REVIEW: Autodesk 3ds Max 9

Many of the updates in 3ds Max 9 are geared toward improved performance. However, none is more significant than the recompiling of software to take advantage of 64-bit hardware. Though not readily obvious at first, the optimized software comes into its own when pushed to work with very large datasets and complex animation. (Screenshot by Mike de la Flor)

Animation Layers
If you’re using 3ds Max for animation, the new layered animation feature alone may make the upgrade to version 9 worth the price. Animation layers are very flexible, permitting extensive organization of complex animation, including the creation of custom layers. (Image provided by Autodesk, courtesy of Red Rover Studios)

Mental Ray Shaders Upgrade
The mental ray 3.5 update features shaders specifically designed to tackle many of the challenging materials tasks. The Car Paint Shader simulates the effects of metallic gloss paint by incorporating environmental variables, and the Architectural Shader streamlines the production of realistic textures with little effort. (Courtesy of Joe Gunn © 2006)

Optimized DirectX Control
3ds Max 9 ships with an optimized DirectX featuring a new Hidden-line option, faster sub-object display, bounding box, and Spline display. Accompanying the DirectX improvements are faster Soft Selection and quicker sub-object editing. Together the DirectX enhancements and faster editing vastly improve the modeling process. (Courtesy of Timothy Wilbers © 2006)

New Biped Features
Significant Biped improvements include support for tangent FCurves for tighter character control, keys that permit negative frames and that slide past each other, new fingers and toes tracks for more efficient animation, and history in the Biped dialogs. Cloth collision and cling are also improved.