3dsmax 5 whishlist

[xynaria]

One of the things that tends to bind Lightwave users together is their fierce devotion to the product especially as opposed to other products.
One of the things that tends to bind Max users together is their fierce criticisms of Max's perceived shortcomings especially as opposed to other products. :p
Apologies in advance if any of these already exist but I just haven't realised.

I'd like to see customisation to the level that all commands where available without additional scripting for quad menus and to be easily able to set all defaults for start up. EG I hate selection brackets and would like to set them to never being on uless requested rather than always having to toggle them off

Vertex/edge/ face selected and polygon count to be displayed by hotkeys on screen. At the moment seeing selected number can be really awkward without pulling out the roll ups.

More edge usability for editable poly including being able to set angle of extrusion seperate to face normal.

Improved alignment tools with the abilty to align to custom objects. ie to use a made object for alignment, not just grid, likewise being able to align sub object selections to sub object selection on other objects.

Ability to create vertices on objects/ faces and much improved cookie cutter tools.

More robust booleans.

Align XYZ for affect pivot only

Create faces from selected vertices command, so that creating faces from vertices wasn't always a manual operation.
Working named selection sets that took precedence over any further mesh editing.

Working symmetry tools so that you didn't have to work an a full mesh to create morph targets.

Mesh Tools fully incorported and Lazlo to receive credit and renumeration for one of the best upgrades Max never had.

Asymmetrical soft selection and the abity to draw a custom shape to define tha fall off and/or paintable soft selection
Lasoo selection option. and commands for select every alternate/ second/third/loop/ring.

Node based working for material editor and particles a la Thinking Particles,Maya, and much of the newer software.
Object fragments to be user definable and the whole system up grading to a level comparable to Particle Studio or better.

Hide in render as well as hide in viewport for sub object selections.

Ability to name VFB clones and view mixes a la Lightwave

One transform gizmo for transform/ rotate / scale.. no switching neccessary.

Clear memory toggle.

Release options....i.e a cheaper version without Max's *nurbs*
More *realistic* pricing in comparison to other programmes and the end to charging nearly as much in £'s in the uk as $'s in the US.. naughty naughty.

I reckon there's more than this.:p :)

[LFShade]

Okay, I'll chime in!

1. I'd like to see MAX use at least 25% less RAM at startup than it does currently.

2. SEVERAL more operations accessible through the schematic view. I'd like it to be more like Maya's Hypergraph, where you can link objects, wire properties together, assign materials, etc.

3. Background rendering. Let me keep working on my project while a render job is being processed in the background. And let me manage the memory consumption options for the process! Additionally, make the renderer a separate module so that files can be batch-rendered without a full MAX instance running.

4. More options for specifying how transforms are applied to objects. Arbitrary transform centers, etc.

5. Non-linear animation WITHOUT having to use Character Studio. Ability to remap mocap data to any shape skeleton.

6. Either a robust NURBS suite, or NO NURBS AT ALL! None of this 'sort of usable, but not really' NURBS crap! If it's not worth developing to an industry-standard level, then it's not worth the memory it takes to load it!

7. Some sort of hair/fur package integrated into the program. NOT SHAG!FUR. That plugin sucks in comparison even to LW's included SasLite. Make it easy to use, with the ability to paint hair parameters on the object like in Maya.

8. Better skin modifier, with more options. And make the paint weights tool actually work, and with better feedback.

9. The ability to save out UVW map coordinates as bitmaps directly from the UV Unwrap modifier. I like Texporter, but why should I have to rely on a 3rd party plugin for something this simple (and then have to break workflow by switching panels to export the maps!).

10. Animatable pivot points!

11. Speed-ups for items like parameter wiring and expression/script controllers. As it stands, interactivity really starts dragging when you get into a complex character rig.

I'm sure I'll think of more after a couple more hours of trying to bend MAX to my will. Look for edits soon!

[froggie]

so far what i heard it will may be included in max5. Not sure if that's true, just "rumors", but anyway here they are (they ripped offf lotsa things ;P):

meshtools are now built in (yay!)

Lightwave texture baker was ripped off

You can now open the timeline to show the graph editor (messiah rippoff =P)

Maya's Nurbs modeling tools are ripped off too, so good nurbs tools in max hehe

Maya's animation tools (constraints, IK) all ripped off as well

Maya's camera (or way the viewort work, can't remember), ripped off.

New render engine that seems to be GI and seems fast as hell (no clue if it's true GI or "fake" one yet tho).

