3DS Studio Max 2016, formerly 3D Studio and 3D Studio Max, is a professional 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. It is developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. It has modeling capabilities and a flexible plugin architecture and must be used on the Microsoft Windows platform. It is frequently used by video game developers, many TV commercial studios, and architectural visualization studios. It is also used for movie effects and movie pre-visualization. For its modeling and animation tools, the latest version[which?] of 3ds Max also features shaders (such as ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering), dynamic simulation, particle systems, radiosity, normal map creation and rendering, global illumination, a customizable user interface, new icons, and its own scripting language.
History
The original 3D Studio product was created for the DOS platform by Gary Yost and the Yost Group, and published by Autodesk. The release of 3D Studio made Autodesk’s previous 3D rendering package AutoShade obsolete. After 3D Studio DOS Release 4, the product was rewritten for the Windows NT platform, and renamed “3D Studio MAX”. This version was also originally created by the Yost Group. It was released by Kinetix, which was at that time Autodesk’s division of media and entertainment.
Autodesk purchased the product at the second release update of the 3D Studio MAX version and internalized development entirely over the next two releases. Later, the product name was changed to “3ds max” (all lower case) to better comply with the naming conventions of Discreet, a Montreal-based software company which Autodesk had purchased.
When it was re-released (release 7), the product was again branded with the Autodesk logo, and the short name was again changed to “3ds Max” (upper and lower case), while the formal product name became the current “Autodesk 3ds Max”.[4]
Version history
| Version | Codename | Year | Operating system | Hardware platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Studio Prototype | THUD | 1988 | MS-DOS | 16-bit x86 originally 32-bit x86 using DOS extender |
| 3D Studio | THUD | 1990 | ||
| 3D Studio 2 | 1992 | |||
| 3D Studio 3 | 1993 | |||
| 3D Studio 4 | 1994 | |||
| 3D Studio MAX 1.0 | Jaguar | 1996 | Windows NT 3.51, Windows NT 4.0 | IA-32 |
| 3D Studio MAX R2 | Athena | 1997[1] | Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 | |
| 3D Studio MAX R3 | Shiva | 1999 | ||
| Discreet 3dsmax 4 | Magma | 2000 | Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000[5] | |
| Discreet 3dsmax 5 | Luna | 2002 | Windows 2000 and Windows XP | |
| Discreet 3dsmax 6 | Granite | 2003 | ||
| Discreet 3dsmax 7 | Catalyst | 2004 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 8 | Vesper | 2005 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 9 | Makalu | 2006 | IA-32 and x64 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 | Gouda | 2007 | Windows XP and Windows Vista | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 | Johnson | 2008 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 | Renoir | 2009 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 | Zelda | 2010 | Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 | Excalibur / Rampage | 2011 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 | SimCity | 2012 | Windows XP and Windows 7 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 | Tekken | 2013 | Windows 7 | x64 |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2015 | Elwood | 2014 | Windows 7 and Windows 8 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 | Phoenix | 2015 | Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2017 | Kirin | 2016 | Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 | |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2018 | Imoogi | 2017 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2019 | Neptune | 2018 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2020 | Athena | 2019 | ||
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2021 | Theseus | 2020 |
