Why two? We've decided that the best way to focus on Entertainment and Design/Vis solutions is to customize the user experience accordingly. So, we now have two versions of your favorite product to choose from. At the same time, we are ending development on VIZ and encouraging customers to shift to 3ds Max Design. This is one of the reasons we created 3ds Max Design - to give VIZ users a clear path to 3ds Max and something they can fully leverage.
At this time, we are not releasing all the information about the two new flavors, but that will come as we officially launch the products later this quarter (March 25th). So, I don't actually want to duplicate all that information here, just deal with the major points:
1. 3ds Max Design 2009 includes 100% of the features in 3ds Max 2009 - except for the SDK
2. 3ds Max Design has the new Exposure lighting analysis feature, 3ds Max 2009 does not
Those are the critical differences you need to know about. We're also working on making each product a richer experience for the specific set of users, so you'll see evidence of this in tutorials, samples, application defaults, etc. They are 100% data compatible and they are actually the same binary. We think this should be the policy moving forwards as it means you'll always be able to mix/match these versions without fear of data loss.
The incredible success of 3ds Max in both Entertainment and Design/Vis gives us the ability to drive BOTH markets with increased resources. This is all tied up with the fact that we've also doubled our engineering resources.
Yes, we expect that you'll be a little confused by this news, but it will be clearer as time moves on. Subscription users will get BOTH installs, so they can play with either one and we'll have trial versions of both up on the web at ship date.
As to the future, I'm restricted to what I can say, but I think we've learned to be extremely careful with deciding that one feature is only useful by one market. If we are to create any further feature differentiation between the two, we'll do it very carefully and check with customers before doing it. Our policy is to ensure that you're never forced to need both to get the job done.
3ds Max Design and 3ds Max 2009 Announced!
Here are some features (not all), since we are not launching the product today, just announcing it (this may appear to be a semantics issue, but Autodesk Marketing calls the shots on this) we are not giving you all the feature information like we normally do at announcement. Some of these headings may not make sense without the additional descriptions, but that is coming. I did leave in the descriptions on two of the bigger features that were part of the release effort.
Remember, this is an INCOMPLETE list, about 30% of the features are not listed here. Some important features will be revealed at launch.
Biped:
• Hands Like Feet Option
• Working Pivot Rotation
• Mirror Animation Options
• Triangle Neck
Modeling and Mapping
• UV Spline Mapping
• UVW Unwrap Improvements
Rendering
Reveal Workflow
• With 3ds Max 2009, Autodesk introduces Reveal rendering, a system that gives users very precise control over their renders, which in turn streamlines iterative workflows and enables artist to render final imagery faster. This key new feature gives artists the ability to visualize and manipulate a given region in both the Viewport and the Framebuffer. The rendered image Framebuffer now contains a simplified set of tools to quickly validate changes in a render, by optionally filtering out objects, regions and/or processes to temporarily balance quality vs. speed vs. completeness. For instance, render speed can be modulated by toggling geometry translation, lighting calculation and image-quality settings, based on what the artist desires to update. Using Reveal, artists can now also auto-generate regions around selections and reuse temporary Final Gather maps at any time.
Photometric Lighting Enhancements
• 3ds Max 2009 delivers a number of photometric lighting enhancements. The software now gives artists support for new types of area lights (circular, cylindrical), photometric web previews in the Browse dialog and Light UI, as well as improved near-field photometry quality and spot distribution. Plus, distribution types can now support any emitting shape and artists can have their light shapes appear in their rendered image.
mental ray
• ProMaterials
• New mental ray Proxy Objects
• Enhanced Accessibility of Production Shaders
• Enhanced Per-object Render Settings
• Improved Render Final Gather and Global Illumination
• New mental ray Render Elements
Note: We have now published the full feature list in the documents listed below along with a FAQ with possibly more answers to your many questions.
Remember, this is an INCOMPLETE list, about 30% of the features are not listed here. Some important features will be revealed at launch.
