Subject: Re: 3DStudio MAX
From: Tim Krego <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 22:29:47 -0800

At 10:57 PM 3/16/96 -0500, you wrote:
>I was told by the AutoDesk Rep to not run it on Win95 "due to instability".
>Its designed to run under NT.

The Autodesk reps on the ASoft forum have stated MAX has only been announced
for Windows NT/Intel. They will not say yes or no regarding Win95 support.

>Lightwave runs on the Amiga, Win3.1, Win95, SGI and Dec Alpha machines
under NT.

In my opinion there are only two platforms I would run LW on, NT or Alpha.
Unless you have an Amiga, and even if you do, the speed that the Amiga runs
has made it prohibitive to use for production level work. The price on an
Amiga/060 machine, the fastest I know of, is more than a Pentium 166 machine
and it can't match the speed of a Pentium 75.

Win95 still has too much 16bit code for me to be comfortable with speed and
stability. So my choice is to run both MAX and LW under NT. Running under NT
allows you to use the Alpha machines, which is the reason SGI hardware is
not a choice unless you have one already. The Alpha machines are faster than
all but the high end SGI machines and cost much less.

Autodesk hasn't announced it yet, and won't admit it, but MAX is also being
written for the Alpha. That means MAX and LW run on the two platforms I feel
are the best choices. Since I also feel that the price difference between
MAX and LW are meaningless if you are making money with it, that means I
would base my decision on what package to choose based on features. Buy the
program you want, then choose the hardware it runs on.

>3D Studio Max will not be available for Dec Alpha machines until the end of
the year.

I haven't heard on an exact date for MAX/Alpha, but I saw someone mention it
will be out a month after MAX/Intel. I expect all the announcements to be
made at NAB in April. There will be all kinds of awesome stuff at NAB this year.

>HOW many students can afford to buy a full blown PC, with RAM, Win NT and Max?

Student MAX is only $200-250 more than LW. The both require the same machine
and memory amount.

>A student can afford a used PC or Pentium clone, Win3.1 and Lightwave for
MUCH cheaper. 
Win 3.1 won't save you anything. You can buy NT for $89. At most MAX will be
$300 more than running LW on the same machine. Less if you run LW under NT.
Who would want to run LW under Win3.1 when it is at least 2X slower than
running it under NT/95?

>Students DONT have money, CANT afford to go to decent CGI schools and have
a hard time >getting hired. 

I'd like to go to a CGI school, but unless you plan on moving to CA or NY it
is difficult to justify. There aren't many jobs in most markets that can
support salaries for 3D animators like most careers. Or am I wrong because I
live in a lame town like Toledo, OH that doesn't have much of anything? ;(