Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 Readme

This document contains late-breaking information about Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2008. For new and updated information about all Autodesk® products, visit our website at:  

http://www.autodesk.com/

Installing Autodesk 3ds Max 2008

•	Before a user with restricted privileges can run Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 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.

•	Before installing any third-party plug-ins for Autodesk 3ds Max 2008, an administrator with full privileges must start the program at least once to generate the necessary folders for third-party plug-ins.

Release Version with Beta

·	If you have previously installed any beta version (including RC versions) of 
Autodesk 3ds Max 2008, 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 Beta/RC Readme files.

Customer Involvement Program

·      When running 3ds Max 2008 for the first time, a new window will appear to invite you to join the Customer Involvement Program (CIP). By joining, 3ds Max will send anonymous data to Autodesk related to the use of the application.  

We strongly encourage you to participate in the program, and assure you there is no risk to your privacy. We hope you will help us improve our product through this effort.

What does CIP track?
1.	Number of minutes you are running the software.
2.	Number of sessions that end due to stability issues.
3.	Menu actions triggered.
4.	Import/export actions (including file extension used).
5.	Scene statistics after a load or import (number of objects, faces, vertices etc.).
6.	Machine configuration (resolution, hard disks).
7.	Other Autodesk products installed.
8.	Plug-in (DLLS) installed with max.

What does CIP not track?
1.	There is no way for CIP to track any information related to the user.
2.	There is also no way to track information outside of Autodesk products.

To turn CIP on and off:
Turn CIP on or off by going to Help menu > Customer Involvement Program. 
The dialog will appear, allowing you to switch it on or off.

Known Problems and Limitations in Autodesk 3ds Max 2008

Adaptive Degradation

	Auto-hiding of Objects.

•	Adaptive Degradation may automatically hide objects considered too small to contribute to the display - regardless of the Adapt Object Display by Priority settings.  The “Force Objects Displayed Smaller Than...” field sets the benchmark for what is considered “small”  Objects coming into the fulstrum may also be hidden for a few frames while the Adaptive Degradation system performs its evaluation.

Custom User Interface (UI) and Defaults Switcher

Modifying the CurrentDefault .ini file after using the Defaults Switcher

•	The Defaults Switcher works by copying a new set of files from the 3ds max 2008 install folder onto your User Profile location.  It reads default settings from there. When you modify the CurrentDefault.ini file, be sure to do so in the appropriate location, because if you modify.ini files in locations no longer used by 3ds Max 2008, there will be no resulting changes to its behavior.  For example:

The default location for default settings in Windows XP for the 32-bit version of 3ds Max 2008 is:   C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 32bit\enu\defaults\MAX\

If you decide to switch to the Max. mentalray profile using the Defaults Switcher, the new location for default files will then be: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 32bit\enu\defaults\Max.mentalray\

Inside the new location, the user can find the CurrentDefaults.ini file, and the default Medit.mat file.

The different defaults will generate (and continue to reference) new folders with their respective .ini files.

Display

Supported Hardware

•	To accurately display the Sun & Sky shader and Arch & Design material in the viewport, a video card that supports SM3.0 is required. 

•	The use of review features (i.e. Shadows in the Viewports) requires certain hardware configurations to work properly. For a list of supported hardware configurations, please refer to: 
www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-supported-hardware-configurations

Clipping Planes

•	The Clipping Planes feature now supports a lower minimum value for the near clipping plane. This allows you to be able to see extremely small objects more accurately. A side effect of this is that Z-buffer accuracy has been affected, and artifacts can appear in the viewports when the near clipping planes are changed to a very low value (a value of 0.1 or less for cameras).

File I/O

Publishing DWF files

•	The DWF Viewer has been replaced by Autodesk Design Review. It can be installed from the Install Tools and Utilities section of the main installer.
•	The Autodesk Design Review viewer will not launch on 64-bit Operating Systems after a file has been published to DWF. It must be launched manually.

Installer

Additional Files

•	The Additional Files feature in the Network Deployment section of the installer is currently not compatible with the 3ds Max 2008 installation. Attempting to use this feature causes Network Deployment creation and/or installation failures.

Materials and Mapping

UVW Unwrap

•	Using Cylindrical or Spherical mapping will cause faces hidden by Filter Selected Faces to become unhidden. An alternative to using Filter Selected Faces is to invert your selection and Hide Selected before using Cylindrical or Spherical mapping.

Operating Systems

	Windows Vista

•	Users running Windows Vista must turn UAC off before installing any Backburner-related services and/or applications. Also, UAC must remain off while these applications/services are running.

Point Cache

Autodesk Cache Limitation

•	There is a problem with Autodesk Cache that prevents it from successfully caching meshes bigger than about 70,000 triangular faces. Recording such a cache file will result in a crash. To cache larger meshes, you will need to use the Point Cache 2 (PC2) file format.

Point Cache File Extension Problem

•	If you choose the Autodesk Cache file format when creating a cache file, and then change the file to a Point Cache 2 format, the original file will retain the .XML extension, thus saving an Autodesk Cache file instead. The user must delete the .XML suffix from the filename to be able to create a PC2 file instead.

FBX Export Problem

•	When exporting FBX files using the “Export Selection Set as Geometry Cache File” option, the export may crash 3ds Max if any object has more than 70,000 triangle faces (approximately). This is due to a problem with the Autodesk Cache file format, which is used by the exporter. To export these objects to a FBX file, first place a Point Cache modifier on them, and cache them using the PC2 file format. Once this has been performed, the file can be exported to FBX without problems. 

Rendering / mental ray®

	Quad-Core CPUs

•	Quad-core CPUs are not supported by Satellite rendering. When used as a satellite, a quad-core CPU will only use half of its cores when rendering. For local renders, quad-core CPUs will be able to use all of its cores.

mental ray Photographic Exposure Control

•	The Active and Process Background and Environment Maps are not working. However, they work when used in conjunction with the Render Preview feature in the Environment dialog. Disregard the result that appears in the Render Preview when using these checkboxes. Always refer to your final rendered image.

Rendering high-resolution images with mental ray

When rendering very high-resolution images, mental ray may run out of available memory, As a result, black sections may appear in the rendered image.

Scene Explorer

Select by Name Dialog

•	All dialogs that involve selecting objects from the scene now use the Scene Explorer engine. You can, however, use the legacy Select by Name Dialog to select objects in the scene. To revert to this dialog, perform the following:

1.	Make sure 3ds Max is not running.
2.	Using Explorer, navigate to the following location:
•	Windows XP – 32 bit build: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 32bit\enu\defaults\MAX\
•	Windows XP - 64 bit build: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 64bit\enu\defaults\MAX\
•	Windows Vista – 32 bit build: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 32bit\enu\defaults\MAX\
•	Windows Vista – 64 bit build: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 64bit\enu\defaults\MAX\
3.	Open the CurrentDefault.ini file using Notepad.
4.	Scroll to the bottom of the file, and find the [Scene Explorer] section
5.	Change the following line:
SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=1
To:
SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=0
6.	Launch 3ds Max 2008.

NOTE: Please read the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher section for more information on modifying .ini files when using the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher.

Track View

Load/Save Animation

•	When loading a XAF animation file onto a selected track in Track View through the Track View quad menu, the load animation tool will fail if the target track has no animation controller applied. To avoid this problem, first assign a controller to the track that you are loading the animation onto.

Video Post

Legacy LZF files

•	Legacy LZF files cannot be loaded by Video Post. These include the files that ship on the DVD. LZF presets saved with 3ds Max 2008 can be re-opened.

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.
© 2007 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.