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Which versions of 3ds Max do not require a hardware dongle or a recurring rental?
I learned and created animations with 3DStudioMax 2.5 years ago. I still have the original disk. I still have the original hardware security dongle. It still works. I recently (year 2019 AD) saw in Walmart a computer (on their shelf) that it would work on! It still can make full length intensely graphical major movies. 2.5 can still do that.
Later I purchased 3ds Max again. I can compare the two. There is almost no difference, except that some things in the later versions do not work so well as they did before. Some things were added that are nice, but generally, not much has changed. But, one thing has changed: The new formats of .MAX seem to be directly designed to not be backward compatible.
Autodesk has changed 3dsmax from a sold software that has a lifetime license (up to Autodesk 3ds Max 8 from 2005), to a pseudo SAS (Software As Service) system (beginning with Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 from 2007).
I have researched and found that some versions (up to Autodesk 3ds Max 8) can be purchased from one person to another and licensed perpetually without ever contacting Autodesk, Inc.
Note, I use legal disks and those disks are mine. Those disks do not belong to Autdesk, Inc. I purchased them legally. Autodesk, Inc. can [snip] their opinion about old versions of 3dsmax and [snip] with all the inverse kinematics that they have helping them out and the install is still legal.
Now I do not have to use the hardware dongle. The program is almost the same as it was years ago.
What other versions of 3dstudiomax that are like this?
Not that you are, but if you are so in a fog about the legality of this that you believe anything that is yelled in your face by advertisers, then get yourself a really high quality "business law" lawyer and ask them why Ford (of the original Henry Ford motor company) won in court the right to manufacture as he did in the USA. That was a long, hard fought, court battle that set in fact laws that even today protect you against sellers of software claiming persistent rights. Read about your own country's history and you might be surprised that a lot of advertising is absolute lies. You own what you have purchased. The seller literally gives up all rights whether you sign agreements to that effect or not. It is right there in the law. It has been fought out years ago and precedents have already been set and already been interpreted and already been used over and over again.
Again, what other versions of 3d studio max that are like this?
