Autodesk discontinued GMax

[Steve Green]

I'm not surprised really, it came out based on R4 and hadn't been updated since then from what I remember.

- Steve

[SheepFactory]

I thought gmax was discontinued long ago actually , was that something else?

[thedaemon]

I thought it was discontinued too, its a worthless pile of junk anyways.

[Steve Green]

Plasma?

- Steve

[pthomas72]

Anyone know the Exact story behind this?

[Tex3D]

All I remember was that it was supposed to "seamlessly integrate" with game engines and you could do all this badass modelling in realtime and yadayada.

Only problem was that the developer of the game had to support it and only a handfull of games did. I remember they had a list of TONS of games that would soon be supporting GMAX and none of them ever came to light.

I mean seriously.. How many times can you make a new level for Quake or Trainz?

Oh well. Good idea + Poorly implemented = :sad:

-Dave

[erilaz]

Plasma?

- Steve

Plasma went down fast.

[DevilHacker]

I don’t guess that there is any chance that because AutoDesk does not want to continue supporting their software, that they will make the code open source and release it to the general public…

I guess one [aka: me] could only hope.
:scream:



.

[thorn3d]

Gmax is based on the code for 3dsmax - there's no way in hell they'll make that Open Source.

thorn

[DevilHacker]

Gmax is based on the code for 3dsmax - there's no way in hell they'll make that Open Source.

thornYa, I was mostly just being sarcastic...
After all, RedHat did the same thing with Fedora Core…
:D

[LetterRip]

If you are interested in 'open source' why don't you try software that is already open? Ie Blender, Wings, etc.

LetterRip

[-JT-]

Plasma was great, it was simple and it worked fine, I still use it a lot for my flash work.
It's so sad Autodesk stopped it...

[Signal2Noise]

I thought Gmax was a cool idea and good for those who wanted to dabble in 3D modeling in a legitimate way (i.e. no warez). I always recommended it to friends, family, kids, etc. especially if they were into games and mods.

Any bets on when we'll be seeing Gmaya? ;)

[PyRoT]

I always thought gmax would be a big success as it allowed a really neat method of modifying games. I heard that it was expensive for game developers to actually implement (licensing or soemthing) which hurt its popularity.

Tomek

[Peddy]

yeah its stilled used. there are plenty of companies that use it to create content, and it works fine. its just that 3dsmax is better. im mean sheesh, if nothing else, having Gmax (an updated version) available can, if nothing else, expand their potential 3dsmax userbase.

[MCronin]

I heard that it was expensive for game developers to actually implement (licensing or soemthing) which hurt its popularity.

Tomek


That's an understatement. Before GMax came out discreet sent a rep to a company I worked for to pitch us on supporting GMax. Our final estimate for just a single game was in the 250 thousand dollar neighborhood to start (figuring the cost of licensing, development and support). It would have actually made our job more difficult and wouldn't have served us any better than just releasing the plugins we already had. I'm also curious to know if any company actually licensed it. AFAIK all the gamepacks that were available were developed by the GMax team themselves to drum up developer support and create a userbase.

[Per-Anders]

...well now that they've got maya after all... :D

[eMPeck]

I thought Gmax was a cool idea and good for those who wanted to dabble in 3D modeling in a legitimate way (i.e. no warez). I always recommended it to friends, family, kids, etc. especially if they were into games and mods.

Any bets on when we'll be seeing Gmaya? ;)

I still prefer XSI Mod Tool ;) It has support for just two game engines, but what kind of engines - HL2 & Unreal2. I guess it's far better piece of software that Gmax ever was.

Love this part:

If you are interested in other 3D animation, modeling, and rendering applications from Autodesk please check out Autodesk® 3ds Max® software.

You can't have free Gmax, but instead You can buy $$$ 3dsMAX. I can already see all those modders buying MAX 8 :rolleyes:

[RmachucaA]

this has been a trend i've been seeing in the modding community, actually buying the software to mod. Gmax helped a lot to get the community started, i guess they want to take it to the next level.

[eMPeck]

Yeah, but unfortunately most of them just can't afford overpriced 3dsMAX.

[RmachucaA]

and thats exactly why XSI has the foundation license :D.

[Trident_2K5]

I'm also curious to know if any company actually licensed it. AFAIK all the gamepacks that were available were developed by the GMax team themselves to drum up developer support and create a userbase.

Microsoft? 90% of MSFS mods were made with GMax... Not even sure if you can do them with anything else.

[paintbox]

Autodesk buys (Alias) Maya.

GMax gets discontinued.

