MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  January 2005
 

Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Color correction bug fix
- Load texture from directory - remembers last load
- Load texture from directory no longer case-sensitive
- Bug fix for 'cannot load ts_backend.dll'

TextureShaker is available for Max 6 and 7, and costs $195. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Materials

The 'Vertex UVW Color' 2D Map allows you to use all 99 UVW Channels as a source and also comes with an invert checkbox. It also includes a macroscript that lets you copy one UVW Channel to another, and also from or to Vertex Color / Illumination / Alpha. The main idea behind these tools was to be able to use Vertex Alpha and more Vertex Colors as blend controllers in the material editor.


New Plugin: Import / Export

EaseExport is designed to easily export all the information you need for your game engine. Everything is computed for you, you just have to exploit the results.

Some of the features of EaseExport are:
- Works with Max 5, 6 and 7
- Exports meshes, cameras, lights, dummies
- Exports materials and textures
- Character studio Biped and Physique
- Hierarchy
- Note tracks
- Animation controllers
- And all the classic stuff...


Plugin Update: Render Effects

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Adds support for field-rendering


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.3 are:
- Adds support for non-standard locales (European number formatting)

Hypercosm Teleporter is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $299.99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v7.0.3 are:
- No changes, but the integration plugin now supports Max 7


New Plugin: Import / Export

The XFrog Importer enables Max to import XFrog *.XFR files.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v4.12 are:
- Navigator Pro now implements point-to-point measuring
- 'Enter Licence Key' button added to Help menu
- Added debugging facilities for the event/action driven behavior
- You can now import ESRI Shape files using File / Import
- New Random event fires it's action randomly over time
- New import filter allows you to import ESRI Shape files into your Max design
- Fixed Navigator Pro crashing randomly on multi-processor machines
- Fixed reduce mesh sometimes crashing Navigator Pro
- Fixed insert model without keeping the model root
- Filling in redlining text and pressing OK no longer crashes Navigator Pro
- Importing a Division Mockup model no longer crashes Navigator Pro

VR4MAX is available for Max 3 to 7 and pricing starts at €850. A demo version is available here.


Plugin News: Cloth Extension released...

Discreet have released a new extension for subscription users of Max. Cloth Extension for Max 7 enables sophisticated cloth simulation, giving artists the creative tools to build realistic, film-quality clothing for characters. Turn modeled geometry into cloth, design or import clothing patterns and stitch them together to design full garments.

Highlights of the Cloth Extension include:
- Ability to use clothing patterns as the basis for real-world clothing that reflects both fabric type and clothing pattern.

- Ability to define the type of cloth, either by setting up its properties or selecting from a list of cloth types, including silk, cotton, and wool. Clothing will behave as it would in the real world, depending on the material.

- Build tailor-made clothes, not just baggy, draped cloth! Create inner seam lines for pleats and vents.

- Save and share Cloth preset types to drive artist productivity and ensure that clothing is consistent when using the same fabrics on different cloths, characters, etc.

- Access most Cloth functions with MAXScript: Technical Directors will be able to script tools to enhance their production pipelines.


Plugin Update: Atmospherics

Changes for v1.5 are:
- No changes, but Chaos Group / Digimation have finally recompiled the plugin for Max 6 and 7.

Phoenix is available for Max 4 to 7 and costs $395.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Unlimited render slave licenses for network rendering
- Export and import of hair animation into a cached .oxh format
- Improved dynamics stability
- Many bug fixes
- Updated help files
- Many .max samples scenes are now included

Ornatrix is available for Max 6 and 7, and costs $149.99. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Import / Export

Hypercosm Teleporter is a software tool used to efficiently export 3D models and animations from Max into Hypercosm ultra-compact web deployable applets.

