Autodesk Releases 3ds Max 2020, Adds Lots Of Performance & Usability Polish

You didn’t need 2020 vision to know that Autodesk was about to release some new software. 3ds Max 2019 released about this time last year, so without moving too far into the spring, Autodesk has decided to launch the first of its 2020 series of software. It comes in addition to AutoCAD 2020 and Inventor 2020.

The focus on performance is never far from a new release of 3ds Max, and 2020 is no different. Creating rendering previews is quicker than before, and so too is viewing your scene in clay (and presumably other modes). The built-in frame counter in the viewport will also update much more accurately than before, rather than every few seconds, ultimately giving you a more accurate impression of performance.

Chamfer modifiers have also seen updates, which include the addition of presets, improved implementation of OSL shaders, improved Revit import functionality, as well as enhancements to 3ds Max to Arnold. Autodesk notes that there will be “support for more than 270” new plugins within the first week of 2020’s launch. More features can be seen in the quick video above.

3ds Max 2020 brings on a fair amount of polish, but it lacks a list of cutting-edge new features that some users were hoping for. So far, in reading around the web, there seem to be a fair number of disgruntled users who were hoping for more, and once again, I feel like the major new version number doesn’t help here. When an annual launch is essentially a point release (or service pack), it can give the wrong impression.

With every new annual 3ds Max release, it’s as though everyone collectively forgets that there were point releases prefacing it; eg: 3ds Max 2019.1, 2019.2, 2019.3. Those are all considered major releases, similar to how Windows 10 will release two major versions each year, but retain its overall version number. Autodesk must feel the fire from its users a bit, because a a new blog post draws attention to this very issue.

Regardless of all of that, it’s good to see a new version out the door, one that will see multiple rounds of polish throughout the next year. For our benchmarking use, there’s no real reason for us to upgrade right now, and for the sake of not breaking things, we’re going to stick with 2019 for the time-being. Ultimately, we benchmark the renderers that plug into 3ds Max, so unless a company like SPEC comes out with a 2020-supporting SPECapc, we’re safe to hold off for the time being. Even though the version number is oh-so-alluring…