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3ds Max 2011 Changes/Enhancements
This is a more complete list of changes organized slightly differently. It's important to understand that the 2011 release delivers on some aspects of our XBR vision (as did 3ds Max 2010). XBR is being implemented in a series of phases, and with 3ds Max 2011, we can say that Phase 1 is complete. One down, two to go!
XBR Graphics
New Quicksilver hardware rendering using the GPU
Enhanced viewport material display (most 3ds Max legacy shaders were converted to metasl)
Improved MetaSL Shaders (performance and quality improvements in many areas)
XBR UI
New Slate Node-based Material Editor (with integrated metasl workflow)
Simplified material/map browsing
New Caddy UI for faster modeling
Fully customizable ribbon
New collapsible command panel
Workflow
New Local Edits to Containers
New object paint feature in Viewport Canvas
New layered texture painting features in Viewport Canvas
New 3ds Max Composite (based on Autodesk toxik technology)
New mental ray 2011
Better snapping
Shift clicking selects loops or rings intelligently
CTRL clicking only adds to the selection sets instead of toggling
Bitmap pager changes (user control of paging)
New CAT character-animation toolset (with bug fixes and stability improvements)
New FBX File Link for Revit files (with several import optimizations)
Dynamite VSP for civil visualization (3ds Max Design subscription customers only)
New Autodesk Materials library and workflow (over 1,200 presets)
Native import of Inventor IPT/IAM files as solids
SAT file import/export and solid-model support
Native SketchUp file import
Improved OpenEXR support
Enhanced SGI RGBA file support
Misc:
New “Save to 3ds Max/Design 2010”
100% plug-in compatible with 3ds Max/Design 2010
Windows 7 Support
New Third-party tools:
Craft Animation free tools
SoftMotionCam, ObserverCam, MultiStateCam, HumanizerCam, PreRigged Models (4)
Pixelactive Cityscape free tool for GIS import
New Content:
(10) Biped and (10) CAT rigged hires characters from aXYZ Design
(60) low-poly, mix of trees and palms from Marlin Studios
(25) high-quality vehicles from aXYZ Design
(50) low-poly, vehicles from Cacheforce
(70) pedestrian motion capture clips (male and female)
“The Dark” animation (and related files) from NMTrix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUVMSZSvado)
Unsupported features (not documented to work):
Exposed mental ray string options for “under-the-hood” manipulation of mental ray
Native import of Alias Design files (.WIRE) as surfaces