Wireframe have been "enchanced". Seems now when you meshmooth a model it subdivide a la maya (hard to translate hmm hope you get it)

It is now possible to directly export for Maya and softimage.

and last thing i "know" (again take that at conditionnal it's not sure but that's big "rumors" from people i know and i trust) but not least

There is a new way for the UVs, it allow to have different number of points on the UV and on the model. i let your imagination go ahead on this one... :D

again not "sure" but you will be able to check it that's true in like 5 month perhaps less perhaps more ;)

now if it could only handle large scenes and don't crash so often...

[subagio]

You might want to mirror these at the official open wishlist too. It's on the webboard at support.discreet.com

--C

[Mahlon]

"5. Non-linear animation WITHOUT having to use Character Studio. "

Yes, please, please, please..........

[rendermonkey23]

Originally posted by Mahlon
"5. Non-linear animation WITHOUT having to use Character Studio. "

Yes, please, please, please..........

I second the motion... This is a MUST!

[Fritz3D]

Well, I haven't the experience most people that posted seem to have, but a few things I'd like to see:

Really working booleans *sigh*

Poly editing tools both more powerful, and working correctly, withouth making crap vertices etc.

Much more powerful renderer ala LW, with GI and better antialiasing and so on.

Well, can't add too much :) I just hope these rumours that were posted be true.

[Velocamonkey]

Non-linear animation WITHOUT having to use Character Studio..

What exactly is non-linear animation? And while I'm on it,what is linear animation?

[LFShade]

Nonlinear animation (NLA) is a workflow which allows you to create discrete 'clips' of animation, and then arrange them in whatever fashion you desire. The clips can then be blended seamlessly with each other. Think of it like video editing: you take a number of shots in random order and edit them together to make a seamless, whole production.

With linear animation, you have to animate everything strictly from beginning to end. If your action requires you to have a character open a door, and then cross the room, you have to animate it in that order. If you needed the character to then open another door, you'd have to keyframe that as well, and so on for every room, every door, and every other thing your character does.

With NLA, you could prepare the walk cycle and save it as a clip, then animate the door opening and make that a clip as well. Then, you would just place the door opening clip and walk cycle on the timeline and adjust them to wherever you want them in time and space. When you need your character to open another door, you just throw another copy of the door-opening clip on the timeline. Need more walking? Throw another walk clip on the timeline. Mix it up! Arrange the clips however you like!

You can go through the resulting animation when you're done and tweak keyframes to add randomness and variation. Then, if you decide you need to make changes that should occur globally (for instance, all the doors need to open the other direction), you can go back and edit just the original clip and the changes are updated throughout the animation! You can save your clips into clip libraries and use them in other projects. Imagine having libraries of walks, runs, jumps, turns, kicks, etc. that you can just insert wherever you need them!

Martha Stewart says: "Nonlinear animation - It's a good thing!"

[stark-001]

yes Discreet shoud Work on their Booleans Tools a little more on MAX 5. That would make a lot of people Happy

I stopped using Max on some production because we couldnt get Booleans the way we wanted. My manager was furious, we are now working with Maya which (imho) is not better but doesnt Flaw your mesh after a substration operation.

and i really think the Price of Max is a little Over- exagerated compared to what is being done around ...

-peace

[Mahlon]

"5. Non-linear animation WITHOUT having to use Character Studio. "

I have to correct my echo. INTUITVE non-linear animation with a sophisticated toolset.

There.

Mahlon

[Apoclypse]

Um one of you guys said that max is going to have a gi engine. Does this mean that it is going to be a plugin, if so that mean that they will still be using max's renderer. I'm sorry to say it but max's renderer uses to much ram. i wish it were more scalable. less of a resource hog. However I do like that node thing you huys were talking about. But my real concerns have always been the dynamics which i'm sorry to say suck in max and it realy sucks that max users have to buy reactor or something. i think that this fowl play by discreet by making users buy something which should already be in the package as if the price wasn't high enough already.

[Viper]

Nah, they should make a REAL renderer for the program. Something that could get close to renderman. With Radiosity, Caustics, Better reflections etc.

Better lighting tools. Better materials also. Not Having the ansiotropy on Raytracing, is bad.

A good combsustion system. The one in MAX 4 sucks.

[visualasylum]

One important feature I would like to add to the MAX5 Wishlist,

is a replacing Tool, that will allow you to replace any object/geometry/light/camera to any object/geometry/light/camera.

