Quote: "Since it's such a maze of events and mouse clicks to even start up MAX (nothing like Classic) I don't even have the motivation to start it. "Storyboard", "Procedural terrain" and the bizarre and silly "Behaviors" menu get in the way of production. Those first two features really should just be buttons at top, and the software should start instantly [-from Windows-] on an empty map ready for user to choose their next move."
Firstly, most game development tools, like Unreal, for example, require you to go through a few screens to set up a project before getting to the actual editor. Its how you keep different "games" or "applications" separate from each other while working. Once you set these up, you are then released to the level editor where you can then begin your work. MAX works mostly the same way, taking you through a few steps to set up your project before releasing you to the editing to start your game/project.
Secondly, it's not a maze. It's a few simple clicks. The first allows you to open an existing project. If you have one, you click it and it takes you to the Storyboard so you can choose to work on various aspects of your game - menus, ending screens, choose levels, etc. The main things you'll want to do here is choose which level you'll want to work on. Most people's games will have more than one level. So, even if MAX had taken you straight to the level editor, you'd still have to access the Menu to select which level you'd wanted to work on and the clicks would have been the same.
If you don't have an existing project or don't want to open an existing project, then you create a new one and MAX basically walks you through that, ultimately bringing you to the Terrain Generator screen. There's a lot here, but the idea is to help people auto-generate a base to begin with. But if you don't need that, you just select EMPTY and click GENERATE and you'll be taken to the editor after saving the name of your initial level.
It's really all about understand what MAX is. It's not a modeling program, so it doesn't start at the editor like a modeling program does. It's a design tool for making games. As such, it's project oriented. And, as such, it starts out by "forcing" the end-user to create a project and keeping everything made as part of that project so, in the end, when a stand-alone is made, it can export that single-project. As such, it allows you to work on several project at the same time. Else, things could get messy. There's a lot to a game - models, materials, scripts, etc. - and game creation tools like MAX try to help organize it all via projects.
Quote: "Is there always a new project loaded every time MAX starts? This is very confusing. As stated, it should be at the user request when a new project is started- IE it should be super quick if you want to just go in immediately to a flat level and test a script or see how a model is rendered. Ick."
It's right there. You either select Create a New Game Project or My Games, Demo Games, etc. So, no, it's not always a new project loaded every time. The choice is right there, right in front of you right when you start MAX. It is all at the user's request.
As far as getting into the editor quickly to see how a model renders, that's not what a game engine is normally for. If you want to do this in Unreal, for example, you'd still have to go through the initial steps of creating a project just to get into the editor ... or you'd have to open an existing project. So, to get around this, you create a simple project that's for testing stuff like how models render. That's what I've done in MAX. Then I can get to the editor in a few clicks, load in a model, and test it. Simple. It's how I've worked in Unreal, too.
Intel i9-10900K 5.10GHz, 64 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 1080 ti 11GB, Windows 10 64-bit, dual monitor display
