I use UVW Mapping Clear all the time when I need to unwrap a model with existing UVs that I don't want to use or modify. If I was doing an automatic unwrap it wouldn't matter, but if I want to define all the edges manually then I need to get rid of the existing mapping first. Like most things in Max there's probably another way to do it, but Mapping Clear is an extremely fast way to get a blank slate to start with.
3ds max has a UVW map REMOVE feature that I used A LOT when we were remaking thousands of models for a client (I'm being vague on purpose) but it wasn't the modifier. But yeah there are time when you want to just start fresh with no uv map for sure.
UVW Mapping Clear is a very useful modifier when I'm working with Unreal Engine. It allows me to clear lightmaps from a static mesh exported from Unreal, and when I reimport an FBX model into Unreal, the extra UV channel doesn't mess up the current lightmap configuration of the project. There are other ways to do this, but a dedicated modifier makes things easier
Second that. Working in gamedev you don't want to import redundant data within the model into engine. It's essential to remove anything like Vertex Color and Vertex Alpha same as unneeded UVW data. Helps to avoid glitches and maintains optimization. It's more convenient to use Channel Info Utility for this matter, because it has all these channels in one window, ready to be cleaned.
This creates 2 functions Lock and Unlock . If someone wants to use it - Save the code to a ms file and put in the scripts>>startup and create shortcuts.
UVW Mapping Clear is something I use almost daily in game development. I think it's critical for users who don't need UVWs for their meshes for a variety of reasons. Having UVWs on a mesh that doesn't need them doubles and triples vertex counts in a game engine like Unity.
@teamEP789 Yep. And more games use flat shaded aesthetics with vertex coloring, basic materials with screen space shading and have no need for UVs (except maybe for lightmapping).
Other frustrations that could be easily resolved but I doubt ever will be: - The open/save dialog doesn’t use a modern explorer window and does not respect dark mode - SME doesn’t properly update whilst Vray ipr is running (changing wires on a multi sub object for example) - Creating a viewport render preview still uses .avi ..seriously, it’s 2025! - Curve editor is a hot mess - UI is dated
Point help is new one with more features. But, Dummy is Nitous accelerated because it is essentially a box mesh. So, if you don;t need to interacti with much and only need for linking. Dummy is better choice. If you need to use for user interaction, Point is the choice.
All of these can be explained by "Max doesn't removes old content to ensure retrocompatibility." I'd rather have a couple useless modifiers that do no harm than potentially break 10 year old scripts that are still useful in max 2024.
If You apply a new UV Unwrap to a messy UV layout the old seams remains untouched and transports themselves to a newly applied UVW Unwrap which sucks. UVW Mapping Clear mod wipes out everything so You are free to manually create seams from scratch without a necessity to deal with previous seams.
The answer to your questions is often legacy support. You can open your 20+ year old Max file and it will work perfectly today. One of the reasons I like Max so much. Maybe they could be removed from the interface, or hidden in special legacy section... But I don't think that's really necessary.
1. Camera Rig on par with Cinema 4D 2. Speed ramping and more precise animation graph. 3. painting solution, even mudbox would be more than enough. 4. Sculpting on par with Blender or Mudbox. 5. Update to create preview. 6. Extended Import options By the way, I have been using s lock\unlock script from 2005.
Brilliant video and great humour, taken me a while to stop laughing! The "I just don't get it!" way of looking at things opens up a lot of questions and answers in the comments. Absolutely agree with the locks situation, im using them every day and as a part of the standard interface, you shouldn't have to go through so many mouse clicks each time you want to lock something. Fixing this would be such a huge time saver! I'd even consider it a major upgrade!
I'd like to address your point regarding the Dummy object, or the reason behind its existence when Point Helper is a thing in Max. It's about performance. Since it has no parameters whatsoever that define it apart from its Pivot used solely for transforms, its simplicity is a real strength in very complex rigs and hierarchies. Point Helpers are preferrable in many situations, but a bit more taxing. Just don't ever manually scale your dummies if you want to avoid unexpected anomalies in your rigs, use object offset transformation so that only their viewport geometry is affected.
Re: UVW Map Clear - there's quite a few "features" in Max that are just legacy, and pretty much have no purpose or use, and that's one of the issues with a program that has been around for 30+ years - unnecessary bloat and new users using an old feature (because they found it and learned it), that has been replaced by a much newer and better feature, but the old feature is never removed due to legacy compatibility reasons - causing potential confusion and learning issues for new users. Re: Point vs Dummy - a Dummy is scalable - I think that may have some use cases, but in my experience that in itself can cause issues when using a dummy with a link. Re: Locks - Locking rotation on a single axis can be useful in rigged animation - for example hinge joints where you don't want to accidentally rotate a bone in a direction it can't rotate in real life, but a "lock all" checkbox would surely be handy. Never used strokes. Seems to be made for tablet use, but most tablets have their own programmable strokes features, that would be better to use. Probably legacy from before tablets had a stroke/gesture feature. Re: Expert mode is intended to be used with user customized quad menus to speed up workflow.
I totally understand your feelings about the Lock Link Info, is crazy how they could not add a buttom for all at once, we have made a mini script for it! ahahah your videos are always dope tks!!
