Thursday, March 8th, 2012 Posted by Jim Thacker

Sneak peek: 3ds Max’s updated Nitrous viewport

Autodesk has posted its latest sneak peek at work-in-progress technology for 3ds Max: this time, updates to the Nitrous viewport, first introduced in 3ds Max 2012.

In addition to demonstrating the visual quality of the viewport (depth of field, soft shadows), the video shows the Grab Viewport command being used to create a preview animation.

According to the description posted on YouTube: “This particular clip of 177 frames at 30fps, took two minutes to create using the Nitrous Realistic Display mode. [Software renders] of the same animation took close to seven minutes to render with comparable-looking quality.”

While “comparable-looking” is obviously not an objective measurement, there’s no denying that Nitrous is quick. As ever, the technology is likely, but not guaranteed to form part of 3ds Max 2013.

Previous 3ds Max sneak peeks

MassFX physics system

‘Send To’ workflow with Maya and MotionBuilder

MediaSync interoperability with After Effects

Deformable Poly object type

mCloth cloth simulation

Fixes for ‘Small Annoying Things’