Autodesk 3ds Max 2021.3 official release

Fixed issues

MAXX:Animation
Cloning keys over existing keys in the curve editor, timeline, mini curve editor, key info floaters, motion panel and dope sheet no longer creates incorrect tangents. MAXX-58984
Fixed a defect in the Skin modifier that permitted adding duplicate entries of the same bone into the system. This will prevent the problem in the future. Current scenes affected by this must still be manually cleaned. MAXX-52825
3ds Max no longer crashes when you select Edit > Hold in Motion Paths sub-object mode. MAXX-46764
MAXX:Animation, MAXX:Modeling
Resolved an issue with the Edit Poly modifier, introduced in 2021.1, where animated vertex component data would not play back properly. MAXX-58780
MAXX:Cloud
When exporting Blend material with a mask, textures are now correctly blended. MAXX-58708
MAXX:Core
Fixed issue with MAXScript when wrapping a controller/dimensioning in a MAXControl, the code in some cases was improperly using an existing MAXControl value with different dimensioning. MAXX-60138
The Python version can now be set using the ADSK_3DSMAX_PYTHON_VERSION environment variable for 3dsmaxcmd.exe MAXX-60073
Fixed defect in the SafeArrayWrapper MAXScript type that caused it to contain undefined and repeated values when doing things like reading from an Excel file using MAXScript's OLE automation capabilities. Also changed the behavior so when getting an OLEObject:range object, the outer limit is inclusive. If you wants a range covering cells A1, A2, B1 and B2, you can say "A1:B2" instead of "A1:C3". MAXX-59505
Fixed crash when loading Scene Explorer instances from scene file where instance had a null name.
Fixed issue where when renaming a Scene Explorer instance, after saving and loading the scene file the instance had its old name. MAXX-58561
MAXX:Interop
Fixed the empty wall material preview in Civil View Building Style Object Editor. MAXX-57116
Road markings display the colors and lines as configured in Civil View Road Marking Style Editor. MAXX-54840
MAXX:MAXScript
Fixed problem with dotnet.getType string where runtime exception occured if specified string was an invalid format for a class name. MAXX-58938
MAXX:Modeling
Improved the knot position output normalization/positioning on the Spline Chamfer through improved calculations. MAXX-60211
Adjusted the way the Chamfer and SplineChamfer spinners increase and decrease in value to be step instead of adaptive, bringing them in line with how other spinners in 3ds Max should work. MAXX-60002
Improved stability with the Spline Mirror modifier. MAXX-59846
Fixed a memory access crash that could occur when inserting normals into a face that is too small when the normals on the mesh are corrupt. This fix does not propagate to STP. MAXX-59735
Improved the results of Spline Chamfer with enhanced tangent length calculations and UI options. MAXX-59723
Improved the fillet results of Spline Chamfer to be similar to expectations from within the Edit Spline options. MAXX-59591
Updated the Bridge operation to provide improved mesh stability to look for and remove dead vertices to make the mesh safe once it has completed its action. Other poly actions in 3ds Max have also been enhanced to look for this same problem as well. MAXX-59457
Resolved an issue with the Path Deform modifier where using the Stretch spinner value could sometimes cause a crash. MAXX-59439
Improved stability with the Data Channel modifier when loading a preset by adjusting the handling of how the DCM adds and removes UI rollouts. MAXX-59352
Resolved a crash error that sometimes occured when updating the translation or rotation of the Slice gizmo. MAXX-59245
Improved how the Chamfer system handles zero area vertex chamfers, which can be created when the amount value is set too small, to provide improved stability. MAXX-59082
Smart Extrude end results has been enhanced to better reconstruct and stitch the end results and further minimize side polygons. MAXX-58997
Disabled the ability to set animated keyframe values on face components when using Smart Extrude, as adding and removing mesh data doesn't work well with component data. MAXX-58961
Enhanced clearing component selection when using point to point selection. MAXX-58887
When performing an undo and then a redo of an operation that affect the explicit normals on a poly object, those normals are now properly restored at all times. MAXX-58836
Changes made to parameters on the base Freehand Spline object will now properly notifiy changes up the modifier stack. MAXX-58679
Use Pivot on Path Deform now maintains the object's form as it traverses along the path and works with multiple elements on the incoming shape to maintain their form. MAXX-58273
Improved the output color result to be within a valid range (0 to 1) by performing improved calculations to calculate each color component. MAXX-57867
Resolved issues with how the Unwrap UVW modifier was saving data that might cause a crash if data (such as name selection sets) was deleted. MAXX-57042
Chamfer modifier amount values lower than 0.001 are now correctly respected in your scenes, values smaller than 0.001 are no longer rounded up to 0.001. MAXX-57034
When using Path Deform on a group of objects, the group's spatial positioning relative to the other objects within the group is maintained, based on the incoming shape data. MAXX-56458
Improved performance of the Path Deform modifier by improving normalized spline and bezier interpolations and recoding Path Deform to be a deformer based modifier. MAXX-56247
Improved the calculations of Path Deform to maintain the objects form better when traversing along the path. MAXX-55750
Malformed Meshes (repeated vertices on same face) no longer result in the Slice and Symmetry modifiers locking up when moving or rotating the gizmo for these modifiers. MAXX-51723
MAXX:Modeling, MAXX:Performance
Enhanced processing and threading for specified and explicit normals with TriObject and PolyObjects; this can result in performance gains on various modifiers and deformers. MAXX-59052
Solved an error with how Vray handled materials, causing 3ds Max to crash when you opened the Edit UV window of the Unwrap UVW modifier. MAXX-57413
MAXX:RealTimeWorkflows
Baking normal maps with scanline no longer produces specular artifacts. MAXX-59733
Baking multiple UV tiles no longer bakes the same time repeatedly. MAXX-59240
Baking self projected normal maps no longer produces artifacts and noise. MAXX-59075
Baking with Arnold no longer applies an unexpected filtering, resulting in a blurred result. MAXX-59072
The Enter key no longer commits unexpected changes in the Bake to Texture window. MAXX-58962
Save to previous function no longer triggers unexpected warnings when scene contains Bake to Texture data. MAXX-58132
MAXX:Rendering
Changing EV values in camera's properties will now update Activeshade in viewport renders as expected. MAXX-58415
Deleting a locked camera refreshes Render Setup UI and turns the Lock OFF. MAXX-56319
Added Sun Positioner in Create>Lights menu. The menus need to be reset to see the new entry if 3ds Max is updated. MAXX-55040
MAXX:RenderingMaterials
LUT settings no longer reset when using PBR materials. MAXX-58438
MAXX:Viewports
Fixed corruption of 3dsMax.ini file with the GFX setup logic. MAXX-59549
Known issues and workarounds
There are no known issues in this verson of 3ds Max.

Autodesk 3ds Max 2021 software is supported on the following 64-bit operating systems and at a minimum, requires a system with the following 64-bit hardware:

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 Professional operating system
Browser Autodesk recommends the latest version of the following web browsers for access to online supplemental content:
Microsoft Edge
Google Chrome
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox
Hardware
CPU 64-bit Intel or AMD multi-core processor with SSE4.2 instruction set
Graphics Hardware Refer to 3ds Max Certified Hardware for a detailed list of recommended systems and graphics cards
RAM 4 GB of RAM minimum (8 GB or more recommended)
Disk Space 9 GB of free disk space for install
Pointing Device Three-button mouse