I could really relate to that Expert Mode thing; you really made me laugh. I started max in the early 90's, stopped for a few years and then started almost 20 years ago. one thing for sure the interface leaves a lot to be desired. and in all honesty, I don't think Autodesk really cares. I think when they created the ribbon it was supposed to replace the command panel to the right but it never did. even the buttons for a new user don't always make any sense. one thing that irritates me is when I am inputting numbers sometimes it ads to that number, like I am trying 2.2 it gets stuck and inputs 2.222222 etc. great video as always.
Without using UVW Mapping Clear, generic nodes like "falloff" does not work properly sometimes. Also when exporting a model to a stand-alone GPU render software in order to be able to use the property of that software which equals to "tripilanar mapping" or "stochastic tiling" (in terms of vray) properly without any messing around, sometimes I need to use UVW Mapping Clear. I did not even mention the solution it provides for the problem that occurs when exporting ground planes to D5 Render. Sometimes because of the existing UVW Map on the geometry, the grass material in the D5 library (which is very lightwieght) renders completely flat rather than having the fur effect.
one thing bother me in the material editor : by default the View / Auto open nodeslots is on, and you want this off. Even with a nicely made Maxstart.max, it does not stay off...
I use UVW Mapping Clear at work because I use the same material for multiple objects, and sometimes some objects need updating while leaving the others untouched, so I can use the modifier to hide certain features of the material.
My old studio needed UVW Map Clear as our game engine only supported so many UV channels and we needed to cull excess maps from assets depending where they came from. Locks. Oh my god, guy we worked with always turn on locks! And not let anyone know. We'd open files years after he'd left and scratch our heads for a long while wondering why models weren't moving until someone remembered to check the bloody locks!
I use expert mode. I have my most used tools set to quad select but mostly just use the hotkeys and especially X then start typing what you want. It comes up in a letter or 2 and keeps the last used ones there for you so yeah... faster than menu diving and more screen. Been a 3ds user since before Max.
Clear uv can still be used in some assets you make for realtime for mobile that you fight on every kb on loading time. sometime you just want the clear all other channels you might used for baking to export a clean model with just one UV. rare, but can happen
4 of things you mentioned I have never used in Max. I agree with the axis lock totally though. I don't even unwrap in max anymore, as I use Headus uvlayout.
I work in Max every day and we have a real love/hate relationship. My biggest frustration is all the bloat. You can have a super high end PC yet Max will still find a way to make you wait for basic dialog boxes to load. It really needs a huge overhaul, but I doubt that’s going to happen, possibly ever, due to the skeleton crew of devs still assigned to it. It’s a shame that Autodesk’s priorities lie elsewhere, it’s borderline abandonwear at this point but they know it’s a subscription cash cow because we’ve all spent so much on plugin and are essentially trapped!
Each case is different. I generally have not much performance issue. If you have a specific case, report to Autodesk. I personally got many import fixes which causes unusual slowdown.
Funny enough, the strokes feature was added back in 2012 and was meant to be used with a pen, but it seems like they quickly gave up on it, leaving even the simplest bugs unfixed-and they didn’t dare remove it either. What’s ironic is that ten years before that, the game Arx Fatalis came out, where all spells were cast in a similar way, by drawing symbols. And even there, input recognition was a constant headache-I even had to install a mod just to get the game to properly recognize what I was drawing. Without it, it was an absolute nightmare!
That was fun to watch :D I am using 3ds max for like 15+ years and all you said is true even there are several things that I never heard of. But the EXPORT MODE... that's I think a world where one would be the king of all of the f-ing shortcuts and i guess swipes :D and perfect it that much so you dont even need an interface to work with. In general I use it to just get some larger screenshots. All the others are really strange and YES point is better than Dummy!
I hate that I cant snap Slice plane to vertices of geometry I'm working in Edit poly. That makes zero sense to me. If there is a way to do it, please tell me I'm stupid and show me the way how to, I will highly appriciate :D
You can also use your voice to do stuff in max too I used to use that Dragon Natural Speaking software to control max years ago. I'd set it up to often used commands like Covert To Editable Poly etc etc by just saying "switch!" LOL And you can use a MIDI keyboard to control max too.
@@3dsmaxrocks699 That actually sounds kinda neat. If you dont know many shortcuts, I wonder if this is more efficient than clicking around in the control panel
@@rothauspils123 For me it was a bit faster but back then I had a slow PC and the latency was annoying...and I stopped using it...maybe I should hook it back up now and see if it's still cool. When I first got it working I was ecstatic. I'd say "Rotate" and the rotate tool was automatically picked for me.
@@rothauspils123 Back then the latency on my old PC made it a bit frustrating so I stopped using it. I should try using it again. When I 1st got it working I was ecstatic. I'd say "Rotate" and the rotate tool was automatically picked for me. etc
No one about rotating according to another object? I use it all the time in other cad softwares such as Rhino for architectural purposes. I don't understand why I have to eyeball the rotation of an object in order to have the same angle with another object...
UVW Mapping Clear is useful for a model to Unreal. extra UV cuts add to the vertex count of a model. If it's a heavy model more than 40k triangles, it makes a lot of sense to remove the extra useless vertex count. Regarding the Expert mode, you can almost use it like an expert if you have KeyHydra, but it feels uneasy :D
Asset Tracking!!! Jesus...The ONLY tool to manage your assets and paths... WITHOUT the ability to sort by name or path, to select missing file's objects in scene, to delete any missing files with a button click...yeah.....
