MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  February 2010
 

Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.2.7 are:
- Some internal changes to fix instability with the 64-bit versions of OgreMax
- Modified 'Ignore Hidden Objects' scene setting to be true by default
- Removes the 'Remove Bone Translations' settings

OgreMax is available for Max 8 to 2010 and costs $250. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.2.5.37155 are:
- Adds 'Spring Dynamics' rollout to position spring controller
- Internal schematic view changes
- Search box in tree views now has a select vs. filter toggle
- Updated version info
- Adds missing files

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Post FX

Syndicate Camera Effects for Max contains various tools for creating depth-of-field, ambient occlusion and motion blur. Features include:
- Fast and physically accurate post process depth-of-field
- Any image can be used for camera bokeh
- Extremely fast post rendering ambient occlusion
- Support for basic color bleeding in AO
- High dynamic range capable image and multi-pass motion blur
- Works with most renderers including scanline renderer and mental ray

Syndicate Camera Effects is available for Max 2010 and costs €179.


Plugin Update: Controllers

Changes for v1.0 Beta 2010.02.23 are:
- Fixes and improves Target and Swivel Match behaviour
- The main and second rotation preferences are now matched when pressing IK or FK buttons
- The swivel angle is now matched when linking main FK node and removing IK Target
- Some Maxscript properties have had their names changed


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v1.08 are:
- Fixes some surface issues found in previous versions
- It now installs under Max 2010 Design

PWrapper is available for Max 7 to 2010 and costs €295. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Connection

Changes for v8.4 are:
- Improved displacement mapping
- New multi-materials allow you to change all materials of any given object in a single operation
- Adds new 'Relative to sea' material mapping option
- Adds new 'Sea level' input node
- Adds user-definable units in function graphs
- Easier pose/motion handling
- EcoSystem display improvements
- The render area and collections browser can now be locked
- Materials mapped in World coordinates are now accurately previewed in OpenGL
- GPU resources can now be easily monitored in the status bar
- You can now copy/paste objects to hidden or locked layers
- Faster high quality previewing in OpenGL
- Automatic resizing of render buckets to maximize use of all cores on small renders
- Faster handling of complicated group hierarchies
- Default views are now automatically resized to adjust according to internal units
- And much more...

Vue 8 xStream is available for Max 7 to 2010 and costs $1495. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v1.3.29 are:
- Fixes some issues found in previous versions of glu3D

glu3D is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs €495. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Controllers

Changes for Beta 2010.02.18 are:
- The solver can now be scaled without causing problems
- Fixes an issue when the goal parent hierarchy only has one goal parent node
- All the parameters and options have been exposed to MAXScript
- The Target Node can be be linked to any Goal Parent and vice versa
- Values are now set to default when creating the solver
- There is now an option to disable main and secondary preferred rotation match
- Adds MAXScript functions to retrieve nodes that are part of the solver
- Fixes problems related to deleting, changing or removing goal parent nodes
- Fixes problems with IK matching
- Constraints now work on nodes that are part of the solver
- Fixes problems related to changing the hierarchy of nodes that are part of the solver
- Fixes problems related to modifying keyframes in nodes that are part of the Goal Parent Hierarchy
- Swivel Match is now more accurate
- Fixes Goal Parent behaviour
- Fixes a problem when creating a solver after setting a goal parent
- Fixed a problem where the plugin wouldn't work on some machines


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.0.445 are:
- Fix to Max plugin - corrected spotlight spread calculation
- Fix to Max plugin - fix to output correct far max attenuation for light shaders
- Fix to ensure any specified custom stylesheet is initialised when application starts
- Fix to 'Save Image' option to default to scene folder
- Changed Plug-In Manager to include install path and allow manual override
- Adds support for Max Design 2009 and 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Rendition is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs $395. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.4.0 are:
- Completely new, highly advanced and feature-rich renderer system
- The history of a net job chunk is now a true event log
- Improved editing of multiple net jobs
- You can now use placeholders for the image directory path when using automatic frame checking
- You can now set a maximum number of render attempts for net job chunks
- Adds OS-specific path maps
- Adds flood protection to the console
- Improved automatic net job cleanup
- The Python integration has been greatly improved
- User interface improvements
- And much more... a full list of changes can be found in this PDF

RenderPal is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs €45 for a single node license. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.1.80 are:
- Exposes scene asset functionality
- Exposes container functionality
- Minor bug-fixes


Plugin News: Core Zero development news...

