1

Additional Notes About Autodesk 3ds Max 9

This document contains late-breaking information about Autodesk 3ds Max 9. For new and updated information about all Autodesk products, visit our website at: http://www.autodesk.com/

Installing Autodesk 3ds Max 9

Before a user with Restricted Privileges can run Autodesk 3ds Max 9 under the Windows operating system, an Administrator with full privileges must start the program at least once to generate the registry information, needed to complete the install.

Release Version with Beta

If you have previously installed any of the beta (including RC versions) of Autodesk 3ds Max 9 you must completely uninstall these pre-release versions before installing the retail version. Instructions to do this are posted on the beta portal in the document: 3dsmax9_license_fix_BETA_to_RELEASE.pdf.

Communication Center
If you install Autodesk VIZ 2007 and Autodesk 3ds Max 9 on the same system, the Communication Center will not work on the first application that you install. This will be addressed in service pack 1 (SP1) of Autodesk VIZ 2007.

Known Problems and Limitations in Autodesk 3ds Max 9

3rd Party Plugins
Okino Plugins in 64-bit
The Okino installer automatically copies the plugin files to the following location: Program Files (x86)/Autodesk/3ds max 9/Plugins You will then need to copy the files to the correct 64-bit 3ds Max plugins directory, located by default at: Program Files/Autodesk/3ds max 9/Plugins Visit Okinos website for updates at http://www.okino.com.

32-bit and 64-bit Compatibility

Application-wide Differences
Due to logical differences between the 32- and 64-bit versions of 3ds max 9, you may notice differences between scenes created in earlier versions of 3ds Max, or differences when viewing scenes created in 32-bit 3ds max 9 on 64-bit 3ds max 9 and vice versa. Areas where differences may be noticed are:

Procedural Geometry
Due to complier changes, Foliage objects may appear slightly differently than in earlier versions. If the geometry must appear exactly the same, collapse the Foliage objects to an Editable Mesh or an Editable Poly then resave it in the previously used version. This also applies to any other procedurally-generated geometry objects.

Procedural Maps
Procedural maps may display slightly different patterns.

Procedural Animation Controllers

Animation controllers, such as the Noise controller, may vary from earlier versions of 3ds Max and between the 32- and 64-bit versions of 3ds Max 9.
Final rendered images may vary slightly between the 32- and 64-but versions of 3ds Max 9. To ensure consistency, ensure machines on your render farm use the same OS and version of 3ds Max 9.

Rendered Images

Modifier Stack
Data piped through the modifier stack could result in a different object in different versions. If you have problems when opening files created in earlier versions of 3ds max in 3ds max 9, we recommend that you collapse the stack before opening the file.

Animation
Keyframes in the Trackbar
Keyframes originating from Custom Attributes do not refresh properly when moved in the Trackbar. Moving a keyframe will not update the keyframes position. You can refresh the Trackbar by clicking on it once. This will update the keyframes being displayed. Note that attempting to move the same keyframe several times will apply several offsets to the same keyframe, which may displace it in time beyond the timelines display range.

Bone Tools
Under some hardware configurations, the Bone Tools floater may flash when mirroring a bone chain.

Asset Tracker
Color Schemes
If using the Windows XP Silver color scheme, some highlighted items in the Asset Tracker may be difficult to see.

Bitmap Proxies File Types

The RGB file type will not parse the image information correctly. and will display poorly when reloaded when using Bitmap Proxies. This also occurs

with High-Dynamic Range RLA files in Max 32-bit builds. GIF files are not supported by Bitmap Proxies and will show the wrong status in the Asset Tracking dialog when Proxies are enabled. High-Dynamic Range TIF Images do not always produce an HDR Proxy file if the last saved TIF file was saved using 8-bits per channel. EXR and HDR High-Dynamic Range files will always save out a High-Dynamic Range RPF proxy file.

Backburner 2007
Wrong Apache Version Referenced in Backburner 2007 Guide

The Backburner Reference contains a reference to an older version of Apache HTTP Server. In Installing Backburner, under the section for Installing the Apache HTTP Server for Windows, when instructed to access the Apache website you should locate the link for the latest Win32 Binary MSI Installer (apache_2.0.59-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi). The Backburner Reference refers to the wrong Apache files during Backburner Web Server installation. In Installing Backburner, under the section for Installing the Backburner Web Server for Apache, the files that are copied into C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\cgi-bin should be:

Change to Apache files for Installation in Backburner 2007 Guide

monitorCGI.cfg monitorCGI.cgi monitorCGI-auth.cgi

Cloth
Modifier Settings
If you access the Bend and Stretch spinners in the Panel subobject when not using Garment Maker, 3ds Max will crash.

