| Gray-blue color indicates new feature | Prime | Broadcast | Visualize | Studio |
| Platform |
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| Cross-platform support for Mac & Windows | x | x | x | x |
| 64-bit Architecture | x | x | x | x |
| Outstanding Stability | x | x | x | x |
| OpenGL 3.0 Support (if supported by OS, driver and hardware) | x | x | x | x |
| Extensive API: C++, Python, C.O.F.F.E.E. | x | x | x | x |
| Interface & Workflow |
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| Context-Sensitive, Fully-searchable HTML Help | x | x | x | x |
| Multiple projects open at once | x | x | x | x |
| Customizable Toolbars / Layouts / Menus | x | x | x | x |
| Light and dark Interface Schemes | x | x | x | x |
| Unlimited View Windows | x | x | x | x |
| Heads-up Display | x | x | x | x |
| Custom Popup Menu | x | x | x | x |
| Non-modal tools with realtime feedback | x | x | x | x |
| Collapsible Managers & Palettes | x | x | x | x |
| Selection / Display Filters | x | x | x | x |
| Custom User Data per Object | x | x | x | x |
| Doodle Viewport Annotation Tool | x | x | x | x |
| Layer system for object & material management | x | x | x | x |
| XRef external instancing / referencing system | x | x | x | x |
| Tablet Support for Wacom and other Pen Tablets | x | x | x | x |
| 3dconnexion 3DMouse support | x | x | x | x |
| Data Exchange / Format Support |
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| Quicktime Support | x | x | x | x |
| AVI Support | Win | Win | Win | Win |
| Image Formats - Float with Layers: PSD, TIFF | x | x | x | x |
| Image Formats - Float: HDR, DPX, RLA, RPF, OpenEXR | x | x | x | x |
| Image Formats: BMP, IFF, JPG, PICT, PNG, TARGA | x | x | x | x |
| Quicktime VR Object, Panorama | x | x | x | x |
| After Effects Compositing Exchange with 3D Data | x | x | x | x |
| Apple Motion Compositing Exchange with 3D Data | x | x | x | x |
| Apple Final Cut Pro Compositing Exchange | Mac | Mac | Mac | Mac |
| Combustion Compositing Exchange | x | x | x | x |
| Digital Fusion Compositing Exchange | Win | Win | Win | Win |
| Shake Compositing Exchange | x | x | x | x |
| Support of DXF, DWG, 3DS, DAE, FBX, DEM, LWS, SRL, VRML2, OBJ Formats | x | x | x | x |
| IGES importer |
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| x | x |
| Okino Connection - seamless CAD file import via optional Polytrans software |
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| x | x |
| BodyPaint 3D Exchange - 3ds max | x | x | x | x |
| BodyPaint 3D Exchange - Maya | x | x | x | x |
| BodyPaint 3D Exchange - Softimage | x | x | x | x |
| BodyPaint 3D Exchange - Lightwave | x | x | x | x |
| Modeling Tools |
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| Parametric Object Primitives | x | x | x | x |
| Parametric Spline Primitives | x | x | x | x |
| Extrude, Lathe, Loft, Sweep NURBS | x | x | x | x |
| Polygonal Modeling Tools with N-gon Support | x | x | x | x |
| HyperNURBs Subdivision Surfaces | x | x | x | x |
| Modeling Generators: Metaball, Boolean, Symmetry, Array, Atom Array, Instance, Connect | x | x | x | x |
| Deformers: Bend, Twist, Bulge, Shear, Taper, FFD, Formula, Wind, Explosion, Melt, Shatter, Wrap, Polygon Reduction, Spherify, Spline Rail, Spline Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Displacement Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Camera Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Smoothing Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Spline Wrap Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Shrinkwrap Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| UV Editing |
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| UV Editor | x | x | x | x |
| Interactive UV Mapping by Projection Types | x | x | x | x |
| Optimal UV Mapping to automatically remove seams | x | x | x | x |
| LSCM Unwrapping and Relaxing | x | x | x | x |
| ABF Unwrapping and Relaxing | x | x | x | x |
| Materials & Texturing |
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| 14 standard material channels: Color, Diffusion, Luminance, Transparency, Reflection, Environment, Fog, Bump, Normal, Alpha, Specular, Specular Color, Glow, Displacement | x | x | x | x |
| Transparency with absorption, total internal reflections, exit reflections | x | x | x | x |
| Blurry Reflections and Transparencies | x | x | x | x |
| Normal Maps: Tangent, Object or World | x | x | x | x |
| Displacement: Intensity (Centered), Red/Green and RGB | x | x | x | x |
| Choose Photoshop PSD layers per usage | x | x | x | x |
| Animated Textures (MOV, AVI, sequence) with viewport preview | x | x | x | x |
| Selectable viewport resolution and channel display per material | x | x | x | x |
