Autodesk's 3ds Max 9

In this first updated release since Autodesk's acquisition of Alias, 3ds Max 9 has become a friendlier tool. There's no one standout new feature in Max 9, nothing to make an artist's jaw drop, but enhancements in ease of use, performance, and stability, alongside improvements to modeling, rendering, scene management, and animation are welcomed upgrades to this toolbox staple.

Hint o' Maya

While version 9 may look like the same old Max, the software has taken on some Maya-esque touches. The most apparent change is a welcome screen that fires up when you first start the program. It's a first for Max, but is very reminiscent of the initial splash screen Maya users have been greeted with for some time now. New Quicktime movies that can be played from the welcome screen are right out of the Maya playbook, too, although experienced Max users will likely dismiss them altogether, since they can be turned off easily. New Max recruits will appreciate these movies, though, as they help to illustrate Max's basic concepts rather quickly.

Similarly, Max 9 has adopted the Maya convention of putting project files in the user folder branch of Windows. Instead of nesting all project-related folders in the main "Autodesk/3ds Max 9" directory located in Program Files, most of the working folders are now located in the user's "My Documents," similar to how it's done in Maya.

Also in the file department, support for the .FBX format has been improved, offering a very good method of file translation between Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder. The new Viewport Statistics feature, which displays poly, edge, and vertex count along with frames per second information, is a nod toward Maya's heads up display. Users can configure the display to show only the data they want to see.

Bit o' Choice

3ds Max now...