Display
Scene Effects
Hardware shadows in scene effects are currently only supported on nVidia video cards. Opening a file that contains these shadows may not display correctly. To correct this, move the shadow casting light to update the shadow.

Cg Shaders and Procedural Maps

Cg shaders do not support procedural maps.

Software Z-Buffer and Background Images

3ds Max may crash when zooming in on background images. If this occurs, you can switch to OpenGL or DirectX drivers to prevent it from happening.

Vertex Ticks
Ticks are now displayed as squares, and editable mesh tick display appears as black when the object is not selected instead of blue as in previous versions.

Dependencies/Influences
Select by name Dialog
Display/Select dependencies only works with the selected bone and the bones before it in the hierarchy when under the control of an IK chain. Display/Select dependencies does not work with objects that are wired together.

Edit Poly Modifier

Edge Connect / Chamfer / Slice
Performing these operations in several stacked Edit Poly modifiers may result in unexpected changes to the topology of a poly object.

Hair and Fur Modifier

Network Rendering
Hair and Fur do not work with Network Rendering if the Split Scan Lines option is enabled.

High Resolution Objects

Hair and Fur may crash when using a source object that has too many polygons. Reduce polygon count or use a proxy source object.

Lighting
Direct Lights are treated as point lights for Hair shadow casting and will not match well with other shadows when the light source is close to the Hair object. Point lights have a hard coded attenuation setting with Hair shadow casting and may exhibit strange behavior with the Scanline renderer such as missing shadows or black hairs when lights are placed too close to Hair and Fur objects.

Reflections
With the Scanline renderer, Hair will not respect Flat-Mirror or Reflect/Refract maps.

Legacy Files
Older Hair and Fur files with Space Warps will sometimes load with a <deleted> reference in the Dynamics rollout. Delete that reference and manually re-add the Space Warp if this occurs.

Sub-Objects
Sub-object selections can be lost when using two Hair and Fur modifiers. To avoid this, utilize the Named Selection Sets whenever a critical sub-object selection is made in one of the Hair and Fur modifiers. The Update Selection button doesnt work immediately when using an instanced Hair and Fur modifier. Exit sub-object mode to update selection changes when this occurs.

Render Effect
When set to Buffer, the Hair and Fur render effect will not render behind objects with Opacity maps, high Opacity values, or with low Visibility values. The Hair and Fur render effect may exhibit strange render artifacts when out of view.

Rendering
Hair and Fur does not respect the Exposure Control settings. When the Hair and Fur render effect is set to Buffer, long Hair with high Hair Segments values may not render completely when the Hair wraps around the source object.

Styling
Recent Styling changes will not be saved or rendered while in Guides sub-object mode. Exit the Guides sub-object mode before saving or rendering to incorporate recent changes.

Dynamics
Dynamic Collisions set to Sphere are not working properly. Use Collisions set to Polygons instead.

Havok
Proxy Geometry
To ensure that the proxy object state in the solve is saved with the file, you must verify that there are no spaces in the proxy geometry name.

Ragdoll
Because Havok 1 and Havok 3 handle interpenetrating objects differently, objects using Ragdoll constraints with interpenetrating objects may break apart during the simulation. The solution is either to switch from Bounding Box to Mesh Convex Hull for the Simulation Geometry, or to adjust the ragdoll so that it starts without object interpenetrating (prior to beginning a solve). The location for the script rctRagdollScript.ms has changed from the \scripts directory to the \stdplugs\stdscripts directory. The script does not create a UI after being run; to invoke the interface, type in the MAXScript listener: rctMakeRagdollUI() You can make this script available when Customize User Interface is launched, under the Reactor category as follows: Open the macro_reactor.mcr file and add the following script to the end of the file: macroScript rctRagDoll category:"reactor" internalcategory:"reactor" tooltip:"Create Ragdoll..." buttontext:"Ragdoll" ( on execute do (rctMakeRagdollUI()) on isEnabled return TRUE )

Collisions

Do not try to view stored collisions, as this can lead to system instability.

Modifiers
Havok 3 does not support entities with world space modifiers in the stack. To avoid instability, either remove the wsm from objects in a simulation, or turn off the wsm in the stack of the object in the Havok 3 sim.

mental ray
Render To Texture
The Car Paint shader is not supported in Render To Texture.

