Hello,
Long time reader, first time poster here.
Has anyone used Max 2010? Specifically the new ‘Containers’ feature?
Everything & anything you could tell me about your experiences would be great, thanks 
P.S. Great Forum!
I am very curious also as to peoples reactions to the new containers, the explanation video from sig sounds good, but I’m sure that’s glossing over a ‘few’ things.
They gave us a demo when Maya 2009 came out with it and I wasn’t too impressed. It might be good if your pipeline relies heavily on referencing, but I try to stay as far away from those as I can, we use it very sparingly only when we want to ensure the files aren’t going to be messed with.
Seemed like a wrapper node around references that locks out attributes, at least that’s how it is in Maya
I’ve been playing with them a bit. On the surface it seems if you are only using the containers as visual references for other objects in your scene they are rather powerful. For example being able to load in containers of buildings to make a city block while only working in one section could be very useful, with the added ability to unload the data from 3dsmax when you don’t need to see those references. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the entirety of their usefulness.
I prefer to avoid Xref’s completely but the containers can be saved to completely different files, not .max files but .xmc I think. This can be written to externally and refreshed in the scenes opened with the containers, similar to Xrefs in one way but different in another. You can open the containers and merge all but then you kind of lose their usefulness if you merge.
They can also be used as an uber method of scene layout management if you are into that sort of thing. Check out Joshua Newmans site for more info regarding that aspect of containers.
http://www.just-joshing.com/2009/06/24/scene-explorer-expansion-pack/
As usual im a bit intimidated by new possible broken features in 3dsmax but im more optimistic about containers. If anyone has any other experiences please share.
[QUOTE=lkruel;4243]They gave us a demo when Maya 2009 came out with it and I wasn’t too impressed. It might be good if your pipeline relies heavily on referencing, but I try to stay as far away from those as I can, we use it very sparingly only when we want to ensure the files aren’t going to be messed with.
Seemed like a wrapper node around references that locks out attributes, at least that’s how it is in Maya[/QUOTE]
There’s quite a bit more under the hood on the Maya side than just being a wrapper node that locks out attributes, I’d be more than happy to delve into more detail on the Maya side if you (or others) are interested.
On the Max side I can do my best to answer but if people have questions I can always field them to the Max people and pass the answers back.
Cheers,
Shawn
We are also trying out containers in max (.maxc). what’s good about them is that you can lock them. So they cannot be edited by someone else, ensuring at least those portions on the the file will remain in tact.
What I don’t like is that you cannot use them as xref objects and skin over it like you can with a regular xref object.
You could use it for props/buildings easily and build a library system around it.
It has good potential, but it’s not quite there yet for me. But I’m positive we will be using it more and more in the future.
-Johan