Announcement of a new version of 3ds Max - this is a good tradition of SIGGRAPH. This year has been no exception. The new version of 3ds Max is not one tenth as can be assumed, and was named Autodesk 3ds Max 2008.
The important thing is what drew the attention of developers in preparing a new version of the program - improving productivity when working with complex scenes. I promise that the transactions with objects in the window projection can be made 60 times faster, but the appointment of material - 10 times faster, even with thousands of objects.
For more scenes in the program added Scene Explorer - a window in which the elements are presented in a hierarchical structure, and there are tools to analyze scenes and editing.
Program developers promise that simulate now will be much easier, the artists rarely have to refer to the menu. How exactly will provide a new approach to modeling, has not yet been reported.
Also, the program added a set of tools, combined overall title Review, by which you can do online preview of shadows, the settings of architectural materials, environment. Made some improvements that relate to mental ray, in particular, provided a means Sky Portal, uproschayuschee setting interior lighting, using light coming from outside. Sky Portal supports lighting effects, based on HDRI.
Professionals using 3ds Max to create complex projects, will have at its disposal a built-MAXScript ProEditor, which will significantly increase the possibility of creating scripts. In addition, improved compatibility with other applications, Autodesk, added a new option Select Similar (to provide similar), and import data became more accurate and tools for links between files were usovershenstvany.