3ds Max 2012

Whether you’re looking to create differentiated 3D assets for games, compelling broadcast graphics for television, or stunning visual effects for the latest box office attraction, 3ds Max 2012 provides a comprehensive, integrated 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and compositing solution that enables you to better handle the conflicting demands of shrinking deadlines and increasing consumer expectations for quality.

XBR – the Next Steps

3ds Max 2012 forges ahead with the next steps in the Excalibur (XBR) initiative to revitalize the software at its core. Engineered to provide dramatic improvements in performance and visual quality, the new Nitrous viewport system takes advantage of GPUs and multi-core workstations to deliver a smoother, more responsive workflow, while the render-quality display environment helps drive better creative decisions in the context of your final output. 3ds Max 2012 also introduces the MassFX unified system of simulation solvers, and delivers its first module: mRigids rigid-body dynamics, offering access to the power of the multi-threaded NVIDIA PhysX engine directly in the 3ds Max 2012 viewport.

Rendering Redefined

Incorporating some of the most innovative recent software advances in the industry, 3ds Max 2012 continues to reach new milestones in the Rendering Revolution. Case in point: the newly integrated iray rendering technology from mental images that enables you to get more predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings—similar to a ‘point-and-shoot’ camera. With new support for Vector Displacement Maps, you can use mental ray renderer or iray to render complex high-resolution details created in Mudbox on low-resolution geometry.

Better Results, Faster

Whether you’re creating textures or UV maps, or adding finishing touches to geometry, 3ds Max 2012 offers new and enhanced features that will help you create higher-quality results in less time. Like the new library of 80 Substance procedural textures, with dynamically editable and animatable parameters, or the new Least Squares Conformal Mapping method for creating UVW maps, which preserves local angles of the mesh faces in order to help minimize texture distortion. New sculpting and painting workflows help you achieve your creative vision faster. What’s more, with new single-step interoperability with other products in the 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites, you can more easily access the best tools for the task at hand.

Nitrous Accelerated Graphics Core

Experience dramatic improvements in performance and visual quality with the new Nitrous viewport system. Nitrous takes advantage of accelerated GPUs and multi-core workstations to enable you to iterate faster and handle larger data sets. The render-quality display environment supports unlimited lights, soft shadows, screen-space ambient occlusion, tone-mapping, and higher-quality transparency.

Substance Procedural Textures

Achieve a vast range of look variations with a new library of 80 Substance procedural textures. These dynamic, resolution-independent textures can be exported to certain games engines via the Substance Air middleware offering (available separately from Allegorithmic SAS), or converted to bitmaps for rendering.

mRigids Rigid-Body Dynamics

Create more compelling static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max 2012 viewport. The first module of the new MassFX unified system of simulation solvers, mRigids takes advantage of the multi-threaded NVIDIA PhysX engine to enable you to quickly create a wide range of highly-realistic dynamic simulations, or randomly place geometry within a scene.

iray Renderer

Creating realistic images is easier with 3ds Max 2012, using the newly integrated iray rendering technology from mental images. iray enables you to set up your scene using real-world materials and lighting, press ‘render’, and get more predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings.

Single-Step Suites Interoperability

Take advantage of the focused toolsets in the 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites, with new single-step interoperability between 3ds Max and Mudbox, MotionBuilder, and the Softimage’s Interactive Creation Environment (ICE).

Enhanced UVW Unwrapping

Create better UVW maps in less time, with a new Least Squares Conformal Mapping (LSCM) method, enhancements to existing tools, and more streamlined workflows. Employed in a new ‘Peel’ tool, the new method produces unwrapped UVWs from cut seams with a single click.

Vector Displacement Map Support

With new support for Vector Displacement Maps (VDMs) in 3ds Max, you can use mental ray or iray rendering technology to render complex high-resolution details created in Mudbox or certain other applications on low-resolution geometry. VDMs can represent directional displacements that do not simply follow the normal.

Sculpting and Painting Enhancements

Enjoy greater control over brushstrokes and their effects on geometry, thanks to new sculpting and painting workflows. Some highlights: a new Conform brush guides geometry towards another surface; new Transform brushes enable you to slide vertices along target surfaces; and Paint Deform brushstrokes can now be constrained to a spline for use as a guide or ruler.

Stylistic Rendering

Use a variety of non-photorealistic (NPR) effects that help simulate artistic styles (such as graphite pencil or acrylic ink), with the new ability to render stylized images in the viewport and with the Quicksilver renderer.

ProOptimizer Enhancements

You can now optimize models faster, more efficiently, and with better results, using the enhanced ProOptimizer feature. It offers normal and UV interpolation, with the ability to keep high-resolution normals on the low-resolution result.