Verdict on Max 2018?

[stevesideas]

So, are people saying that Max 2018 is not usable at the moment ? I'm still on max 2016. I didn't want to move to max2017 because I heard a lot of people having problems with that also. So is this now 2 iterations of max after 2016 that are not reliable ?

[Garryclarke]

Max 2018.4
Yeah I'm getting the delete key problem. and also lots of other keys as well, left,right,material editor, isolate selection etc etc etc.

I have 2 monitors with the UI spread over both.

[OPEN_RANGE]

Hey Open_Range. Is your Command Panel floating on another monitor by any chance? I've found that if the command panel is docked in its default location this problem is "fixed"....I think

Yes my command panel is floating on another monitor. that's why I have two monitors, one has the view ports the other has all the panels/dialog boxes. Docking the command panel is a "fix" for me.

I am not having crash problems or instability with 2018.4 . The delete key and lack of focus for clicking on the check boxes etc in dialog boxes is basic functionality that should work, used to work but now.....doesn't. I don;t know enough about how these programs are created to understand how the ADESK people can keep breaking all thus basic stuff going forward? I have been using Max since th efirst version, even before that when it was a DOA program. This breaking of simple basic stuff is relatively new.

Add another weird UI behavior, not sure if it's just me. At some point, not sure when but maybe after using poly editing tools, the mouse curser changes to a vertical double arrow (like what you drag a window to resize with). this double arrow cursor shows up when selecting the top menu items on the main window menu and all the other panels./ dialog boxes. It still allows one to select the menu items but it should just be a standard mouse cursor arrow versus a double arrow like your going to scrub a spinner or resize a window vertically, Distracting, and not right. Re-load scene and it goes away=hassle.

[jstrob]

So, are people saying that Max 2018 is not usable at the moment ? I'm still on max 2016. I didn't want to move to max2017 because I heard a lot of people having problems with that also. So is this now 2 iterations of max after 2016 that are not reliable ?

My advice is stay in 2016 or switch to houdini.

Updating to 2017 was the worst upgrade experience I ever had, took me months to have all my plugins usable so I waited until update 3 to upgrade to 2018 and it still has lots of bugs. For example I used biped and cat and when both are in the scene you have to be very careful which button you press or which combination of action you will do or max will crash. Max plugins are also very buggy. These days I have problems with almost all my plugins (also lots of problems with windows 10). My last project was a real nightmare and now I am thinking about taking a few months break to finish my houdini transition and I may even go to Linux. The only plugin I am willing to use is vray (and maybe go back to max to use phoenixfd some times) too many plugins cause too many problems max has become some king of Frankenstein's monster and the monster is tired.

I have great hopes in VRAY4HOUDINI: https://github.com/ChaosGroup/vray-for-houdini

[krassi]

hey jstrob... i thought absolutly the same! "Updating to 2017 was the worst upgrade experience I ever had" ... and when you thought.. "ok 2018 is an even number.. so this should work again." but no difference to 2017 in terms of instability.
Iam back to 2016 and crashes are something thats happens from time to time with 100% crashbackup file.. so its soooo relaxed not to count till the next crash thats at least once an hour ..

[Alex_M]

Can`t see any fix for the double click menu boxes thing that annoys me. I honestly don`t think it will ever be sorted. I did put a bug report in, at least i think I did !

Any fix for this problem? It drives me crazy. I often click on a button or checkbox and then it turns out I actually didn't.

[werticus]

The icons are not great. Much harder to 'read' especially the default curves button... geezus those are bad.

[ALEX_SPYROPOULOS]

I like 2018 , i am on my fourth big project and i haven't seen any major issue so far, it is a solid release ... after the first couple of patches of course . I am in architecture and visualisation so i am not using many of the animations tools ... it reminds me of 2016 after all patches which was a proper workhorse ...2018 improved viewport performance, i like the new icon style .... Work on 3 monitors
dual Xeons e5 - 2687 v3 , windows 10 pro , titan x maxwell all latest drivers and patches.

[anthonyh]

The icons are not great. Much harder to 'read' especially the default curves button... geezus those are bad.

I always confuse the 2018 material editor icon with a washing machine.

[alexworx]

I just recently switched over to 2018, due to my schedule its a good time for us to switch over. Its been pretty stable as long as I stay away from scene states. My issue is it just seems like its such a sluggish program, opening, closing, saving etc. We have actually been playing around with Blender and UE. Its been very interesting to jump into a different application and see some different things. I honestly really enjoy using Blender.

[ijzerman86]

So i've been following this thread for a few months, the biggest shitstorm after the 2018 release has died down.
At the office we are still running 2015, its rocksolid, never crashed and to be honest i dont really see a reason to update to the latestversion.
I see that we do have to upgrade eventually so whats the status now? Is 2018 usable of should i wait for 2020 release?

[JezUK]

So i've been following this thread for a few months, the biggest shitstorm after the 2018 release has died down.
At the office we are still running 2015, its rocksolid, never crashed and to be honest i dont really see a reason to update to the latestversion.
I see that we do have to upgrade eventually so whats the status now? Is 2018 usable of should i wait for 2020 release?

2017 has much much better viewport performance than 2014 (I didn't use 2015) and I find it as stable as most other stable versions of 3DS Max.

2018, with its fancy interface, looked like trouble from the word go, and I've not used it at all (I haven't bothered trying it in production, though I have installed it and have the latest updates etc).

[OPEN_RANGE]

2017 was the all time worst experience I ever had with max. I have used every version. Supposedly most of the trouble was due to nvidia drivers but I think it was a lot more than that. Most feel 2016 was the last dependable release. I have been having a good experience with 2018.not crashing but the little, basic, user interface stuff they keep breaking is annoying. Like delete key doesn?t work all the time, crossing window selection doesn?t work always, render dialog does not have focus when opened, etc.

[werticus]

now that 2019 is out, it's probably fairly safe to go to 18! I've been on 18 since .3 and now the whole team is on 18 and we are not having too many issues.