3ds max 6, the world's most widely used professional 3D modeling, animation and rendering solution, offers the ultimate professional 3D tools required for creating eye-catching visual effects, cutting edge games, and distinct design visualizations.

The educational version of 3ds max:
- Includes Character Studio 4 and Reactor.
- Includes a perpetual use license. The right to use 3ds max does not expire at any time.
- Has a splash screen that identifies the software as an educational version when the program is opened.
- Does not create any watermarks.
- Does not have any functional limitations compared to the commercial version of 3ds max.
- Can be upgraded to the commercial version. Please contact Discreet for pricing.

New features in 3ds max 6 software include an advanced schematic view for complex scene management; integrated mental ray 3.2 renderer; a new event-driven particle system; reactor 2 stuntman dynamics; unmatched design workflow with Autodesk solutions through .DWG import/export with ObjectARX support; vertex painting; enhanced modeling and skinning tools; HDRI support; performance optimizations designed in conjunction with Intel Corporation; and extensive focus on enriching the reliability of existing features.

Animation
- Unique, weighted Animation Controller Subsystem allows for multiple algorithms to drive any animation channel, including custom expressions
- Curve Editor and Dope Sheet control every animated parameter, with extensive filtering to isolate relevant data
- Character tools include volumetric Skinning with hierarchies or spline, spring-based secondary animation, Progressive Morphing, and FFD lattices
- reactor 2 allows full interaction of keyframed and dynamically simulated objects including new Virtual Stuntman dynamics and improved fracture collection

Modeling
- Enhanced Spline/Patch workflow eliminates excess Modifier Stack operations, and includes intuitive cross-section functionality, reset patch tangents, and default filtering of interior edges
- Editable Poly improvements include the integration of Meshsmooth and a new Isoline Display mode that keeps the artist focused on building good model topology without having to view
every resulting polygon in the viewport
- Shell Modifier adds depth to any selection of faces by building new polygons based on vertex or face normals - the perfect tool for adding "Mech" elements to any character or vehicle
- Blobmesh is a metaball compound object that works as a modeling tool or in conjunction with Particle Flow for organic surfaces and cohesive fluids

Texture Mapping
- Unwrap UV Modifier has extensive tools for editing mapping coordinates up to 99 channels, and includes the ability to use differing unwrapping algorithms and direct manipulation of texture coordinates to dramatically decrease texturing time
- The Relax Modifier makes it simpler and easier to even out existing mapping coordinates for textures

Rendering
- Fast, film-quality hybrid scanline renderer includes global illumination and photorealistic lighting tools, plus unlimited distributed network rendering - network rendering includes split scanlines option for distribution of high resolution still image rendering
- Command line rendering enables batch operations using text files and commands from the prompt including image resolution, anti-aliasing, super-sampling, raytracing parameters, environment
settings, file output control, layers, and network rendering
- Region Net Render allows portions of an image to be deployed across a network, ideal for large format and print size frames
- High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI) files (.hdr, .pic) can be loaded and saved with 3ds max 6 renders for the new artistic approach to realistic rendering
- mental ray rendering is now integrated within and as part of each 3ds max license as a powerful new rendering option

Lighting
- Photometric lighting support. This allows customers to download industry standard IES files from manufacturers to simulate real world lighting effects
- 2D Lighting Data Exporter saves lighting analysis as Radiance Picture Files or .TIF format
- Surface level lighting control with seperate ambient, diffuse, and specular attenuation and decay
- Pseudo Color Rendering with legends for lighting analysis. MAXScript access to Radiosity information, so the users can query the lighting level of any point anywhere in the scene

Games
- Vertex Paint Modifier functions as a paint layer, with Photoshop-style blending modes, interactive painting of color and attribute information over 99 vertex channels
- Dynamic Shader UI creates artist-friendly UI components for HLSL Shaders, based on the parameters in the DirectX .FX file
- Edit Vertex Normals, available as a modifier and as a base mesh property, has a suite of tools for manually editing normals
- Channel Info Editor allows for viewing and editing of per-vertex channel information in a spreadsheet-style view