Modifiers
Turbosmooth
When you toggle the Isoline checkbox in Turbosmooth, the viewport may initially not appear to update in some instances (this may occur when using the Symmetry modifier). Panning or otherwise updating the viewport should force the display to show the correct Isoline state.

Performance
Animation
During animation playback, caching the scene may delay the playback by a few seconds. The Maxine.max scene file may display a slower performance on 3ds Max 9 64bit than in the 32-bit version of the program.

mental ray
Some mental ray effects may be slower when compared to 3ds Max 8.

Radiosity
Radiosity may be slower in 3ds Max 9 64-bit than in the 32-bit version.

Maps
The Gradient plugin (gradient.dlt) may cause performance degradation in viewport manipulations in the 64-bit version of 3ds Max 9.

File I/O
Loading files with DirectX shaders on them may display a red wireframe while the shader is being compiled. This can slow down the File Load process.

Rendering
NURBS and Displacement
Rendering nurbs surfaces in the scanline renderer with nurbsbased displacement causes system instability. Adding a Displacement Approx. modifier or a Displace Mesh WSM to the nurbs surface will allow for scanline displacement rendering of the nurbs surface. The Split option in Command Line rendering only works with Network Rendering.

Unwrap UVW
UI
With the Always Bring up the Edit UVWs window option set as the default, the Edit window drop-down menus will show as empty when the window is automatically opened. Switch to a different sub-object level to restore the drop-down menus.

Unwrap Edit Window

Sketch vertices does not work in Edge or Face sub-object mode in the Unwrap Edit window.

XRef
XRef Core
Reloading changes made to the node hierarchy of xrefed objects is not supported.

XRef and Lights/Cameras

If you XRef or File Merge target cameras or lights that have already been object xrefed, the cameras and lights lose their targets. Light inclusion lists may be scrambled when you reload an xref record that contains those lights. XRefed lights do not clear the default lighting in the master file initially, but will be correct when you reload the master file.

Proxies
Detaching a proxy record results in detaching the proxy's original record.

Scene Settings
Some XRef objects move upon update when the current time is different than the scenes StartTime (typically 0). This may happen with objects that use inheritance flags (i.e., some of the checkboxes for the inheritance of Position/Rotation/Scale components have been unchecked), for objects with Spring controllers, or for objects with a Link constraint. Other cases may exist.

Units
If you XRef objects from scenes using a different system unit than the current scene (master), the XRef objects may be incorrectly scaled

Animation
Transforms of HD IK chains are not XRefed, they are merged instead so an object XRefed HD IK chain will not be updated in the master file. Updating an XRef record that contains objects with IK controllers may incur minor changes to the XRefed object transforms. Updating XRef records of objects that have IK Controllers applied might lead to stability problems. Reloading an XRef record after its XRefed PRS controllers have been merged into the master file can result in the PRS controllers being disconnected from their dependencies. The current limitations of XRef controllers prevent users from applying

10

transformation offsets to them in the master scene. However, these controllers update correctly when using the Update XRef Record command. The controller types affected by this limitation are: HI IK, Path Constraints, List Controllers (at any level of the controller tree), and Spring Controllers. Nested XRef objects that involve IK may have issues when updating the XRref record. These issues usually involve switching from Merged Transforms to XRef Transforms (or vice versa) from one level to the next one. Assigning an XRef controller to an object via the motion panel and canceling before the process is finished will move the selected object to 0,0,0.

Objects and Helpers

Wall objects with doors or windows lose their automatic booleans after updating the XRef record. Manipulators which are part of an XRef record with "Merge manipulators" set will become disconnected upon reload/update of the Xref. Changing an XRef objects pivot in the source file yields bad results in the master file. Boolean Operations have known issues when XRefing Transform controllers.

Cloned Objects
Separate cloned objects that have targets and are part of the same XRef record will share the same target upon reloading the XRef record.

XRef Atmospheric
Systems. There are known issues with XRefing atmospherics and particle

Select by Name Dialog

Display/Select influences does not work on XRefed objects.

