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In which we talk normal mapping, subscription packages, and performance.
DMN: What other feature is Discreet most proud of in the new max 7 release?
Prochazka: There is a lot of stuff. One of the things people don?t often think about, but what I think is an important part of this release, is what we have done in terms of stability and performance.
We talk a lot about performance around the office of Discreet these days. People are really pushing the application and what they are trying to do with these applications is much more than what they were trying to do just a few years ago. There seems to be a geometric progression of what people are expecting out of 3D programs these days. So performance and scalability are becoming critical.
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| Skin Wrap allows artists to easily attach clothing and props to pre-existing character animations and rigs |
Before you can deal with performance, you have to deal with stability, so you are not playing the hurry up and crash game. The big difference between the stability of 3ds max 6 and 3ds max 5 were like night and day. That was why you didn?t see a 3ds max 6.1, because it didn?t require a stability release. 3ds max 7 is the same way. It is much more stable than max 6. So we are pleased with that. Now we are starting to take a long term whack at performance. You will see a lot of things in max 7 ? from view port displays to DirectX to things like Object Culling and Turbosmoothing ? that all benefit from performance.
You are now seeing a 3ds max that behaves much faster and this part of a long term project for us. We really feel that 3ds max needs to be a faster, and a more scalable application. It should work just as well with 50,000 polygons as it does with 5,000 polygons.
DMN: Does that then equate into the rendering engine? Have rendering speeds increased as well?
Prochazka: Rendering is rendering. It is a different beast. You are not going to make mental ray faster. It can only be as fast as the data you hand to it. However, part of the rendering process is in dealing with the scene, so something like Turbosmooth makes rendering quicker because of the calculations it makes before it goes to that part of the pipeline. Normal Mapping is also a great performance enhancer for rendering because you are only working with smaller polygon characters and a data map.
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| mental ray 3.3 sub-surface scattering brings superb realism to skin, wax, plastics, and other translucent materials. Click for larger image. |
DMN: Was Character Studio inside 3ds max 6 a demo version of the full package? How is that different in 3ds max 7?
Prochazka: Character Studio was actually the full package but you had to purchase a license for it. We just installed it because doing it later can be a bit of a hassle and we wanted to keep it current. This way if people want to use it they could then purchase the license or they could choose to uninstall it if they weren?t going to use it.
Anyone who is doing character animation wants to use, or at least the option to use, Character Studio. So they frequently purchased it. In 3ds max 7 we actually included it, so Character Studio no longer needs a license. When you buy max 7, you have the full blown Character Studio 4.
DMN: Anything new with Character Studio?
Prochazka: Speaking of performance, it is a faster Character Studio 4. The crowd solver is about 10 to 100 times faster than in earlier versions.
DMN: It looks like you have been taking those stand alone modules and rolling them into 3ds max as you go along?
Prochazka: We?ve been doing that for a while, and now they are all in max.
DMN: And that has generated a lot of good feedback from users?
Prochazka: It is always nice when you take something that has always been a stand alone and make it a part of the base product. People who were thinking about using the stand alone application but instead of purchasing the license found work arounds for their problem can now use it whenever the need arises.
DMN: What other feedback have you received?
Prochazka: The Normal Mapping is getting the best response, and that is definitely bringing people over to 3ds max. People are pleased that we continue to extend in areas that we are already strong. Polygonal modeling, for example, is an area where we have always been dominant. There is no other 3D application that can do polygon modeling like 3ds max does.
DMN: With all of the changes you have implemented, is the learning curve substantially different from your other release?
Prochazka: I don?t think so. We try not to be shovel-ware. We try to introduce features that are important and deep. So, if someone is going to learn the tools, it is going to take them a little while to learn, but they are going to learn them extremely well. And what works in one area of the program tends to work in other areas of the program as well.
We have an interface that has consistency, like when you are working with a modifier stack. When new functionality comes on line, like Normal Mapping, a lot of it actually plays out inside the modifier stack. So if you understand the modifier stack, and the concept of how the modifiers work, then when you see the Normal Mapping system it is easy to use. We try and use methodologies that are familiar to users.
DMN: 3ds max 7 has only been out a month (released October 13). This was about the same time that Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP was released. Have you had any problems, or reported problems with this update and max 7 or any of the discreet products?
Prochazka: We haven?t, but we have a good relationship with Microsoft. When Service Pack 2 came out, it wasn?t a surprise, nor was it the first time we had seen it. I don?t think we officially support it. I believe it came out right after we released 3ds max 7. However it didn?t go untested before the release of 3ds max 7.
DMN: Finally are you looking at any other platforms to release 3ds max on? Linux or maybe even the Mac?
Prochazka: We don?t say no to anything, it really depends on the business model. The other end of that answer is we can not make forward looking statements. We recognize the growth of these things ? like 64-bit, and we recognize that it is an important direction the industry is going. We are not unaware of the success rate and failure rate of those various platforms.
DMN: Thank you for your time.
Prochazka: Thank you.
For more information on 3ds max 7, be sure to read the review by Todd Sheridan Perry.
For more information about Discreet, visit their website at www.discreet.com.