| Shading Models: Phong, Blinn, Oren-Nayer | x | x | x | x |
| Fresnel Procedural Shader | x | x | x | x |
| Noise Procedural Shader with 32 different noise algorithms | x | x | x | x |
| Layer Shader | x | x | x | x |
| Proximity-based Proximal Shader | x | x | x | x |
| Procedural surface shaders | x | x | x | x |
| Texture Baking: surface color, illumination, ambient occlusion, normals, displacement and more | x | x | x | x |
| Sub-polygon Displacement |
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| x | x |
| Sub-surface scattering |
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| x | x |
| Enhanced Brick Shader | x | x | x | x |
| Pavement Shader | x | x | x | x |
| Sketch & Toon Art Shader |
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| x | x |
| Sketch & Toon Hatch Shader |
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| x | x |
| Sketch & Toon Spots (Halftone) Shader |
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| x | x |
| 3D Painting with layers, all blend modes and Photoshop file compatibility | x | x | x | x |
| Multibrush painting of multiple material channels in single stroke | x | x | x | x |
| Raybrush painting directly onto rendered result | x | x | x | x |
| Projection Painting | x | x | x | x |
| Exchange Projections with Photoshop | x | x | x | x |
| Camera mapping | x | x | x | x |
| ProjectionMan camera mapping workflow tool | x | x | x | x |
| Lighting |
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| Light Types: Omni, Spot, Infinite, Area, Square Spot, Parallel Spot, Square Parallel Spot | x | x | x | x |
| Hard, Soft, Area Shadows | x | x | x | x |
| Visible, Volumetric and Inverse Volumetric Lighting | x | x | x | x |
| Noise within light illumination or visibility | x | x | x | x |
| Include/Exclude Light diffusion, specular, shadow per object | x | x | x | x |
| Custom Lens Flares | x | x | x | x |
| Caustics |
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| x | x |
| Colortemperature in Kelvin | x | x | x | x |
| Photometric brightness setting in Candela and Lumen | x | x | x | x |
| Support of IES Light data |
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| x | x |
| Rendering |
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| Render up to 16,000 pixels square / 32 bits per pixel | x | x | x | x |
| Bucket rendering | x | x | x | x |
| Render Instances | x | x | x | x |
| Color Profile support | x | x | x | x |
| Camera White Balance | x | x | x | x |
| Linear Workflow | x | x | x | x |
| Adaptive Anti-aliasing | x | x | x | x |
| Multipass output | x | x | x | x |
| Object Buffers - specify unique alpha channels per object | x | x | x | x |
| Ambient Occlusion | x | x | x | x |
| Global Illumination (IR, QMC, Mixed) |
| x | x | x |
| Depth of Field Post Effect |
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| x | x |
| Vector Motion Blur Post Effect |
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| x | x |
| CineMan Renderman-compliant bridge |
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| x | x |
| Sketch and Toon Non-photorealistic rendering |
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| x | x |
| Pyrocluster Volumetric Particle Rendering |
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| x | x |
| Physical Sky - realistic sky shading with 2D and 3D clouds, accurate sun and star positions, fog and atmosphere effects |
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| x | x |
| 3D Sound Rendering | x | x | x | x |
| Picture Viewer with RAM playback (including sound), history, AB Compare, histogram, layer view, color correction, full screen mode | x | x | x | x |
| Render Queue Batch Rendering System | x | x | x | x |
| Animation |
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| Easy one-click record button to keyframe Position, Scale, Rotation, Point Level animation and user-defined parameters | x | x | x | x |
| Record-dot animation of all animatable parameters | x | x | x | x |
| Automatic Keyframing | x | x | x | x |
| Cappucino - Realtime Keyframing |
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| x |
| PowerSlider animation toolbar for playback and keyframe manipulation | x | x | x | x |
| Up to four timelines windows with customizable track display and dopesheet or F-Curve view modes | x | x | x | x |
| F-Curve Snapshots and Reduced Modification Curves | x | x | x | x |
| Constant Velocity option per track | x | x | x | x |
| Keyframe Reduction | x | x | x | x |
| Keyframe Baking | x | x | x | x |
| ASCII Animation Import | x | x | x | x |
| Non-linear animation / motion mixing system | x | x | x | x |
| Constraints: PSR, Up-Vector, Clamp, Mirror, Parent, Aim, Spring | x | x | x | x |
