3dsmax 2017

[padre.ayuso]

Kudos to the AD forum moderators. They are really coming together to help with some of these issues. The Autodesk Support Forum is becoming just as valuable as this forum. (not a paid spokesperson)

In a way, Bobby, I'm actually glad to hear. If for whatever reason they got word of these many people at this forum getting interested in alternatives to AD related products and if this just served as a call to wake them up, I'm glad they are resolving issues customers are having. Now, the proof is in the pudding (this slang I learnt in South Africa, not mine), and so we should see what comes off of it. I really do hope they solve these issues and keep them solved from here on out.

[glorybound]

Kudos to the AD forum moderators. They are really coming together to help with some of these issues. The Autodesk Support Forum is becoming just as valuable as this forum. (not a paid spokesperson)

[jstrob]

http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/...ip-of-the-week

Footnote says Evermotion stuff coming in .blend format...

They use the hair system (particle system) to scatter the trees. I played a bit with it for combing and it's one of the best solution available to comb hair. See here comparing Blender, Houdini and Zbrush's Fibermesh.

I'm not surprised at all that Evermotion will go Blender more and more. It doesn't make sense for model creator to use 3ds max. they don't need more than what you have in Blender to create their content. I hope Turbosquid follow soon and allore Blender file in their Checkmate process. They already hinted about that in their FAQ:
Q. Why don't you certify other file formats?
A: We chose the five most popular application-specific file formats as a starting point for our CheckMate Certificaiton program. We plan to certify Blender, Rhino, and other application-specific formats in the future. We do not certify exchange file formats such as OBJ, FBX, 3DS, and DAE as there is no specific application to test them in.

They say they choose the most popular format, but Blender is the most popular, being downloaded more and more every month (more than half a million every month now).

[bardo]

Confirmed!

https://blenderartists.org/forum/sho...01-Birch-Grove

"...My latest work for the upcoming Evermotion collection of trees especially for Blender users.."

[Pixelcon]

http://www.evermotion.org/tutorials/...ip-of-the-week

Footnote says Evermotion stuff coming in .blend format...

[glorybound]

That stinks for Hair Farm people. I just noticed that I can't window select anything unless I window the whole thing. It is like the Window Crossing thing is stuck, or something.

[jstrob]

My biggest issue with AD is the disconnect. When you talk to AD support, they seem dumbfounded that something isn't working and always blames it on your software/hardware. It reminds me very much of Apple support. I fought with Apple support for a year about my Macbook/Thunderbolt hardware. 100's of posts in Apple forums, yet it was news to Apple Support. They never did take responsibility, however, after over a year, an Apple update solved the issue.

Yeah they do this because they know there could be subject to lawsuits for this kind of things. It's again the whole problem of dealing with those kind of entities. got my share of problems with apple too. I stay away from anything apple.

On more thing I discovered today about max 2017 (specifically SP2). From the Hairfarm developper on the Hairfarm forum:

"'ve been working with Autodesk to find a solution to this problem. That is why it took some time to reach a conclusion.

I just heard back from the 3ds Max development team that this is a bug in 3ds Max 2017 SP2 and that there is no workaround they can suggest. Fixing this issue requires a modification to 3ds Max itself.

In short, we have to declare that
Hair Farm is incompatible with 3ds Max 2017 SP2.

The 3ds Max development team is aware of this problem and they should provide a solution in the next service pack."

[glorybound]

My biggest issue with AD is the disconnect. When you talk to AD support, they seem dumbfounded that something isn't working and always blames it on your software/hardware. It reminds me very much of Apple support. I fought with Apple support for a year about my Macbook/Thunderbolt hardware. 100's of posts in Apple forums, yet it was news to Apple Support. They never did take responsibility, however, after over a year, an Apple update solved the issue.

[retardus]

You can append or link a scene... it's one of the options. It's really straightforward. You can have multiple scenes in one file, they can be linked as well (so it stays as a referenced external file.) The whole system is really a joy to work with.

Thanks for the tip!
Feeling kinda retardus right now.

[andybot_cg]

The only downside is that if you want to link/append the whole .blend scene, you will need open that scene and create a group of all the objects/mesh/particles you want to import, save it, then import the group.

You can append or link a scene... it's one of the options. It's really straightforward. You can have multiple scenes in one file, they can be linked as well (so it stays as a referenced external file.) The whole system is really a joy to work with.

[retardus]

Blender is developed intelligently, which is not the case for 3ds max !
More seriously, what I see in Blender is that it is a global consistency ...

Everything seems more logical !

Absolutely. You need to know the shortcuts to be efficient, and there are lots of them, much more than in max. But they are logical and uniform across all of blender.

I also appreciate the responsiveness of the gui. It scales easily to any resolution like 4k. But even on normal laptops everything seems to pop up instantly. Also dozens of beautiful themes help with eyestrain.

Best of all, no authorize / de-authorize licences rubbish to be able to switch computers or take work home on the laptop. Just open up and render with built-in blender cycles gpu renderer.

The only thing is that for animation or demanding renders like complex interiors, you may need something like Vray, unless you have a farm or something.

[retardus]

Good to know! In max you can merge a single object from another scene and you get only that object's material no? You can also use the material library.

Yes, I use the workflow you mention in max, but it involves extra steps and still difficult to find a specific material.

When you click on a .blend file to append or link it, it opens up 'item' sub-directories, like materials, objects, groups, particles, which then allows you to navigate to and import any one of those. The only downside is that if you want to link/append the whole .blend scene, you will need open that scene and create a group of all the objects/mesh/particles you want to import, save it, then import the group.

[vlado]

In terms of CPU rendering, keep in mind that the speed depends a lot on the compiler that is used. On Windows, people typically use the Microsoft compiler, whereas Linux uses gcc. There are often 10-15% performance differences between the compilers, and often even between different versions of the same compiler. So when people compare CPU rendering on Windows vs Linux, they are also comparing different code.

Best regards,
Vlado

[rikou]

What I really like in blender is that you can easily copy (append) not only objects from other scenes, but also you can easily single out specific materials. In max it's crazy - you have the import the max scene in the material editor, but it loads hoards of materials from the entire scene, which makes it difficult to find the specific one you are looking for.

Blender is developed intelligently, which is not the case for 3ds max !
More seriously, what I see in Blender is that it is a global consistency ...

Everything seems more logical !

[jstrob]

What I really like in blender is that you can easily copy (append) not only objects from other scenes, but also you can easily single out specific materials. In max it's crazy - you have the import the max scene in the material editor, but it loads hoards of materials from the entire scene, which makes it difficult to find the specific one you are looking for.

Good to know! In max you can merge a single object from another scene and you get only that object's material no? You can also use the material library.