@changsooeun Yes but first you have to stripe the path...very inconvenient. Project Manager has solved these issues. Autodesk should too! PS. Thanks for your contribution in general!!
Do I really need to manualy set up dimensions for my plan that I will be using for a reference image? "Fi aspect ratio to bitmap" works for vray decal, it cant't be hard to do it on a plane :D
If you create primitives in 3dsmax and scale them, the values don't change. If that were the case, it would make a lot of things easier. In Dope Sheet mode for animations, you first have to turn off the modify subtree mode so that you can work at all. I can think of many other things.
Strokes are a joke! But regarding the lock function. A simple one liner in maxscript could quickly give you the feature you are looking for with the one click. These are transform, rotation and scale flags that can be set via a bitarray.
Precision in applying unit measurement while using Move, Rotate like Sketchup. Is that possible in Max? I hate that you can also preview the measurement using default measuring tools but does not have the ability to edit it unless you use bunch of keyboard buttons hahaha
I've got one for you - how about when you select "skip existing frames" in the render settings and Max is too stupid to recalculate the "time remaining" estimate. This has been broken as long as I can remember and I've been using Max since the mid 90s.
Houdini hides old legacy tools when they come up with something better. It doesn´t break old scenes since those can still use those old nodes and if you are checking out tutorial with weird old legacy tools you can still make those visible from console. Maybe autodesk should do something similar. But wouldn´t hold my breath 😄
The thing i don't get with max is the camera controls. When you are in perspective mode you can easily rotate, pan and zoom around the scene. But once you find a nice angle and create a camera now for some reason you have to use these super confusing tools in the right corner for something you could do only with middle mouse button before. Like I get it's cool to have actual camera tools like in real life. But ffs let me choose and still use alt+mmb even in camera view, even when it's targeted let me rotate around the target with the normal controls. It's so hard to get used to it when you come from blender or c4d
The entire rigging pipeline in Max is pure headache. Try using AccuRIG and then import their auto skeleton into Max. Everything goes wrong the second you press "Import as Bones". CAT has an archaic way of constraining (not linking!) CAT bones to regular bones. You have to go through each bone and add rotation with position constrains... to a list... Then CAT by itself by default has the initial rotation wrong for the pelvis hub. Go ahead and just put a CAT parent in, and pay close attention to the initial rotations. Even though it should be 0,0,0, it's actually 0, -90, 0. This creates so many issues and took me a good two days to create a Cascadeur-friendly CAT rig. The left limbs are places for right limbs by default and etc. Don't get me started on CAT hands and fingers. This ironically is a massive pain in the ass when you're trying to use CAT Capture Animation, if you don't fix this initially, this will never work with capturing animation properly. CAT itself is so buggy it makes 0 sense to me why it's in such a buggy state to begin with. Do Autodesk not even try to use it with modern tools?
The most annoying thing about 3ds Max is the interface. The modelling menu on the right hand side is over-over-over-and-over-organised. Sometimes we need to click 5-6 times in order to reach the command we need. I just click "X" on my keyboard and write what I need to create instead of going through all that tabs and folders. Who needs those tabs like "geometry, shapes, lights etc" under the "create menu" for example? Is there anyone who does not know the difference between a circle, a cylinder and a circular light? Will someone get confused if all of those were under the same dropdown menu? Or will I click "wind" instead of "wall" if I see them in the same dropdown menu? Even in "geometry" tab there are sub-categories such as "compund objects, stairs, aec extended etc"... Everything needs to be simplified. And also the "collapse/expand" option in the edit window... Why? Why? Why? It regardlessly collapses and expands. Why not make it solid and just fade away the unavailable parts so that our middle finger will remember how much it should roll the mouse to reach the "detach" button for example? I use it for more than 10 years and I have a work around for all of these but to tell the truth the interface is extremely mixed up and I would love to see it much more simpler.
Autodesk gets good information from this for product development, I hope they collect and use this information. Here are my own suggestions: - the user interface should more clearly present what is the appropriate value range, now it is not at all clear when to put a value of 1000 and when a value of 0.0001 - the user should be able to hide functions that are not used, - it should be clearer what is old technology for compatibility reasons and what is a new technology that replaces it, - the units of measurement are still confusing to me, so does the scene basic dimensioning use m, cm, or mm - the big challenge is handling large models, editing a small part and returning to the big picture where the part is placed
3ds really needs a "declutter" version soon. Optimize editable poly, get rid of edit mesh. Get rid of the 19 viewport menues that all lead to the same settings dialog. Anyone still using VRML97 objects? There is a lot that can be done to smooth out the user experience and help new users. Also would be nice if more of the program used more than one CPU core.
Haven't used Dummy in years... Point is the way to go :). About Locks OMG... I m so much with you on this one, so sick of having to click them all individually :(... Expert Mode usually works without the stroke you did before... but same as you I hardly ever use it... Just read some comments about why the dummy save performance... just did a test... linking a box to a dummy animated, duplicating it 5000 time, I got 9fps in the viewport... tried the same thing with a point, got the same result... so I m not sure what kind of insane rigging you guys doing... but I dont see the difference... at least in performance...
I would also like to have lock movement etc on one click. Also Batch render could have new and easy to use features. I still cant select them all on one click.. 😀
3d max should go open source and get a paralell path similar to Blender (Im tried blender… did not work for me. Im still in max). Seems the only way to be remade getting rid of LAGgacy and focus on present & future. It is happening…never. Back to crash city.
