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3ds max 2012 Service Pack 1 is Live

The 3ds Max 2012 Service Pack 1 is now live. Go install it, all ye 3ds Max users:

• Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Service Pack 1 for 32-bit and 64-bit
• Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2012 Service Pack 1 for 32-bit and 64-bit

Service Pack 1 includes numerous performance and stability fixes. The readme (the PDF listed in the pages above) lists a tremendous number of fixes for 2012. Most of the fixes focus on CAT and the Nitrous Viewport, but the Unwrap UVW modifier also got a few boosts. According to the readme file, the Unwrap UVW modifier received a few optimizations that "greatly increased performance" - and I'll agree, it's noticeable. The window no longer scootches along with a trail of ghosts behind it.

Careful when upgrading because there are some issues with 3ds Max 2012 Service Pack 1. If you're in the middle of a project, you may want to finish it before upgrading. For example, our CAT rig for the raptor now behaves differently and some animation layers have been affected negatively. The toes in our animation layers moved below the foot and scaling the chest bone now scales all children bones.

That said, this 3ds Max 2012 service pack comes a mere 2 months after release. Must have been some long hours for the devs... For the full list of changes, check out the readme in the links above, or see the table below.

Update in the works

On June 20th, Ken Pimentel announced another set of Hot Fixes in the works that will address more issues related to CAT as well as Service Pack 2. No release date on either of these upcoming fixes has been scheduled, but know that work continues. If you've found a bug in 3ds Max or any of its components, you can manually report the bug here: 3ds Max Defect Submission Form. The easier it is for the QA department to reproduce the bug, the more likely it'll be addressed, so be as specific as you can.

