Hi guys, I’ve registered today on this website as my first impression was… huge ammount of content, neat UI, solid web over the years… so yeah, I thought this would be a great site to enjoy asking/answering about maxscript/maxplus or max programming topics and then I’ve found this thread
Sad thing is, from what I’ve researched so far:
- Scriptspot is broken
- Stackoverflow/Tags tags about maxplus/maxscript/… are really low traffic
- In the autodesk forums about maxscript & programming you’ll see countless of topics unreplied for months and the forum interface is slow as hell and doesn’t meet the standard of quality of modern website anymore
- Unexisting irc channels about max programming at all
So it seems to me like this site has a good chance to become THE choice when it comes to ask/answer about max programming stuff… anyway, let’s see how it goes
As I said this forum and this branch specifically need new life. It’s definitely the best resource of MaxScript, but there are new challenges in the MAX tools development today – c++ SDK, MaxPlus, Python, Qt.
But, unfortunately, activity on this forum falls for objective and subjective reasons. And this is sad…
Hope that the user stats will also come back eventually.
I guess the powers that be saw the downward trend before Sept and thought…well maybe a revamped look (in Sept) would reverse the trend…but that’s like ‘lipstick on a pig’…(btw, pigs are beautiful creatures by themselves already…putting lipstick on them is just a monstrosity that only humans would dream up)
I for one, don’t really like this new “shiny” new look . Feels much harder to read and follow topics, also the questions most of the times have been answer many many times before.
Another thing, is that I’m moving more and more out of 3ds Max, for many reasons. Not related to the “possible” Autodesk future, since that no one knows, and I don’t want to start another war. But exclusion from the Beta, “lost” some of my AD friends for “unknown” reasons, and the state of Max and rental, it just doesn’t appeal to us. I still try to visit and help on other channels when I can, but we are just moving to other DCC.
Happy New Year everyone,
Daniel Santana
Same sentiment here, still check in here from time to time but it indeed looks like the fountain of knowledge is drying up I guess a big part moved over to various Facebook groups, which is a shame since it doesn’t create an archive, and thoughtfull discussions, like a forum does.
Other then that, DCC wise see a lot of people, including yours truly, move to greener pastures. The whole pricing of the autodesk move to rental doesn’t really work out for indies and small studios so if the customer base shifts more to the big studios the users probably aren’t even connected to the internet, let along hang around here.
Anyways, those are my 2cents…
Best wishes to everyone!
I felt like there just wasn’t as much interest in Max plugins anymore. My sales dropped off for a while, and I wasn’t sure how the subscription-only format would affect SDK. Plus now there’s that whole creation graph thing which I haven’t even had a chance to look at yet.
I’ve been spending most of my time this last year split between web work and learning Unity so I can finally start making my own games. Now I’m starting my own business, preparing to launch a kickstarter, etc.
I do still have some plugin ideas that I would like to make happen at some point.
For me it’s mostly the new forum/site design
I visit here every day ( main Max section ) for a short glance, but the new layout and forum organization kills my motivation to take part in any discussion. Don’t know. maybe i should have a deeper look to adjust some settings so that the forum organization is moree similar to the old sub-forum tree, but i think that’s not even possible…
Have to commit that i’m not doing much Max development currently, which is another reason to be quiet here
don’t bother with MCG anymore…not because I don’t like MCG but because Autodesk hasn’t bothered with its dev anymore…
I now find Houdini Engine far more powerful…sure it’s in its infancy…but still bloody powerful. My MCG basket I could do it with round strips but not with rectangular strips…coz of orientations going wonky…yeah you guessed it…done it fine in Houdini with rectangular strips…can easily produce an asset for Houdini Engine running inside Max.
but I won’t do a song and dance about Houdini’s other features…never a fanboi of any software.
There could be a lot of small reasons for the decline of this forum but I don’t think there is one definitive one.
Could be a demographic shift in users. Our new crop of young employees are somewhat less curious in creating new scripts for themselves. There is definitely the expectation of things just working out of the box. There is also more automation in software now then there was before, so maybe interest in solving problems programatically is less ingrained than when almost everything needed to be “programmed” (I use this term loosely, anything that is not GUI is considered programming by most not familiar with some form of coding ). Even explaining simple batch/cmd scripts is met with blank stares.
Tighter deadlines, less room for exploration. Fewer companies are willing to invest into scripting in general as availability of plugins to do the work or get close to the desired result are abundant. General trend of the disappearing middle, there are less middle sized companies and more small companies operating on the edge and large companies with enough resources/expertise to develop entirely in-house (proprietary script/production pipelines are closely guarded). We don’t have a dedicated scripter/developer/programmer, I started doing it purely out of necessity to meet deadlines.
Maxscript or any 3d program script is a very niche specialization. General brain-drain from 3d programming community, we are not replacing people who retired. Social media startups are more attractive in terms of pay / perks. Much easier to learn javascript than 3d math and C++. General decline in STEM education, although this is on recovery with a more recent generation.
Mixture of extremely experienced users and inexperienced users creates friction, new would-be users leave for different sources. Questions asked are either of really high difficulty or really simple (answerable by maxscript reference). Mid-level users feel intimidated to answer question, even though they have greater ability to empathize with new users and explain issues in less technical accessible terms. This is endemic of general programming community.
I can only speak for myself.
This forum is my second go to resource for maxscript next to the official maxscript help. I barely have enough knowledge of maxscirpt to pose a question let alone answer them, I certainly don’t want to lead someone down the wrong path. I try to answer when I can but mostly the day to day works keeps me pretty busy.