Jurrasic functions that are stil there, taking useless load time: Video Post Helpers: Atmospheric Apparatus Is there anybody that still use these functions?
Max's biggest problem and maya's to some extent is the developers are super scared for some reason about asking their communities what their work flows are and streamlining them with follow up education on how to's. I see people regularly ask to get rid of things without even asking if other people use them for their own education... like the multi sub object material workflow for example. sometimes these flow need to exist but other times workflows for ancient hardware stick around way to long... like acom control. I know no one dev wise wants to be on a clean up crew because it is thankless at very best and a minefield at worst of you crankiest customers but there are tools out there that we all scratch our head over. Tools that make workflows harder, longer with extra clicks and dialogs, those don't get users screaming but should. -sorry rant off
#1 Thing that doesn't make sense..... Autodesk doesn't develop 3ds Max anymore, only 3rd party plugin developers do. #2 UI doesn't scale like a modern program when you use it on monitor resolutions above 1080. #3 Wireframe colors don't match color picker colors. #4 They removed Mental Ray and it's 999 free render node licenses. #5 No 3D camera solver..... it's a 3D program.... #6 Charging for a new program every year when they hardly change the program.
One more thing, in maxscript. Unlike the meshop or polyop or some other "op"s struture, the splineop is totally underdeveloped. You can only use the most of the function in command pannel UI rather than splineop or any other spline methods in maxscript. Unless you implement a whole bunch of spline math functions yourself. And it remains for years. That leads max becoming an inaccurate software. Really stupid.
I use UVW Mapping Clear always, i even have it pinned. why? because it removed the auto seems and whatever, i just am sure that i'll start fresh. ___ I use max also 20 years and, the expert mode made me laugh LOL, it's a joke xD
‘Convert to Editable Poly’ among outdated options like ‘Editable Mesh’ might seem trivial to experienced users, but I believe this process makes no sense for new users. Why add this extra step if only one option will be chosen 100% of the time? I understand that Editable Mesh has characteristics that make it the better choice in some specific cases, but considering the user experience, beginners don’t need Editable Mesh, and I think showing them this option so early as an extra step in 'Right-click > Convert to,' instead of always converting automatically to Editable Poly, only serves to confuse them during the learning process
I use UVW Mapping Clear all the time when I need to unwrap a model with existing UVs that I don't want to use or modify. If I was doing an automatic unwrap it wouldn't matter, but if I want to define all the edges manually then I need to get rid of the existing mapping first. Like most things in Max there's probably another way to do it, but Mapping Clear is an extremely fast way to get a blank slate to start with.
3ds max has a UVW map REMOVE feature that I used A LOT when we were remaking thousands of models for a client (I'm being vague on purpose) but it wasn't the modifier. But yeah there are time when you want to just start fresh with no uv map for sure.
That’s how I use. If this feature doesn’t come with Max 26, we already know the reasion 😂
exactly
This could honestly become a whole mini-series. A giant tresure trove of content to go over :D
UVW Mapping Clear is a very useful modifier when I'm working with Unreal Engine. It allows me to clear lightmaps from a static mesh exported from Unreal, and when I reimport an FBX model into Unreal, the extra UV channel doesn't mess up the current lightmap configuration of the project. There are other ways to do this, but a dedicated modifier makes things easier
Second that. Working in gamedev you don't want to import redundant data within the model into engine. It's essential to remove anything like Vertex Color and Vertex Alpha same as unneeded UVW data. Helps to avoid glitches and maintains optimization. It's more convenient to use Channel Info Utility for this matter, because it has all these channels in one window, ready to be cleaned.
Ok this makes sense!
4:12 - The lock system has always infuriated me. I created a macro to lock and unlock everything on the object
Me too. I use it all the time.
@@LightShadow Me too:
(
setTransformLockFlags selection #all
)
@@BOKEH_Studio
-- Lock Selection
macroScript OMS_LockAll category:"OneManSoft"
(
setTransformLockFlags selection #all
)
-- Unlock Selection
macroScript OMS_UnLockAll category:"OneManSoft"
(
setTransformLockFlags selection #none
)
This creates 2 functions Lock and Unlock . If someone wants to use it - Save the code to a ms file and put in the scripts>>startup and create shortcuts.
UVW Mapping Clear is something I use almost daily in game development. I think it's critical for users who don't need UVWs for their meshes for a variety of reasons. Having UVWs on a mesh that doesn't need them doubles and triples vertex counts in a game engine like Unity.
it's true. i discovered how much bigger an obj file becomes when exporting with and without texture coordinates.
@teamEP789 Yep. And more games use flat shaded aesthetics with vertex coloring, basic materials with screen space shading and have no need for UVs (except maybe for lightmapping).
6:47 years ago, I had this exactly thought, that I’m just a newbie on Max because of the name of that feature
Other frustrations that could be easily resolved but I doubt ever will be:
- The open/save dialog doesn’t use a modern explorer window and does not respect dark mode
- SME doesn’t properly update whilst Vray ipr is running (changing wires on a multi sub object for example)
- Creating a viewport render preview still uses .avi ..seriously, it’s 2025!
- Curve editor is a hot mess
- UI is dated
You can preview as mp4 tho.
