3ds max 6, the world's most
widely used professional 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution, offers
the ultimate professional 3D tools required for creating eye-catching visual
effects, cutting edge games, and distinct design
visualizations.
The educational
version of 3ds max: - Includes Character Studio 4 and Reactor. - Includes
a perpetual use license. The right to use 3ds max does not expire at any time.
- Has a splash screen that identifies the software as an educational version
when the program is opened. - Does not create any watermarks. - Does not
have any functional limitations compared to the commercial version of 3ds
max. - Can be upgraded to the commercial version. Please contact Discreet for
pricing.
New features in 3ds max 6 software include an advanced schematic
view for complex scene management; integrated mental ray 3.2 renderer; a new
event-driven particle system; reactor 2 stuntman dynamics; unmatched design
workflow with Autodesk solutions through .DWG import/export with ObjectARX
support; vertex painting; enhanced modeling and skinning tools; HDRI support;
performance optimizations designed in conjunction with Intel Corporation; and
extensive focus on enriching the reliability of existing
features.
Animation - Unique, weighted Animation Controller Subsystem
allows for multiple algorithms to drive any animation channel, including custom
expressions - Curve Editor and Dope Sheet control every animated parameter,
with extensive filtering to isolate relevant data - Character tools include
volumetric Skinning with hierarchies or spline, spring-based secondary
animation, Progressive Morphing, and FFD lattices - reactor 2 allows full
interaction of keyframed and dynamically simulated objects including new Virtual
Stuntman dynamics and improved fracture collection
Modeling - Enhanced
Spline/Patch workflow eliminates excess Modifier Stack operations, and includes
intuitive cross-section functionality, reset patch tangents, and default
filtering of interior edges - Editable Poly improvements include the
integration of Meshsmooth and a new Isoline Display mode that keeps the artist
focused on building good model topology without having to view every
resulting polygon in the viewport - Shell Modifier adds depth to any
selection of faces by building new polygons based on vertex or face normals -
the perfect tool for adding "Mech" elements to any character or vehicle -
Blobmesh is a metaball compound object that works as a modeling tool or in
conjunction with Particle Flow for organic surfaces and cohesive
fluids
Texture Mapping - Unwrap UV Modifier has extensive tools for
editing mapping coordinates up to 99 channels, and includes the ability to use
differing unwrapping algorithms and direct manipulation of texture coordinates
to dramatically decrease texturing time - The Relax Modifier makes it simpler
and easier to even out existing mapping coordinates for
textures
Rendering - Fast, film-quality hybrid scanline renderer
includes global illumination and photorealistic lighting tools, plus unlimited
distributed network rendering - network rendering includes split scanlines
option for distribution of high resolution still image rendering - Command
line rendering enables batch operations using text files and commands from the
prompt including image resolution, anti-aliasing, super-sampling, raytracing
parameters, environment settings, file output control, layers, and network
rendering - Region Net Render allows portions of an image to be deployed
across a network, ideal for large format and print size frames - High Dynamic
Range Imaging (HDRI) files (.hdr, .pic) can be loaded and saved with 3ds max 6
renders for the new artistic approach to realistic rendering - mental ray
rendering is now integrated within and as part of each 3ds max license as a
powerful new rendering option
Lighting - Photometric lighting support.
