3d Studio vs Maya (for game development)

[Minos]

I've been considering a lot switching to maya to model props and eventual levels. Is that a wise thing to do ? I mean, what are the real advantages and what version should I get ? I heard the latest versions are kind of buggy.

(I'm not talking about weapons/characters but level design specific stuff btw)

[mjens]

Maya 8.0 is buggy but Maya 7 is fine. It's more simpe and easier than Max but when I tryed to make something in Maya it was too hard for me (without tutorials - just by watching what options do) so I'm using Max 9 for now and fight with UV mapping

You can allways just try to make something small in Maya and if you will like it maybe you will leave Max

[Minos]

Yeah I'm downloading Maya 7 personal learning edition now. I just wanted to hear from people who used both 3d studio and maya.

[tomdon]

Max through and through here, I tried maya for a while and just could not get in to it. For game stuff I cant think of anything that maya has that max doesn't.

[Ginger Lord]

/vote XSI

For Source anyway.

[SKULLHOZER]

Same here, I vote XSI.

It's the most user-friendly 3D application, ever!

[Nysuatro]

I use silo2 ^^

[PhilipK]

Never used Maya.

I know a lot of people who do tho. It seems nice but I think if you compare Maya and Max you will find a lot of different pro/cons with both and in the end I believe it's up to what you're most used to.

Then if you're not used to any already I couldn't say. Guess if either one you choose you will end up liking in the end

There's really no "I can only do this thing in Maya" there's usually just very different approaches on things.

[Spellbinder]

If you have allready started with max i would suggest stick to it. The thing is i dont think it really matter which app you start with, its more like you have to learn one really really well, and then you have much aesier to try out another one. I think jumping from app to app whithout really geting into it is bad business.

[Defrag]

What Philip said. I find Maya to be a lot more clunky, but it is more logical & consistent. Max has everything I could possibly want (almost) and I can work faster with it, but it has some stability and usability issues (namely the famed "what the fuck key did I just press?" issue when you turn on/off some random option then spend eight days trying to find out how to re-enable it...). Overall I prefer Max, but I've not really used Maya enough to get proficient with it, plus I just ... dislike the hotbox.

If they rebuilt max from the ground up and sorted out the stability and consistency issues it'd be 100% bliss.

[Sindwiller]

I used Silo 2 before... it is a very nice modeller with a fast workflow. But it is unstable like hell. Blender is also not bad

[Gaz]

I have to agree with seir, Max to Maya has been very frustrating for me, I much prefer max, maybe because Im used to it, but I find max so much quicker to work with (Mayas star menu drives me nuts, and theres no target weld! ) But its still a 3D package.

I think its personal preference, but theres no question that I choose max over maya

[Hourences]

Max, more powerful and more logical.

Ive used Maya for over a year on a daily professional base and its good, but it just lacks a lot of features that Max does has poly modelling wise.

And beware, Max nor Maya are not level editors, they may be good at modelling things but they can never ever replace a real level editor for things like lighting or entity/actor placements, sounds and so on.

[Rick_D]

Isn't maya merely aimed at the high-end spectrum, for movies and films and such? I know a couple of folks that use both and they are pretty different applications - each just has their own way of doing something. As long as you know what you want the end result to be then you'll pick either up pretty easily.

At the end of the day if you can make something faster and better in one of the programs, then there's no real reason to switch.

I was considering getting maya just to see if I should be using that instead, but I figured why bother, it's just another piece of software that I don't need to learn, I can get by just as well with max and do everything I need to do. When the day comes that I realise I need to use maya for so-and-so then I'll pick it up and get started, but for now all I'd be doing would be stretching myself thin and not spending enough time learning all I can about max.

Also to address the 'hitting some random key' - that can be frustrating when you first start, but I'd really suggest going into the key configs options and just scrolling through everything, take an hour or two and just set everything up to suit you; unbind all those keys that your chubby fingers hit often or at least bind them to something non destructive.

[mjens]

And beware, Max nor Maya are not level editors, they may be good at modelling things but they can never ever replace a real level editor for things like lighting or entity/actor placements, sounds and so on.

true.

only static part of the map can be done in Max/Maya.