Okay, so on the constructive side, would some of the Max veterans on this board mind listing the alternatives to Max3D?
If by veterans, you mean "old farts" that sounds like me, so ok, in my personal order of preference :
TrueVision3D - Loads of features, blistering fast, very easy to use. Not free.
Irrlicht - Loads of features, Multi-platform, fairly fast, very easy to use. Free.
MiniB3D - Basic Features ( until Ant's version? ) Cross-Platform, decent speed, very easy to use. Free.
Ogre - Loads of features, very fast, not so easy to use, BMax wrapper is not actively developed. Free.
3Impact - Limited Features, decent speed, very easy to use. Not free.