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I need help on convincing my Boss that 3dsmax is app of choice for game development!

Calibur

Calibur

Member
The scenario is my boss is very stubborn and the company is going into game development for the first time. My boss lacks game knowledge and experience with games (he’s only played Colin McRae ) and some how my Boss has convinced himself that 3dsmax is the wrong application to use for game development.
Yeah I know other 3D applications can be used for game development but I want to stare my boss down 3dsmax route.
I'm pretty low down the company food chain (So my influence is very low) so I need a load of info to present to him that 3dsmax is the application of choice the company.

So to all game developers/modellers/artists/programmers/directors/companies etc… I need your help on experiences you have/had using 3dsmax to create yours games.

Any Help will be appreciated.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
if he does not want to use 3dsmax, then what does he want to use.

Maya is pretty popular for game dev too
 
S

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
Calibur said:
The scenario is my boss is very stubborn and the company is going into game development for the first time. My boss lacks game knowledge and experience with games (he’s only played Colin McRae )...
Click to expand...
o_O

oh dear...
 
V

Vark

Member
If anything steer him towards Maya, the programmers will hate you but the artists will love you :p
 
T

TheGreenGiant

Banned
its just tools. If you suck... you suck.

I prefer Maya. Easier to use I guess. 3dsmax is counter intuitive unless you use it heap and heaps. Then it becomes... okay
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
Vark said:
If anything steer him towards Maya, the programmers will hate you but the artists will love you :p
Click to expand...

They shouldn't anymore, the SDK for Maya doesn't suck anymore nor does it consist of writing heaps of scripts to export data. Its MUCH better now.
 
Calibur

Calibur

Member
NotMSRP said:
What company is this and what games types is he planning on doing?
Click to expand...

Can't say the company name just in case some punk from my work place surfs here, Its a Architect company based in London that deals in 3D solutions. And yes if I can't stare my boss down the right route the first game could be bad.
 
Calibur

Calibur

Member
element said:
maya.

most people ive worked with like maya.
Click to expand...

If yous can name me 10 good games developed with maya (no intros) then I may talk my boss down that route. I choose 3dsmax as application of choice, because there are more resources at hand for are company going into game development for the first time.
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
Calibur said:
If yous can name me 10 good games developed with maya (no intros) then I may talk my boss down that route. I choose 3dsmax as application of choice, because there are more resources at hand for are company going into game development for the first time.
Click to expand...

3Ds Max 4 is also cheaper than Maya IIRC. You don't really need the most recent version, as 5 is the least stable. (Don't know about 6 and 7 though)
 
B

BlueLegs

Member
Softimage's XSI. It's what Square, Konami, Capcom, Valve, Sega, Ubisoft and many others use to create the content for their games.
 
I

Insertia

Member
From my experience, Maya is waaay better then Max. It may be a bit more complex, but it still holds an edge over the competitors.

Steer him towards. Maya.
 
N

nathkenn

Borg Artiste
Maya <3
i had to work with 3dsmax 5 the other day to do some track stuff for the pc nascar, argh it's terrible, the uv editor is the most horrible thing imaginable
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
nathkenn said:
Maya <3
i had to work with 3dsmax 5 the other day to do some track stuff for the pc nascar, argh it's terrible, the uv editor is the most horrible thing imaginable
Click to expand...

That's why Texporter was created.
 
V

Vark

Member
Bah, Max does a lot of stupid crap, but there's no way you can claim Maya's UV editor is better than Max's... They both suck, but Maya's is just plain crap.
 
T

TekunoRobby

Tag of Excellence
I use both Max and Maya for my work and both are excellent. I don't understand the unabashed praise for Maya, it's like Maya happens to do a few things more efficiently in their current projects and all of a sudden it's the only software worth using.

Now I'm not in game programming/development yet but Softimage isn't too hot. I'd probably steer him towards Maya as well.
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
Maya all the way. The flow of the UI (spacebar / hotbox with the easy on the fly window customization) really blows Max out of the water. Each package definitely has its own advantages, but for some reason I find Maya is the most overall useful one.
 
W

Warm Machine

Member
I work in game development as an artist and I have used Lightwave, Maya, and 3ds MAX on various projects.

Of those 3 I suggest Max. It is by far the easiest one to use and has the fastest and most flexable poly modeling of any of the 3 packages. It's X Ref instancing is also extremely useful for populating worlds with props and is only second to Lightwave's layout system. Max also has great radiosity solutions for color by vertex baking, shadow mapping, as well as rendering. Max's Character Studio is brilliant for getting characters weighted and animated quickly. Overall Max has everything you need to get making that game with the minimal of hold-ups.

Maya has awful poly modelling tools and requires programmers to write MEL scripts to help to get the tools you need to do your job. Maya has the worst animation system for games of any of the available packages. Substituting animation or rotating its direction was near impossible. I can see why they might use Maya for film but for games it just doesn't have the out of the box flexability that Max has.

