2019 fail?

[kris]

So we have a taste, ahead of tomorrow's release.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/3DSMAX/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-40222876-7E08-42F8-A912-F6CDC597A3FD

https://area.autodesk.com/blogs/the-3ds-max-blog/meet-3ds-max-2019/

(etc)

Is it just me, or is this a major anticlimax?  Since when is something so trivial as spline booleans a major feature?  How is a material that only works in Arnold (does anyone use that?) and scanline worth anything at all?

Where's the list of major bugfixes?

Where's the list of core improvements that will affect stability and usability, like multithreading and double precision?  

Where are the things that make this worth a full version update?

Kris.

[Isaac_Zuniga]

Kris, I don't agree with you about 3ds Max 2019 being a "fail". If anything, I would say 2017 was "a fail", but now they've gotten it stabilized and major issues fixed and I don't think that it deserves that title anymore.

3ds Max was not given this kind of attention before, which the development team probably knows that and they are trying to modernize the program. However, if they are to do that, it entails combing through a lot of ancient code. This kind of change will not be quick, especially since they only have a year or so to do a "major update" for the program. This is likely something that will come in iterations of the program.

Personally, I think the fluid system should have waited until 3ds Max 2019, but the 2019 version has OSL, which I think is a powerful addition. In my opinion, I think it has a lot of potential, that could probably be used in place of the composite map. That's a feature that 3ds Max 2018 did not have, and it's something I'm glad the newer version got.

New stuff is coming, but the developers need time to rake through and change the ancient code that this program is comprised of.

[alexnode]

Geolocated data yes ! ... i am not sure how you can solve this but we usually can spend half a day sorting out architectural data when they come from real world plots. I also work as an experiential - public space - exhibition designer and we usually come onboard after the architects have finished their work. Or in general are not 24/7 available. I don't think we need double precision in anything else. Even a hack to import a dwg around the actual drawing without the empty space would be great.     

[Anonymous]

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@Isaac_Zuniga wrote:

Kris, I don't agree with you about 3ds Max 2019 being a "fail". If anything, I would say 2017 was "a fail", but now they've gotten it stabilized and major issues fixed and I don't think that it deserves that title anymore.

3ds Max was not given this kind of attention before, which the development team probably knows that and they are trying to modernize the program. However, if they are to do that, it entails combing through a lot of ancient code. This kind of change will not be quick, especially since they only have a year or so to do a "major update" for the program. This is likely something that will come in iterations of the program.

Personally, I think the fluid system should have waited until 3ds Max 2019, but the 2019 version has OSL, which I think is a powerful addition. In my opinion, I think it has a lot of potential, that could probably be used in place of the composite map. That's a feature that 3ds Max 2018 did not have, and it's something I'm glad the newer version got.

New stuff is coming, but the developers need time to rake through and change the ancient code that this program is comprised of.

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Then why are they so insistent on annual releases?! (rhetorical question)
I think i'm not alone when I say that I'd rather them release a polished (and stable) version every 2-3 years rather than push out a version that's riddled with bugs that haven't been fixed from the last version... and they want to charge how much per year?!
To this day, v2016 has been the most stable and easiest version they've released IMO that I've used..
I know that there will always be problems with software and I'm patient when it comes to relying on devs to  sort out issues. But do you know how much time I've wasted trying to sort out issues with 3Ds max alone?!...

[alexnode]

2018 is good. I installed it after the first couple of SPs and it is much
better and faster than 2016 .

[Anonymous]

I'm using 2018 too and I can't say that I can't agree. It's better than 2017, but it still crashes when it feels like it (which was extremely rare in 2016).
Whether that has something to do with my hardware/software configuration or not, who knows. But it shouldn't be up to me to try and find solutions for someone else's software over the course of 3 years.