could this version be any cooler ? i think not

thank you!

I think it may be an issue of timing. If iRay were made available well enough in advance, that we might have seen it in this release...but they supposedly didn't confirm it's addition to MR until Nov. 09. There is obviously a cutoff in development, so hopefully it will be exposed next year.

Having said that, I'd like to know a little more about Quiksilver (who developed it), and even if it has some current limitations, it seems to be a good means to render out playblasts/animation previews. I hope it and iRay puts pressure on 3rd party renderers to be innovative in this area as well.

Quicksilver is developed internally by Autodesk and the 3ds Max Dev team. It is a major first step on our XBR Graphics goals. Ken will be posting shortly details about limitations and potential use cases. Thanks!

It is very obvious Shane what Quicksilver is!

Same as what Viewport Canvas was in 2010. We have to realize that the first steps of a baby may not be a world record, but they definitely are the foundations for a potential world record-man (or woman for any p.c. people left in our days). I like it when new features are tested early with the public. There is always a risk that users in an early stage will not understand the vision. But regardless early feedback is necessary and welcome. Take all the positive, work on improving the negative points and make it better!

It is understandable for someone to question if Quicksilver is the way to since tools like iray are already out etc. but what matters here, is the implementation, if it does things in a better way than others then it is absolutely worth it!

I have no idea how iray does things and i am curious to see how they are done with quicksilver.

If you manage to do what Gelato and others failed to do after 2-3 iterations, (i don't think you should give it more than that much) then it is absolutely worth the effort!

If something doesn't work after 2-3 iterations, scrap it and make something better with the experience you gained from your failure and success.

It is great what iray does, but seeing what you have done with the new features of 2011 I strongly believe that Quicksilver will be able to do as much in the next version with all the great feedback that you will receive and the hard work of your brilliant team!

Gogogo change everything and make it better! It is obvious you guys can! Make for us the best tool an artist ever dreamt of, and a TDs paradise

All our artists here were drooling over some of the new max and mudbox features, even zbrush fanatics and long time maya users they are all asking when mudbox and 3dsmax are coming out and if we can get our hands on it to try the new features All i am thinking, is the increased creativity and productivity from these new versions.

Does Quicksilver work with mental ray materials? Or do we have to use special materials specific to Quicksilver? If so, I don't see any use of this, apart from doing some previz stuff. IRAY would be much much much much much more appreciated... at least thats whats I think about it...

The material editor looks nice. But it's basically NodeJoe... Just like polyboost became "Graphite modeling tools" they give it another name, do some UI-Mods and sell it as "Slate material editor". Hmm, that's cheap isn't it?

I don't get some of you...why do you need to re-invent the wheel? If there is a cutting-edge 3rd party solution why does Autodesk have to compete with them or put them out of work by doing the same thing in-house. I don't care where it comes from, and you shouldn't either. If a tool does the job, that's all that matters to you.

What skin is it off your nose if they pay for a 3rd party product?

The thing is that nodeJoe exist for years now and has been used for years. So it isn't NEW and therefore I think it should not be sold as "our new material editor". That's the point for me. Of course, it's really cool to have it integrated into MAX and what else they did to modify it... I'm with you there... I really like that. I just don't see the point why we should be exited of that, since we know it for quite some time now. Again, it's cool to have it integrated but to me it seems as if they are selling it as a super cool innovation, which it isn't.

I just don't understand why they don't say: "Well, we bought NodeJoe, did some modifications to it and it is now fully integrated as the "Slate material editor". Again, I don't want to blame anyone here.... don't get me wrong.

I see what you're saying...but for many users, it is new...and they obviously did a good deal of work to integrate it and add some further enhancements. Most Max users know what these tools were, when they existed as plugins, so I'm sure AD isn't trying to snow anyone over. They are simply licensing the toolset as it's own. Whether AD's own developers or a 3rd party creates it, doesn't really matter...the developer is paid for their work.

It's just like a company that hires you to make a treatment for their ad. Once they've signed off on it and issued you a check, your work is now their property. I don't know why AD names their tools what they do. Some of them are a bit odd...but as long as it does what I need it to, I really don't care.

Glad to see some thing that is proven rather than a bad implementation. I think it's a good thing when these great developers are actually hired on, what better proof of skill than developing a well known and highly regarded plug.
Autodesk hired the polyboost developer and he has added some great features, not just Graphite.
Rather this than copying the feature poorly.

Well, we bought NodeJoe, did some modifications to it and it is now fully integrated as the "Slate material editor". The two creators of NodeJoe are working with us.

Wobi, remember that Slate is just the beginning of more to come. In the XBR webinar they stated that there are plans for nodal views and UI consistency. My guess is at some point Slate will expand beyond simply materials. However, doing all of the work to build new ways to access and manage data isn't that simple and will take time. So you get some now and I am sure there will be more as we progress through the XBR process. So for now it may appears to be node joe, but in the future it will probably be much more than those guys could have ever done on their own, this can already be seen in the enhancements made to the Graphite tools.

-Eric

@Shane:
I didn't want to make a fuss about that. I'm really exited about this release and can't wait to have it here. You guys are doing a great job over there. I love MAX and work with it every day, so maybe I sometimes write some comments before having thought about it from an objective way....
Soooooooooo, why isn't it already april^^. I need this "Slate material editor" here, hehe. Maybe there is a chance to see one or two other videos on some of the new features?!?

Greetz Ben