A discount is available for a three-year commitment, but that still doesn’t make this a cheap experience. The other issue with this product is the high price. And, complex plugins that stress the PC can make 3DS Max unstable on occasion. The first is that if you use many plugins, then they can interact in somewhat unpredictable ways. With so much functionality, what’s the downside the 3DS Max? There are a few. Images can be generated using a very wide range of rendering systems, including Renderman created by Pixar and mental ray. Some of these plugins are free, but the best ones are paid.įor modeling purposes, 3DS Max supports conventional polygon construction, NURBS and also patch surfaces.
If the software doesn’t support the exact function or rendering mode you need, an extensive plugin system allows third-party modules to add this to 3DS Max. The standard features include skeletons and inverse kinematics, cloth simulation, skinning and character controls for bipedal motion. The original Autodesk 3D Studio ran under DOS in 1988, but the current Autodesk 3DS Max (formally 3DS Studio Max) has been a Windows tool since 1996.Īs a 3D modeling system, this one is especially popular with those creating animation, game assets and simulations.