11

Maxscript
Missing Biped methods
The following methods are missing from the MAXScript Help File: biped.smoothTwist <biped:node> <bias:float> Smooths the twist between the first and last link of the track defined by the specified biped node. It can be either the spine, neck, tail, or a pony tail. The bias must be between 0.0 and 1.0. A bias value of 0.0 causes most of the twisting to happen at the base of the chain. A bias of 1.0 causes most of the twisting to happen at the end of the chain. A bias of 0.5 causes the twisting to be equally distributed among the links of the chain. biped.zeroTwist <biped:node> Zeros out the twist of the track defined by the specified biped node. It can be the spine, neck, tail, or a pony tail. biped.zeroAll <biped:node> Zeros out all the angles for all the links of the track defined by the specified biped node. It can be either the spine, neck, tail, or a pony tail. biped.convertFromBuffer <bipedCtrl> Loads the motion currently stored in the motion capture buffer onto the specified biped. You must have already loaded a motion capture file in order to use this function. Brings up the Motion Capture Conversion Parameters dialog, so you can reconvert the loaded motion onto a different biped, or use different conversion parameters. biped.copyBipPosture <biped_ctrl> <ICC::MXCopyCollection> <nodes::array(node)> <snapshottype::(#snapView |#snapAuto | #snapNone)> Creates a copy of the posture of the parts of the biped included in the nodes array. Places the copy in the specified copy collection. The nodes must all be part of a single biped. The last parameter describes what type of snapshot should be stored in the copy, either the active viewport, an automatically computed camera view, or none. Returns the copied posture. biped.copyBipPose <biped_ctrl> <ICC::MXCopyCollection> <snapshottype::(#snapView |#snapAuto |#snapNone)> Creates a copy of the pose of the biped. Places the copy in the specified copy collection. The last parameter describes what type of snapshot should be stored in the copy, either the active viewport, an automatically computed camera view, or none. Returns the copied pose.

12

biped.copyBipTrack <biped_ctrl> <ICC::MXCopyCollection> <nodes::array(node)> <snapshottype::(#snapView |#snapAuto | #snapNone)> Creates a copy of the animation of the parts of the biped included in the nodes array. Places the copy in the specified copy collection. The nodes must all be part of a single biped. The last parameter describes what type of snapshot should be stored in the copy, either the active viewport, an automatically computed camera view, or none. Returns the copied. biped.pasteBipPosture <biped_ctrl> <ICP::MXBipedCopy> <bool:opposite> <keypastetype::(#pstdefault |#pstcopied |#pstinterp)> <bool:hor> <bool:ver> <bool:trn> <bool:byvel> Pastes the specified posture copy onto the biped. Pastes opposite if opposite is true. The keypastetype parameter describes how to determine the TCB/IK values for a newly created key. It is only used if animate mode is on. The TCB/IK values for the new key can be either the default values, the copied values, or the interpolation of the values in the surrounding keys. Hor, ver, and trn describe whether to paste the horizontal, vertical, or rotation tracks of the biped center of mass (com). They are only used if the center of mass has been copied. If byvel is false, the com will be pasted in the absolute position from which it was copied. If byvel is true, it will be pasted relative to its current position and orientation. biped.pasteBipPose <biped_ctrl> <ICP::MXBipedCopy> <bool:opposite> <keypastetype::(#pstdefault |#pstcopied |#pstinterp)> <bool:hor> <bool:ver> <bool:trn> <bool:byvel Pastes the specified pose copy onto the biped. Pastes opposite if opposite is true. The keypastetype parameter describes how to determine the TCB/IK values for a newly created key. It is only used if animate mode is on. The TCB/IK values for the new key can be either the default values, the copied values, or the interpolation of the values in the surrounding keys. Hor, ver, and trn describe whether to paste the horizontal, vertical, or rotation tracks of the biped center of mass (com). They are only used if the center of mass has been copied. If byvel is false, the com will be pasted in the absolute position from which it was copied. If byvel is true, it will be pasted relative to its current position and orientation. biped.pasteBipTrack <biped_ctrl> <ICP::MXBipedCopy> <bool:opposite> <bool:hor> <bool:ver> <bool:trn Pastes the specified track copy onto the biped. Pastes opposite if opposite is true. Hor, ver, and trn describe whether to paste the horizontal, vertical, or rotation tracks of the biped center of mass (com). They are only used if the center of mass has been copied.

13

The following methods were not documented correctly: biped.pastePosture <biped_ctrl> (#posture |#pose |#track) <bool_opposite> <string_name> Pastes the specified posture, pose, or track to the selected objects in the Biped. Paste always pastes what was copied. If you copied the right arm and the spine, for example, it will paste onto them. The only way you can paste onto something which wasnt copied is to paste opposite, which will paste left to right or right to left.

Stack Limit
Stacklimit is not resizable, and has been doubled to 2,048,000 bytes of memory.

Objects
A tape object created via maxscript is not selectable in the viewport.

Autodesk, Backburner, FBX, and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./Autodesk Canada Co. in the USA and/or other countries. mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. 2006 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.