GMax and 3D Studio Max

[AndersEgleus]

If you want to learn 3dsMax, I suppose it's a good place to start.

It depends on what you want to learn - if you want to learn polygon modeling and basic animation, it's the same if I understand it correctly, but as for rendering, well, it has very limited rendering capabilities, and a lot of other stuff is missing too.

I suppose you could become a proficient game modeller/animator/texturer only by using GMax if you put your mind to it, but you won't really be able to claim that you master 3dsMax.

[oxygen_77]

I really just wanted to get a good feel for 3D Studio Max's interface so if thrown into a position where I needed to use it, I could learn it quickly.

Thanks for the help!

[Ian Jones]

Well for that purpose it should work great for you.

[Bobo]

Originally posted by oxygen_77
Forgive me for butting in on this forum, I usually just stick to the Lightwave, Game, WIP, and Finished forums.

I recently downloaded GMax from Discreet's website in hopes it would be similar enough to 3D Studio Max that if I learn it I can claim to have experience relevant to 3D Studio Max. Does this sound like a feasable plan? How similar are GMax and 3D Studio Max really? Your help is much appreciated!


gMax is a subset of 3dsmax 4.
The general interface is identical, just some areas are completely missing (like Rendering for example).
The UI is very customizable (even more than max!) so game packs can replace the complete UI with their own flash-based controls. But the "plain vanilla" gMax looks like 3ds max 4, just the default colors are uglier ;) You can tweak them though.

The EditableMesh, and EditableSpline tools are identical to those in 3ds max 4 and 5. EditablePoly (Winged-Edges technology) are identical to 3ds max 4 - max 5 had alot of improvements that are not in gMax.

The original gMax came with a very limited (scripted) material editor, the current 1.2 version has a Material Editor that is about the same as in 3ds max, which is a Good Thing.

Unfortunately, I/O is quite limited (excpet for the formats supported by game packs) and you cannot freely transfer data from gMax to Max, but the other way 'round is easier - for example (shameless plug ahead!) BackFromFive http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/darkmoon/bff works great for basic model transfer from max 4/5 to gMax.

Scripting (a very important aspect of 3ds max as you can see from my profile ;)) is limited when it comes to I/O, but the rest works nicely and is a good place to start. Sometimes I use gMax to try things out when answering MAXScript related questions and nobody notices the difference...

You should consider visiting http://www.gmaxsupport.com for a nice helpful community that can help you and can answer specific questions...

[oxygen_77]

Thanks Bobo!! I really appreciate you taking the time to help!!

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