What's New in 3ds Max 2024.2 Update

Welcome to 3ds Max 2024.2 Update! You can access the 3ds Max 2024.2 Update from your Autodesk Account.

Read on to learn about the new features and updated workflows you'll find in this release. For technical details including What's Fixed, please see the 3ds Max 2024.2 Update Release Notes.

For more on the evolution of 3ds Max over the years, check out the 3ds Max timeline on Autodesk Area.

Updated Assign Controller rollout

The Assign Controller rollout has been modernized with options to help animators work more efficiently.

Boolean Modifier Updates

The release contains several Boolean modifier updates, including better sub-operand manipulation in the Modifier stack, improved performance and OpenVDB processing, and various bug fixes.

Retopology Updates

The introduction of a new version of Autodesk ReForm improves processing times by up to 30%.

Conform Modifier

The new Conform modifier lets you project objects onto other surfaces using two methods: Shrink Wrap and Volume.

USD for 3ds Max 0.5 plug-in

Updated Universal Scene Description (USD) support in 3ds Max lets artists work seamlessly with USD in conjunction with 3ds Max workflows.

Spline Shape Angle Constraint

A new Enable Shape Angle Constraints option in the Snap Options lets you define your own angle constraint to better assist you with angle snaps (when holding Shift or Ctrl) while creating lines or line objects.

Color Management

OCIO-based color management has moved out of the Technology Preview phase. Colors in 3ds Max can be controlled from input to output, enabling end-to-end color-managed workflow.

Data Channel Modifier Additions

Several updates including new presets, expression engines, and a Maxscript Process Operator improve the Data Channel Modifier's usability.

Volume Select Modifier Updates

The Volume Select Modifier now features a significant performance improvement and the ability to animate Material ID and Sm. Group values, providing more immediate results.

Reduced Scene File Sizes

Scenes are no longer saved with empty Animation Layers, Note Tracks, and Note keys, reducing file size.

What else is new?

This release of 3ds Max also includes the following changes and improvements.

