Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 28, 2019. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
A few months have now passed since the last 2019.3 update – with performance, stability and quality improvements, Autodesk has now released the new 3ds Max release 2020. So far, many positive reactions from the community have largely failed to materialize. Highlights of the new features include…
- Revit Import with new “Combine” options
- Chamfer Modifier with new features
- OSL improvements to (Open Shading Language) with 14 new maps
- Animation Preview performance and UI improvements
New OSL Maps
14 new OSL shaders in 3ds Max, which from now on are not only automatically converted into viewport shaders, but are also supported by the GPU-based “Quicksilver Hardware”: Color Key (for green-screen keying), Color Space (for conversion between RGB, HSV etc.), Haltone, Falloff, Simple Gradient, Simple Tiles, Waveform and more. Halftone and Toon Width can be used to create corresponding new non-PBR looks, respectively via dot patterns and hatching.
Animation Preview
The creation of animation previews has been improved with the new release and expanded with several functions. According to Autodesk, creation on a local drive is now up to three times faster, allows the AVI codec to be selected.
In addition, some workflows are said to have been made more pleasant – among other things, quality settings can be changed via the preview UI. Furthermore, for example, the file names of the previews also correspond to the scene names from the outset. You can find more about the preview innovations here.
Modeling: Chamfer Modifier
Alongside a new user interface, the update now allows a consistent edge width, as well as endpoint inclination and presets, among other things, to be defined for the modifier.With “Depth”, the profile of a chamfer can be set to a depth of 1 (rounded edge), through 0 (straight edge), down to -0.5 (inverted curve).
Availability
With 3ds Max 2020, Autodesk, as last year, made an effort to ensure that several third-party software manufacturers released corresponding updates at the same time (270 plug-ins in total). As is well known, the tool is available for Windows 7+ only in the subscription model – and costs a full €249 per month or, at an annual price, €1,999.20.
Roadmap: 3ds Max and the Future
Looking back at the past, Autodesk once again underlines its own approach for 3ds Max in the new blog post on Area: small iterative steps, incorporating feedback and working closely with third-party manufacturers. How well this method is received by users in the current release can be quickly answered by looking at the respective comments section and the reaction on Reddit. With the newly published Public Roadmap, however, Autodesk wants to show in advance which features are being worked on and create more transparency.
In the areas of “Create”, “Collaborate”, “Automate”, this list includes, among other things..
- 3D Booleans, Environment Layouts, Arnold GPU, PBR for the viewport
- Support for USD and Material X, Sketchup import,
- Texture baking, retopo work, simulation solver, support for Python 3 and more.
For more information: Take a look at the official release notes
