Hello folks I'm Serge one of the Max forum moderators. I just wanted to inform those who wanted to check out 3D studio Max but can't afford it that, they should check out the URL below: http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/ I check it out last night and Gmax appears to be a stripped down version of Max, It is absolutely free. I have Max 4.2 and Gmax has alot of the modeling options that Max has, heck it looks exactly like Max and uses same keyboard shortcuts and menus as Max. So go check it out, you will not regret it. Have fun Serge

This looks great, Serge. Have you downloaded and tried it? Will it export models, or can it only interface through a game?

Thanks for sharing, BigSerge . I don't know how it can be used with other 3D softwares, but that's sure looks like a good way to learn the modelling in Max . Let's hope that it exports to .3ds or something, not only game formats . I've searched on te site and there's no infos about export formats in there ... litst

No problem litst. Yeah I downloaded and checked it out briefly last night wyrwulf. Played a little with it just to check out the UI and modeling option. Good question about the export formmats litst? to tell you the truth I do not know. Unless some one beats me to it by the time I get home from work tonight, I'll fire gmax up and check out the import export options with some of my .3ds files

I have yet to demo this thing but they have been swearing up and down that there will be no export formats or conversion programs. Its supposed to be customized for games...ie a quake version to only export md1, md2, md3, .bsp files. Also its animation ability is supposed to suck...this is a huge cripple wear thing. Its nice b/c it allows you learn max, but lets face it..I would rather learn miari or maya if I am going to take the time to learn a new program :) I cant wait for carrara 2.0 so I can do some character animation....then I wont be looking at other apps so much :)

Will Carrara 2 have enough stuff to do decent character animation? What do we know about it? I'm looking for a program that can handle pretty much everything I need -- mechanical stuff, station ID stuff, and character animations. If C2 will handle that, maybe I'll wait before jumping ship....

Hey guys, no need to "jump" ship. My rule of thumb is that you cannot beat a free software, gmax also allows spline modeling, If anyone ever wants to experiment with that. Unfortunately gmax only open *.gmax files but for you modelers out there bottom line is that you cannot again beat a free product. If you play videogames, you may end up downloading gmax anyway for some upcoming games. For Quake III players, gmax allows you to easily make your models. Bottom line is grab the sucker now since it up there for free before discreet thinks twice and decide to put a price tag on it :)

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AzChip.. I know what you are saying..right now carrara rules for things like 3d text and logo spins, but personally I want more. I am going to hold off changing product until the end of the year when C2 comes out. The good news is that on the yahoogroups list Antoine said that some truely spectacular animation changes where on the way.

Radiosity better be one of the changes!