| Driver Tag |
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| x |
| XPresso - node based expression editor | x | x | x | x |
| Virtual Walkthrough Tool - first-person scene navigation and animation |
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| x | x |
| Dynamic Animation |
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| Basic Particle System | x | x | x | x |
| Thinking Particles node-based particle system |
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| x |
| Rigid Body Dynamics (limited to MoGraph objects) |
| x |
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| Rigid Body Dynamics |
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| x |
| Joints, Springs, Motors |
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| x |
| Soft Body Dynamics |
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| x |
| Cloth Dynamics & Dressing functions |
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| x |
| Hair Dynamics |
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| x |
| Spline Dynamics |
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| x |
| MoGraph Tools |
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| Cloner Object |
| x |
| x |
| Fracture Object |
| x |
| x |
| Matrix Object |
| x |
| x |
| Instance Object |
| x |
| x |
| Text Object |
| x |
| x |
| Tracer Object |
| x |
| x |
| Spline Mask Object |
| x |
| x |
| MoSpline parametric spline generator with L-system functionality |
| x |
| x |
| Effect Position, Scale, Rotation, Color, Time via Falloff, Shader, Random, Formula, Delay, COFFEE, Inheritance, Sound, Spline, Step, Target, Time or Volume |
| x |
| x |
| PolyFX polygon fracture deformer |
| x |
| x |
| MoGraph Selection Tag |
| x |
| x |
| Beat Shader |
| x |
| x |
| Multi-shader - affect texture based on clone color |
| x |
| x |
| Extrude Deformer |
| x |
| x |
| Character Animation Tools |
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| Joints with full dynamic IK | x | x | x | x |
| Skin Deformer supporting linear, spherical and blended deformation based on joints | x | x | x | x |
| Weighting manager and tools | x | x | x | x |
| PoseMorph morphing and hierarchical mixing system |
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| x |
| Mirror tool | x | x | x | x |
| Naming Tool | x | x | x | x |
| Paint Tool | x | x | x | x |
| Weight Effector | x | x | x | x |
| VAMP tool for translating weights, morphs, selection, textures, Uvs and Vertex Maps between different geometry |
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| x |
| Cluster Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Morph Deformer |
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| x |
| Jiggle Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Tension Tag |
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| x |
| Quaternion Tag |
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| x |
| Point Cache Tag | x | x | x | x |
| Point Cache Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Correction Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Surface Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Mesh Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Squash & Stretch Deformer | x | x | x | x |
| Visual Selector |
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| x |
| Hair Simulation and Rendering |
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| Guide-based Hair system |
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| x |
| Hair Instancing |
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| x |
| Feather Object |
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| x |
| Fur System |
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| x |
| Hair styling tools: Move, Scale, Rotate, Brush, Comb, Clump, Curl, Cut, Push, Straighten, Add Guides, Mirror, Set Roots |
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| x |
| Hair Dynamics |
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| x |
| Hair Shading System with multiple speculars, texture-defined root and tip colors, and variable transparency, thickness, length, scale, frizz, kink, density, clump, tighten, displace, bend, curl, twist, wave, straighten |
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| x |
| Content |
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| Essential Presets and Demo Scenes | x | x | x | x |
| Advanced Presets and Demo Scenes |
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| x |
| Broadcast Library incl. Materials, Cameras and Objects |
| x |
| x |
| Visualization Library incl. Materials, Presets and Architectural Objects |
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| x | x |