Alessandro Cangelosi, developer of the rShaders, has released Beta 1.5, which includes major fixes to the Ocean shader, minor UI tweaks to the Ice and Snow shaders, and a completely new Sand shader. He has also added new information, screenshots and a beta gallery to his new website.

He has also announced a special promotional offer called 'Fifty at Fifty', where he is offering 50 licenses at 50% of the normal price in February and March. Information on both pre-release pricing and final pricing can be found here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Panda3D v1.7.0 (including the exporter) are:
- Adds support for Max 2010 (32-bit only)
- Adds support for running Panda3D apps in a browser via web plugin
- Adds fully automatic shadow mapping
- Easy to use distribution and packaging framework
- Adds integrated support for NVIDIA PhysX
- Adds support for GLSL shaders
- Geometry shaders, both in Cg and GLSL
- Improved Cg support
- Adds hardware geometry instancing support
- Adds a runtime fullscreen toggle
- Adds Unix/X11 resolution querying/switching support
- Adds experimental Unix/X11 support for relative mouse mode
- New, cleaner import conventions, replacing PandaModules
- Adds parallax mapping
- Adds support for OpenGL ES 1 and 2
- Adds experimental Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
- New collision solid: box
- Working FreeBSD support
- Blur / Sharpen postprocessing filter
- Many improvements to the Shader Generator
- Fixes and improvements to DistributedObject network system
- New AI libraries
- Adds MeshDrawer2D
- Most Panda objects now work with the pickle/cPickle and copy modules
- Windows build now compiled for Python 2.6
- Tons of new features and bugfixes


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.4 are:
- Adds 44 new Wall materials

V-Ray Material Presets Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2010 and costs €100.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v1.01 are:
- Adds a DMM particle system for generating particles based on occuring fractures
- Adds density boxes for varying the tet density of your meshes
- Adds toughness boxes for making weak/strong parts in your models

DMM Plugin is available for Max 2008 to 2010 and costs $599. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.2.3.24027 are:
- You can now store container nodes in templates, but only if they are inherited and closed
- Container nodes refresh automatically after creating templates
- Container objects no longer render previews
- Removes some superfluous code
- Updated to Max.NET 1.1.8
- Adds a missing file
- Internal changes

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.17.0 Beta 3b are:
- Optimized the Optix renderer
- Fixes a bug that was ignoring the front/back ray distances
- Fixes a crash problem with the distance tool
- Fixes a potential BSOD
- Solves a problem with the cudart.dll in x64


New Plugin: Texturing

Syndicate Sub-Surface Scattering Shader is a fast, high quality, production proven sub-surface scattering shader for the scanline renderer in Max 2010.

Features include:
- 32-bit and 64-bit support
- Easy blending between SSS and Blinn shading
- Both single and multiple scattering, easily managed
- Controllable anisotropy
- Custom depth colors
- Unlimited render node licenses
- Free lite version available

Syndicate SSS is available for Max 2010 and costs €179. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Texturing

The SigerShaders are scripted plugins for use with V-Ray v1.5 and higher that control many components of the V-Ray Material based on specific Material criteria.

This set contains 8 Plaster / Stucco presets each with 5 types of surface finish, as well as 1274 Sikkens wall paint colours each with 5 types of surface finish and 5 types of surface bumps, all of which can be customized flexibly and, most importantly, quickly, for all needs. The Wall shader only exposes the settings that are important in creating a highly realistic and optimized material.

SigerShaders VWall is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs €37.99.


Plugin News: SnowFlow discount...

48design are offering a discount of more than 15% on their SnowFlow plugin. If you buy the plugin before 10.30 AM (CET) on Monday, you only pay €40 instead of €48.

