How much does MAX actually cost?

[Ernest Burden III]

I had signed up for a MAX5 product demo in NY. Silly me. Imagine having the time to go to a demo. So I missed it.

 

Yesterday a sales rep called from Discreet to remind me I missed the event and offer me the discount I would have gotten had I been there. She said I could save over US$2000. Well that got my attention. "So how much is it then"? I asked. "about $3,500". Isn't that the regular price? Is Max5 (including Character Studio) now priced at nearly $6,000?

 

I realize that I'm supposed to be making so much money doing arch-viz work that such an expense is trivial, but 6K is still a lot of money. So is 3.5K.

 

Oh yeah, she said the 'educational' version was priced at $3,500 (thinking me confused) which provided me a well-deserved laugh. But she had a discount for that, too, I think.

[ingo]

Directly from Discreets website online store at :

 

http://estore.discreet.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry?CID=0&SID=37482&SP=10007&DSP=0&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=0

 

MAX5 : Advanced tools for character animation,

next generation game development, and visual effects production.

Save $300!

$3,195.00

 

-----------------------------------------------

 

Still a heavy price, thats what i paid for FormZ AND Lightwave. Maybe they had a special price for you

 

HTH

 

ingo

[plastic]

it is a heavy price...especially in europe, its more like 4000$ here...

 

if i had to buy a 3d app now, i would definitly go for maya complete (mental ray 3.0 comes with it for free).

 

but the max 5 radiosity is a great tool, i would miss it with another package...

[ingo]

Seems Ernest is speechless when he has seen this cheap offer they made specially for him

 

ingo

 

or am i too sarcastic ?

[nisus]

Hi all,

 

Although discreets prices are expensive, they always give some kind of reduction too. Last month you could get combustion at 20% of it's normal price (that is -80% of the price!) when you bought max5 or even just an upgrade!

 

Unfortunately you don't get reduction on the application you'll need, but let's hope this will change. The best thing to change would be that one could choose free software for a certain amount (as just a cheaper price is not in discreets vocabulary... most regrettable)

 

rgds

 

nisus

[Ernest Burden III]

Originally posted by ingo:

Seems Ernest is speechless when he has seen this cheap offer they made specially for him:)

Me speechless? Never. But I only write so much because they pay me by the word.

 

And I think the lady from Discreet would have prefered me speechless rather than listen to my response to the Autodesk customer treatment policy, which makes me feel like a chicken at a picnic.

[mbr]

Max seems to be pricing it out of this market place. While the reviews for Max 5 have been favorable, I can't help but wonder if it is money better spent on Maya with Mental Ray for $2000, Lightwave, or even Cinema 4D, with Form-Z.

If you had it to do over again (if you are a Max user), would you still cough up the extra $1500 or so? Not to mention, that while it does have radiosity, it is not nearly as good as Final Render or Brazil, nor as fast, so add some more onto that, bringing it close to $4 grand.

What would be your choice if you were starting from scratch?

[plastic]

Originally posted by mbr:

Not to mention, that while it does have radiosity, it is not nearly as good as Final Render or Brazil, nor as fast, so add some more onto that, bringing it close to $4 grand.

well, i agree that max is way too expensive...

but the radiosity is great, and FAST.

it is not compareable to global illuminaion, light tracer, brazil, finalrender, mental ray offer.

for architecture, especially indoor views, where you have a lot of lights & bounces, nothing beats it.