Really Need 3DS Max 2016 Again

[derek.mallard]

I can't handle the performance in 3ds max 2017. I just don't like anything about it. I liked 2016 way better because it didn't make a big deal out of almost everything I try to do. (Meaning if I try to export a scene as .DAE, it gives me gimbal lock errors and so on which I never get in the previous version).

I know 2016 is not on my list to download (and probably not eligible) but, the thing is that  I couldn't reactivate my license because anything I tried to do never works! So I as forced to upgrade to a version I wouldn't be comfortable with.

Is there any way for me to download 2016 again and also finally have the experience of renewing my student license and staying on one version of 3DS Max?

[irishman_team_kilber]

im not sure this will work https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/download-install/activate/reactivation/reactivate-ho...

[derek.mallard]

That may solve my license issue but what about me finding the download to 3DS Max 2016? It won't show up on my list of previous versions that I've had in the past.

[irishman_team_kilber]

try this i got this from the live chat operator,

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/previous-versions/...

[dgorsman]

What type of license are you looking for?  Personal EDU?  Those are only available for a limited number of versions, so even if you could find a download you wouldn't be able to use it.

I'd highly recommend getting something much newer.  The 2017 release was battling a number of simultaneous OS/driver/hardware changes, so users experienced a number of problems.  Later releases were much better.

[derek.mallard]

If any of the later versions aren't as fussy and have so much arguments, and if I can be able to rotate bones that won't crash the program, I'm willing to download one of those versions.

[derek.mallard]

Forgot to mention that I have a student license. So if it's only for home license, it won't work will it?

[madsd]

Since you use a student license, you can get the newest max version which is 2020.

Lot's of things happened, especially over 2019 and 2020.

Any thing in specific preventing you from using the newest technology?

[derek.mallard]

Well, I just found out Mental Ray isn't supported anymore and I always use that. Now there's Arnold...I can get used to it. I here it's used by a lot of CGI movies. There's also the scene converter, I can't really understand how I can keep my materials applied to my models in the converter but, I think I can try to find away around it or just grab the materials from the untextured model and find the texture files.

I don't want to flood you with personal problems. It's just that a lot of people can't handle change for a very good reason. (As I've read)

[madsd]

Well, Arnold is a modern engine and its god send for pipeline work + its the default renderer in 3ds max going forward for a few releases, with much more to come. It also has GPU capabilities. There is no future in mental ray, there is everything in Arnold.

Sure, you can sit on a system that you never upgrade, that is totally possible, but by doing so, you gradually explude yourself from better and faster tools that comes with newer software.

If you have any questions about rendering and materials, you can post your initial questions in the rendering and lightning area on this forum.

Personal problems is what this forum is for 🙂 so spill it

[derek.mallard]

I am actually trying to get used to arnold. The problem is that it's rendering a black screen when I have a few omni lights active.

As for the material, I'm not satisfied with the results I'm getting. I'm using the standard materials, I get super reflective textures when I just want a basic looking one.

The rendered texture is receiving a lot of reflections. 

And also, the texture preview in the compact material editor isn't showing up.

[madsd]

The default on both the the Physical material ( which is the material to use as its the standard in max ) - and the Arnold Standard material, has reflections set to on pr default.

You can close it down by setting reflection to 0.

Use Arnold lights, the Arnold light has all the common light types as options in the light scene node. So you should pick a point light there and dont use max legacy lamps.

Use OSL shading nodes to construct your shaders and your thumbnails will render fine.
Arnold loves OSL shaders, so use it to your advantage.

[derek.mallard]

Okay, now if I want to use specular maps, where would I put it in the physical material?

[madsd]

Specular control maps goes to the Roughness slot.


You turn it off here.

[derek.mallard]

Okay got it, nice.

So now I've got the basics down, I'm gonna go fix all the texture maps of my scenes to get them prepared for Arnold.

Thanks so much for the help and info!

[madsd]

Thats what the scene converter is designed for, to do automatically.

If there are conversion rules that are missing, we can update the converter script library, so that the maps you want to convert, can convert.

From any render engine, to OSL or Arnold.

Note, that max Legacy bitmap loaders, the typical bitmap is supported in Arnold. So you dont need to convert those.

[derek.mallard]

I actually don't know my way around the converter. Any pointers?

Also, I have ambient occlusion set for my diffuse textures. I don't know if it will convert or should I just remove it. 

[madsd]

Depends on how your shading structure looks and what node that actually produce the AO.

An Arnold dev gave a code base for a global AO filter for whole scene, I compiled it for max and maintain the shader. It goes on a skylight. It works on whole scene much like octanes direct kernel, or well exactly like that.

It sorta depends whether you want to manual it out and how the shader chains are constructed, whether it makes sense to automate or not.

[derek.mallard]

I'm not too advanced about how shaders actually work.

The part about the scene converter I'm having trouble with is that I'm trying to convert my standard materials to Arnold's physical material. (My standard materials have the "Ambient/Reflective Occlusion" set as the diffuse

and the convert told me that some elements couldn't be loaded, "Ambient/Reflective Occlusion" is one of them.)

And the way I thought I was doing something right was:

- In the "Source" I select standard material

- Then in the "Conversion Rules", I select the "Standard Material To Physical Material".

- Then in "Destination", I select "Physical Material" and then I click "Add Rule"

- I convert the scene and all the textures on my model are gone and the materials are still in "Standard".

[madsd]

The Physical material does not have AO build in.

The AO node lives in 2 locations, either use Arnold Ambient Occlusion shader or by integrating an AO OSL shader.

The scene converter script needs to be modified, so when you use that old feature, it automatically populates an AO node construct as a substitution and then merge with shader hirachy correctly.

This is not set up pr default, scripting knowledge required, but its rather simple to identify unsupported slots in the default converter script and upgrade the one that ships with the application, if you know how to call closures and shader list hooks and their names in particular, then you can wire anything by adding additional A = B convert functions.

I dont know if you have 1000s or just a few.

You can also inject certain maps based on criterias such as selection of objects in scene via scripting.

It is not included pr default as its a hyper old and not very used feature, you wont find many in your situation.

If you want a global AO effect on everything, you can load this dll file into max and install it on a skydome as a light filter and disable shadows and this will return a situation where AO is rendering on everything in the scene ( it is a swap for skylight, so global )

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ol9i55c47b2kz8/AOLightFilter_MAX_Maya_Support.zip?dl=0

It also works in Maya.