Poll: 3ds Max Versions

[ghaelen]

installing the 64bits versions always install the 32bit as well if I'm not mistaken. or do you mean that the plugin does not exist for the 2012 version yet ?

I didn't see a 32-bit launcher in the start menu. It's possible they gave up on that, figuring all the major plugins are 64-bit at this point. Also possilbe I just missed something. Like I said, I haven't put a huge amount of effort into sorting it out just yet.

I don't know if this will help, but I just installed the educational version of 2011 a few days ago, and very early in the installation sequence it gave me the option to install both the 32bit and 64bit. I did, and I have what seems to be two installations plus some other related applications. It installed shortcuts for both versions, and there are two program files folders as well.

[Metabasalt1]

It is good to see discussion of the 3ds max Cyan plugin. Getting the cyan plugin to work with the latest versions of max would help everyone. Has Cyan released the source code for the plugin yet? If not, and I do not think they have, how are some of you updating the plugin? If you have a successfully running version of the cyan plugin for a version of max later than 8, how can we get it? I have a legal version of max 9 (ed version). Once you export from a later version of max, can you test the age files with drizzle and then the offline ki, or do the files work on a MOSS server?

[Paradox]

It is good to see discussion of the 3ds max Cyan plugin. Getting the cyan plugin to work with the latest versions of max would help everyone. Has Cyan released the source code for the plugin yet? If not, and I do not think they have, how are some of you updating the plugin? If you have a successfully running version of the cyan plugin for a version of max later than 8, how can we get it? I have a legal version of max 9 (ed version). Once you export from a later version of max, can you test the age files with drizzle and then the offline ki, or do the files work on a MOSS server?

The plugin code was released as part of the source code, so a few people (mostly Hoikas) have been updating it to support more versions of Max.

Unfortunately we can't release any updated versions because of the licensing problems.

[Deledrius]

Once you export from a later version of max, can you test the age files with drizzle and then the offline ki, or do the files work on a MOSS server?

Cyan's Max plugin only exports to the current version, which happens to be MOUL (compatible with CWE and dirtsand/moss), so you can easily test them directly in the target environment. No mucking about with conversion and old engines required!

Unfortunately, due to the licensing issues as Paradox mentioned we can't legally release and distribute a pre-compiled binary of the plugin, but you can build your own with the source found on the h'uru github repository.

[matthornb]

I have a question: What about the current cutting-edge version of 3ds max?

Can we conceivably support that?

I'm asking because Autodesk has recently introduced a subscription plan for 3ds max. Sort of like Adobe and Creative Cloud.

It is $195.00 for a single month, $575.00 for a three-month span, and $1840 for a year.
Now, I'm not thrilled by this pricing, it's still a lot of money, but I can nonetheless imagine somebody here putting up the cash for one month (every once in a while).

It might be worth supporting the current 3ds max if for no other reason than the fact that it can actually be legally rented, and while few of us can justify $3600 expense of buying a new copy of 3ds max, someone here might be able to scrape together $195 (on occasion) to rent for one month. I saw there were individual fans who put more than that, way more than that, into the Obduction campaign, so I know at least some fans have the ability to piece together that amount of cash.

So that's one question I thought was maybe worth bringing up.

The other, of course, is this one: How far are we from having a release of korman, and is there any way we non-coders can help with that?
Hoikas, we'd appreciate it if you would give us some sort of rough estimate of how that is progressing. Because if it is close to release the first question may be pretty much irrelevant.

[Tsar Hoikas]

Yeowza, that is kind of high, but I get the point. I suppose it IS a decent "deal" considering max releases yearly, so you pay only $1,840 per version, instead of $3,600.

Right now, the plugin won't compile for 3ds Max 2013 and beyond because of some changes Autodesk has made to their SDK. As I'm sure you know, programmer talent has been spread thin, so this hasn't been the biggest priority. For me, it's been a combination of not having the bandwidth to download a new version of max or being crazy busy when I do have it. I'll make a note to at least download whatever the newest version of 3ds Max is while I'm at school this week. That should at least improve the likelihood of the task getting done.

I still need to release an updated version of our plugin that fixes a lot of show stopping issues.

As far as Korman goes... This is another one of those things where we lack enough people who have time and have knowledge required to actually build the thing. One of the problems is that writing an exporter for Uru has a pretty high learning curve, so, even if you *are* a programmer, the chances are very high that there's not much you can do. Unfortunately, Uru does a very poor job of being programmer servicable and being non-programmer usable. If you're not both a programmer and an artist (yes, I do call my age with a solid plane "art" ), then it's hard to do much aside from twiddle thumbs . I wish I could give an ETA, but I'm probably not going to be able to contribute anything useful for the next few months.

On that note, fixing code that already exists is a LOT easier than writing totally new software, so I will look into 3ds Max some more in whatever spare time I can find after the next Gehn release.

[matthornb]

Yeah, I figured as much.

I recognize that coding any kind of Uru exporter is an enormously difficult task, and it'll be a huge challenge to find anyone with the skill and time to pull it off, especially within this small fanbase.

Thanks though for at least making an effort.

[J'Kla]

I know this poll is specificaly about 3dMax just thought I would mention I ave been doing some stuff with the latest incarnation of Blender particularly the new "Cycles" rendering engine it's made lighting and reflective metalic surfaces fluids and glas a lot easier to get a handle on.

My limitation of expanded use of 3dMax has allways been my inability to port of my body of work done in blender easily and it's begining to look like stuff I would need to do in 3dMax are largely available in in Blender except that ability to port to an Uru environment.

I am getting stuff out onto sports centre screens currently about 8 x 5 foot with bigger screens in the pipeline. I owe a lot of my knowledge to things I learned age building in Blender for uru ages.

I am not saying that I will never use 3dMax just that Blender has improved.

[Karkadann]

(yes, I do call my age with a solid plane "art" ),.

if you ever need something more complex then a solid plane for your age let me know I have got every thing from Gigantic peyote cactus to a Guillotine including one rather large wooden horse in an old airplane hanger that still needs a bit of work

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or if any one has anything specific give me some concept art to work from. Im not always out to lunch you know I do have my moments

[Tsar Hoikas]

Regarding 3ds Max, I'm looking at the Autodesk Education site right now. It appears that with 3ds Max 2014, Autodesk has dropped 32-bit support. I don't disagree with this decision, but we currently don't support 64-bit in the Plasma codebase. This will require more work than I originally anticipated.