3ds Max 2012 Product Update 12 is now available for download!

[Kelly_Michels]

Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Product Update 12 is now available for download!
http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-updates

If you are interested in knowing product update release timelines, what defects we are working on, and their status then follow @Kelly_Michels on Twitter for the latest info/postings.

[Steve_Curley]

Important - before anyone asks...

Note: Due to a CAT defect in 3ds Max 2012 Product Update 11, it is no longer available. 3ds Max 2012 Product Update 11 should be uninstalled prior to installing 3ds Max 2012 Product Update 12.

This product update requires 3ds Max 2012 Service Pack 2 / 3ds Max Design 2012 Service Pack 2.
This product update includes all previous 3ds Max 2012 / 3ds Max Design 2012 Product updates but
no 3ds Max 2012 / 3ds Max Design 2012 Hot Fixes or Service Packs.

Also, separate d/l for Max Design 2012.

[Anonymous]

Some files have started to crash max when i try to open them.
This began after the installation of the 12-th update.The only thing that helps is to uninstall it as well as it was with the 11-th.
Seems like bad karma? 😃

[Anonymous]

This sucks. Any file containing an animated cat rig crashes max. if you switch off the cat animation before saving it will open so nothing else wrong with the file. It is totally a CAT issue. So thats two updates in a row to fix CAT that don't work. I even tried uninstalling all updates back to sp2 then installing update 12. Exactly the same. How can such a basic error be missed in testing? This update also needs to be withdrawn asap. Looking forward to product update 13 that should be catastrophic!!!! Looks like CAT users are stuck on update 10.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to add I am using 64 bit. Does anyone get the 32 bit to work?

[Anonymous]

Have done more testing today. I did a clean reinstall of max, added sp2 and then added PU12. Forgot to say yesterday operating system is windows 7 64 bit.

How to recreate error. Open a clean max file and create a cat rig, no mesh rewuired just the cat parent. Then lose and re-open the file. All is fine. Now animate the cat rig using abs layers. Save the file and re-open, again everything fine. This time add a cat layer to the animation and then save and close. This time max wont load the part. It wont merge into another part or anything so effectively the file is locked and unaccessible.

So any CatRig without CAT animation layers is fine only the ones containing it will fail to open.

Workaround[: (although its not really practical in a large scene).

2) uninstall Update 12 open your files that would not open, they will work now. Select the cat rigs containing cat motion and switch it off by clicking the green play icon then save the file.

- reinstall product update 12 and open the file, it will open fine. Then turn the cat layer back on whilst you continue to animate or render.

- REMEMBER switch the cat animations off before saving or the file will not open again.


As I said hardly a suitable work around. I can only assume by the lack of responses that not many people are using cat so experiencing the error or its confined to windows 7 or something. Autodesk should at least acknowledge the issue and preferably pull the update. Not really what they would want to do twice on the row. Guess we will have to wait for PU13 or will they skip to 14 to avoid bad luck! and hope it just dissapears.

For now I am back to update 10

[Anonymous]

still no acknowledgement of this issue, and certainly no sign of Product Update 12 being withdrawn, so I guess the moral of the tale is say goodbye to any file containing cat animations and stick to Bipeds in the future. Well at least there are a few of us with the issue and even if the majority of the user populatation dont appear to use CAT or its specific to windows 7 or 64 bit or we are just plain unlucky so I am not huddled over my computer throwing curses at it for nothing! It just does not sound fair to expect users to lose files just so they can "upgrade" to a new patch, and one assumes any future patch.

[Anonymous]

Dear Kelly,

I know I should count to 100 before posting, but I just have to ask the question;

Do you actually do any testing before you release an update? I can't even open any files that have CAT animation on them, which means I'll now have to uninstall the update.

Sorry but I don't think this is acceptable. I had to move back to 2012 because 2013 stinks and now this.

Sincerely,
TAB

[Anonymous]

What is the point of us posting issues if no one is going to even have the decency to at least acknowledge what we are posting. This is a real issue for Cat users and we are just being ignored.

[Anonymous]

I´ve almost installed SP12 here.

I´m in the middle of a complex matching/animation work and after a good amount of research, I´ve decided to use CAT. Here is an early stage of the work which I can show:

https://vimeo.com/53090529
password: matching01

If I installed SP12, I´d loose my work?! Or at least I´d be loosing hours de-installing SP12 and probably reinstalling 3ds max?

It´s not just an investiment in 3ds max license price alone here, I´ve invested in Bones PRO + Hercules plugins + PFMatch software, plus my adobe cloud signature (in Brazil, it costs Us$ 99,00/month, which I consider rather expensive!) to deliver quality work to my clients. All of this depending on a minimum reliability of 3ds max as my central tool for assembling my scene.

I really don´t understand this lack of respect with us consumers. I´m a 3ds max user for more than 12 years and things are getting just worse and worse.

I´m also using bones PRO and Hercules for mesh/muscle deforming because 3ds max skin modifier behaves the same way it was 4-5 years ago when I was a 3ds max beta tester and advisory board member. No improves at all.