SnowFlow is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and normally costs €48.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.0.444 are:
- Remove obsolete 3ds Max bitmap acceleration
- Fixes mi_api_texture_byte_copy to support floating point verbatim textures
- Fixes 3ds Max plugin installation to better handle declarations
- Fixes state caching, resolves some light mapping issues
- Replaces 3ds Max plugin with IPR functionality (2010 32-bit & 64-bit versions)

Rendition is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs $395. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Fixes a crash bug when used in a Composite map

The link above is for Max 9 to 2009. The Max 2010 version is here.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Fixes another 64-bit crash bug

The link above is for the Max 2010 version, the Max 2009 version is here, and the Max 9 / 2008 version is here.


Plugin Update: Objects

Changes for v1.0a are:
- Fixes another 64-bit crash bug

The link above is for the Max 2010 version, the Max 2009 version is here, and the Max 9 / 2008 version is here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.17.0 Beta 3 are:
- Optimized the Optix map renderer
- Fixes a crash bug in the Distance tool


Plugin Update: Modelling / Texturing

Changes for v2.5.7b are:
- Fixes a bug with network rendering of animated proxies
- Fixes several minor registration bugs

VRayScatter is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs €200 for a workstation license. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling / Animation

Hair Farm is a complete hair solution for 3ds Max. It comes with over 40 different tools for hair modelling, animation and rendering. It is fully integrated into Max and even allows you to use many existing Max features with hair objects.

Some of the novel technologies in Hair Farm are the following:
- A whole new hair modeling pipeline combining the best ideas both the industry and the academia, including hair mesh modeling
- An artist-friendly realistic hair material that can efficiently handle complicated light behavior like multiple scattering in hair volume to produce physically-based realism
- A highly optimized high-quality ray tracer for hair that automatically handles anti-aliasing without the need to specify the number of samples
- A whole new hair simulation technique that can robustly handle complicated models and advanced physical behavior like hair-hair interaction
- Technologies in curve representations for modeling and rendering

Hair Farm has two workstation license options: Professional and Ultimate. Hair Farm Professional comes with non-floating license for a single computer. Hair Farm Ultimate has floating license and includes priority support. There are also render node licenses available for using on you render farm. Full information on pricing can be found here.

Hair Farm is available for Max 9 to 2010 and costs $699.95 for a single node-locked license. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Fixes a crash bug in 64-bit Max 2009


Plugin Update: Objects

Changes for v1.0a are:
- Fixes a crash bug in 64-bit Max 2009


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.2.0.23713 are:
- Adds configuration option to change schematic wire colors
- Default schematic wire thickness changed to 3 pixels
- Fixes palette allowing drag and drop of items which shouldn't be allowed
- Changed demo schematic node limit from 7 to 10 nodes
- Demo version now allows usage of templates
- Gradient ramp flag value controllers are no longer settable
- Fixes gradient ramp custom layout not being applied
- Fixes main Zookeeper window sometimes not staying on top of main Max window
- Fixes error message when clearing inputs of a scene node
- Improvements to the spinner value display and increments
- Fixes UVW Map modifier not having custom layout applied
- UVW Map modifier Map Channel parameter is now exposed
- Adds 'Bone Properties' rollout to nodes containing common bone-related methods
- Fixes layout children sometimes being listed in reverse order
- Composite templates can now be dropped from any browser
- Adds custom layout for slice modifier
- Adds message to inform user when a template cannot be overwritten

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Connection

Changes for v6.0.2 include:
- The search box now provides real time filtering
- Adds a button to clear the current search string
- You can now override node priority on an instance basis
- Database and response times have been optimized
- Clear All events and 'Delete' key have been enabled on the notifier
- Adds 'archive' status for jobs
- Log management has been revamped
- Instances are now correctly reported as Paused in the Console and web server
- Services Control now opens the logs from the correct path
- Fixes some issues with the Linux installation scripts
- Changes the user detection logic on the Windows platform
- Fixes a display error on relative frames in the Chunk Views
- Fixes a bug in manual frame check that made it unstable with certain checking settings
- Fixes some date displays errors in the jobs queue view of the Console
- Adds pins on the views that prevents view movement between splitters
- Adds a hide button for the filters bars
- You can now sort the chunks view
- A pool filter has been included in the jobs queue view
- Fixes a bug that prevented storing the persistence of pool filters settings across workspaces

Muster is available for Max 8 to 2010 and costs $85. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.0 include:
- Pages now list material features
- Adds selection of material from the script
- Get the materials being used in the scene
- Adds a material search function

MaterialMultiSlots is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs ¥1500. A demo version is available here.


