With all the fairly lame arse releases of max with barely any noticeable improvements this next one actually seems pretty good.
take a look at this blog from autodesk.

Heres some of the article pasted from autodesk and the link at the end.

New Feature Highlights
Explore unique designs with expanded modeling, texturing, and iterative workflows.
o The new Graphite modeling tools represent a modern approach to 3D modeling­over 100 tools for freeform sculpting, texture painting, and advanced polygonal modeling, unified in an innovative user interface. Experience extreme creativity and artistic freedom with this extensive new modeling toolset.

o Create powerful referencing workflows to organize complex scenes easily by treating multiple objects and scenes as a single Container object. Set rules for the Container to control access to its content in collaborative environments. Fast loading and unloading of containers helps you improve performance and reduce memory requirements.

o The third generation of Review technology represents a major leap forward in viewport display, helping take the guesswork out of final renders. It offers support for ambient occlusion, High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI)-based lighting, soft shadows, hardware anti-aliasing, interactive exposure control, and the revolutionary mental mill® shader technology.

o The new Material Explorer simplifies the way artists and designers interact with objects and materials. Navigate all rendering-related assets in the scene, perform operations on multiple objects, or inspect individual materials. The Material Explorer also lets you replace materials – making iterations much easier, even in highly complex scenes.

Validate your designs throughout the design process.
o Simulate the lighting in your designs with confidence­Exposure™ lighting analysis technology has been validated ([Link to www.autodesk.com] by the National Research Council Canada (NRC), Canada’s leading organization for scientific research and development, and the same organization that has conducted validation studies on Radiance for lighting simulation ([Link to www.autodesk.com] A feature unique to 3ds Max Design 2010, Exposure enables you to achieve more sustainable designs by analyzing how sun, sky, and artificial lighting interact with your design and exploring direct lighting effects right in the viewport. Load complex designs and watch lighting levels adjust in the scene as colors.

o 3ds Max Design 2010 can help you generate broader, more detailed contextual studies for your designs. Revit® Architecture software building information models (BIM) can be quickly and accurately imported into 3ds Max Design and then rapidly manipulated in the viewport. View your design with as much detail as you need to make crucial design decisions.

o Validate your 3D models before exporting or rendering using the new xView mesh analyzer technology. Providing an interactive view of where problems may lie, xView helps you avoid costly mistakes early in the design process when mistakes are easier to fix.

Communicate your design intent with impact using advanced visualization.
o Quickly aggregate scene elements with extensive support for 2D and 3D file formats. 3ds Max Design 2010 also provides integrated workflows with the Revit® and AutoCAD® family of products.

o Use advanced entertainment technology to create cinema-quality presentations with narrative context that fully expresses your design intent.

o Bring your designs to life with realistic water, fire, smoke, and other particle effects with PFlowAdvanced, a comprehensive particle design system. PFlowAdvanced also includes the new PFlowElements library with at least 100 samples created by an industry-leading effects artist.

o Complete your presentation in 3ds Max Design by adding musical scores, ambient sound and narration, with the new ProSound multi-track audio system.
Innovative Modeling and Mapping

Note: we are only announcing 3ds Max Design today. Don't read anything into this please! 3ds Max will be officially announced later. There are no new feature differences (beyond what feature differences exist today with 2009).

A bunch of Application Engineers got together this week (see Shane's blog) and we created some video tidbits. Please don't confuse these with the final feature videos that are professionally done by another team - these are just something to look at while the other team is finishing up. Don't beat me up on how raw these are, I wanted to get you something rather than absolute silence on our part. These are not intended to show the entire workflow, just the results. Don't expect me to give detailed explanations of what you're seeing either. That is all coming. Shane will also be publishing some of these videos on his blog - I won't be doing them all.

[Link to area.autodesk.com]

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