@@changsooeun fair enough, they must have finally added that, it wasn’t an option in 2024. I gave up waiting and just always use TyPreview.
@@messageforhawk36 You just need to install codec. Any version can make preview with mp4.
Point help is new one with more features. But, Dummy is Nitous accelerated because it is essentially a box mesh. So, if you don;t need to interacti with much and only need for linking. Dummy is better choice. If you need to use for user interaction, Point is the choice.
It would be nice if they'd let us change the color of the dummies since some scripts from AE export only dummy objects as reference markers.
All of these can be explained by "Max doesn't removes old content to ensure retrocompatibility." I'd rather have a couple useless modifiers that do no harm than potentially break 10 year old scripts that are still useful in max 2024.
I would add to this list insanely complex particle systems for simple effects. Great video as always Vjeko. 👍
And how come the line doesn't have built in length parameter but rectangle and circle have parameters
If You apply a new UV Unwrap to a messy UV layout the old seams remains untouched and transports themselves to a newly applied UVW Unwrap which sucks. UVW Mapping Clear mod wipes out everything so You are free to manually create seams from scratch without a necessity to deal with previous seams.
The answer to your questions is often legacy support. You can open your 20+ year old Max file and it will work perfectly today. One of the reasons I like Max so much. Maybe they could be removed from the interface, or hidden in special legacy section... But I don't think that's really necessary.
All of my old projects I made with teactor disagree 😞
1. Camera Rig on par with Cinema 4D
2. Speed ramping and more precise animation graph.
3. painting solution, even mudbox would be more than enough.
4. Sculpting on par with Blender or Mudbox.
5. Update to create preview.
6. Extended Import options
By the way, I have been using s lock\unlock script from 2005.
Brilliant video and great humour, taken me a while to stop laughing! The "I just don't get it!" way of looking at things opens up a lot of questions and answers in the comments. Absolutely agree with the locks situation, im using them every day and as a part of the standard interface, you shouldn't have to go through so many mouse clicks each time you want to lock something. Fixing this would be such a huge time saver! I'd even consider it a major upgrade!
You become an expert mode user after learning every shortcut on the keyboard 😂...like that will never happen cause max has loads of tools to remmeber
I'd like to address your point regarding the Dummy object, or the reason behind its existence when Point Helper is a thing in Max. It's about performance. Since it has no parameters whatsoever that define it apart from its Pivot used solely for transforms, its simplicity is a real strength in very complex rigs and hierarchies. Point Helpers are preferrable in many situations, but a bit more taxing. Just don't ever manually scale your dummies if you want to avoid unexpected anomalies in your rigs, use object offset transformation so that only their viewport geometry is affected.
A 3dsmax expert is just someone who’s perfected the art of endless workarounds to keep it kind of functioning while in a project. True mastery! LOL
“Use advanced lighting”
Max needs some serious spring cleaning.
Re: UVW Map Clear - there's quite a few "features" in Max that are just legacy, and pretty much have no purpose or use, and that's one of the issues with a program that has been around for 30+ years - unnecessary bloat and new users using an old feature (because they found it and learned it), that has been replaced by a much newer and better feature, but the old feature is never removed due to legacy compatibility reasons - causing potential confusion and learning issues for new users.
Re: Point vs Dummy - a Dummy is scalable - I think that may have some use cases, but in my experience that in itself can cause issues when using a dummy with a link.
Re: Locks - Locking rotation on a single axis can be useful in rigged animation - for example hinge joints where you don't want to accidentally rotate a bone in a direction it can't rotate in real life, but a "lock all" checkbox would surely be handy.
Never used strokes. Seems to be made for tablet use, but most tablets have their own programmable strokes features, that would be better to use. Probably legacy from before tablets had a stroke/gesture feature.
Re: Expert mode is intended to be used with user customized quad menus to speed up workflow.
3:10 just a dummy for dummies😂😂
I'm working on a project and the 10 crash per day are actually really killing me !!!!!
I totally understand your feelings about the Lock Link Info, is crazy how they could not add a buttom for all at once, we have made a mini script for it! ahahah your videos are always dope tks!!
I feel like 3ds max has been a bit forgotten... but it's also my favorite tool! But we have to be careful with the "strokes" 🤭.
I could really relate to that Expert Mode thing; you really made me laugh. I started max in the early 90's, stopped for a few years and then started almost 20 years ago. one thing for sure the interface leaves a lot to be desired. and in all honesty, I don't think Autodesk really cares. I think when they created the ribbon it was supposed to replace the command panel to the right but it never did. even the buttons for a new user don't always make any sense. one thing that irritates me is when I am inputting numbers sometimes it ads to that number, like I am trying 2.2 it gets stuck and inputs 2.222222 etc.
great video as always.
Without using UVW Mapping Clear, generic nodes like "falloff" does not work properly sometimes. Also when exporting a model to a stand-alone GPU render software in order to be able to use the property of that software which equals to "tripilanar mapping" or "stochastic tiling" (in terms of vray) properly without any messing around, sometimes I need to use UVW Mapping Clear. I did not even mention the solution it provides for the problem that occurs when exporting ground planes to D5 Render. Sometimes because of the existing UVW Map on the geometry, the grass material in the D5 library (which is very lightwieght) renders completely flat rather than having the fur effect.
