Hi All,
Now that Max 2018 has been out for a little while, and even has a few bug fixes/service packs, what’s the overall verdict from those of you who use it in everyday production? The reason I’m asking here is that I’m expecting a more honest response than if I asked on the Area forums!
Am I right in thinking that the initial 2018 release was a bit of a disaster bug-wise? That’s the impression I got at the time
Thanks in advance for any responses 
3dsmax is always a bit of a disaster on first release. not sure i`d touch any new release for proper work until at least sp2 but then that`s no guarantee either. if i could i`d go back to 2012 or 2014, they were pretty solid for me. autodesk seems to concentrate on new features instead of fixing the things that don`t work so the list of broken stuff keeps getting longer, although from what i`ve seen in threads about 2018 they haven`t even done that this time.
still, it`s an even numbered release and for some reason they`ve always seemed better than odd releases somehow.
anthonyh
3dsMax 2018 has more than 250+ bug fix from last 2017 PU.
Then 3dsMax 2018.1 has 70+ more fixes.
Because of moving to Qt, there are still rough edges in UI.
But, I don’t remember any showstopper for 2018 release.
We have been using almost every releases since 2012.
We usually don’t have much stability problem(Our scene usually have millions of polys and thousands of animated objects).
I would never go back pre-2014. 2014 was good. But, 2016 was better. 2017 was best so far for us(I know some users have viewport problem. But, we didn’t have that . 2017 also has many critical fix for us).
We usually move to new version around Sep because of our schedule. That worked great for us.
I agree the initial releases are a little but rough. But, After 1-2 fix, we were OK to move on.
Also.. you can always save back to old version.
You can try and see yourself and go back if u need.
I’m planning using going to max 2018 now that Vray 3.60 came out, but I noticed a substancial (~30% or 40%) drop in viewport performance when opening some max 2016 projects to compare. Not sure it’s a driver or max 2018 thing, but it might worth take a look.
-Eugenio
If you have groups, try to explode them.
Nope, not the case. In one file there’s a lot of VRay Proxys scattered with Forest Pack, some dense meshes with Point Cache, etc. Try the attached file, it’s a simple box with Flex and a sphere with UDeflector as collision. Also worse in 2018, not by much (~10%), though.
-Eugenio
Flex_Collision.rar (109 KB)
Is there really any reason to upgrade to 2018? I mean, I don’t see improvements to it and the trouble doesn’t seem worth it, anyway. I might be wrong.
I will upgrade as soon as they implement the changes requested by Niel Blevins in relation to Material Slate Editor as seen here
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/…provements.htm
If Autodesk impliment those changes That would be a huge reason to upgrade
Is not on my plan to upgrade to max 2018 now , but I will check those upgrades showed by SteveJJd, seems really interesting.
@Midiaeffects
Usually after every upgrade i prefer to start from scratch a scene and insert old scenes into, I see that (or seems.. for me..) more stable and faster.
ok, i found a new bugbear in 2018. in configure viewports there should be settings to display selected with brackets/shaded faces etc. and now they`re gone. maybe they`ve just moved ? i hope so cos i really need them.
@anthonyh to get display selected / shaded and wire etc top left of the viewport where you have the name of the view [+] right click on default shading and choose under display selected what you require. I think its been like this since 2017.
If thats what you are looking for
following on from this post on Max 2018. i actually like 2018 and although i have had a few crashes i don’t believe its down to max for once. Mine was issues keeping IPR always on and updating floor generator materials. Which i should of probably shut IPR down before tweaking stuff. I used 2017 for the past year and found so many random crashes became a pain to work safely with.
2018 does have a few little issues with scene explorer but only regarding some shortcuts.
@leehumphries ah thanks, it doesn`t seem have all the old options though. shame, i used the selection brackets for seeing animation speed of rotating spherical/cylindrical objects like wheels etc. as you can`t tell how fast they`re moving in the viewport due to their roundness. some is better than none but still it`s a pain. i guess i`ll have to link dummies to objects, that`ll sort it. then again the new viewport seems to run slower on my hardware so i may not be able to preview animation anyway. i probably need to check legacy viewport settings, can`t afford to keep buying new hardware every time software is updated.
note: we skipped 2017 so that explains missing it.
as for 2018 the forced double selection issue for entry boxes/drop down menus is really starting to annoy.
thanks
anthonyh
3dsMax 2018 has a lot of fixes(330+ so far). If you have not hit by any of those, then you may not need it.
There might be some small bug here and there just like all other releases.
But, also I have not heard about a big headache for 2018, either.
One pro/con of 2018 is that now the entire 3dsMax window is based on Qt5.
I love the new docking system. For example, you can dock command panel and Scene explorer on top of each other.
But, there are still rough edges here and there because conversion to Qt5 is still ongoing process.
> Per-View Presets > Per-view Preferences
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-9AD2FCC5-0DB0-4F5F-A4A1-59C0ED4F7A01-htm.html
I did a lot of benchmark for 2017 with various cases. I don’t remember any cases which 2017 could be slower than pre-2017.
Generally 2017 viewport should be a lot faster in most cases with same hardware.
BTW, “as for 2018 the forced double selection issue for entry boxes/drop down menus is really starting to annoy.”.
What does it mean? Any step to reproduce? Did you have 2018.1?
Any IPR could have problem when you use some 3dsMax maps.
It is because 3dsMax maps are not completely thread safe.
It happens for Arnold IPR, too.
@anthonyh selection brackets - cant you when object selected just press letter ‘J’ on keyboard to turn selction brackets on / off. If that is what you meant
@leehumpries - oh nice, didn`t know that. now to condition my brain to remember. many thanks.
anthonyh
If possible I’d like to know a little more about this too.
Thanks for all the replies so far!
double selection issue:
i did another post about this i think. what you do is have render settings window open on say vray tab. now click in the viewport to make it active(or on an object whatever). now go to select a drop down menu or input box eg the progressive/bucket menu or noise threshold or other and it doesn`t properly register the click, the menu will ping off and the input box won`t register until you click again. i`ve noticed this happening elsewhere too but i can`t remember where offhand. seems totally repeatable for me at least.