I'll explain. Let say you have a scene with 50 sphere's in a special setup, then you would like to replace all those sphere's with a light.(light has been tweaked to create a special effect in a different file)

You have no idea how much time you would save on this. One program that has this feature is Lightscape, and it's great when importing a light setup from a cad program and so on. But this is Architectural speaking.

But just imagine the possiblities in other types of animation.

The sky is the limit.

[rendermonkey23]

Originally posted by visualasylum
One important feature I would like to add to the MAX5 Wishlist, is a replacing Tool, that will allow you to replace any object/geometry/light/camera to any object/geometry/light/camera.

Ahhh that's a good one. Lightwave has that and I want it :)

[jason-slab]

some stuff that has and hasn't been mentioned

UVw unwrap built in

NLA animation is a must

improved poly editing

transform gismo more like maya's

make preview to play directly in viewport

switch textures on/off in viewport (hotkey) - there might be one but i can't find it

theres just to many plugins for max, if they could have built in dynamics, built in fur(get with the program discreet) - it would even be good to see built in mentalray like softimage

maybe they should release a "3dsmax basic" and a "3dsmax pro" pro being the one with all the features built in, that could make more sense as far as pricing goes.

[luigi]

I wish:


in edges level a edit geometry modifier that allow you make fillet.
like chamfer but rounded results.


no linear animation


extrude edges in edges level at polyobjects.

[edaddy]

video post has NEVER quite worked right ..........

[visualasylum]

eDaddy, can you elaborate more about the video post?

[benhur_1959]

-more faster and interactive meshsmooth,
-include hair & fur, ( like lw sasquatch lite),
-new render engine (raytrace engine+area light),
-certainly spline IK solver (original splineIK, like Maya),
-more developed shortcuts (editable poly vertex connect with mesh tools or spline tools etc..)
-"automatically transform to zero" like other 3d programs
-faster skin deformations, painting and independent than sub-object mesh color shaded mode (two colors) ,for example Bones Pro.
-automatic mapping like Maya, not Flatten.
-developed conform( like lw bgconform)
-non-linear animations developed with block controller. Clips between flawless transition.

sorry for bad english

[AnimBot]

-Stability!
- Better rotation controllers or controller. Like a euler controller that sets keys only on the axis you want it to:D

[Equinoxx]

how's about matte/shadow material with include/exclude options :confused:

that would be very nice . . . same for flatmirror . . .

definately better uvw mapping with an ffd gizmo perhaps . . .

include meshtools/polytools standard in the package

lenseffects glow that DOESN'T flicker in an animation :mad:

[Wiro]

My wish:

all of the above WITHOUT an increase in price.

I see people wishing for an integrated PRMan-near renderer...ever thought that such a thing won't come for free?

Even integrating one of the existing "lesser" ones will probably not be cheap. I'd rather have that optional and concentrate on the functionality of max itself.

Anyhow, like Subagio said...this list probably won't reach anyone at Discreet here. Better to post it directly to the wishlist forum at support.discreet.com

Wiro

[rendermonkey23]

Wiro, I agree with you 150% brotha.

I'm not worried about a better renderer yet (I think the default one is good enough) because there's sooo many good ones out there. Although that would be nice if the price didn't go up. ::Hint Hint::

I want to see discreet work on more functionality too.
I want the best of meshtools AND csPolyTools included.
I want awsome NLA that works with bones also
I want blending modes like photoshop in the material editor
I want good layers built in
I want optional backgrounds in the material editor
And I WANT interactive soft selections (like lightwave) where you can adjust the falloff from the viewport without having to go to the modify panel.
And this isn't nessesecary but I think having a compositor built in like XSI would be cool. I havent had a chance to see it in action but it's a cool idea.

How come I can never find my list when I'm typing these :mad:

And is it me... or does maya handle large meshes in viewports better than max. It seems like it's faster and more interactive when the meshes get burly. Its probably me :)

[toonman]

Originally posted by visualasylum
One important feature I would like to add to the MAX5 Wishlist,

is a replacing Tool, that will allow you to replace any object/geometry/light/camera to any object/geometry/light/camera.

I'll explain. Let say you have a scene with 50 sphere's in a special setup, then you would like to replace all those sphere's with a light.(light has been tweaked to create a special effect in a different file)


Hey, but you can already do this! To try it out, just do the following...

1. Create, say, 5 speheres
2. Create 1 free spotlight
3. Open trackview
4. Expand each node's tracks so you can see the base objec track
5. Select the spotlight BASE object track
6. Hit 'copy'
7. Select each sphere's BASE object track
8. Hit 'paste'
9. Select either 'copy' or 'instance'
10. There you go...