If you collapse a UVW mapped poly - you sometimes want to clear it - for example prior to using a UnwrapUW
I am a dedicated expert that knows "expert mode" can not be used except previews, as you have mentioned :D
one thing bother me in the material editor : by default the View / Auto open nodeslots is on, and you want this off. Even with a nicely made Maxstart.max, it does not stay off...
I use UVW Mapping Clear at work because I use the same material for multiple objects, and sometimes some objects need updating while leaving the others untouched, so I can use the modifier to hide certain features of the material.
My old studio needed UVW Map Clear as our game engine only supported so many UV channels and we needed to cull excess maps from assets depending where they came from.
Locks. Oh my god, guy we worked with always turn on locks! And not let anyone know. We'd open files years after he'd left and scratch our heads for a long while wondering why models weren't moving until someone remembered to check the bloody locks!
Expert mode to me sounds like bare bones view for an all out shortcut based workflow.
Agree with all of that, specially for locks !!! WE WANT ALL-TOGETHER BUTTONS !!!, by type, by axis and one global !
I use expert mode. I have my most used tools set to quad select but mostly just use the hotkeys and especially X then start typing what you want. It comes up in a letter or 2 and keeps the last used ones there for you so yeah... faster than menu diving and more screen. Been a 3ds user since before Max.
Clear uv can still be used in some assets you make for realtime for mobile that you fight on every kb on loading time.
sometime you just want the clear all other channels you might used for baking to export a clean model with just one UV. rare, but can happen
exactly! It's not often, but I've found use for it. It does no harm keeping it this functionality.
4 of things you mentioned I have never used in Max. I agree with the axis lock totally though. I don't even unwrap in max anymore, as I use Headus uvlayout.
Love that Expert Thing! 🤣🤣🤣🤣👍🏻🍻
Well.. just because user A doesn't see a need. That doesn't mean it is useless. If you don't need UV mapping clear, just ignore it. I use it. .:)
I work in Max every day and we have a real love/hate relationship. My biggest frustration is all the bloat. You can have a super high end PC yet Max will still find a way to make you wait for basic dialog boxes to load. It really needs a huge overhaul, but I doubt that’s going to happen, possibly ever, due to the skeleton crew of devs still assigned to it. It’s a shame that Autodesk’s priorities lie elsewhere, it’s borderline abandonwear at this point but they know it’s a subscription cash cow because we’ve all spent so much on plugin and are essentially trapped!
Each case is different. I generally have not much performance issue. If you have a specific case, report to Autodesk. I personally got many import fixes which causes unusual slowdown.
Funny enough, the strokes feature was added back in 2012 and was meant to be used with a pen, but it seems like they quickly gave up on it, leaving even the simplest bugs unfixed-and they didn’t dare remove it either.
What’s ironic is that ten years before that, the game Arx Fatalis came out, where all spells were cast in a similar way, by drawing symbols. And even there, input recognition was a constant headache-I even had to install a mod just to get the game to properly recognize what I was drawing. Without it, it was an absolute nightmare!
That was fun to watch :D I am using 3ds max for like 15+ years and all you said is true even there are several things that I never heard of. But the EXPORT MODE... that's I think a world where one would be the king of all of the f-ing shortcuts and i guess swipes :D and perfect it that much so you dont even need an interface to work with. In general I use it to just get some larger screenshots. All the others are really strange and YES point is better than Dummy!
THANK YOU! That Link clicking makes me insane! Click click click click.
The UI UX that hasn't been changed in 20 years.
hahahaha - i love you man! and i love the expert mode too (whatever)... this was just a funny video :)
I hate that I cant snap Slice plane to vertices of geometry I'm working in Edit poly. That makes zero sense to me. If there is a way to do it, please tell me I'm stupid and show me the way how to, I will highly appriciate :D
Max has mouse gestures.... mind blown
You can also use your voice to do stuff in max too
I used to use that Dragon Natural Speaking software to control max years ago.
I'd set it up to often used commands like Covert To Editable Poly etc etc by just saying "switch!" LOL
And you can use a MIDI keyboard to control max too.
@@3dsmaxrocks699 That actually sounds kinda neat. If you dont know many shortcuts, I wonder if this is more efficient than clicking around in the control panel
@@rothauspils123 For me it was a bit faster but back then I had a slow PC and the latency was annoying...and I stopped using it...maybe I should hook it back up now and see if it's still cool.
When I first got it working I was ecstatic.
I'd say "Rotate" and the rotate tool was automatically picked for me.
@@rothauspils123 Back then the latency on my old PC made it a bit frustrating so I stopped using it.
I should try using it again.
When I 1st got it working I was ecstatic.
I'd say "Rotate" and the rotate tool was automatically picked for me. etc
@@rothauspils123just imagine you being alone in the room working and screaming, add bend! stretch polys, now Boolean!, add push modifier! More push!!
How to create photo real under water lighting in vray?
No one about rotating according to another object? I use it all the time in other cad softwares such as Rhino for architectural purposes. I don't understand why I have to eyeball the rotation of an object in order to have the same angle with another object...
UVW Mapping Clear is useful for a model to Unreal. extra UV cuts add to the vertex count of a model. If it's a heavy model more than 40k triangles, it makes a lot of sense to remove the extra useless vertex count. Regarding the Expert mode, you can almost use it like an expert if you have KeyHydra, but it feels uneasy :D
Asset Tracking!!! Jesus...The ONLY tool to manage your assets and paths... WITHOUT the ability to sort by name or path, to select missing file's objects in scene, to delete any missing files with a button click...yeah.....
