3ds Max 2017 is out

Image by Sergio Mereces

New Look & High DPI Display Support:

• The fresh new look and feel
• Scaling properly to the latest High DPI displays. This gives 3ds Max 2017 the ability to successfully run on HDPI monitors and laptops while correctly applying Windows display scaling

Viewport performance:

• You can dial in the exact amount of performance globally or per viewport
• Benchmark reported by Eddie Perlberg: For 3256 Objects - 9,000,000 polys: 3ds Max 2014: 6-10 fps, 3ds Max 2016: 20-30 fps, 3ds Max 2017: 80-130fps
• 300% improvement in Deforming Mesh performance with new GPU mesh builder
• 300-500% performance improvement for navigating tens of thousands objects
• Selecting and manipulating sub-objects is 200%-300% faster
• Unwrap UVW can handle 10 times dense objects easily

As Eddie Perlberg states: it’s now easier than ever to unwrap models by defining seams point to point while previewing the edge selection, cutting and unfolding the clusters in one simple mode. Peel is immediate, with vastly improved accuracy and symmetry.

Other features:

• Dramatic Performance improvements
• New Packing Algorithm
• New Peeling based on ABF(Angle Based Flattening)
• Point-to-Point Selection Preview
• Symmetrical Geometry Selection
• Loop Selection and Ring Selection
• Display Only Selected Polygon in viewport

UDIM support (U-Dimension)

• MultiTile Map
• Show Multitile in UV Dialog
• View in VIewport
• FBX Import/Export

Physical Material

• 3ds Max 2017 introduces the new “Physical Material”, out of the box compatible with the new ART renderer, mental ray and will be available for other renderers to use in the future.

Sun Positioner

• The new Sun Positioner is a replacement for the legacy Daylight System and the Physical Sun & Sky Environment is a replacement for the “mr Physical Sky”.

Scene Converter

• Easily migrate scenes by switching out lights, materials and other features with the Scene Converter. Artists can easily customize and fine-tune the existing conversion scripts via a simple UI to create Source to Target batch conversion rules. As more rendering technologies become available, Scene Converter capabilities can be easily extended at any time via new presets from Autodesk and the user community, and the script-based converters can be fine-tuned to meet any individual needs.

Scanline

• Scanline's multi-core support will now scale up to 128 cores.
• NVIDIA’s mental ray and Iray can be unchecked at initial install
• mental ray now supports Global Illumination (GI) calculated on the GPU

Object Tool Enhancements

• Selecting and manipulating objects has been enhanced:Working Pivot can now be accessed without having to go to the hierarchy panel.
• A new option called Pin Working Pivot. When turned on, the Working Pivot stays in the same place while other objects are selected. When toggled off, the Working Pivot resets its position once the artist makes a new selection.
• Local Align only applicable to the edit poly modifier and editable poly allows to get a more predictable result when applying different transforms to a sub object selection
• Sub Object Pick simplifies the task of switching between different sub-object modes (vertex, edge, face and boundary) by making one hotkey shift between modes

Boolean and Hard Surface Modeling improvements

• Booleans are now easier to work with and offer double precision for more reliable results. Adding and removing operands, as well as sorting or creating nested Booleans has also been simplified. The Bevel Profile Modifier includes the same bevel controls introduced in the TextPlus tool.

Animation Productivity

• Key framing, selection and key manipulation have been enhanced
• A new zoom extents mode for selected keys,
• The ability to double click a curve to select all of the keys
• The Motion panel, which represents the control center of the animation rig, has been enhanced to allow direct activation of controllers in a list, controller reset, and copy/pasting between tracks.

New Render Features for 3ds Max 2017

• The Autodesk Raytracer “ART”: A fast, physically-based, CPU-only, renderer.
• The Physical Material: An advanced physically-based material with the advanced features users need in a modern material.
• The Scene Converter: Use this to easily and automatically upgrade legacy scenes to modern light, materials, and settings, or to convert between renderers.
• The Sun Positioner: A modern replacement for the Daylight System, it drives the new Physical Sky Environment map and provides streamlined all-in-one settings.
• The Physical Sky environment map: A render-agnostic sky that works with the new Sun Positioner.
• The Color Map: A highly-requested feature by our users. The Color map incorporates a solid color swatch, along with optional bitmap input and gamma and gain settings.
• mental ray’s new GPU-accelerated “Indirect Diffuse(GI)” technology.
• Additional new options and fixes.

More info:

• Eddie Perlberg's Blog
• 3ds Max website

Top Image by Sergio Mereces