Lightwave has great poly modeling tools but its modeler and layout division can cause frustration. Out of the 3 packages if I were to do television FX or film FX I'd choose Lightwave. I would never suggest making a game with it.
 
N

nathkenn

Borg Artiste
I used max for about 3 years before i started using maya, and now i just can't go back to max, there are tons of free scripts for maya to fix up the missing modeling tools among other things. Though at EA we also have a number of programmer created tools for our specific games so thats anothing thing to consider. Max certainly has more out of the box tools than maya. Maya's real power is in the all the crazy stuff you can create for it.
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
nathkenn said:
I used max for about 3 years before i started using maya, and now i just can't go back to max, there are tons of free scripts for maya to fix up the missing modeling tools among other things. Though at EA we also have a number of programmer created tools for our specific games so thats anothing thing to consider. Max certainly has more out of the box tools than maya. Maya's real power is in the all the crazy stuff you can create for it.
Click to expand...

You can't go back because you really can't!! :p All EA Games are done in Maya.
 
W

Warm Machine

Member
Littleberu said:
You can't go back because you really can't!! :p All EA Games are done in Maya.
Click to expand...

Need for Speed Underground was done in MAX.

Blur makes some great extra tools and scripts for MAX. They use MAX for all their broadcast and animation work.

www.blur.com
 
C

cybamerc

Will start substantiating his hate
Calibur said:
I'm pretty low down the company food chain (So my influence is very low) so I need a load of info to present to him that 3dsmax is the application of choice the company.
Click to expand...
No offense but if you can't come up with convincing arguments yourself then you really shouldn't have any influence on the decision. Here's a wacky idea. How about asking the artists what they want to use?
 
D

Doc Holliday

SPOILER: Columbus finds America
I use maya at work, it is way better than 3ds max. It is more stable and runs a lot smoother than max from my experience. Also Maya Complete is cheaper than 3ds max. I haven't used XSI a lot but I hear great things about it.
 
F

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
My current scale of hatred from highest to lowest (I don't have love for a ANY 3d packages, as is normal for any person of at least reasonable intelligence):

3dsMax > Lightwave 7.5 > Maya

Should note that I have by far the least experience with Maya yet though, hence why I don't have much hate for it - yet. But that is all about to change in next few days when I'll be writting the Maya converter plugin.
We'll see if Maya can rise on the hate scale up to Max levels - a friend's experience with Maya tells me that possibilities are definately there, but since hate is such a subjective emotion, nothing is certain...

So anyway, based on my current scale, Max would be the last thing I'd recommend.
 
L

Littleberu

Banned
Fafalada said:
My current scale of hatred from highest to lowest (I don't have love for a ANY 3d packages, as is normal for any person of at least reasonable intelligence):

3dsMax > Lightwave 7.5 > Maya

Should note that I have by far the least experience with Maya yet though, hence why I don't have much hate for it - yet. But that is all about to change in next few days when I'll be writting the Maya converter plugin.
We'll see if Maya can rise on the hate scale up to Max levels - a friend's experience with Maya tells me that possibilities are definately there, but since hate is such a subjective emotion, nothing is certain...

So anyway, based on my current scale, Max would be the last thing I'd recommend.
Click to expand...

Ahaha, exactly : The more you get to know a 3d app, the more you get to hate it. I too hated 3ds Max when I came to Unwrap my models, you just need the right plug-ins IMO.
 
V

Vennt

Unconfirmed Member
I love Max personally. (I use it to create extra scenery meshes for tracks created for Papyrus GPL & Nascar sims)

But only once I've installed all the necessary plugins to make up for it's weaknesses.

Texporter & Chilliskinner for UV Mapping / Texturing
&
Meshtools for Box modelling extentions - A must for low poly work in Max IMO.

Meshtools:
This tool will add seven new mesh modifiers to your MAX tool bar. The new function includes:

1. Edgeloop - modify edge face to create seamless welds
2. Grow - grows subobject selection (vertex, edge, face, polygon)
3. Shrink - shrinks subobj. selection (vertex, edge, face, polygon)
4. Outline - selects the outlining edges of the selected polygons or faces
5. SelEdge - converts the current subobject selection to edge selection
6. SelVert - converts the current subobject selection to vertex selection
7. SelPoly - converts the current subobject selection to polygon selection
Click to expand...

Keep meaning to give the personal edition of Maya a go, but I've grown so used to Max & it's quirks I'm reluctant to "start afresh" so to speak.
 
T

TheGreenGiant

Banned
they did a Metroid Prime and Windwaker in Maya. The FMV for FFX and up were all Maya too.

I use both Max and Maya (with preference for latter) but MAX does have a more established tradition in game making - Maya is used a lot if VFX/POST work and you can do hell of a lot of the package

and I believe Maya Complete is cheaper than a standalone max package. Modeeling in Maya is unbelievablely intuitive. I find myself scratching my head sometimes and getting annoyed in Max. The UV mapper is WAY better in Maya.
 
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