Modo 17 review: a fast 3D design software with promise

Price $90 / £75 per month, $515 / £415 per year
Company Foundry
Website foundry.com
New features performance improvements across direct modeling tools, MeshOps, animation playback, and rig interaction; faster render times

Version 17.0 of Modo is here, and with it comes a whole host of improvements and changes that developer Foundry says are “the beginning of a new Modo”. That’s quite the announcement to make, but we’ll see whether it lives up to the hype.

The most exciting among all of these changes, as far as I’m concerned, is the inclusion of the Prime version of OctaneRender from OTOY. Sure, OctaneRender Prime only utilises the primary GPU in the machine and lacks any additional plugins, but to gain access to a fast, unbiased and spectrally correct GPU render engine is a big positive. Having this interactive renderer for no additional cost will help visualisers work through design decisions much quicker, and will be a big pull, drawing many to the package.

Aside from this, most of version 17.0’s other changes lack the excitement that you might expect to see along with any new software release. The heart of these centres on a whole new architectural core designed with the aim of accelerating your workflows and improving performance.

Modo 17 is a refresh for a new era

The physically based Advanced Viewport receives a range of improvements that make it more useable in a production context. Environment and viewport lighting can now be viewed at the same time to ensure they interact well. It’s also possible to toggle textures on and off without using the Shader Tree. These and other improvements make for a much more streamlined visualisation process.

This is achieved through faster viewport drawing and a background thread that can handle calculations on the fly. This lays the foundation for a multi-threaded approach that goes beyond the two threads it currently has. That means you can expect Modo to get even faster through updates released this year.

One example is the quicker feedback that’s now available from MeshOps, which results in a more interactive and engaging experience. The evaluation of operations is carried out more efficiently, while delivering faster results also provides a more pleasant user experience.

The architectural changes continue in the area of Mac support thanks to the release of a new purpose-built Apple Silicon edition. It was always possible to use Modo on a Mac by putting the X86 version through an emulator, but it was also painfully slow.

The new native ARM version, with its 50 per cent speed improvements, is likely to win many Mac users back and attract a new swathe of Mac-based artists. Before Apple users get too excited, you should know that IKinema full-body IK, the Pose tool, and retargeting will not work due to the lack of support for third-party technology, so you’ll need to default back over to the emulator for that.

With our ever-changing demands, architectures, and technologies, every piece of software has to be reworked to bring it up to date and ready for the next season of development. Modo is at that point of transition, and even though these types of updates rarely get users excited, they’re necessary to ensure the future growth and improvement.

I hope to see more new features in coming updates, but the fact Modo 17 is the quickest and most responsive version we’ve had thus far is most certainly a good thing.

This content originally appeared in 3D World magazine. Subscribe to 3D World at Magazines Direct .