Autodesk 3ds Max is a capable and powerful tool for 3D animation, rendering and modeling. Though targeted primarily at digital content creation for film and games, it remains popular for photorealistic rendering of architectural and product designs. An application with as much depth as 3ds Max is well beyond the scope of this review, but a few features in this new release stand out. The new animation layer system in 3ds Max 9 allows animation information to be layered on top of the initial keyed track—like an extension of the old list controller but with more features and depth. This ability offers lots of potential to those who create animated sequences.
The hair subsystem now allows all combining and styling to be done within 3ds Max viewports, as opposed to using an outside module as in previous versions. Adding collision objects causes hair to fit to the body or clothing more realistically. The ability to see more information in the 3ds Max 9 viewport without having to render can save lots of time. You can also use all types of light on hair in 3ds Max 9, unlike previous releases that required specific hair lights.
New features in the cloth subsystem include a new way to tailor clothing within 3ds Max and new cling properties that fit clothing more realistically, as if it were wet or being held to the model via static electricity.
This release implements many new mental ray features (now at v.3.5, and easier and faster to use). Predefined quality-level presets help give a better idea of how the final rendered version will appear. Users receive feedback earlier in the rendering process so if they're not satisfied with the render, they can quickly cancel it and make the necessary changes before restarting the rendering process. Other enhancements in the new mental ray are targeted toward visualizing architectural spaces.
In 3ds Max 9, I found core-level performance improvements in several areas that provide better overall performance and a cleaner workflow. For larger and/or more complex models, the 64-bit version speeds through tasks much faster because of better use of and access to more system memory.
If you depend on any third-party plug-ins to accomplish your 3ds Max work, note that all plug-ins must be recompiled to work with this new release. As I write this, updated plug-ins are scarce, but they should begin to appear within the next couple of months. Scripts from previous releases work with 3ds Max 9, so that's a bit of good news. Autodesk 3ds Max 9 comes with no printed manuals whatsoever, nor does it include a specific customization guide. The installation DVD contains electronic versions of the manuals in PDF format, with printing enabled so you can print specific sections or pages that you need.
I tested Autodesk 3ds Max 9 with the MAXBench4 benchmark that Cadalyst uses for testing work-stations and found that it runs without any problems. NVIDIA has released a DirectX version of its MAXtreme accelerated driver, noting that the shaders in 3ds Max 9 are designed for DirectX. I'm currently evaluating our benchmark testing series in light of this information.
System requirements for 3ds Max 9 include Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 or higher (recommended) or Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 4 installed. The 64-bit version requires Windows XP Professional x64. You'll also need Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher and DirectX 9.0c (required) and possibly OpenGL (optional).