Cameras
- Unlimited number of cameras using industry-standard parameters for accurate real-world camera matching and results
- Interactive clipping plane, dolly, FOV, grid overlay, orbit, roll, vertigo zoom, zoom and safe frame display
- Precise alignment with either horizontal, vertical, or diagonal field-of-view measure, plus support for orthogonal projection
- Extensive Depth of Field and Motion Blur controls also include a viewport preview mode to speed up the iterative process

Materials and Mapping
- Combine unlimited number of textures to give ultimate control over materials
- Shading algorithms include Anisotropic, Blinn, Oren-Nayar-Blinn, Phong, Metal, Multi-layer, and Strauss with independent sampler options
- Material/Map Browser portrays hierarchies with thumbnails and drag-and-drop assignment

Viewport Interaction
- WYSIWYG viewport environment with multi-textures per face, blended true transparency, Phong highlights, procedurals, and display of Pixel and Vertex shaders
- Multiple coordinate systems like View, Screen, World, Local, Chosen Object, Grid, or Parent space for flexible manipulation of any object type
- Interactive axis constraints and modeless keyboard entry supported
- Selection methods include pick, fence, rectangular, lasso, and circle with object class filters, select-by-name, named selection sets, mesh extents, backface exclusion, polygon boundary,
smoothing, material ID, and face normal angle architecture
- Multi-threaded processing throughout 3ds max 6 software for superior performance and scalability
- Supports OpenGL and Direct3D hardware acceleration, and Heidi software acceleration for any Windows display
Plug-in architecture provides extensibility for nearly any system component

MAXScript
- MAXScript object-oriented scripting language mirrors SDK to provide access to plug-in parameters
- Scripts can be called from 3ds max 6 interface or embedded into .max file
- Scripts can be appended to other plug-ins, generate alternative interfaces, or can be treated as a plug-in class to 3ds max 6
- Visual MAXScript generates interactive interface elements like Sliders, Dropdown lists, Check boxes, buttons, Color pickers and more to any object, modifier or material - a great time-saver
for scripting artists

Workflow
- Schematic View, a node-based scene graph, offers access to object properties, materials, controllers, modifiers, hierarchy, and non-visible scene relationships such as wired parameters
and instancing
- File management utilities such as the MAX File Finder, IFL Manager, Increment On Save, Auto-backup, the Resource Collector, Dynamic Texture Reloading, and Log Files manage daily use and transfer of 3ds max 6 data between file iterations, users, and locations
- The Layer Manager is a floating table of contents, allowing for quick switching of focus on the various parts of a character, model or scene
- Load and Save Render Presets enables studios to share rendering settings between artists, reducing scene setup times and ensuring consistency across the entire production for most
rendering parameters

Hardware
Intel(r) PIII or later Processor or AMD(r) running at 300Mhz minimum (Dual Intel(r) Xeon(tm) or dual AMD Athlon(tm) system recommended)
512 MB RAM and 500 MB swap space minimum (1GB RAM and 2GB Swap Space Recommended)
Graphics card supporting 1024x768 16-bit color with 64MB RAM. (OpenGL and Direct3D hardware acceleration supported; 3D graphics accelerator 1280 x 1024 24-bit color with 256MB RAM preferred)
Windows-compliant pointing device (specific optimization for Microsoft Intellimouse(tm)).
Wacom Intuos or similar pressure sensitive tablet
CD-ROM drive
Optional: sound card and speakers; cabling for TCP/IPcompliant network; 3D hardware graphics acceleration; video input and output devices; joystick; midi-instruments; 3-button mouse

Software
Primary Operating Systems: XP Professional (SP1), Windows 2000 (SP4), and XP Home (SP1)
Internet Explorer 6
DirectX 9 Recommended (DirectX 8.1 Minimum)
OpenGL