3DS Max -- Get a subscription?

Hi,

We're buying a copy of 3DS Max and I'm wondering if getting the $500/year subscription is at all worth it. We'd be getting 2010 which was just released, and we don't need any training. The only thing that seemed possible was the CAT plugin, that seems to be subscriber only? (lame)

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=12299737

Does anyone have a recommendation? Is that CAT plugin useful/good for game dev at all?

Thanks a lot,
-Jon

 

Yea, the subscription thing is always a tough call.
Kinda depends on what you need and/or if you can spare the money.
With the subscription you get cat, future upgrades and better support.
For me the upgrade thing turns out to be cheaper when on subscription (depends on their release schedule ofc). Support, you (hopefully) don't really need, but could come in handy in production when things go very wrong (never dealt with the max support crew tho).
And cat, I'm far from an expert (not a current max user) but it's better than biped, altho a lot of stuff is more geared towards non-realtime applications (e.g. the muscle stuff). But once you get the grasp of it I believe it can increase productivity, especially for walks, and combining animation cycles, so depends on what quality character work you need (for simple animations the benefits become smaller).
SO is it worth it ? Maybe or maybe not.

 

If you can afford them, subscriptions make a lot of sense as they guarantee access to new releases for a 12-month period. Certain releases are more valuable than others, but over the long haul it would be far more expensive to buy a full version every two or three years.

 

Yep, keep up the subscription for the best price.

 

Thanks a lot for the input!

 

I have had the subscription since 3DSmax4 and it has paid off. Its a little over $800 to upgrade max per upgrade. That could be 2 a year, but it is usually 1 upgrade per year. The subscription is $495 a year unlimited upgrades and access to special tools before non subscription members. So I would recommend it.

 

Softimage Cat for max is excellent, especially the walk designer for game devs since it makes things so easy and includes strafe. I hope it works with Unity, have only started using Unity 2 days ago.

 

I have already used the CAT rig with Unity with no issues. I just used the CAT rig and not any of the procedural animation stuff. Should still work though. I exported as FBX, but you need to check a box on the FBX exporter for the CAT bones. I can't remember what the checkbox says right now though. Basically CAT bones are geometry and if you dont check that box it will export the bones as geometry.