Rigging/animation is simply stalled as well.

If it´s how 3ds max is going to keep being developed by Autodesk, at least be honest with your consumers and I´ll re-learn Maya or move to another platform.

But please, don´t make us loose more time with this kind of "mistakes" and lack of clarity

By the way, any news on a fix?

Thanks,
Ricardo

[Anonymous]

As a very BIG rule of thumb....NEVER UPDATE DURING A PROJECT...unless it is to fix an EXISTING problem on the project...EVER.
As a "more than 12 years" user you should know that by now...IMHO

[Anonymous]

Hello Dughboy12,

I have to desagree with you. For several times a service pack fixed bugs without introducing new ones and helped me with critical problems, I believe the whole idea behind a SP is FIXING things, simple as that.

Another thing, I´ve delivered more than 20 games through these "more than 12 years" and a good amount of advertising work in the last two years. I honestly don´t like irony and you should check people´s work and profile before posting this kind of comment.

Thanks,
Ricardo

[Anonymous]

I said...UNLESS YOU HAVE A PROBLEM ON THE PROJECT...you are asking for trouble upgrading during a project.
If it isn't broke, don't fix it or it may break...above case in point.

As far as irony...it seems you are over sensitive...the quote was added as you said it...nothing more.
I don't give a rats tail about your work...but congratulations, someone must like what you do.

You do what you want and I will do what is common practice for most of the community...AFAIK

Thanks,
Brian

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to make a copy of the exe before applying a product update, and and thus have a version of Max before the update and one after?

Or, are so many DLLs updated that this is a moot point?

I've followed the troubles with the last several product updates, and this seems to be an ongoing problem - where bug fixes introduce new bugs while fixing old bugs.

Microsoft does provide the ability to run DLLs in a local directory (been a while, but maybe a manifest is involved?), so ... possibly AD could put the new DLLs and Exe in a separate directory for each new product update or service pack - so that several versions could be run, depending on the fix needed to get the task at hand accomplished?

For Eyeon's Fusion, I have each version and build in a separate directory, so installing an upgrade doesn't mean that I'm 'out of luck' if there are problems.

Maybe AD should consider this, especially as their staffing has been cut (which may imply even less testing before a fix is released into the wild).

[Anonymous]

Ok so if we follow the logic outlined here and not upgrade during a current project. Even if we wait until the end of the project it will still mean that the completed project and all projects containing animated CAT rigs we have created so far become inaccessible. This also applies to any we create in the future.

Effectively unless this is fixed in either SP12 or a replacement SP13, because all SP's contain preceding capability; we are now stopped from using CAT rigs to animate or staying at release 10. If you cant animate them what is the point of keeping CAT in max? Considering SP12 was explicitly designed for CAT the fact that it totally messes it up is inexcusable.

[Anonymous]

What really disappoints me is that each year since 2010, CAT has been getting significantly worse with bugs creeping in and the disappearance of features, and now it looks like the same thing could be happening with the product updates.

[spacefrog_]

Is it possible to make a copy of the exe before applying a product update, and and thus have a version of Max before the update and one after?

Or, are so many DLLs updated that this is a moot point?

I've followed the troubles with the last several product updates, and this seems to be an ongoing problem - where bug fixes introduce new bugs while fixing old bugs.

Microsoft does provide the ability to run DLLs in a local directory (been a while, but maybe a manifest is involved?), so ... possibly AD could put the new DLLs and Exe in a separate directory for each new product update or service pack - so that several versions could be run, depending on the fix needed to get the task at hand accomplished?

For Eyeon's Fusion, I have each version and build in a separate directory, so installing an upgrade doesn't mean that I'm 'out of luck' if there are problems.

Maybe AD should consider this, especially as their staffing has been cut (which may imply even less testing before a fix is released into the wild).

You easily can make a copy of your 3ds max folder before doing the update, if you got probs, deinstall the update ( not quite sure if this is supported, if no, than don't care about that), restore your original folder

[Kelly_Michels]

I have reviewed this with Stephen (the CAT dev) and we are working on it.

I also want to let everyone know that last week I joined the CAT team for testing and will be working very closely with Stephen to get these issues resolved. I will be working diligently on finding these regressions in the builds.

I'll update everyone here when I get an approximate timeline on this current issue.

[Anonymous]

I also want to let everyone know that last week I joined the CAT team for testing and will be working very closely with Stephen to get these issues resolved.

Well except for next week...;-)
Have a good Thanksgiving and a nice quite trip to Lost Wages...I will miss seeing you all this year.

[fla3d]

I've posted this at cgtalk but I think it would help posting here too.

Another bug in CAT after PU12: you can't adjust the knee or ankle position during setup if the IK is active. It happens on both a new CAT rig or using some preset or old CAT rig. This bug didn't occur in PU10 or older product updates and this is very easy to reproduce:
Create a CAT parent, click create pelvis, click add leg.
Move knee around, then move the foot around to position the ankle, watch the leg bugging around.

Now I'm getting used to install and remove product updates... at least PU10 seems to be working fine.