The best 3ds Max version for visualization

[richardconner]

Hello! Please help

I've been visualizing the interiors in 3ds Max 2009. Which 3ds Max version do you use? Is 2013 version better? Should I switch to it?

[Krisztian Gulyas]

I've used 2011, 2012 and 2013 and I think 2013 is the best. Well it's the latest too, so it should be the best, but in Max 2012 there are some changes compared to 2011 but they are not good enough. Autodesk fixed some of those bugs in 2013, but anyway, it's max. It can crash just because it feels like crashing.

I think it's much better than Max 9. I've seen people using max 9 in some videos and i thought that sometimes it would be much easier to the same thing in max 2013 or it would take less time. I havent used max 9 though.

[richardconner]

I've seen people using max 9 in some videos and i thought that sometimes it would be much easier to the same thing in max 2013 or it would take less time.

 

Please clarify or give an example. In wich cases max 2013 is easier than max 2009 for visualizator?

[Chris MacDonald]

Pretty sure you can find out what new features have been added on autodesks website, and just by youtube searching "3ds max 2012/2013 new features".

 

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=3ds+max+2012+new+features

[Krisztian Gulyas]

The new Nitrous viewport driver is definitely faster than the previous viewport drivers.

I dont know why but in most of the videos i have seen people are not using hotkeys but that would really speed things up.

Usually with modelling details. When i was watching tutorials, sometimes i managed to make it faster than the guy who made the video. Sometimes because i use hotkeys, sometimes there's an easier/faster way to do it (for example the default setting have changed and became better and i dont have to change them or there are some presets, maybe a new option is available and you dont have to do 3 things to get the same result, you just press a button etc etc).

But the best way to find out what have changed and what is better is to watch some videos on youtube about it or you can read reviews just like Chris said.

Edited January 10, 2013 by krisztiangulyas

[John Dollus]

If you are in a firm which uses Revit, the file linking improvements are very helpful but if you are independent and do not own Revit, it's rather useless. Depending on your hardware, the iRay changes in 2013 are very useful. State set functionality is also something that can be very beneficial to arch viz pipelines. From Max 2009-2013 you also gain quite a few modeling tool changes. The edge chamfer poly editing changes alone are worth the upgrade for arch viz work.

I feel the main hurdle with skipping 3-4 generations of releases will be finding the new stuff vs. muscle memory of your existing workflow. If you use 2013 with your existing 2009 workflow/process, then you will see very little difference. To get the most benefit, you will need to put in the effort to change some things about how you currently approach tasks.

[richardconner]

Thank's for all your help! Everything is more clear now. I think I will switch to 2012. As far as I understood it is more stable version for today

[Josef Wienerroither]

Max 2013 is more stable than 2012 IMHO. Especially if you make use of nitrous viewports. And Mental Ray gets constant updates too, i would not toying arround with Mr in Max 2009 if i have access to the 2013 verwsion...

[NigelStutt]

I find Max 2012 to be completely stable with Win 7 64bit. Well it hasnt crashed yet on me and I have been using it for quite a while. I don't believe in all this updating for update-sake, Max 2012 will do me for the next ten years, it has reached a plateau that I think is pretty high.

Edited January 11, 2013 by NigelStutt

[richardconner]

Dear users! I really don't want to start holy war in this thread . Just say which new things except mentallray can make the work of the visualitor easier.