Category	Description
Animation	When using the Material setting in Set Key Filters, a program error would occur when using Set Key on an object with a Standard material. This has been fixed. The Play Selected setting now plays only the selected objects and no longer plays all objects in the scene.
Character Animation Toolkit (CAT)	The core code of CAT has been rewritten. Much of the work was structural, but many defects were also addressed. Digit presets were not loading correctly. Now they load as they should. When Track View and Motion Layer were open, using Undo caused a program error. This has been fixed. Collar bones now correctly stretch to adjust to the upper arm position. RG3 rigs with Motion Layers now load without an error. Undoing a change to Num Digits would cause a program error. This has been fixed. Cloning rig elements no longer causes a program error. Stretchy limbs now work correctly with the Ankle removed. MAXScript: ExtraRigNodesInterface() is now available from CATParentTrans. CAT now saves controller types for position and rotation even when these tracks are animated All operations should now work correctly when using Stretch and translating in Setup Mode. Twisting bones now work correctly for both palms. Bones now inherit correctly in Setup Mode. Toe positions would move on a very small scale when you rotated them. This has been fixed. In rigs with segmented limbs, the second bone in each limb was incorrectly parented to the first segment in the bone. Now the second bone is parented correctly to the last segment Tail links now scale correctly in Setup Mode The wrist would sometimes rotate incorrectly when setting the IK slider to zero in the Motion Panel. This has been fixed. Changing rig structures no longer causes a program error. A program error that occurred when loading legacy .max files with CAT has been fixed. Retargeting motion‐capture data would cause a MAXScript error. This has been fixed. When cloning a CATRig with Shift+clone, a right‐click would cause a program error. Right-click now cancels the clone and restores the previous scene state, as with other 3ds Max objects. Now you can use the Manage Container feature with saved Containers that contain CATRigs. Undoing animation on CATRigs would cause a program error. This has been fixed. CAT no longer temporarily freezes when using the CATMotion Range group with the Globals dialog open. The CAT Pin Bone feature now functions correctly. When using CATRigs in Containers, saving, closing, or unloading the Container now works correctly. Applying a Reaction controller to the ankle could cause a program error. This has been fixed. When mirroring saved poses, the mirrored rig no longer deforms. Now it mirrors the rig correctly. When creating Absolute Layers, inherit position/rotation would result in a 90 degree offset. Inherit now works correctly. When loading the same Preset Rig (.rg3) into the same scene,the additional rigs now increment bone names so no names are duplicated.
Environment	The Environment map On/Off setting now works correctly.
Nitrous	Autodesk Metallic Paint now displays correctly in Nitrous viewports. The Blur setting on the coordinates rollout generated too much blur in viewports with Realistic shading and in Quicksilver renderings. This has been fixed. "mr Physical Sky" and "mr Photographic Exposure Control" now update immediately in Nitrous viewports. Viewports with Realistic shading now reflect changes made to the W coordinate> Angle parameter (for UVW mapping coordinates). Objects with a Standard material can now display the object backfaces. Applying Unwrap UVW to an object no longer corrupts the 2D view in Viewport Canvas. An Environment Map background now renders correctly on the ATI 4870 graphics card, instead of displaying as solid black. When using Edit Triangulation / Turn button in Editable Poly, dotted lines now display correctly at Triangles of Polygons. Imported FBX files no longer cause a program error when using NURMS Subdivision after converting to Editable Poly. Maps now display correctly when using the Shell material. Selection previews now work correctly with Editable Poly. Vertex Channel Display in Object Properties now correctly displays the Vertex initial color setting. Polygon Sub-Objects now display edges correctly when selected. When deselecting Edges at the Editable Mesh> Edge sub-object level, the deselected Edges no longer display the background. On the Viewport Configuration dialog> Visual Style & Appearance panel, Apply To All Views now works correctly with viewports that have non-photorealistic styles. Choosing Display panel> Display Color rollout> Shaded> Object Color now displays the object's color (rather than material color) in viewports with Realistic or Shaded shading. If you set the Compact Material Editor to display a custom sample object in a sample slot, the object would appear in Nitrous viewports. This has been corrected. The Frozen feature in the Display Panel now updates viewports correctly. Normals now display with the Edit Mesh> Show Normals setting. In Orthographic views, the default light direction is now correctly set to be slightly offset to the upper right. The selection box marquee (the dotted line) is no longer drawn behind objects or on the active Grid. The selection box marquee (the dotted line) would stop appearing after multiple selections. Now it always appears. The background no longer displays as black when the Tone Mapper is enabled and an "mr Physical Sky" is assigned but not enabled. The viewport background no longer toggles to off or flickers when switching to Wireframe or Bounding Box display. Mirrored or negatively Scaled objects now display face edges correctly. When using the Mirror tool, the original object would sometimes display with flipped normals. This has been fixed. Progressive rendering now correctly draws unhidden faces. When using the Ink In Paint material, the Highlight parameter would cause the object to turn black if Ambient Occlusion was enabled. The material now displays correctly. Artifacts would appear when using light shapes if the light was too close to an object surface. Light shapes now display correctly. When you hide an object with a target, now both the object and its target are hidden: the target no longer remains visible. Animated deformed Meshes would stop updating if parts of the Rig hierarchy were hidden. Deformed meshes now update correctly. When entering Isolate mode in a scene that contains an XRef Scene, the XRef'd Scene no longer continues to be visible. The Illuminate With Scene Lights and Illuminate With Default Lights entries now appear on the Shading viewport label menu when the viewport mode is set to Consistent Colors and Hidden Line. The Viewport menu also displays the state of the lighting correctly. A performance improvement was made for large poly objects by improving system and video card memory management. Performance improvement is best with 2GB video memory or more. The Transform Gizmo would not always update when switching between Move, Rotate, and Scale. Now it updates correctly in all viewports. When scaling the viewport size, objects would also visually scale with the size of the viewport. This has been fixed. In some cases, objects from previously loaded scenes would display when opening another scene. This has been fixed. When using Viewport Ghosting on animated deforming meshes or using Set Key with Ghosting, a program error could occur. This has been fixed. When using Ghosting, all objects were incorrectly showing edged faces. Now objects display correctly. DirectX shaders have added support for customized lights, and now support multiple lights in viewports. When using an environment background and activating Safe Frame, the background would fit to the viewport. Now it correctly fits to the Safe Frame. Empty or invalid Loft objects would cause a program error. This has been fixed. Extensive viewport screen flashing and refresh issues have been corrected.
Quicksilver Hardware Renderer	Indirect Illumination now works correctly. Render Region now renders the correct regions. Depth Of Field no longer flickers in the blurred areas when rendering. .xmsl files could be given the same key as .msl files in some cases. This caused a program error. Now .xmsl files are given a unique key, and the program error does not occur. File parameter values were not respected when loading .xmsl files. Now all parameters load correctly. The rendering was always overexposed when using Daylight Systems (Sunlight: mr Sun and Skylight: mr Sky). Exposure controls now work correctly.
Unwrap UVW	The Pixel Snap and Grid Snap icons were flipped and have been corrected. Scaling tools have been refined to work more intuitively. When creating Point To Point seams with the Peel tool, hidden faces no longer become visible. Editable Poly tessellated geometry no longer causes a program error when opening the Edit UVWs dialog. Three general-purpose optimizations have been implemented that greatly increase the performance of Unwrap UVW. A program error no longer occurs when you Reset UVWs then click Quick Peel.
Viewports	A program error could occur when switching between viewports or maximizing the active viewport. This has been fixed. A memory leak that occurred with Nitrous and Direct3D when the Arch & Design material used large bitmaps has been identified and fixed. Grid Spacing and the Grid Spacing Status were not updating correctly in viewports. This has been fixed.
Viewport Canvas	Viewport Canvas now supports the Composite material.
Help	The Download Vegetation link in the Help menu now loads the correct page.
InfoCenter	Balloon messages in the Communications Center now display correctly.
Ribbon	The "Error Parsing XAML" error on start-up has been fixed.
SDK (3ds Max 2012 only)	NodeEventSystem now sends Node Added events when creating Nodes.
CivilView (3ds Max Design 2012 only)	Modifying Surface Parameters no longer causes a program error.

These list of changes come from the Readme.PDF file provided with the 3ds Max 2012 Service Pack 1 update, here.