Autodesk today announced the release of 3ds Max 2008, the latest version of its solution for 3D modeling, animation and rendering. 3ds Max 2008 enables artists and designers to overcome challenges associated with large and complex 3D datasets. The software has been used to create numerous notable projects, including visualizations for the EMI Records building in London, the Mass Effect game and the Grindhouse movie. 3ds Max 2008 will be showcased at the Autodesk booth during SIGGRAPH 2007 , being held at the San Diego Convention Center August 7-9.

"Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 provides an ideal environment for creating the complex 3D content demanded by today's game, design visualization, film, and television industries," said Marc Petit, Autodesk Media & Entertainment senior vice president. "3ds Max 2008 dramatically improves artists' productivity, enabling them to quickly achieve higher levels of visual sophistication through innovative modeling and interactive rendering capabilities."

Neversoft Entertainment used 3ds Max to create Tony Hawk's Project 8, the premier next-generation version of a Tony Hawk title. "Autodesk 3ds Max let us quickly visualize our work as it would appear in the game engine," explained Nolan Nelson, character art director at the facility. This kept our creative momentum flowing and allowed us to produce the most advanced characters possible for the title."

Robert Stava, creative director at 3D Media Group and 3ds Max 2008 beta tester said, "Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 quickly became a standard part of our production pipeline. With many of our architectural design projects tipping the scales at millions of polygons, 3ds Max 2008 software's improved handling of complex data is a very welcome addition." 3D Media Group recently used 3ds Max to create visualizations for the Fulton Street Transit Center in New York City, the Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and the New Songdo City in Korea.

Highlights of the latest version:

 -- New viewport technology and optimizations provide improved performance with large and complex scenes consisting of tens of thousands of objects. Artists can select thousands of objects and perform material assignments up to 10 times faster. They can also transform objects up to 60 times faster.**

-- 3ds Max 2008 offers a new Scene Explorer, which provides artists with a hierarchical view of scene data, as well as fast scene analysis and editing tools. This facilitates working with complex, object-heavy scenes. It also includes a new Adaptive Degradation System, which improves the software's interactivity by automatically simplifying the scene display to meet a user-defined target frame rate.

New options for fast, artist-friendly modelling:

-- New modeling user interface options give artists a less menu-dependent modeling experience.

-- 3ds Max 2008 offers conceptual design artists and modelers a more streamlined modeling workflow, which enables them to focus more on the creative process.

New Review toolset and mental ray workflow improvements: -- The new Review toolset provides iterative rendering workflows with interactive previewing of shadows, the 3ds Max sun/sky environment, and Architectural and Design material settings. -- 3ds Max 2008 also provides several mental ray workflow improvements, including a new mental ray Sky Portal, which simplifies lighting indoor scenes using outdoor lighting and supports HDRI-based lighting effects.

New tools and enhancements for complex workflows and pipelines: -- The new integrated MAXScript ProEditor makes it easier to author scripts that automate and customize 3ds Max. -- Major improvements in file-linking and interoperability with other Autodesk design solutions provide faster, more accurate importing of data into 3ds Max. Furthermore, new features, such as Select Similar, facilitate work with imported data inside of 3ds Max.