[Nico]

yeah, cdilla suck, but it's done that way on purpose
as for the discreet law-abiding customers, well, maybe discreet just calls the copies back, and newtek doesn't. you'd have asked 8 months ago I could have tell you, but now I can't say, sorry.

[Stryke 9]

Anyway, that was what I figured you were saying in your first post. I guess it's kinda immaterial, since the general gist I'm getting is that there's no legal way for me to get MAX anytime soon. Fortunately, a couple hundred more bucks and there should be plenty of illegal ways, but I'll stop there.

They could have done this in a more intelligent fashion, you know. Take Carrara, for example- they don't demand you give up your old version to upgrade, you just do it. And they don't really have a loss on all the old versions floating around, because the upgrade is worth exactly the upgrade price more than the old version- and that's a fair chunk, too, about 1/3 the price of a whole new one. But then, I suppose they're kinda a special case because they release a new version on an average of once every three years, and don't charge unholy sums...

[Styxx]

What is with you people today?

[Zeronet]

Originally posted by Styxx
What is with you people today?

The copy of TS5 on my backup disc fubared and now i can't do any modelling and the older versions of TS look terrible and i can't bear to use them.

[Odyssey]

I've got a, ah, copy of 3DS4. Never really used it, I prefer lightwave. But it starts fine, and I've noticed no **** coming from my computer since I installed it all that while back.

[Geezer]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
If there's a good, say $500 copy of MAX 3 or something sitting around somewhere, I'd definitely go for that, but I'm not about to get all prudish about warez all of a sudden.  

The educational version of 3ds Max 5 sells for $500, at least in the States.  If that's good for you, you can get it from Academic Superstore , among others.

[Stryke 9]

Hmm. Good call on that, actually, I'll have to see what I can do there...

[Shrike]

Getting an education version is probably the best bet, and you can upgrade to a commercial version when you have the money.

[Stryke 9]

Of course, the trick now is, I'm kinda between educational institutions this summer... guess I'll have to wait or something...

[Goober5000]

As long as you're enrolled or are enrolling somewhere, that shouldn't matter.  You're a student on a budget, so you qualify.

[Geezer]

Check the sites for info on who qualifies.  Academic Superstore (the one I use) just wants a valid student ID.  Or you can talk to them - they might take an college acceptance letter, for instance.  They're going to be as liberal as they can be - they don't make money by refusing to sell their stuff.