2.1.2 The "MAX" story
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The following sections are taken from the Kinetix website.
When 3D Studio MAX was released in the Spring of 1996, it delivered the first
object oriented animation system designed for Windows NT. While many were
taken with its unified interactive environment, or the ability to animate
virtually anything and revisit operations at any time, 3DS MAX's thorough
extensibility was probably its most important innovation. Studios quickly
developed custom production tools, game developers forged conduits to their
engines, and scores of seamless plug-in products were available to the rapidly
growing MAX community in less than a year.
The MAX Team rapidly built upon the solid 3D Studio MAX foundation, delivering
a feature rich Release 2 just 18 months after MAX first shipped, and following
that with an impressive Release 2.5 a mere 7 months later. While it may have
appeared to some that 3DS MAX simply achieved feature parity with some older
3D systems, those using it realized those same abilities delivered substanti-
ally more power and possibility when integrated into MAX's unified, object-
oriented NT environment. That fact was certainly not lost on many, as MAX has
become the chosen tool for over 90,000 animators around the world.
Now, just 3 years after 3DS MAX was first available, and less then one year
after R2.5, Kinetix is proud to announce 3D Studio MAX Release 3 - a very
significant release that revolutionizes the workflow and productivity of
animators and studios alike. While the 3D Studio MAX architecture has served
well, the growing needs of animators and the competitive nature of their
industry showed Kinetix that improvements to core areas were needed to ensure
MAX artists would continue having what they required to stay in the lead for
the years ahead in both efficiency and capabilities. MAX R3 does not shy
away from large issues or answer problems with work-arounds - it delivers
fundamental architectural innovations, and significant workflow improvements
that take advantage of those innovations, to deliver an outstanding creative
tool for 3D animation.