And I must say this has been there since max1...

SM

[rendermonkey23]

I'm thinking more like the replace object feature in lightwave.

Simple and easy :D

[LFShade]

Oh yeah!

While I was responding to the facial rigging poll, I remembered a couple more things I'd like to see in Max.

1. Single-object weighted morphing. I've only seen this so far in Mirai, and it's a great feature - you set up all your targets on just one object. In Mirai, you define 'states' and 'displacements'. States are like the base object in a morpher (the one you apply the modifier to), while displacements are the relative vertex offsets from the states (the channels), but you do it all without having to create copies of your model. Keeping all of the data in one object has its advantages: You don't weigh down your files (and viewports) with numerous copies of the mesh, and you don't need to worry about your vertex counts. Any new verts you add to the object just get interpolated as the mesh is deformed. So you can keep modeling your object even after you add morph targets! I have absolutely no idea how they would implement this in Max, but it would be really nice to see.

2. A nonmodal morph panel. Just a window that floats over your viewports that contains all the value controls for a morpher so that you don't have to keep visiting the modifier panel while animating/testing morphs. Would also be cool to be able to optionally have this in a viewport like you can with trackview.

3. I want to be able to specify a default key interpolation type. Max always defaults to smooth, but when I'm animating I usually prefer to have all my keys linear to start with, so I don't have to deal with overshoot. I use scripted workarounds for this, but it seems silly to have to go that extra mile for something so simple.

4. Area lights. Forget about G.I., I just want a rectangle area light type. For those of us who don't like waiting for global illumination renders to finish and prefer to fake G.I., it would be so much easier with area lights!

5. MaxScript: a 'self' property for script controllers. Currently script controllers don't let you use properties of the object the controller is applied to within the script. But half the time (at least), I find a really good reason to do just that. Again, there are workarounds, but I believe in making things as simple as possible.

6. Configurable mouse behavior. This is a teeny tiny little request that would make it much easier for us app-switchers (Maya, Max, back to Maya, etc.). I'd like to set up the mouse to act like it does in other programs, so that I don't have to always be conscious of which task I'm working on -- things would just behave the way I want all the time. I'd actually like to see this in every application, not just Max.

Incidentally, I'm aware that Discreet will see none of this. I've sent my requests/observations/nitpicks/bug reports through the appropriate channels. The problem is that they rarely respond directly; if you're lucky you just see your pet features pop up in a future release. At least here we all get some feedback on our ideas.

On that note, I'd really like someone to just tell me my ideas stink so I can crawl back under my mossy rock. Shut up, LFShade:D

[xynaria]

There already is a replace object in Max ..scroll down the file menu on the main toolbar and hit replace. The only stipulation (in theory at least) is that your object has the same name as the object you want to replace. I say in theory because when I attempted to replace some objects with the same name they didn't work and I still haven't figured out why, however, in most instances it has worked ok. :)


LF Shade... quick and dirty area light in Max (courtesy I think of Brandon Davies.. apologies to all concerned if not) assign a light to a path and have it complete the path in one frame. Sounds awkward but it does work although I'm not sure if some of the problems I had with it were due to the method or my mesh and have never had time to sit down and work through it.. but it's one of those things you can't resist trying anyway. :)

[rendermonkey23]

Area lights. Forget about G.I., I just want a rectangle area light type. For those of us who don't like waiting for global illumination renders to finish and prefer to fake G.I., it would be so much easier with area lights!

Yeah, I forgot this in my last post but I want this also, but I would like to see how big the lights actually are in the viewports. I dont like guessing... oh 25 seems about right ;)

xynaria: Thanks man, I tried using that but I couldn't get it to work either. Well, maybe they could simplify it :)

[edaddy]

visual asylum:

what i mean by videopost never really doing what it should is just a lot of the little things....such as cancelling the glow if geometry happens to get between 'it' and the camera, and the wierd looking alpha channel u get from a blurred scene....videopost isn't ALL bad...i mean it does get the job done but u gotta admit it could be alot better

[Hexodam]

One thing I´v missed since I first started 3d.. solidify

Whenever you are arranging objects in a scene and you dont want them to intersect it would be nice to be able to select and object and solidify it so its subobject will not intersect other subobjects.

[RoryWoodford]

1. GI renderer out the box

2. non-buggy Boolean

3. The lightwave pen tool for spline creation, Because using refine to change your spline sucks.

4. a soft shadow option in Shadows

5. Hair/cloth simulation out-the-box

6. a coffee machine primitive. :)

Those are the few I can think of that really bug me.

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