Creativity Unleashed
3ds Max® got a boost for 2019. Significant advancements in Autodesk software and that of its partners show the relentless push toward an automated future where creators can focus more on the creation, and less on technicalities. For example, Chaos Group’s Vray has essentially nitro-boosted its rendering engine to complete tasks at record speeds while simplifying the process, so just about anyone who wants to can create in 3D. Autodesk has democratized creation, giving all of us the power to “make anything” we can imagine. Behind all of it are people like you and me, working to improve the software that quite literally makes dreams come true. It is worth a moment to look at their hard work and review some of those improvements.
Shape Booleans
Those of us familiar with the AutoCAD® interface know the power of the command line. It’s probably a pipe dream, but if I could have asked for anything else in its place, it would have been Shape Booleans. The ability to stack booleans with shapes non-destructively is exciting. In additon, we can control behavior such as chamfer/fillets for new vertices to create exciting content quickly. See Figure 1 for example.
Figure 1
Fixes
3ds Max 2019 addresses more than 150 bugs, discovered by those of who love to work with the software. They are located in the 2019 release notes here: https://up.autodesk.com/2019/3DSMAX/3dsMax2019_ReleaseNotes.htm. My personal favorite is that 2019 will no longer steal focus while launching. I imagine that this ranks in the top 3 for those presenting or training with the software.
Project Management
Most of us do not use the folder structure Autodesk provided for us with the project tool. The tool now allows us to create empty projects or work with our particular folder structures. Also, we now have the capability of sharing our work online more seamlessly using Autodesk’s online viewer. Clients will no longer have to download additional software to review and comment on our work.
Interactive
I am not entirely sure, but 3ds Max 2019 and Autodesk might be the first to have allowed us to create content while working with it in VR simultaneously. With tools such as smart placement and live tracking, we will no longer have to push our scenes online, or publish them, to provide an interactive review experience (hope I coined that).
Whether working in 3ds Max or 3ds Max Interactive, the updates are live. My imagination runs wild with this. As drones, lidar, and robotic technology simultaneously advance, I can imagine a world where people build skyscrapers from the comfort and safety of their living rooms using this same technology. Users could connect to “interactive” software connected to a drone that allows them to build, edit, and review in real time, all while recording the results for archive and recordkeeping.
I believe this upgrade to 3ds Max and Interactive is a giant leap toward a fascinating future with Autodesk and its partners, or maybe I am just influenced after watching “Ready Player One.” Either way, with 3ds Max and Interactive it’s exciting that it is now possible to decorate a home like the one displayed in Figure 2 while also having the power to adjust the ceiling height, move windows, and manipulate walls around at the same time.
Figure 2
Open Shading
OSL (Open Shading Language) was developed by Sony Imageworks for the Arnold Renderer. Because Arnold has a large fan base and is used extensively in the entertainment industry, supporting OSL maps that work with the viewport and Active shade is a big plus.
Scene Converter
The scene converter now allows us to remove missing assets from our projects. (I’m only mentioning this because it is a favorite.)
Partners
With this release, Autodesk reiterated its commitment to providing users with the best software in the world. There is no better proof than the power of the plug-ins developed by companies all over the world that work with 3ds Max. These developers work very hard to provide us with incredible additions to 3ds Max that make creating fun. To review the updates Autodesk and its partners work hard on, visit this site: https://area.autodesk.com/blogs/the-3ds-max-blog/3ds-max-2019-developer-community/. Because of Autodesk, and all of the plug-in developers around the world, it is now simpler than ever to create scenes like Figure 3.
Figure 3
