Students version 3D Max?

[Marcello]

Hi all,

I intend to pick up age writing again and while strolling the forum noticed many people using Max right now. Since Max is quite pricey I don't expect everyone to have bought a full license. Is there like a student version or something you are using? I remember there being something called Gmax way back, but it got discontinued.

Thnx!

[Embreon]

http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

Gmax is indeed the "student" version of 3dsmax, but I have no idea if the plugin works with it.
And you will miss out on certain features 3dsmax has, that Gmax won't have.

And since Autodesk is not selling any licenses of max 7, it's pretty hard to get these day's

[Wamduskasapa]

You can get the latest (2011) student version here: http://www.studica.com/Autodesk and from what they are saying it is fully enabled...

[Luna]

There is also www.students.autodesk.com which offers free three year student licenses for the 2011 editions of their products (It may gave a security warning but I'm pretty sure it's okay)

[D'Lanor]

GMax is too old to work with Cyan's plugin and Max 2011 is too new. That leaves us between a rock and a hard place.

That is if you intend to use a legal version (as Cyan has requested). Max 7 (or 8 which is also compatible) is not even sold anymore, so acquiring it from an "alternate source" would not harm anyone's sales. Just saying in case anyone would like to enter that grey area.

Edit: I should probably also mention that 3DS Max licenses are non-transferable. So even if you bought or received a second hand original copy you are still in a grey area.

[andylegate]

Cyan's plugin will not work with any version after 8.0. It WILL work with the 7 and 8 versions (I have both and have tested this). But it will not work with 2009 and later versions. Several people gave it a try when Cyan first put it out and found this out. I was lucky enough to have a friend that sold me his 7.0 and Jishin no longer wanted her 8.0 and mailed it to me.

I've a link where you can buy 8.0 (it's still pricey but a LOT less than when it was first released):

EDIT: Link removed by me, Andy.

No idea of this site's reliability, etc.

[D'Lanor]

No idea of this site's reliability, etc.

Most definitely not legal. I wouldn't trust those people with my credit card info, or even with my email address.

[andylegate]

Yep, I just removed the link after checking out the site's "Certification". They are displaying logos from Shop.com, Cnet and the BBB, but each one is bogus as:

Shop.com has no listing of them.
BBB's URL search turned up nothing (meaning they are not listed as neither bad nor good).
Cnet's logo has changed and is interactive (displaying a star rating). The logo they displyed is old and no longer current. However they are not on Cnet's black list either.

That said: I do have 3DS Max 8.0 OEM that I might be willing to part with (maybe I should put it up on Ebay....heh).

[N. Sigismund]

The 2011 Student versions give you three-year licenses as long as you can prove you're a student. The only thing you need to know is the nag screen which says that Autodesk don't want you to use it for non-educational purposes. I maintain that learning 3d modelling requires practice, and therefore everything you do in those programs can be considered educational.

I use Max 2011 occasionally. It has a REALLY nice optimising feature that comes in handy.

You can grab trials for Max 7 and 8 from the internet if you look around a little. Max 8 is nicer and more stable than 7, though (and it's easier to animate cloth in it). Then it's a case on how you want to get a license, which can be done in numerous ways and obviously I'm not going to promote doing it in an illegal fashion.

If the thing Cyan is currently getting together for release is the plugin source code, this silly situation may soon be over. >_>