Therefore,

Maya is the new GMax !

[gent_k]

Autodesk buys (Alias) Maya.

GMax gets discontinued.

Therefore,

Maya is the new GMax !

Well in Autodesks Acquisition FAQ they describe maya as an optimal choice for high-end film and 3dsmax for worldbuilding in games, so it'd be more likely to happen the other way round :D

[paintbox]

Gentk , no man, that makes way too much sense ! :D

[bsm3d]

Plasma?

- Steve

Plasma is discontinued also, I think Autodesk don't sales it enough or the market wont it...I'm not surprised if market wont it, why autodesk (discreet) is changing max interface ??

So if autodesk continue like this 3ds max come to be Autocad 3D lol

[MCronin]

Microsoft? 90% of MSFS mods were made with GMax... Not even sure if you can do them with anything else.

But did MS actually pay for the GMax licenses? I'm pretty positive the initial Flight Simulator gamepacks were made by the gmax team to drum up support, not by MS.

[PyRoT]

Plasma is discontinued also, I think Autodesk don't sales it enough or the market wont it...I'm not surprised if market wont it, why autodesk (discreet) is changing max interface ??

So if autodesk continue like this 3ds max come to be Autocad 3D lol

I wouldn't mind if some of the autocad line drawing features were integrated.. like an AUTOCAD mode toggle :P

[mummey]

GMax was created near the time of Plasma. Autodesk was trying to diversify max into multiple products. Plasma at one point even had features 3dsmax didn't have.

If you were a new user to max or Plasma, you would have found the interface ackward.

If you were an experienced user of 3dsmax, you would have found the interface frustrating because it didn't have all the abilities of 3dsmax, but had some abilities you couldn't get in 3dsmax.

For such a good idea, its implementation was doomed...

[Peddy]

Microsoft? 90% of MSFS mods were made with GMax... Not even sure if you can do them with anything else.

i worked for a small company creating content for MSFS series. the boss used gmax, but i used 3dmax 6 and exported the meshes =]

[Frank Lake]

All I remember was that it was supposed to "seamlessly integrate" with game engines and you could do all this badass modelling in realtime and yadayada.

Only problem was that the developer of the game had to support it and only a handfull of games did. I remember they had a list of TONS of games that would soon be supporting GMAX and none of them ever came to light.

I mean seriously.. How many times can you make a new level for Quake or Trainz?

Oh well. Good idea + Poorly implemented = :sad:

-Dave

Yeah that's what they stated. But the key things that they were really doing was to try and increase market share(hey now you don't need to steal anything to MOD a game!) and prevent other strong 'new'comers from getting more of a toehold(LW & MAYA). Also giving away 3d software no doubt lowered the appeal of warez with the quasi-techsupport. Had very little to do with it's age or implementation, since it was only a marketing ploy that kinda paid-off in some areas but didn't in others.

Worked out well, you've captured thousands newbie's with freesoftware, and it doesn't make sense to keep giving away free software, especially in this day of 'if it doesn't make 7%+ profit downsize it' culture.

[erilaz]

GMax was created near the time of Plasma. Autodesk was trying to diversify max into multiple products. Plasma at one point even had features 3dsmax didn't have.



That was one of the few gripes I've ever had with Autodesk. When Plasma was released the upgraded W3D export functionality in 3dsmax "mysteriously" disappeared.

[Trident_2K5]

i worked for a small company creating content for MSFS series. the boss used gmax, but i used 3dmax 6 and exported the meshes =]

Actually, as one flightsim modder told me anything able to export to .x format would work as there is converter to MSFS native format... Interesting, what MS would recommend for MSFS2006... XSI Mod with their own .mdl exporter?

[Schwinnz]

If you are interested in 'open source' why don't you try software that is already open? Ie Blender, Wings, etc.

LetterRip

Tom, I've been working with Blender3d almost exclusively since about a year and a half and I can state that Blender still lacks some tools for game design. I've already stated them on the forums over at Blender.org but I'll state them again here:

Vertex normals editing
Hard edges
Support for multiple UV channels
Rendering to UVs
Normal maps creation tools (there are some in now but they are lacking, lacks that are described in 2.36's (I think) 'Changes since...')


Now, with the complete animation rewrite, I think this area does not lack anymore, which is great. It has about everything an animator would need.

[kabojnk]

I hated GMax. I used it ONCE, and that was to make a Sim City 4 lot (a public park restroom with dancing people outside). God, it's even worse when you come from 3dsmax experience, because it's like like modeling except your hands have been severed from your body.

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