Updated List Controller UI	Further to the Animation Controller and Transform List Controller improvements introduced in 3ds Max 2024 and 2024.1, even more options have been added to the List Controller table context menu to improve the animation workflow experience: New Append and Assign options have been added to the Transform List, making it easier for you to add a new entry as well as adjust the controller assigned to it. The List Controller Context Menu has been updated to include Copy and Paste Controller, Assign Controller, Track View, and Wire Parameter options. This context menu now appears when you right-click any List items in the Transform List rollout. Additional small improvements have been made to the sub-control display, minimum dialog sizes, as well as: Retain Assign Controller rollout open and closes state between sessions Improvement to Motion Panel Controller Selection interface to better handle tree selections, while providing the same selection experience as the legacy system, along with enhancement of persistent scrolling and scaling Addressed issues where the Pasting controllers as instances failed if the parameter block entry already had a controller
Controller Context menu enhancements	A new group of Controllers options, including Open Controller Properties has been added to the right-click Context Menu found on most spinners, the Motion Command Panel Assign Controller rollout, List controller, and other areas to let you access the property dialogs settings that drive controllers such as Noise, Float List, and so on. Also, included in this new controllers properties area is a Assign Controller option that lists available controllers. This appears instead of the Assign Controller dialog that would previously open. Note: You can still open the Assign Controller Dialog using an option at the bottom of the controllers list.
Updated Expression Controller UI	Along with other Controller updates, the Expression Controller Assign to Controller button now becomes Assign to Controller / Node when you select the Vector variable.
Track View - Script Controller performance improvements	Updates to the interval at which the Track View Script Controller updates has greatly improved animation playback performance. Now playback speed is improved by as much as 2x when you use a Script Controller to drive animation data.
Scripting Editor: Selected word highlighting	The Scripting editor now highlights all instances of a selected word in the editor. See the MAXScript Help for details about how to control this behavior.
Asset Tracker: Check Network Paths	The Asset Tracker has a new option, Check Network Paths (enabled by default), that verifies network paths whenever the Tracker is opened or refreshed. See Options Menu (Asset Tracker).
Motion Trails improvements	Now, when you use Motion Paths and a Position XYZ controller with a Float List, the active subcontroller tangents used to drive the position animation are shown in the Viewport.
Spline End Cap Material ID	New behavior for working with spline end caps and Material IDs has been introduced: The end caps of renderable splines now use the same Material ID as the rest of the spline. If a renderable spline is assigned a multi/sub-object material, changing the Material ID of a segment also changes the ID of its attached cap. Note: To take advantage of this multi/sub-object material update, edit the UseFixedRenderableEndCapMaterialID parameter in the Shapes section of the 3dsMax.ini file (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\<year> - 64bit\<language>) to UseFixedRenderableEndCapMaterialID=0 and restart 3ds Max. For more information, see Splines, Extended Splines, and Compound Shapes.
Unwrap UVW Modifier updates	The Unfold3D Peel, Pack, and Relax tools in the Unwrap UVW Modifier now respect the current UV selection, and the Peel, Pack, or Relax operation is only applied to the selection instead of all UVs.
New Camera Map Modifier parameter	A new parameter has been added to the Camera Map modifier, making it easier to work with animated cameras. When the new Animated Camera parameter is enabled, the UV map projection is updated on each frame from the new location of the camera. See Camera Map Modifier (Object Space) Reference.
ATF updates	The following ATF updates have been made in this release: The legacy SketchUp importer has been removed, and the default importer can now read SketchUp linework, including lines, arcs, polygon curves, polylines, and segmented lines. Linework is imported into 3ds Max as spline objects. See SketchUp (SKP) files. A new Image Quality option is now available in the SketchUp Import Settings window, improving the import speed for some SketchUp models. When enabled, distorted texture maps are redrawn. When disabled (default), import is faster, but with possible image distortion.
Biped Enhancements	Several changes have been made to improve the Biped experience, with errors and stability issues addressed. The Biped List Controller UI has been updated (see image comparing v2023 and v2024.2.) Biped List Controller: Left: 2023, Right: 2024.2 Fixed an issue with Biped Motion mixer slowing down playback. Resolved conflicts when pasting data between Xtra bones where the Paste and Paste Opposite created noise in the animation curve. Previously, this needed a workaround that required reloading the scene. Now, the animation data is properly updated when pasting a Pose to Xtra Bones, so the distortions to the animation curve no longer occurs. The Biped .BIP file Save dialog defaults have been updated based on your feedback and, as of 3ds Max 2024 Update 2, the following BIP save dialog options are now off by default: Save MAX Objects Keyframe per frame Save list controllers The Biped context (right mouse) menu has been updated. Expand Tracks and Collapse Tracks options are renamed Expand and Collapse Select All/Invert/None have been relocated to the bottom of the menu Assign Controller, Copy Controller, Paste Controller, and Reset to Default Controller are moved to the top the menu Added Open Controller Properties, Show in Track View, and Show Wire in Parameter Wire Dialog to the menu
CAT Workflow Enhancements	This update contains improvements to CAT so that automatic mapping, saving, and loading mapping now work as expected. Further, a workaround involving Mirroring CAT Muscles, has been documented to address a longstanding issue where CAT mirrored muscle Pivots would cause the muscle strand to rotate around the longitudinal axes.
Modifier performance improvements	Performance improvements have been made to the following modifiers: XForm modifier performance is now up to 1.7x faster. Relax modifier performance is now up to 1.7x faster. Push modifier performance is now up to 1.5x faster and the modifier also updates the normals of the surface after a push is applied.
FBX 2020.3.4	3ds Max 2024.2 includes the FBX 2020.3.4 plug-in. For more information, see FBX SDK 2020.
Arnold for 3ds Max 5.6.5.1	3ds Max ships with MAXtoA 5.6.5.1 for Arnold 7.2.4.1, which introduces several enhancements including improved global light sampling performance on GPU rendering, improved interactivity when modifying large scenes, and reduced numerical precision differences across CPU vendors. See the MAXtoA Release Notes for a full list of features and bug fixes.
Default Viewport Layout	In this release the default viewport layout is a single Perspective view, which is a change from previous releases where the default was a 2x2 layout of Top, Front, Left and Perspective. You can still toggle the viewport layout using Ctrl+W .
OIIO version 2.4.13.0	The OpenImageIO library has been updated to version 2.4.13.0.
OSL	An OSL file can #include another file in any of the OSL folders registered in 3ds Max. You can expose the UI for a color-space parameter using [[ string widget = "colorspace" ]].