I was wondering the same thing, particularly Max 5 or 6. 1-3 were good in their day, but had a lot of shortcomings. 4 was a good interim release where they started localizing tools (in max 3 it was a mesh editing nightmare as you would often have to navigate more than one control panel in order to do simple modeling).
One thing I'm looking forward to in max 7 is that they finally introduce a proper editpoly modifier, so you can go back to edit mesh from edit poly without losing your stack. Something that really bugged me for years.
If you went from Max 3 to Maya etc I can see why you might think Max was a bit clunky and behind the times. I didn't like max when 2, 2.5 and 3 came out as other apps like Maya had just arrived, and LW had just been rewritten from the ground up and short of horrendous bugs and broken features, looked very nice, coming from someone that had used Lightwave before.
I wish I could comment on XSI more, I did use softimage and hated the way the menus worked, and like all 3D apps back then there wasn't much you could do in the way of modeling in perspective views.
I'm mostly just glad that there is healthy competition in the 3D market forcing everyone to innovate, and obvioulsy cut prices. A decent 3D app in the sub $500 range would have been inconcievable a year ago.
At my university I used to be the adopted child of the 3D design labs, and back then the educational price for max 1 was pretty good, coming in at $4000 for 10 licences, wonder how much they get these apps for now.
One thing I'm looking forward to in max 7 is that they finally introduce a proper editpoly modifier, so you can go back to edit mesh from edit poly without losing your stack. Something that really bugged me for years.
If you went from Max 3 to Maya etc I can see why you might think Max was a bit clunky and behind the times. I didn't like max when 2, 2.5 and 3 came out as other apps like Maya had just arrived, and LW had just been rewritten from the ground up and short of horrendous bugs and broken features, looked very nice, coming from someone that had used Lightwave before.
I wish I could comment on XSI more, I did use softimage and hated the way the menus worked, and like all 3D apps back then there wasn't much you could do in the way of modeling in perspective views.
I'm mostly just glad that there is healthy competition in the 3D market forcing everyone to innovate, and obvioulsy cut prices. A decent 3D app in the sub $500 range would have been inconcievable a year ago.
At my university I used to be the adopted child of the 3D design labs, and back then the educational price for max 1 was pretty good, coming in at $4000 for 10 licences, wonder how much they get these apps for now.