Autodesk reveals Max 2022 Update 1 features

Autodesk has updated its online documentation to reveal some of the features of 3ds Max 2022 Update 1. As always, this may not be the full picture and this post will be updated once the release is official, until then the features announced in the documentation include:

Performance improvements to Smart Extrude. In previous releases, there were slowdowns when performing a “cut through” on models with many faces and vertices with Smart Extrude. According to the documentation, meshing operations are now much faster when merging or cutting into geometry. Restitching of intersection operations has also been improved.

The Smooth modifier has been updated so that it now clears all Normals and Smoothing Group data when it is applied to an object (or a selection).

Modifiers the perform a mesh deformation operation and use Explicit normals have seen a performance boost of 2 to 4 times. These include Skin, Path Deform, Bend, FFD (all types), Mirror, Noise, Skew, Taper, Twist, Affect Region, Linked Xform, Melt, Skinwrap Patch, Spherify, and Surf Wrap.

The updated Symmetry modifier now has the ability to adjust the weld threshold used to merge vertices along the cutting plane above or below the 0.01-unit default threshold. This enables artists to fill gaps along the mirror axis in models with gap geometry.

Editable Poly and the Edit Poly modifier gain two new Optional Culling selection filters, Backface and Ignore Occluded, allow the user to select the components (vertices, edges, polygons) that are visible in their view. Hence, making it easier to select visible components only and preventing you from unintentionally selecting components that are occluded from view. These options replace the legacy Ignore Backfacing toggle. The Target Weld and Bridge poly functions also now perform better with these options enabled.

A new option exists to restore 3ds Max to Factory Settings using a button found in the General Preferences tab. This has been added to correct unexpected UI behavior or performance issues. Also new in this updated is a feature that allows 3ds Max to detect if initialization has been corrupted in a way that prevents it from launching. In this eventuality, a Startup Failure Detection window now appears.

Importing models using FBX now supports Vertex Colors from a broader set of sources.

Legacy Noise Maps have been improved with better multi-threading.

Improved viewport mesh calculations means users will see faster viewport and rendering calculations when converting mesh data formats to GPU data formats.

Retopology Tools 1.1 is now included as a part of the main install of 3ds Max 2022.1.

Fluid Loader has been updated to help VFX artists properly expose Particle ID data.

Vertex Paint has been improved so that sub-object component selections can now be passed up the modifier stack to the Vertex Paint modifier.

Find out more in the 3ds Max Online Help.

See Also: