3DS classic to MAX
3 messages in this thread
Hi Martin, I am an employee of Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque, NM.
While searching some of the topics on the Multimedia Forum, I discovered that
you are a man of much insight and highly regarded for your advice. Well…. I
need some advice.
We are interested in creating some 3D animation to demonstrate the utility of a
3D virtual environment for quick data visualization. We have purchased some
dual pentium machines and plan to load and operate the windows NT 'server'
operating system. The problem we have encountered is that 3D classic is
designed for DOS, and DOS will not take advantage of the dual processing power
of our machines. On the other hand, we are very excited about 3D Studio MAX
which runs under the NT system and will take full advantage of our dual
processors. However, we do not feel we can wait until January or February (
tentative dates of the distribution of 3D Studio MAX) to begin on our project.
We would like to know if the animations created under 3D Studio classic will
directly port over to 3D studio MAX. If not, do you know of another 3D
animation tool that will provide the capabilities of 3D Studio that currently
runs under the NT environment?
By the way, does 3D Studio MAX follow the Open Graphics Library (OGL) standard?
Any information you can give will be greatly appreciated!
P.S. I know 3D Studio MAX is still in Beta testing and not much information is
released to the public, but I thought I would throw these questions your way
just in case some information has trickled down to you.
Thanks
WM
WM,
3DS MAX will take advantage of Open GL boards, although it has direct
support for GLiNT-based boards, which would be faster. Autodesk hopes to have
complete import of .3DS files from R4, but it might be a little imperfect,
given the totally different approach 3DS MAX uses. Unfortunately for you, it's
still a little early to be sure. Export will definitely be limited, as MAX has
entities and operations that are beyond R4's imaginings! A very deep product,
and great interface (ALIAS done right). BTW, CSA, an Autodesk System Center in
California, is one of the first dealers to receive authorization to sell MAX.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
W,
I concur with Kevin Krell. Your project should import to MAX, minus any IPAS
routines. You wouldn't be taking advantage of many new features.
The only product I know on NT is Lightwave. It's basically the same as the
Amiga version only ported to NT – it should take advantage of multi-processors.