Max in the games industry

[jadedchron]

because MAX SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!! heh jk:wip:

[treed]

Max dosen't suck. Its one of the most popular and most powerfull 3d software packages around.

[cgbinho]

because MAX SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!! heh jk

the neighbor's wife always look hottier doesn't?

[Whyyyd]

Max is still big.

[jadedchron]

seems most people lack humor:hmm:

[dogz]

Raven probobly got tired of envelope wiegting in max..whitch equals LOTS of saved production time...i dont use max to envolpe and anim8 no mo...maya is much faster to get a character movin and it has equally good modeling capabilties..so max loses ground..thats a shame..:rolleyes:

[Gelfling]

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell by was made with Max

that is one hell of a game

[uday]

I believe there are other Isuues besides what sux and what doesnt.
5 years ago you could get much work in the gaming industry if one didnt know MAX.Also because a lot of the Game companies tend to reuse their gaming engines which were initially devoloped with Max as their base...so why switch if they d have to rewrite a lot of work .

just as in the movie Industry...the guys who originally used ALIAS
Power Animator) are still around and it was logical for them to switch to Maya.Soft is still ruling the Industry.
but If u tried to include Max or Lightwave into the pipe line it becomes additional work in an already dead tight schedule.

But now maya/Soft becoming cheaper than Max and with so many people graduationg CG colleges ,with maya and soft as their primary tools then it will change the Industry slowly.

Also features of Maya and Soft were an overkill for the gaming industry where things like Nurbs and particle effects werent used much.

So now with newer technologies and people migrating from film to gaming industry it is definetly going to change a few things around.
my 2 cents:)

[thomaspecht]

that's not an all of a sudden change. other well known companies like factor 5, valve software, epic games or id have been using other software for quite some time.
there also seems to be a trend for people to move from film/tv-effects into the game industry and these guys are used to maya, softimage and the bunch and probably show their employers where the advantages of a transition lie.

personally, i prefer maya's rigging and animating capabilities over max's. but (poly-)modelling-wise that package is no fun to use and (for me) is beaten with ease by a copy of max 4 and the meshtools :)

[BrandonD]

I think a lot of the switching from MAX has come around for a couple reasons that have little to do with MAX. First, lots of film VFX people have been wooed to higher pay and higher positions in the game industry. With that comes a desire to implement their accepted pipelines and structures. Second, the price dropping of the big packages from the astronomical to the "desktop" level - where MAX and LW have always been.

Then there's also that "grass is greener" ideology.

[tAstyBITs]

I work in the game industry. Though I've always had odd jobs and never got to do alot of low poly stuff but I do have some thoughts.

Most game engines have their own editing tool, the company I work at does, Unreal engine does plus others I'm sure. Alot of work is done in there, people spend most of there time in their company's custom tool adjusting and tweeking, the 3d package they use get a little dusty. I would imagine it's not to important what package you use if your making characters or backgrounds so long as you can export to a format the custom editor can read.

When I worked at interplay people used max and lightwave, the only thing I can say about the two is that lightwave always had some sort of problems with exporting, double faces and extra verts that people had to fix it max. I got the feeling that lightwave hides quarks from the user to make things seem friendly. Max is very raw in the way you deal with the geometry and mapping, which might be better for exporting to game engines.

As far as what is good for a game company it would have to be a quick and complete package. If people have to download plug-ins just to use the program its a negative, if people have to spend a long time to learn how to use the finer details of a package it's a negitive.

Ultimately it shouldn't matter what package you use to build art assets so long as it can export to the game. The only issues would be animation exporting.

just my two cents.

[Dave Black]

It's funny, you all remember GMax? I thought that was supposed to be the answer to discreet's prayers. Offer a free tool that closely resembles max, and get the mod community all crazy about the software. 5 years later, poof! New customer.

I thought it was a good idea. Wonder what ever happened to it.

-3DZ

:D

[ThirdEye]

Max is still the leader in the game industry. Ask yourself why didn't they cut the price ;)

[halo]

ever thought it maybe something to do with max costing 2x as maya and 3x as lw?

[ThirdEye]

I doubt major studios would change their entire pipeline to get another package because it costs less :shrug:

[Ed Lee]

We use Maya to make game assets, create dynamics and export animation to our game engine. There are 2 of us who use LW to model and export UV to Maya via Deep Exploration. I use Max to model things that may be hard to model in Maya or LW, but the final step is Maya before outputting to game engine. I heard few reasons why we use Maya and that is because the programers prefer it and Maya's open developer's kit. (whatever that means).

Anyone remember Mirai?..........

Ed--

[Gelfling]

"Anyone remember Mirai?.........."

Yeah, I have a legit bought copy right here

[thomaspecht]

from what was announced some months ago, at least valve switched their entire pipeline from max to softimage xsi. but then again that was a statement from softimage, not valve ;)

btw. i remember mirai too and would give an arm and a leg to get a legit copy :)

[MCronin]

Originally posted by treed
I have heard that Raven Software are using Lightwave and Maya for making Quake IV. Why all of a sudden are game company's switching over to other 3d packages and not staying with 3ds max?

Maybe Raven is using LW and Maya now, but I don't think Raven ever used Max, at least not much. As far as I know, and I know people who have worked there, there main production tool was always SI, and then they started transitioning to XSI.

[Fozzie]

Of all the reasons given I would have to say that Ed Lees is the best. Most programmers who make tools that integrate with our favorite 3D applications seem to love Maya's SDK and scripting abilities over any other application. If you ask tools programmers they will tell that it is because it is more documented and easier to get at the data that you need.

The programmers decree what art tools shall and shall not be supported, artists have very little say or sway in this at the majority of the dev studios.

Fozzie

[thomaspecht]

well, if coders now have to decide which 3d package has to be used... why not let them make the assets? :rolleyes:
no wonder why many studios are closing down even before their first title is being published :D

i've encountered the opposite: artists who had some freedom in choosing the best suited package for their task and who worked together with the coders to ensure that a production pipeline could be established.

[RJB]

What Fozzie said is also true from my experience. I've written a lot of maxscripts, and the number one thing that I struggle with is the poorly written documentation.

All of the programmers I talk to hate the Max SDK documentation.

[suck]

yeah it seemed like back in 96 or so when max1 came out it was a true godsend with it's plugin architecture and good documentation for the sdk. that got a lot of game places moving over because making custom tools and exporters was easier than ever. as time went on, max became larger and more feature filled, but also had more developers working on it, became more bloated, and had worse documentation. at the same time maya came out with a good sdk to compete.

while we don't like to think of programmers driving which art tool we use, games are very technology driven and ease of implementing tools means a lot to the development of a game.

ben
scea

[Fozzie]

GIJoe, I think the fact that most developer close down after releasing a product is the fact that they have nothing new that has been approved by a publisher, and with no new product lined up there is no money coming in to keep everyone around.

Just think of things like production houses for TV or Movies, as soon as the production has run its course everyone gets a pink slip and moves onto somewhere else to start all over again.

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