Subject: Re: 3DS Max
From: Tee Yong Teoh <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 09:07:50 -0800

Hello Brent and the LW group,

      Being a student makes life quite difficult when deciding to buy a 3D 
package.  There are 6 main factors to consider :
    1. cost of hardware
    2. cost of software
    3. learning curve
    4. the tool 
    5. return in investment
    6. extensibility

1. Although a Pentium, 16 MB RAM and Win95 is within the budget of most
   students, trying to get WinNT to run sufficiantly well might require
   an extra 16 MB RAM.  Not much for commercial usage but heck most of us
   students are living on pasta as it is !  Considering most 3D software
   require Win 3.1 (the very least) you are still looking at a 486dx minimum,
   with the RAM requirements to go with it.  When you upgrade to 3DS Max you do
   so for software AND hardware.

2. As a student most software are discounted, except our favourite LW.  
   (This isn't entirely true since NT gives student discounts for Uni.)
   However, buying a sofware with student pricing would inhibit factor
   (5).  After all, most software licenses state specifically that no
   commercial work can be done on student discounted software (this is
   not true for stuffs like OS's).  

3. Here both LW and 3DS both shine simply because of usage within the 
   industry.  You end up having many "gurus" who don't mind giving a helping
   hand to newbies. This is one of the main reasons why I shy away from Real3D.
   Don't get me wrong the tutorial (in Real3D) is suppose to be great but
   sometimes having another head is far more instructive!

4. Get proper tools for the task.  LW for character animation might not be
   such a great choice :)  If 3DS does what you need then get that.  
   I know this is expensive, I am still hurting from my Win95 purchase 
   (for stability).

5. This factor is usually overlook by students.  At $800 for LW and $850 
   for 3DSr4 (last year's pricing) you end up with a student non-commercial
   version of 3DS but with a commercial version of LW.  This allows you to
   have a quicker return on investment for LW.  With the money you may later
   go off and get your dream 3D software/hardware.  Now, I haven't made a 
   cent of my LW but thats merely due to my own laziness :)

6. How far can you extend your hard earn knowledge ?  LW comes in different
   flavours, Amiga, Intel, and SGI.  Learn one and you learn them all.  You
   get to mix and match hardwares for maximum productivity.  Plus LW being
   a subset of the Toaster means that you would have a reduce the learning 
   curve for a great video production tool.  And this tool integrates well 
   with LW.

Although most of us have different emphasis.  We should make a judgement base
on knowledge not on pure whim.  At this moment 3DS Max is still in the future.
Demos are nice, they show a software target, but it isn't the final product.
If you feel that LW doesn't fit your requirements then by all means wait or
make do with a lesser tool (and learn the basics).

Hopefully your choice will be right for you.

regards

tee

[email-masked]