[Nico]

all those critics about Max could be true, excepted that they're not
you can switch to expert mod, then you have only the viewports ( w/o anything else), and you can always access ALL the tools with a right click in the viewport ( you can even set this up, so it works only if you right click on a particular object or anywhere in the viewport, etc). So much for that flaw
and criticizing the viewport layout is ridiculous, you can set them like you want ( a big one on its own, a big tall one on a side and three smaller ones on the other, etc etc).The UI in max is 100% customisable, and if you don't like something, you can just change it.
At least, I criticize TS coz i've tried it a lot. Obviously you didn't for max.
bah, I'm not a Discreet saleman, i don't care if you like it or not after all.

[Stryke 9]

Originally posted by mikhael


Actually that last is the problem Stryke: my friend knows how to use it, and we can't get a reasonable export period. He's switching to 3dsMax because Raydream just isn't cutting it any more. He hates 3dsMax like I do, but its either that, Truespace or Lightwave. If you think this community has some negative opinions of Truespace, you should hear Alec. He curses in ways that would make my old-school Navy master chief blush.

As for it being dead and gone, it is, except in Cararra, which few, if any, take seriously.

Actually, once you've got the basics down, 3DS MAX is the shortest jump from RDS humanly possible- the setup is even closer than Cararra's, just in different places and with all the annoying viewscreens you can't seen to zoom in. The export prob is understandable, but it does do fair exports of the models themselves, though I don't think Ray Dream preserves the texes like Cararra does...

Nobody takes Cararra seriously? Perhaps you should. With it, you've essentially got Lightwave's 2-program setup (Modeler and, er, LightWave), and it combines properties that no other program has- I put it on par with LightWave for the special effects, actually- Lightwave has its unbeatable volumetrics and hypervoxels, but Cararra has a decent particle generator; detailed volumetric fogs, etc.; terrain generator; lens flares that in my opinion are worth the price of the system alone;  and a simply godly natural-effects terrain generator. If you don't take it seriously, you haven't seen what it can do.

[Styxx]

Ah, MAX's expert mode. Feel da powaaah!!