This allows customers to download industry standard IES files from manufacturers
to simulate real world lighting effects - 2D Lighting Data Exporter saves
lighting analysis as Radiance Picture Files or .TIF format - Surface level
lighting control with seperate ambient, diffuse, and specular attenuation and
decay - Pseudo Color Rendering with legends for lighting analysis. MAXScript
access to Radiosity information, so the users can query the lighting level of
any point anywhere in the scene
Games - Vertex Paint Modifier
functions as a paint layer, with Photoshop-style blending modes, interactive
painting of color and attribute information over 99 vertex channels - Dynamic
Shader UI creates artist-friendly UI components for HLSL Shaders, based on the
parameters in the DirectX .FX file - Edit Vertex Normals, available as a
modifier and as a base mesh property, has a suite of tools for manually editing
normals - Channel Info Editor allows for viewing and editing of per-vertex
channel information in a spreadsheet-style view
Cameras - Unlimited
number of cameras using industry-standard parameters for accurate real-world
camera matching and results - Interactive clipping plane, dolly, FOV, grid
overlay, orbit, roll, vertigo zoom, zoom and safe frame display - Precise
alignment with either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal field-of-view measure,
plus support for orthogonal projection - Extensive Depth of Field and Motion
Blur controls also include a viewport preview mode to speed up the iterative
process
Materials and Mapping - Combine unlimited number of textures
to give ultimate control over materials - Shading algorithms include
Anisotropic, Blinn, Oren-Nayar-Blinn, Phong, Metal, Multi-layer, and Strauss
with independent sampler options - Material/Map Browser portrays hierarchies
with thumbnails and drag-and-drop assignment
Viewport Interaction -
WYSIWYG viewport environment with multi-textures per face, blended true
transparency, Phong highlights, procedurals, and display of Pixel and Vertex
shaders - Multiple coordinate systems like View, Screen, World, Local, Chosen
Object, Grid, or Parent space for flexible manipulation of any object type -
Interactive axis constraints and modeless keyboard entry supported -
Selection methods include pick, fence, rectangular, lasso, and circle with
object class filters, select-by-name, named selection sets, mesh extents,
backface exclusion, polygon boundary, smoothing, material ID, and face normal
angle architecture - Multi-threaded processing throughout 3ds max 6 software
for superior performance and scalability - Supports OpenGL and Direct3D
hardware acceleration, and Heidi software acceleration for any Windows
display Plug-in architecture provides extensibility for nearly any system
component
MAXScript - MAXScript object-oriented scripting language
mirrors SDK to provide access to plug-in parameters - Scripts can be called
from 3ds max 6 interface or embedded into .max file - Scripts can be appended
to other plug-ins, generate alternative interfaces, or can be treated as a
plug-in class to 3ds max 6 - Visual MAXScript generates interactive interface
elements like Sliders, Dropdown lists, Check boxes, buttons, Color pickers and
more to any object, modifier or material - a great time-saver for scripting
artists
Workflow - Schematic View, a node-based scene graph, offers
access to object properties, materials, controllers, modifiers, hierarchy, and
non-visible scene relationships such as wired parameters and instancing -
File management utilities such as the MAX File Finder, IFL Manager, Increment On
Save, Auto-backup, the Resource Collector, Dynamic Texture Reloading, and Log
Files manage daily use and transfer of 3ds max 6 data between file iterations,
users, and locations - The Layer Manager is a floating table of contents,
allowing for quick switching of focus on the various parts of a character, model
or scene - Load and Save Render Presets enables studios to share rendering
settings between artists, reducing scene setup times and ensuring consistency
across the entire production for most rendering parameters
Hardware Intel(r) PIII or later Processor or AMD(r) running at 300Mhz
minimum (Dual Intel(r) Xeon(tm) or dual AMD Athlon(tm) system
recommended) 512 MB RAM and 500 MB swap space minimum (1GB RAM and 2GB Swap
Space Recommended) Graphics card supporting 1024x768 16-bit color with 64MB
RAM. (OpenGL and Direct3D hardware acceleration supported; 3D graphics
accelerator 1280 x 1024 24-bit color with 256MB RAM
preferred) Windows-compliant pointing device (specific optimization for
Microsoft Intellimouse(tm)). Wacom Intuos or similar pressure sensitive
tablet CD-ROM drive Optional: sound card and speakers; cabling for
TCP/IPcompliant network; 3D hardware graphics acceleration; video input and
output devices; joystick; midi-instruments; 3-button
mouse
Software Primary Operating Systems: XP Professional (SP1),
Windows 2000 (SP4), and XP Home (SP1) Internet Explorer 6 DirectX 9
Recommended (DirectX 8.1 Minimum) OpenGL
|