The newest features of 3ds Max 2022 focus on workflow efficiency, easy-to-use texturing and rendering tools, and a safer, more secure workspace environment,

Overall, the enhancement of this new release are impressive.

Workflow Efficiency Improvements

SMART EXTRUDE 
Edit Poly modifier support: Smart Extrude has been extended into the Edit Poly modifier. This extension of Smart Extrude enables you to further benefit from this freeform modeling method, and complement your poly modeling workflows in 3ds Max.
“Cut Through” implementation enables you to freely construct unified mesh geometry. When performing an inward or outward Smart Extrusion, complete intersections of these results will now add, unify, or completely cut-through and remove faces of the operand result with your mesh geometry.

EXTRUDE MODIFIER
The Extrude modifier, offers significant performance improvements to the speed of the initial extrude calculation, and to the responsiveness of the output when adjusting the amount parameter. This allows complex splines, which used to take minutes to process, to be operated on in a matter of seconds. 

SLICE MODIFIER
3ds Max includes performance enhancements to the Slice modifier.
Capping:  Open holes created by the Slice operation can now be capped along their boundary edges on both Mesh and Poly objects.
Multi-Axis Cutting: Perform a X-, Y-, and/or Z-aligned planar slice of your mesh based on the position of the slice gizmo through a single modifier.
Radial Slice: A new Radial slice operation enables control of the cutting results based on a set of user-defined min and max angles.
Alignment options: Quickly align the cutting gizmo to faces on an object or reference another animatable object in your scene. 

AUTOSMOOTH
AutoSmooth operations, have been updated to generate new smoothing data faster, regardless of whether you are smoothing thousands or millions of faces. This is especially beneficial when adjusting smoothing data on objects like Mesh, Poly or Spline. It also benefits other modifiers such as Smooth, Chamfer, Edit Mesh, Edit Poly, ProOptimize, and many more.

SYMMETRY MODIFIER
Symmetry can now produce faster results, and offers a more interactive experience in the Viewport.
Multi-Axis Symmetry: Planar symmetry has been updated to perform, X, Y, and/or Z symmetry results on the symmetry gizmo.
Radial Symmetry: A new Radial symmetry function allows you to quickly duplicate and repeat a geometry around the gizmo center.
Alignment options: Align the symmetry gizmo to faces on an object or reference another animatable object in your scene.

RELAX MODIFIER
A new "volume preserve" option has been added to the Relax modifier. When active, the Relax algorithm will perform additional calculations to reduce small detail and noise out from models, all while retaining the shape and definition of the overall mesh that the modifier has been applied to. Reducing this small "noisy" data with Relax can improve the processing time of the Autodesk Retopology Tools for 3ds Max.

Accessible Texturing and Rendering

ARNOLD
The 'Auto-tx' can now be used to automate the process of converting texture files to .tx file format at render time. Imagers can now be applied, removed, re-ordered, and edited directly in a dedicated tab of the Arnold RenderView to post-process rendering without additional render time.
A new Light Mixer imager makes it possible to interactively edit the contribution of each light group AOVs during and after rendering, without restarting the render. 
Bloomor “glow”, a post-processing effect, has been added to the Lens Effect imager to blur pixels above a given threshold across the frame and simulate light bleeding on an imperfect lens.
Noice Denoiser is now a post-processing effect. You can automatically denoise images every time you render a scene.
OptiX Denoiser is now available as a post-processing effect. This imager also exposes additional controls for clamping and blending the result. 

RENDERING
New render configuration window; faster, snappier, all QT-based UI.
Quicksilver render settings are now QT-based, for a faster, more responsive experience. The Viewport Bloom settings have also been synced to the Quicksilver settings.
By utilizing the new Viewport Ambient Occlusion sampling value in the Viewport configuration settings, you can further refine your Viewport lookdev and optimize GPU performance by increasing or decreasing the Viewport Ambient Occlusion quality. 

BAKE TO TEXTURE
The Bake to Texture interface has been simplified to offer easier navigation and selection of baked map types by grouping render elements under common map names.
Bake to Texture now includes a few utility maps, such as Rounded Corners and Material ID maps, as examples of what previously required a complex material setup workflow prior to baking. These utility maps now achieve the same outcome in only a few clicks.

VIEWPORTS
Turn any floating Viewport into a full-screen, borderless view. When using Presentation Mode.

Safe and Secure Environment

SECURITY
Safe Scene Script Execution offers protection against malicious scripts embedded in 3ds Max scene files, regardless of whether these scripts use Maxscript, Python or .NET commands, by blocking the execution of unsafe commands.
The Malware Removal functionality detects and removes known malicious scripts from scene files and startup scripts.  
This functionality is powered by the Scene Security Tools plugin, which is updated whenever Autodesk becomes aware of a new malicious script.

Connect with our Autodesk expert scott@novedge.com or call 866 362 8970 ext.705  if you have questions about 3ds Max 2022, Maya 2022, the Media & Entertainment Collection or if you want to take advantage of Autodesk 0% financing.