Hypercosm Teleporter is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $299.99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.05 are:
- Fixes a few bugs


Plugin Update: MAXScript Extensions

v7.05 adds the following:
- isAnimPlaying()
- NodeExposureInterface.Create < node >
- NodeExposureInterface.Get < node >
- particleCenter < particlesys_node > < particle_index_integer >
- particleLife < particlesys_node > < particle_index_integer >
- particleSize2 < particlesys_node > < particle_index_integer >
- getThisScriptFilename()
- redefined meshop.setVert, meshop.moveVert, polyop.setVert, polyop.moveVert to take array of point3 values as 2nd arg
- yet another fix to colorPickerDlg to show the right color picker given the alpha arg value


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v1.33 are:
- This point release includes several important bug fixes (I don't have any details at the moment)

CAT is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $995. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

This is a tool that enables you to copy and paste vertex positions and vertex selections to and from anywhere in the stack. It is free for non-commercial use.

PasteVertexBuffer is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $10. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

This tool mirrors, flips or resets vertex positions, based on a symmetrical reference node. Created for morph target generation. Unlike the symmetry modifier, vertex ordering will not change so morph targets will not lose validity. This plugin is free for non-commercial use.

Transmographier is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $20. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

This tool colours polygons by 3, 4 or 5+ verts/edges. This makes it easy to see triangles, quads, and 5+ sided polygons for cleaning up models. It also has a numeric feedback as tiny triangles may be missed at first glance. This plugin is free for non-commercial use.

ColorPolyByVerts is available for Max 5 to 7 and costs $10. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modifiers

This is a rewrite of Grants old Translucency fake script as a plugin, so it is many many times faster. It works on vertex colours, you can either paint them or use the assign vertex colours utility.


New Plugin: Render Effects

This is a modified multipass motion blur. It has the same settings as the built in one, with some extra options for the blending mode.


New Plugin: Lighting

The RPC Shadow Light Plugin allows Max users to quickly and easily generate shadows for the RPC Content in their scenes. The plugin provides a new RPC Shadow Light that can be placed in a scene corresponding to the position of a primary lightsource such as the sun.

The RPC Shadow Light works by automatically generating a mask of select RPC Content and then removing light from the scene where the RPCs should cast a shadow. By design, the plugin does not interfere or change any light sources you have placed previously in your scene.

The Shadow plugin costs $49.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Improved performance
- Support for dramatically larger scene graphs
- Expanded customization using MAXScript
- Support for Max 7

Flight Studio is available for Max 6 and 7, and costs $1495. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Render Effects

Generates trails behind moving objects, similar to the GhostTrails plugin. The main advantage over GhostTrails is that this plugin doesn't generate any extra geometry.


Plugin Update: Particles

v1.06 adds three new operators:
Camera Culling Operator - can reduce the geometry load in the viewports and/or at render time by filtering out all particles not visible to the camera.
Copy Out Test - a simplified version of the Spawn test that you can use to reduce overhead in the particle system when you simply want to duplicated particles without using other Spawn settings.
Display Script Operator - a diagnostic tool that lets you display viewport data associated with each particle.


Plugin Update: MAXScript Extensions

Changes for v7.04 are:
- Fixed alpha option of colorPickerDlg
- added type:{#paste | #composite | #blend} to pasteBitmap
- added: getNodeTM


New Plugin: Modelling / Animation

Ornatrix is a hair solution plugin for Max. Starting from scratch it allows you to create, model, animate, and render any type of hair, fur, and almost any other fiber-based object you can think of.

Ornatrix is available for Max 6 and 7, and costs $149.99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Render Effects

Changes for v1.6 are:
- Adds 'Density Balance', which controls the distribution of the gradient.

The link above is for the Max 7 version, you can get the Max 6 version here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.46.10 are:
- Fixes a problem with the year 2005 that caused Max to crash

V-Ray is available for Max 3 to 7 and costs $299 for the Basic version and $799 for the Advanced version. A demo version is available here.


Site News: Happy New Year!

MAX Plugins.de wishes everyone out there a Happy New Year! We hope that 2005 is a good one for all of you.