Why softimage is stronger than 3DSMax?

[actarus1]

Hello~

I'm doing a comparision in between softimage|3D and 3DSMax, why softimage is stronger? Why those ILM, DigitalDomain all in use of softimage but not 3DSMax?? Does 3DSMax have a stronger parts than softimage?? ALL OPINION ARE WELCOME!!!!!!!

[kravand]

one thing's for sure.. i've never heard of 3dstudio running on SGi machines.

[polleke]

Ive used both and it seems to me that Softimage invented all the things that we love about 3d animation and how we approach it etc, 3ds max, took the ideals on board and made it windows friendly making it mor e accessible to users around the world, hence it's popularity. in making it sucessful on a windows platform, it sacrificed the simplicity of the softimage approach, eg the dreaded track view and difficult to grasp modifier stack etc. Softimage is great to use but is so irritating because of its lack of support for windows, enter XSI which I think is developing very fast and will rival Maya in about 2 years. they are all fantastic programs however but as I read in a mag at the weekend 'don't blame your tools', there is always another way to do the same thing blah blah, i'm going with XSI.

[cisko111]

I'd have to say that 3d Studio Max is WAY better with polygonal modeling. It's the standard in the gaming industry I believe, but for 'high end' stuff, SI is just broader.

[actarus1]

But I seen now EA always make use of maya and softimage for their game (e.g NHL series, NBA series, Alice...) but not 3DS anymore~ still 3DS the game industrial standard?

[mike-heintzman]

Although not a member of the gaming community, I would hazard a guess that maxs modelling tools have nothing to do with it's sucess. If polygonal modeeling were all that mattered - lightwave or mirai would lead, Max's strength lie in the fact that it can be disembowled with ease. I would also imagine that its close relationship with windows would have a lot to do with it.

Big FX houses do not use max often, as for it to be effective - it requires way to many plugins that end up costing more than houdini!!!!! - It also has poor Ik and animation capabilities compared to soft. Mind you, on the topic of max and plugins - That afterburn thing is the absolute greatest thing I've ever seen - why not on other platforms?

• Cheers

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[moss]

I cannot say anything about the modelling or animation capabilities of 3ds max as I am not a user but its renderer is probably why it's not used as much for visual effects. I hear the interface is excellent though.

[ottscay]

One other word in reference to rendering: Extensibility. I realize that writing MR shaders isn't a walk in the park (I only know the basics myself), but big effects companies have programmers. That's one reason (of many) that PRman is so popular, and is a huge reason why Softimage is stronger than Max. Of course, MR is now available for Max, and wtih Discreet having a vested interest in the highend graphics arena, much of this may change. Time will tell.

Scott Hartman