Video: Max 2012 viewport ‘destroys’ 3ds Max 2011

We’ve been steering away from the videos of Autodesk’s 2012 product line-up that have been released after it was first unveiled two weeks ago, but this one was too good to pass up.

Modeller Grant Warwick has released an eye-catching demonstration of the difference in viewport performance between 3ds Max 2011 and 2012.

His 11-minute video, released on YouTube yesterday, shows Warwick attempting to import his latest model – an Iron Man-style cyborg, consisting of 300 objects totalling around 3 million polys – into 3ds Max 2011.

The software struggles to import the model in Editable Mesh mode, then takes over five minutes to convert it to Editable Poly. In contrast, 3ds Max 2012 takes a couple of seconds.

“I’m tempted to grab my 2010 box and snap it over my head and throw it out of the window – that’s how bad performance is compared to 2012,” comments Warwick.

As one comment on the video suggests, the demonstration is so eye-catching, Autodesk should adopt it as its official sneak peek for 3ds Max 2012’s Nitrous viewport – although with Warwick describing previous releases of the software as “a joke” (and other, less printable, things) we imagine that won’t fly with the marketing people.