Autodesk 3ds Max/Small 3ds Max

3ds Max is a bulky application, and for game artists, many of the features go unused. This project is an attempt to strip down 3ds max 5 to the modeling, animating, unwrapping, and character setup minimum.

Precautions

Don't delete Max's components right off. Create a backup folder somewhere and move the files into that folder. That way, if anything screws up, you can easily retrieve the files without having to reinstall max. Common sense, but some people tend to be a tad trigger happy.

Removable Plugins

First of all, what one person believes is removable may be indispensable to your workflow, so make that discretion before getting rid of those plugins. 3ds max's architecture is plugin based, so the first place I headed to was the plugins directory.

Taking a look at Plug-in Manager, these are the plugins loaded on startup and what they do.

DLU
.DLU files are Utility plugins. They are basic utilities such as the Polygon Counter, advanced utilities such as Reactor, and even legacy utilities such as Dynamics.

COMSRVUI.DLU
UVREMOVE.DLU
COLLECTOR.DLU
HSUTIL.DLU
LIGHTMAP.DLU
COMBUST_SELECT.DLU
PSEUDOMAP.DLU
COLLIDERS.DLU
UTILITY.DLU
PAINTERINTERFACE.DLU
CURVECONTROL.DLU
VISUALMS.DLU
DLTONEREP.DLU
CBROWSER.DLU
RAYFX.DLU
DLSRR.DLU
UMAXFIND.DLU
STROKE.DLU
NUTIL.DLU
METALBUMP.DLU
MAPPATH.DLU
IFLMGR.DLU
CAMTRAKR.DLU
CAMMATCH.DLU
APPLYVC.DLU

DLS
PIVOT.DLS
GRID.DLS
SHAPE1.DLS
X_MESH.DLS

DLF
TRUETYPE.DLF
ADOBET1.DLF

DLV
FILMGRAIN.DLV
BRIGHTCON.DLV
COLORBALANCE.DLV
MULTIPASSMOTIONBLUE.DLV
MULTIPASSDOF.DLV
FILEOUT.DLV
MOTIONBLUR.DLV
DOF.DLV
BLUR.DLV
APOLLO3.DLV

FLT

DLC

DLO
.DLO files are Object plugins. They create new objects. For example, if you install a "antmodel.dlo" file, it will allow you to create ants. Found on the Create Panel, in the dropdown list that says "Standard Primitives". There it will show a new section that contains the object type that the plugin provides.

BMI - 2D Image File Format I/O

DLR
.DLR files are Render plugins. They're pretty rare compared to the other types, but they're still a valid plugin. They will be found in the Render Scene window (F10) under the "Current Renderers" rollout. Click on the "Assign..." button and it will open a new window for you to choose the renderer you want to use. (by default there will only be one renderer showing, the "VUE File Renderer", since the Default Scanline is already in use)

DLM
.DLM files are Material plugins. They will be found in the Material Editor as new material types (where it says Standard, Raytrace, Multi/Sub-object, etc., there will be more)

GUP

DLT
.DLT files are Texture plugins. They will be found in the Material Editor as well, but will be as Maps, such as Brick, Speckle, Noise, etc. (usually the maps are the same name as the plugin)

BMS

DLZ

DLI - 3D File Format Importer

DLE - 3D File Format Exporter

FLT