tom, the stuff so far has been all within 3dsmax, yes. I had always planned for it to be that way, but considering the rendering times from 3dsmax, and the awesomeness from some game engines out there, if I can find one that would be really easy to make mods with, that require as little coding as possible, then I just may use that instead.
However, if I am able to get my dream computer, then render times won't be an issue anymore
the biggest issue is how hard it is to create cut-scenes that involve vehicles, specific actions and animations, and all that good stuff. I'm also not 100% sure how I'd go about utilizing the game's physics within a strictly-controlled cut scene. I wouldn't want any incidents like in Driv3r, where you'd view a replay, and the cars don't act as they did while playing the game, and suddenly you wreck, and get busted and fail the mission