I'm staying with such a company! I have 120 days to switch my pipeline! (in fact I still believe that their threats are not even legal so don't be afraid.)

At least I you know it. With all the money and decades of time you invest to learn this software (like probably many others) you are left only with the latest version if you stop paying (if you believe AD). So if one day Autodesk make a bad version that doesn't work and so you decide to stop paying, the catch is that your are left only with the crap! to know if that version is crap you have to install it and poufff! Once you install it you are stuck with it and must destroy the previous version! I think we must inform users about that, or I'm probably the only one who doesn't read all the fine prints!

[jstrob]

The way I read it is that once your maintenance contract expires, you lose the right to use anything but the most recent version. Here's what the FAQ says.
As for the ability to download previous version, Autodesk now only stores versions of Max back to 2015 (at least that's what I get access to even though I've been on maintenance for much longer)

"What happens to my Previous Version Rights if my contract expires?

You may install and access eligible previous versions, as long as your contract for that product is active. Previous Version Rights terminate when the applicable contract terminates or expires for any reason. Upon contract expiration, users must cease all use of any previous version and uninstall all copies of the previous version. For perpetual licenses that are not active on a maintenance plan, license usage is determined by the Software License Agreement. Once a subscription expires, all previously licensed, installed and accessed versions which were licensed, installed and accessed pursuant to the expired subscription are no longer eligible for use."

Yes they say: "For perpetual licenses that are not active on a maintenance plan, license usage is determined by the Software License Agreement. "

So we have to read that agreement to know if we can use it. and that ageement was demolished in court by a judge when they say you don't own what you bought. The judge said that we own it. The transaction was everything like a purchase so we own it for life.

What autodesk writes in their agreements is one thing and what the law says is another thing. I just have to abid to the Canadian law, not autodesk agreement.

[jstrob]

Or, perpetually keep things broken so you need to subscribe for the fix. Face it, we all like new things and software isn't any different. Also, in reality, one project pays for your subscription all year, so it isn't really that much. For less than a cup of Starbucks a day, you can hold a MAX subscription ��.

Over ten years, 850$ a year is 8500$. Take that amount and invest it in the sctock market over ten years, if you do it right you can easily end up with 20 000$. And anyway I don't drink coffey and certainly not from Starbuck, they are so expensive!!! LOL!

What's expensive is never a single subsricption, it's all of them combined: max, thinkbox, plugins etc. On the other hand with blender and Houdini indie, it will cost me only 199$ a year and I can do so much more! But yes once I will make more money and stop being eligible for indie version, I will have to pay more.