Worth upgrading beyond Max 2016?

[danio1011]

Hi all - I've had a perpetual license of Max 2016 for a while now and, due to a variety of factors, am considering getting a subscription license (in addition.)  My question is basically: is there any compelling reason to move beyond 2016?  2017 seems like it was much maligned but I never heard anything bad (or good, either) about 2018.  I know little of 2019 except I've seen some threads with people having issues with having to double-click certain toolbars...?

Anyway, would love to hear feedback from other Corona users.  Happy to stick with 2016 with my new seat but am always curious about 'newer and better.'  I think the main issue I have with 2016 is the undo is REALLY slow when you start instancing things, but I doubt 2019 is suddenly multi-threaded\faster on that.

Cheers,
Daniel

[Njen]

In 2017, the Unwrap modifier was sped at least 4 to 5 times faster. I got off 2016 as fast as I could.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

The main reason is 4k monitor support.

[Juraj]

I am really interested in stability. While still on 2016, I can count crashes on one hand for whole year and all those were Corona related. I am dead serious, zero native crashes and I really do value that.

What I hear every year, the situation is quite different for 17/18/19. I would really like to know some definite facts on this, as all the pros I talk to repeat same advice: "Stay away", even if they themselves are on it due to studio's policies.

4k is manageable on 32" 125perc. scaling. But multiple monitors support is terrible on 2016...the moment I move framebuffer or slate onto second monitor, every drop-down menu goes havoc and opens elsewhere.

[danio1011]

Ok, thanks all for the input, it's much appreciated.  That sort of jives with what I've noticed....2016 seems like the last stable release everyone references.  My only crashes relate to the recent batch of dailies, but that has to do with Optix, etc. and is totally expected.  It would be interesting if Autodesk had statistics on this...

Smart placement looks like it good be nice but not critical to me.  OSL is theoretically cool but I don't know of any use for me yet.  I do less unwrapping since Triplaner mapping came out but it is nice they sped it up.  And I'm running dell ultrawides so I don't need 4k (yet.)

[Frood]

While still on 2016, I can count crashes on one hand for whole year

I can count crashes of Max 2016 on one hand for a whole day. Well, half of them is Corona (predominantly dailies) related, but the others happen in max. Just a minute ago I had a crash in editpatch.dlm. And there are additional instant quits where I not even get a dump. 2018 is again significantly faster when importing/working with 2d stuff, at least this is one reason for us to have it installed (as it has been with 2014 -> 2016)


Carry on having good luck :]

[steyin]

I'm using 2017 at work and 2018 at home. 2018 is more clunky feeling, and runs slower IMO. Haven't had many, if any, issues with 2017. 2016 was actually horrible for me at the office, frequent crashes with it and ended up reverting back to 2014 until it was necessary to use 2017.

[danio1011]

I'm using 2017 at work and 2018 at home. 2018 is more clunky feeling, and runs slower IMO. Haven't had many, if any, issues with 2017. 2016 was actually horrible for me at the office, frequent crashes with it and ended up reverting back to 2014 until it was necessary to use 2017.

That's really interesting to hear.  Whenever I think of 2017 I think of Bertrand Benoit's posts on his blog about how much trouble he had with that year, and then how 2018 was rock solid for him.  I can only speculate it has to do with routines and hardware...?

[Juraj]

I think there are way too many variables to judge this easily. People having stronger/weaker PC at home/office, poor Windows/Drivers setup, little/too many plugins (Scattering softs are particular enemy of 3dsMax).

[pokoy]

As for 2017, keep in mind that there's a bug with snapping that will crash Max. It's been acknowledged by Adesk but resolved only for Max 2018+. So if you know you'll need snapping in any form, 2017 is going to be unstable.

I guess 2019 will be the best choice, unfortunately PU2 introduced a bug with selection sets and exclude lists.
The UI glitch in the render options where you need to click twice for settings to stick is however still present, in 2018 and 2019.

[alexyork]

"The UI glitch in the render options where you need to click twice for settings to stick is however still present, in 2018 and 2019"

This is mind-blowingly annoying all day every day. Can't believe it made it through 4 hotfixes in 2018 and all the way into 2019.

[steyin]

As for 2017, keep in mind that there's a bug with snapping that will crash Max. It's been acknowledged by Adesk but resolved only for Max 2018+. So if you know you'll need snapping in any form, 2017 is going to be unstable.

What bug is this? I've never encountered it, but snapping in 2017 nonetheless is still a pain in the ass. Even with the rubber band disabled I find myself constantly struggling to snap. I've tried changing the gizmo size and a couple of other things, but I can't understand why such a basic thing is so screwed up.

[pokoy]

The bug is nasty in that using snap will make Max unstable. It might crash at any point after using snap, immediately or 10 minutes later. If you didn't see it yet you're simply on the lucky side, we could repro this on 3 pc's consistently. For some reason, it was deemed unfixable in 2017, and was only fixed for later versions.
Snapping has changed in 2017, yes. It takes a bit to get used to it but it helps a bit with locking axes without having to lock the gizmo axis. I sometimes wish it would have stayed the way it was, the improvement wasn't really worth it.