APPENDIX A

What's New with 3ds Max 2012

With each revision of Max, I'm always amazed at the new features that are included. Max is a large and complex piece of software, and just when I think it can't hold anything more, a new revision with a host of new features appears. Max 2012 is no different.

You can find in-depth coverage of the new features in the various chapters, but this appendix provides a quick overview of these new features, along with references on where to learn more about them. Throughout the book, the New Feature icon identifies the features that are new to 3ds Max 2012.

Major Improvements

3ds Max 2012 includes lots of new improvements. Some are considered major because they likely will affect every user's workflow, and others are minor because they are smaller in scale. However, an improvement listed as minor may be the one you've been waiting for.

Nitrous viewports

The way that the viewports are rendered has been completely overhauled in this latest version of Max. The new rendering method is called Nitrous, and it has several improvements that make the viewports redraw faster and with better quality. This requires fewer test renders, which helps you get to the final results more quickly. Nitrous takes advantage of the latest advances in GPU-based video cards. It also threads each viewport separately, so it is even faster on multi-core and multi-processor computers.

These improvements allow more details to be displayed in the viewports, including soft shadows, ambient occlusion, and transparency. More on the Nitrous viewport features is covered in Chapter 2, “Controlling and Configuring the Viewports.”

Non-photorealistic rendering

Another benefit of Nitrous is the ability to render the viewports or the final render using a non-photorealistic render style. The available options include pencil, acrylic, ink, colored pencil, colored ink, graphite, pastel, and technical drawing. These various render styles are covered in more detail in Chapter 24, “Rendering Non-Photorealistic Effects.”

New Graphite Modeling tools

The Graphite Modeling tools found in Max have several new tools, including the Conform Brush. This new brush lets you sculpt polygons to conform to an underlying object by moving, rotating, scaling, and relaxing vertices. Other new tools include Shift Rotate, Shift Scale, and Constrain to Spline. You can learn more about these new tools and other improvements to the Graphite Modeling tools in Chapter 14, “Using the Graphite Modeling Tools and Painting with Objects.”

Substance procedural textures

Max's Material Editor now includes a new library of procedural textures. These textures, called Substance textures, were developed by Allegorithmic, and they provide detailed textures created using procedural code rather than a bitmap. The Substance textures are created using a file that is many times smaller than comparable bitmaps, and they can easily be randomized to add variety to your scene. The available Substance textures are presented in Chapter 31, “Working with Procedural Substance Textures.”

Improved UVW Editor interface

The UV Editor interface has been completely redesigned. The new interface is streamlined and includes many icons for accomplishing things that were only in the menus previously. The new interface also includes a new set of Peel tools for unwrapping and several new grouping tools for working UV clusters. You can learn all the new UV editor secrets in Chapter 33, “Unwrapping UVs and Mapping Textures.”

Improved F-Curve Editor

Max's new F-Curve Editor is the same editor used in Maya, Softimage, and MotionBuilder. The improvements have taken the best features from each product and made those features common to all programs. The new editor offers better control over curves and the ability to work with multiple points at a time. The improved F-Curve editor is presented in Chapter 37, “Working with the F-Curve Editor in the Track View.”

MassFX physics

The new MassFX tools in Max provide rigid-body dynamics directly within the viewport. The system is based on NVIDIA's PhysX engine, and it lets you quickly define solid rigid-body objects along with several different types of constraints. The system also can be used to quickly populate a scene, such as an avalanche of rocks. MassFX is covered in Chapter 43, “Simulating Physics-Based Motion with MassFX.”

iray renderer

Rendering with mental ray can create amazing details, but with so many different settings, it can be a long game of trial and error to get the results you want. The iray rendering engine removes the guesswork. It progressively renders the scene, and you can stop it whenever the results get close to what you want. The iray renderer is covered in Chapter 47, “Rendering with mental ray and iray.”

Minor Improvements

In addition to the major improvements, many minor improvements make working with objects, materials, and other facets of Max easier. Minor improvements found in version 2012 include the following:

• Darker default theme: Max has adopted as default the darker interface theme, which is easier on your eyes in low light.
• Online help files: The Max help files are opened in a web browser loaded from Autodesk.com when accessed using the Help menu. This ensures the latest and most up-to-date version of the help files.
• Faster start-up time: Max 2012 starts up more quickly and requires less memory than previous versions. This is accomplished by loading only the tools needed.
• mental ray 3.9: Max 2012 includes the latest version of mental ray 3.9.
• Undo feature in Slate Material Editor: The Slate Material Editor now allows undo and redo commands.
• Vector displacement maps: Vector displacement maps exported from Mudbox are now supported within Max.
• Screen Clone feature: The Viewport Canvas has a new feature that lets you clone an image from anywhere on the computer screen, including Photoshop if it is open.
• ProOptimizer improvements: The ProOptimizer modifier has been improved to yield better, faster results. You also can interpolate the optimized mesh by UVs and normals.
• Single-step transfer to other Autodesk products: Max's File menu includes a Send To option for sending the current scene to Softimage, Mudbox, or MotionBuilder automatically.
• Support for WIRE files: 3ds Max 2012 allows WIRE files from Autodesk Alias Design to be imported into Max as Body objects.