skogskalle

hi all!

Im still using MAX4.2, and Im thinking its time for an upgrade. However... its kinda expensive, so I just wanna check some things with you guys before I throw all my money away.

The main reason for upgrading is that I wanna have a better renderer, but the renderer Im most interested in is Vray, and I´d have to buy that one separetly anyway... and it still works with max4.

so... what else have happened with MAX during these last releases? Have there been any huge improvements to the modelingtools? Is the "connection" with cadprograms like autocad good now?

I know MAX nowadays has fancy stuff like radiosity/GI/skylights and so on, but since I wanna render my scenes using Vray, that stuff doesnt really matter to me?
Max6 also has area-lights, but If I buy Vray, Im thinking I could just as well use Vray lights instead?


in short: do you think its worth the cash to make an upgrade to max7.0, or could I be just as happy working with my good old release4 and rendering in Vray?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

regards
Kalle

jysngltndz

if your intention is to use vray as your main renderer, might as well buy the latest version of max (max6, no idea bout max7).. old version of vray is really good, it would be much more i think for its latest version....

STRAT

personally i'd upgrade to C4D, then also buy the stand-alone version of Vray

skogskalle

thanks jysngltndz n STRAT!

I contacted the people at Chaosgroup, and they said that If I bought Vray for max4 now, I could upgrade/change it to be used with max6 later for free......
so Ill probably buy Vray now, but keep my old Max version for a while...

strat: never tried or even seen C4D... Im sure it kicks butt, but I really dont feel like starting from scratch with my modeling right now... learning a new renderer is quite enough =)

John Dollus

Not sure why you are so set on Vray but some Max7 features worth noting:

Render to Texture integration now includes mental ray 3.3 – increasing
the levels of fidelity available for generating light maps, bump maps,
NORMAL MAPS, and even single-map representations of complex
procedural and bitmap composites.

DirectX Rendering of “Standard Material”: Quickly turn materials used in
post production, visualization, and full CG films into game-ready .FX files.


Lighting:
IES support for indirect lighting: mental ray 3.3 can now render
indirect lighting with photometric data from lighting manufacturers
and information based on real world units.

Automatic photon mapping distribution: Indirect Illumination is
improved with an adaptive assignment of photon mapping based
on the scene lighting distribution, providing an industry leading
global illumination model for film and visualization artists.

Controls include: shadows, shadow color and density, projected
images, contrast, edge softness, attenuation, and decay.

Surface level lighting control with separate ambient,
diffuse, and specular manipulation possible.

The 2d Lighting Data Exporter saves lighting analysis
data as Radiance Picture Files or the .TIF format.


Cameras:
Precise alignment with either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal
field-of-view measure, and support for orthogonal projection.

skogskalle

thanks John! very informative

The reason I want Vray is that its supposed to be the fastest renderer out there right now. (dont know about MentalRay3.3 though... can it compete with Vray in terms of speed/render quality?)
Plus Vray seems pretty easy to learn, compared to MentalRay... Ive worked in VrayFree for a while now, and I love it.

another reason, and this is actually pretty important, is that Vray has a very good and active online community...

the only thing that really makes me wanna upgrade to Max7 is the IES lights... cant use them in Max4.2, unless Vray lights support IES data...?... dont know.

hockley91

If you already know how to use V-Ray, then stick with it. Vray is awesome. I messed with Final Render awhile back, but Vray is so much more better. I think you get amazing and FAST results even at it's lowest setting.....

crazy homeless guy

I am using Max 6 right now. I have a subscription plan, so I have access to the DWG FileLink, which I beleive is going to be standard with Max 7. I use FileLink to Link my FormZ files, and Max together. It is awesome. It makes FormZ work almost like a plug-in modeler for Max. If your modeling app writes clean DWG files, then I am assuming it would work this good for you.

I would venture to guess that this is a year away from being released.

__________________
travis schmiesing

Ernest Burden

Where do we do that?

__________________
Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

STRAT

um, you dont. yet. but the boys over at Chaos studios announced their Vray stand-alone plans at this years Siggraph, and it's apparently in the beta testing stage as we speak.