There is a button to delete missing aaset...
@changsooeun Yes but first you have to stripe the path...very inconvenient. Project Manager has solved these issues. Autodesk should too!
PS. Thanks for your contribution in general!!
@@bill_birba YOu dont need to do anything just select Path > Remove Missing Assets...
Do I really need to manualy set up dimensions for my plan that I will be using for a reference image? "Fi aspect ratio to bitmap" works for vray decal, it cant't be hard to do it on a plane :D
If you create primitives in 3dsmax and scale them, the values don't change. If that were the case, it would make a lot of things easier. In Dope Sheet mode for animations, you first have to turn off the modify subtree mode so that you can work at all. I can think of many other things.
SO, what value it should get if you non-uniform scale?
Strokes are a joke! But regarding the lock function. A simple one liner in maxscript could quickly give you the feature you are looking for with the one click. These are transform, rotation and scale flags that can be set via a bitarray.
Precision in applying unit measurement while using Move, Rotate like Sketchup. Is that possible in Max?
I hate that you can also preview the measurement using default measuring tools but does not have the ability to edit it unless you use bunch of keyboard buttons hahaha
We all love max, but we'll talk shit about it till the sun dies.
the subscription model....
I think over the 2 decades of 3D I've seen, I've only seen one or two cases of people using expert mode and it was for modeling only.
I've got one for you - how about when you select "skip existing frames" in the render settings and Max is too stupid to recalculate the "time remaining" estimate. This has been broken as long as I can remember and I've been using Max since the mid 90s.
I just found a way to use expert mode correctly! Use the expert mode, but also show the Command panel (make a shortcut for it). Soooooo much space!
Houdini hides old legacy tools when they come up with something better. It doesn´t break old scenes since those can still use those old nodes and if you are checking out tutorial with weird old legacy tools you can still make those visible from console. Maybe autodesk should do something similar. But wouldn´t hold my breath 😄
only 5?
I use dummies, they are for exactly that, dummies.
The thing i don't get with max is the camera controls. When you are in perspective mode you can easily rotate, pan and zoom around the scene. But once you find a nice angle and create a camera now for some reason you have to use these super confusing tools in the right corner for something you could do only with middle mouse button before. Like I get it's cool to have actual camera tools like in real life. But ffs let me choose and still use alt+mmb even in camera view, even when it's targeted let me rotate around the target with the normal controls. It's so hard to get used to it when you come from blender or c4d
What doesn't make sense to me about Max is the loading time and such an old and slow interface 🧐
This series can be very long.. Actually 3ds Max can be half it's size and half its buttons and still works 😂
The entire rigging pipeline in Max is pure headache.
Try using AccuRIG and then import their auto skeleton into Max. Everything goes wrong the second you press "Import as Bones".
CAT has an archaic way of constraining (not linking!) CAT bones to regular bones. You have to go through each bone and add rotation with position constrains... to a list...
Then CAT by itself by default has the initial rotation wrong for the pelvis hub. Go ahead and just put a CAT parent in, and pay close attention to the initial rotations. Even though it should be 0,0,0, it's actually 0, -90, 0. This creates so many issues and took me a good two days to create a Cascadeur-friendly CAT rig. The left limbs are places for right limbs by default and etc. Don't get me started on CAT hands and fingers.
This ironically is a massive pain in the ass when you're trying to use CAT Capture Animation, if you don't fix this initially, this will never work with capturing animation properly. CAT itself is so buggy it makes 0 sense to me why it's in such a buggy state to begin with. Do Autodesk not even try to use it with modern tools?
Which version are you using? There was CAT Capture Animation fix recently.
The most annoying thing about 3ds Max is the interface. The modelling menu on the right hand side is over-over-over-and-over-organised. Sometimes we need to click 5-6 times in order to reach the command we need. I just click "X" on my keyboard and write what I need to create instead of going through all that tabs and folders. Who needs those tabs like "geometry, shapes, lights etc" under the "create menu" for example? Is there anyone who does not know the difference between a circle, a cylinder and a circular light? Will someone get confused if all of those were under the same dropdown menu? Or will I click "wind" instead of "wall" if I see them in the same dropdown menu? Even in "geometry" tab there are sub-categories such as "compund objects, stairs, aec extended etc"... Everything needs to be simplified. And also the "collapse/expand" option in the edit window... Why? Why? Why? It regardlessly collapses and expands. Why not make it solid and just fade away the unavailable parts so that our middle finger will remember how much it should roll the mouse to reach the "detach" button for example? I use it for more than 10 years and I have a work around for all of these but to tell the truth the interface is extremely mixed up and I would love to see it much more simpler.
Haha that last one is funny xD
don't let this man lie to you! He is in fact an EXPURT!!
Someone still has hope here, but I can guarantee you your suggestions will be 100% ignored by the AD development team
Autodesk gets good information from this for product development, I hope they collect and use this information. Here are my own suggestions:
- the user interface should more clearly present what is the appropriate value range, now it is not at all clear when to put a value of 1000 and when a value of 0.0001
- the user should be able to hide functions that are not used,
- it should be clearer what is old technology for compatibility reasons and what is a new technology that replaces it,
- the units of measurement are still confusing to me, so does the scene basic dimensioning use m, cm, or mm
- the big challenge is handling large models, editing a small part and returning to the big picture where the part is placed
3ds really needs a "declutter" version soon. Optimize editable poly, get rid of edit mesh. Get rid of the 19 viewport menues that all lead to the same settings dialog. Anyone still using VRML97 objects?
