Hi D, this project was the first and last time I used them. I was exploring new features, and after a brief test decided to use State Sets. I do single scene projects, with 30+ animated render sequences where each follows on from the lasts in terms of objects and adds unique objects to each sequence.
I was trying to optimise my time, so i could setup all the sequences on the timeline and the render setups layers and visiblity for each sequence [render pass]. I just wanted to jump between states and have the timeline and all the objects appear. This never happened. I wasted my time.
It got more and more complex to manage. It was a combination of the bugs and issues that MAX has in 2014 sp3/5 where the state would not record any new changes after returning to it, they fixed this, but then the clone state did not work, so its pointless. Layers that each state should have visible were never there, it was not fit for purpose to begin with.
The main issue for me was that the layers, new objects and states were too complex to get correct to make it worth bothering, this combined with the bugs that really should not have been allowed into the release was getting less and less predictable all the time.
So im back to manually moving the timeline to where the spreadsheet tells me it should be, making the background and sequence layer visible [the layers are all now totally self contained with cloned objects for common parts and unique objects], manually setting up the render frames, names, and backburner setup, and hitting go. It is all this stuff that i was looking for with state sets, but its apparantly too hard to manage to make happen. I still cant belive that MAX cant do all this. Its a silly waste of my time to have to do these repetitive tasks that MAX should be doing for me. I have had advice that "Render Pass Manager" is the plugin to do this with, it does look good, I will consider it.
In the mean time, I will remain aware that MAX has a history [I've used it since version 3] of being released with massive known bugs that dont get fixed before release, and people are not notified of these limitations in features.
Ive been in software development a long time, and the bugs in state sets are the kind of thing that get tested, are released as known bugs. What they dont seem to realise is that these things can bring down a project, and waste months. I would far rather wait for a reliable feature and have a solid version of max, than jump on the next feature, use it and during a project realise that its totally broken, before trying to back out of it without loosing everything. As an example of this, i read that the new sub layers are broken, if you import objects from a file then the sub layers are lost.
I'm long in the tooth using MAX. The advice I would give is that its got so many foibles and bugs/issues and new features per version [year or SP] that it takes a year to work out the personality of the version you're using before you know what to avoid and how to get the best out of it. Then you get told of the next version thats got all the nice new features. You do what they want and install it, and then spend the next year working out the personality of that version, complicated by the new features [with the bugs that they will have], and the service packs that introduce the new bugs and fix some issues.
My advice on MAX is, stick to the version you have and get to know it so you can get the best from it.
But like me you will always think that the next version will be better and have more fixes.
If we take state sets as an example, it seems that its taking about 3/4 versions [2012-2015] of max after introduction of the feature to get it fit for purposes. Which is completely crazy. I think they were built for simple or complete projects.
Steve
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