(Edited...)
Thanks for the comments and criticism. When I have time I'll update the top post to add in all the things I've missed (and cases where I'm obviously wrong too ;) ).
Just for the record: I like Max. I own a copy. I know it better than pretty much any other 3D package. The main thing Max R7 can boast about for game developers is excellent support for normal maps.
Here's Max 7's Game Dev page (I couldn't find any feature overview, although there is a nice PDF file discussing the new features in Max 7):
http://www4.discreet.com/3dsmax/3dsmax.php?id=974
I have no doubt that Max is more widely used for PC and XBox game dev than Maya or Softimage. This is at least in part due to prices two or three years ago, when Maya Complete cost $8000. As a consequence of this, fewer artists have learned to use Maya than Max.
On the other hand, Lightwave and Maya are far more prevalent among PS2 and Nintendo game development. (Consider that the best selling games are PS2 and Nintendo titles.)
Max also has a pretty draconian licensing policy (e.g. when I moved from Australia to the USA I had to get special permission to get a new unlock key when I reinstalled Max). Maya is probably the same (it certainly was back when I worked in an SGI shop). Lightwave has far more reasonable licensing (and pricing).
Lightwave is an awesome product. I did not intend to disrespect it in any way, but it has an unusual interface both in terms of its philosophy and its use of custom widgets (which have been improved in recent versions), and the division of functionality into not-terribly-integrated-parts is annoying (to me, anyway). When I last used Lighrwave, it did not have a dependable UNDO, which is pretty horrifying compared to Max, say, which has both near unlimited undo and tweakable modifier pipelines.
You can buy XSI or Lighrwave for the cost of a Max upgrade. And Lighrwave will run cross-platform. (Yes Max has features that the base version of XSI, in particular, lacks, but few of them are relevant to game developers.)
Some additional links:
Softimage XSI feature comparison
http://www.softimage.com/products/Xsi/v4/comparison/default.asp
Note that the $500 version lacks polygon reduction tools, game engine integration (you can embed your game engine in a window of the pricier versions), floating licenses, and rigid body dynamics. Aside from that, it has everything a game developer would care about. Of these, Max offers the last for 7x the price, but you have to pay extra to fully enable it.
Also note cloth, quadruped, and fluid dynamics. Hmm, Max do those yet?
Here's Maya Complete vs. Unlimited:
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/technical_features/index.shtml
Again, the missing features are of more relevance to high end animation shops than game developers. Again, the "basic" product has features Max can't match.
Here's what passes for Lightwave's feature list (I can't understand why it has the stuff it has in it -- the top listed feature under animation is "squash and stretch", which is like saying you can make cubes in it...; but then they leave tons of stuff out):
http://newtek.com/products/lightwave/product/list.html
Thanks for the comments and criticism. When I have time I'll update the top post to add in all the things I've missed (and cases where I'm obviously wrong too ;) ).
Just for the record: I like Max. I own a copy. I know it better than pretty much any other 3D package. The main thing Max R7 can boast about for game developers is excellent support for normal maps.
Here's Max 7's Game Dev page (I couldn't find any feature overview, although there is a nice PDF file discussing the new features in Max 7):
http://www4.discreet.com/3dsmax/3dsmax.php?id=974
I have no doubt that Max is more widely used for PC and XBox game dev than Maya or Softimage. This is at least in part due to prices two or three years ago, when Maya Complete cost $8000. As a consequence of this, fewer artists have learned to use Maya than Max.
On the other hand, Lightwave and Maya are far more prevalent among PS2 and Nintendo game development. (Consider that the best selling games are PS2 and Nintendo titles.)
Max also has a pretty draconian licensing policy (e.g. when I moved from Australia to the USA I had to get special permission to get a new unlock key when I reinstalled Max). Maya is probably the same (it certainly was back when I worked in an SGI shop). Lightwave has far more reasonable licensing (and pricing).
Lightwave is an awesome product. I did not intend to disrespect it in any way, but it has an unusual interface both in terms of its philosophy and its use of custom widgets (which have been improved in recent versions), and the division of functionality into not-terribly-integrated-parts is annoying (to me, anyway). When I last used Lighrwave, it did not have a dependable UNDO, which is pretty horrifying compared to Max, say, which has both near unlimited undo and tweakable modifier pipelines.
You can buy XSI or Lighrwave for the cost of a Max upgrade. And Lighrwave will run cross-platform. (Yes Max has features that the base version of XSI, in particular, lacks, but few of them are relevant to game developers.)
Some additional links:
Softimage XSI feature comparison
http://www.softimage.com/products/Xsi/v4/comparison/default.asp
Note that the $500 version lacks polygon reduction tools, game engine integration (you can embed your game engine in a window of the pricier versions), floating licenses, and rigid body dynamics. Aside from that, it has everything a game developer would care about. Of these, Max offers the last for 7x the price, but you have to pay extra to fully enable it.
Also note cloth, quadruped, and fluid dynamics. Hmm, Max do those yet?
Here's Maya Complete vs. Unlimited:
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/technical_features/index.shtml
Again, the missing features are of more relevance to high end animation shops than game developers. Again, the "basic" product has features Max can't match.
Here's what passes for Lightwave's feature list (I can't understand why it has the stuff it has in it -- the top listed feature under animation is "squash and stretch", which is like saying you can make cubes in it...; but then they leave tons of stuff out):
http://newtek.com/products/lightwave/product/list.html