There is a lot that can be done to smooth out the user experience and help new users. Also would be nice if more of the program used more than one CPU core.
Haven't used Dummy in years... Point is the way to go :). About Locks OMG... I m so much with you on this one, so sick of having to click them all individually :(... Expert Mode usually works without the stroke you did before... but same as you I hardly ever use it...
Just read some comments about why the dummy save performance... just did a test... linking a box to a dummy animated, duplicating it 5000 time, I got 9fps in the viewport... tried the same thing with a point, got the same result... so I m not sure what kind of insane rigging you guys doing... but I dont see the difference... at least in performance...
I would also like to have lock movement etc on one click. Also Batch render could have new and easy to use features. I still cant select them all on one click.. 😀
3d max should go open source and get a paralell path similar to Blender (Im tried blender… did not work for me. Im still in max). Seems the only way to be remade getting rid of LAGgacy and focus on present & future. It is happening…never. Back to crash city.
I thought 3ds max was dead though and how do you find work in animation using 3ds max
You go to one of the huge studios like ILM..
@messageforhawk36 what lol
@@mfrancisco_850 you said you thought it was dead, but many studios use it.. ILM being one example.
@ i love 3ds max and love using it but seems its dying artform
Cuzz💪
Expert mode used for modelling with hot keys for example, so yes it seems you're right about not be that much of an expert)
Jurrasic functions that are stil there, taking useless load time:
Video Post
Helpers: Atmospheric Apparatus
Is there anybody that still use these functions?
I use some of those. Also, even tho you remove them, it may reduce loading time 0.0001s.
@@changsooeun But Video Post, the tool itself, the UI... it's embarassing. It's a trip back to 1995.
@@marc3dartist601 I mean you never see until you intentionally open. Why would this matter?
Max's biggest problem and maya's to some extent is the developers are super scared for some reason about asking their communities what their work flows are and streamlining them with follow up education on how to's. I see people regularly ask to get rid of things without even asking if other people use them for their own education... like the multi sub object material workflow for example. sometimes these flow need to exist but other times workflows for ancient hardware stick around way to long... like acom control. I know no one dev wise wants to be on a clean up crew because it is thankless at very best and a minefield at worst of you crankiest customers but there are tools out there that we all scratch our head over. Tools that make workflows harder, longer with extra clicks and dialogs, those don't get users screaming but should. -sorry rant off
Expertmode no mouse using only shortcuts :D
a lot of things are OLD and outdated, thats the main bad part of 3dsmax
A lot of things has been rewritten, at least more than any DCCs. You just can't see because it is under the hood.
the only thing i have never used is the exper mode. it's been 15 years now at most i've been using 3D Max
😀
Max should compete with Blender, light weight, quick and efficient. then we Max users can drop our thinking of learning blender!
“Convert to Nurbs”
#1 Thing that doesn't make sense..... Autodesk doesn't develop 3ds Max anymore, only 3rd party plugin developers do.
#2 UI doesn't scale like a modern program when you use it on monitor resolutions above 1080.
#3 Wireframe colors don't match color picker colors.
#4 They removed Mental Ray and it's 999 free render node licenses.
#5 No 3D camera solver..... it's a 3D program....
#6 Charging for a new program every year when they hardly change the program.
I mean, using 3ds max in 2025 makes no sense ... but what do I know xD
One more thing, in maxscript. Unlike the meshop or polyop or some other "op"s struture, the splineop is totally underdeveloped. You can only use the most of the function in command pannel UI rather than splineop or any other spline methods in maxscript. Unless you implement a whole bunch of spline math functions yourself. And it remains for years. That leads max becoming an inaccurate software. Really stupid.
I was using 3dsmax since 1997. I divorced 3dsMax in 2022. I am now married to Blender. Now I am a happy Man.
Who still uses video post? It was great 20 odd years back!
video post? its obsolete as sh*t
no expert
Open a STL in max is a joke. Specially now in 3D print era…Never do it or Max will freeze to zero absolute.
Why?
@ ask Autodesk why and come back to tell us.
@ You didn't explain what is the issue.
@@changsooeun just take extra time to read all the comment. I help you: " or Max will freeze to zero absolute."
@FXPearStudio which version? How big? It's not happening here.
I use UVW Mapping Clear always, i even have it pinned. why? because it removed the auto seems and whatever, i just am sure that i'll start fresh.
___
I use max also 20 years and, the expert mode made me laugh LOL, it's a joke xD
😓
90% of max is just ancient junk
‘Convert to Editable Poly’ among outdated options like ‘Editable Mesh’ might seem trivial to experienced users, but I believe this process makes no sense for new users. Why add this extra step if only one option will be chosen 100% of the time? I understand that Editable Mesh has characteristics that make it the better choice in some specific cases, but considering the user experience, beginners don’t need Editable Mesh, and I think showing them this option so early as an extra step in 'Right-click > Convert to,' instead of always converting automatically to Editable Poly, only serves to confuse them during the learning process