3ds Max 2010: new version of 3D-Editor

A year after the previous release a new version of 3ds Max 2010 has been presented. Like the previous release, this version is available in two versions: 3ds Max 2010 for those who is involved in the development of games and other entertainment projects, and 3ds Max Design 2010 for those who work with architectural projects.
The new version has a large number of innovations and improvements. Their number is so great that the developers of 3ds Max say that it is the most significant release since 3D Studio Max 4 version. Perhaps one of the most notable innovations is the inclusion of the popular set of tools for modeling PolyBoost, which were previously available as add-ons. In 3ds Max, these tools will appear under the name Graphite Modeling Tools. Due to PolyBoost, totally, there will be more than 100 new instruments in this version.
Besides Graphite Modeling Tools, in 3ds Max 2010 about three hundred innovations are presented. Here are a few of them:
Organization of complex scenes by means of combining its objects into the so-called containers. These objects are easy to manage; they can be quickly loaded and unloaded, thus saving the costs of RAM;
The improved display of objects in the projection windows, smoothing with the use of PC hardware capabilities, the improved tools for working with HDRI and the support of the technology of new mental mill for the development of shaders;
New module Material Explorer to control the scene materials which allows performing operations with materials in relation to several objects, and also to replace them;
The improved support for importing models from Revit Architecture;
New xView technology for analysis of 3D models grid.A new version of the module for creation effects with PFlowAdvanced particles, containing a large library of ready-made effects. PFlowAdvanced includes 14 new operators for Particle Flow;
A set of tools for work with sound ProSound, in the basis of which is plug-in Sound Trax from Boomer Labs company.
A new modifier Quadify to work with ProBooleans module, allowing you to manage the topology of Boolean objects. Besides, with ProBooleans you can use the operation Merge Boolean, which allows you to combine objects, saving their topology and stacks of modifiers; The new modifier ProOptimizer, which is developed on the basis of the known add-on Polygon Cruncher. It can perform the optimization of highpoligonal models imported from programs like Mudbox;
Improvements in the set of tools for working with texture scans. In particular, new tools are added for selection, and for editing of scans; A new tool for analysis the effects of light, and preview of the results in the perspective window (only in 3ds Max Design 2010); Global Quality Knobs for fast quality control of visualization of shadows, reflections, refractions, and also the calculation of global illumination and smoothing in mental ray; The support for visualization of high resolution images for using in printing. The improvements in the visualization of animated projects by means of mental ray (reducing errors associated with flickering when playing the animation, which was calculated by taking into account the indirect lighting).
As before, the differences between versions are minimum: the version for architects and designers 3ds Max Design 2010 includes all the possibilities of 3ds Max 2010, except for the SDK (a set of tools for developers). However, 3ds Max Design includes Exposure technology for simulating the sunlight, the light from the sky and artificial lighting sources, which is not presented in 3ds Max version for game developers. Both versions of 3ds Max are evaluated at 3495 $.