Biped:
• Hands Like Feet Option
• Working Pivot Rotation
• Mirror Animation Options
• Triangle Neck
Modeling and Mapping
• UV Spline Mapping
• UVW Unwrap Improvements
Rendering
Reveal Workflow
• With 3ds Max 2009, Autodesk introduces Reveal rendering, a system that gives users very precise control over their renders, which in turn streamlines iterative workflows and enables artist to render final imagery faster. This key new feature gives artists the ability to visualize and manipulate a given region in both the Viewport and the Framebuffer. The rendered image Framebuffer now contains a simplified set of tools to quickly validate changes in a render, by optionally filtering out objects, regions and/or processes to temporarily balance quality vs. speed vs. completeness. For instance, render speed can be modulated by toggling geometry translation, lighting calculation and image-quality settings, based on what the artist desires to update. Using Reveal, artists can now also auto-generate regions around selections and reuse temporary Final Gather maps at any time.
Photometric Lighting Enhancements
• 3ds Max 2009 delivers a number of photometric lighting enhancements. The software now gives artists support for new types of area lights (circular, cylindrical), photometric web previews in the Browse dialog and Light UI, as well as improved near-field photometry quality and spot distribution. Plus, distribution types can now support any emitting shape and artists can have their light shapes appear in their rendered image.
mental ray
• ProMaterials
• New mental ray Proxy Objects
• Enhanced Accessibility of Production Shaders
• Enhanced Per-object Render Settings
• Improved Render Final Gather and Global Illumination
• New mental ray Render Elements
Note: We have now published the full feature list in the documents listed below along with a FAQ with possibly more answers to your many questions.
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Posted by berthunt on 03/03 at 06:50 PMheh heh 
I suppose from Autodesk’s pov , even if you could never use your copy of Max ever again, there would be no benefit to it - unless it was a manditory switch to put all their focus on one product.
They might benefit from offering a heavily discounted copy of whichever one you don’t have. Bringing in revenue they would otherwise not likely get.
Of course I wasn’t completely fair in my complaint either. There are some new features in 2008 and 2009. But they still feel light. Especially in comparison to Maya. Maya seems to be building really good core features that have an expansion plan , where Max is adding minor conveniences and if we’re really lucky buying the right to patch in the occasional 3rd party plugin . Hmm, there I go complaining again.
Posted by joshpurple on 03/03 at 05:34 PM
I’m all for this idea;
“allow Max users to switch to Maya Unlimited for free.” But, just let us keep both Max and Maya. And… umm.. *digs toe in dirt, tugs at collar* then give Subscription people MotionBuilder and Mudbox at 20% of the current retail price 
Just think of all the sales! Heh, heh, heh .
(and I’m not making fun of Berthunt, -no disrespect to you at all. Very understandable to want the Maya features in Max. I’m just being a doofus & wishing I had all the features & all the apps ).
Posted by berthunt on 03/03 at 02:43 PMI don’t understand why Human IK isn’t incorporated back into Max yet. When Maya bought Kaydara, one of the first things they did was pull support of Human IK for Max and include it as a feature into Maya, making for a very smooth transition between Maya and MotionBuilder. Getting files back and forth between MotionBuilder and Max really sucks. Since Human IK was working for Max it seems like it would be a no brainer to do that again - and incorporate some kind of Actor functionality in Max to easily apply motions onto bipeds, or Human IK, or Custom built rigs.
When you look at the heavyweight features being developed for Maya and the comparable lightweight development for Max, It would only be fair for Autodesk to allow Max users to switch to Maya Unlimited for free. Especially now that the prices are equivalent.
It sucks to be a Max user/owner and hear about Muscle and Fluid, and NCloth for Maya. Then in Max 2008, the new functionality is we’re going to fix all the bugs we haven’t fixed yet. and then for Max 2009 to hear that the latest feature is you get to pick what functionality you are going to lose.
Posted by soulburn on 02/24 at 11:53 AM3dsmax was written specifically for the windows platform. So much of the core of the software is windows reliant, that making a Linux or Mac version would be basically the same thing as rewriting the software from scratch. So I doubt you will ever see max on another platform, unless being run through an emulator.
Posted by Norse Graphics on 02/24 at 05:37 AMWouldn’t it make more sense to make two applications on different Operating Systems, like one for Windows and another for Mac OS? I run Windows myself, but I’m thinking of those who aren’t Windows compatible, and many artists uses the Mac OS for their production. You already have Maya for Mac OS....