Plugin News: Hair Farm to be released on Monday...

Cyber Radiance have announced that their Hair Farm plugin will be released on Monday February 8th. Pricing information will be announced with the release.

Hair Farm will have two workstation license options: Professional and Ultimate. Hair Farm Professional will come with a non-floating license for a single computer. Hair Farm Ultimate will have a floating license and it will include priority support. You will find the details of these license options on the Hair Farm website after the release.

Hair Farm will also have a special Rendernode version designed for network rendering, so that you can use Hair Farm's powerful hair renderer with your render farm. Hair Farm Rendernode will offer full rendering functionality of Hair Farm without the user interface.


Plugin Update: MAXScript Extensions

Changes for v0.9051 are:
- Fixes a few bugs
- Improved stability
- Adds (working) support for Max 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- The source code has now been released


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.2.5 are:
- Adds the OgreMax version to the exported scene file
- Adds 'Create OgreMax Scene Window for Selected Objects' item to the OgreMax menu
- Updates the Ogre 1.6.x releases to use Ogre 1.6.5
- Modified the mesh merge feature to use less memory
- Fixes the object progress counter counting too high when exporting the scene as a mesh
- Fixes a bug with log file messages being indented when they shouldn't be

OgreMax is available for Max 8 to 2010 and costs $250. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.6 are:
- All parameters are now saved when closing SnowFlow
- Significant performance boost in selection phase
- Performance boost in snowflakes method
- Caching has been optimized
- Fixes a minor 'wind / rough surface' bug
- Fixes a bug with particles
- The Creativity Extension is no longer needed
- Adds a search for update function in the 'About' rollout

SnowFlow is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs €48.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.0 are:
- Adds support for 64-bit Max
- Bug-fixes


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v1.50 are:
- Adds support for new PhysX plugin v.2.0 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds the ability to use Home Grid as an infinite Unyielding plane
- Removed Mass property in Impact and Inactive rollouts
- Adds new Density property in Impact, Inactive and Unyielding rollouts
- Adds new Density property in Custom Properties
- Removed 'Simulate group of objects as one concave object' feature due to PhysX plugin restrictions
- Removed 'Demolish group' feature due to PhysX plugin restrictions
- Removed 'Gluedemolished' and 'Glue linked' features due to PhysX plugin restrictions
- Adds a new 'Remove PhysX modifier' tool in Tools menu

RayFire Tool is available for Max 2008 to 2010 and costs $285. A demo version is available here.


Shader Updates: mental ray Shaders

Changes for v3.3 are:
- Adds p_shader_replacer shader, mostly used as override shader on Fur
- p_MegaTK can now be used as a photonic shader
- Changes default value for 'Opacity Mode' in p_MegaTK from 'Alpha' to 'Average'
- Adds SpecialC5-SpecialC10 passes to p_MegaTK and p_HairTK
- Enabled the support for instance light lists in p_scatter_wrap
- Fixes a bug with wrong light direction in p_scatter_wrap if 'Spread' == 0
- Fixes a NaN value in p_scatter_wrap if 'Max Scatter Distance' == 0
- Improved sampling pattern for 'Shadow Blur' in p_scatter_wrap
- Adds 'Color Variation' parameter to p_HairTK
- Adds 'Thin Wall Translucence' effect to p_scatter_wrap
- Adds 'Visible for FG' parameter to p_HairTK
- Fixes a bug in 'Fur Diffuse' part of p_MegaTK
- Adds p_dielectric_interface shader
- Adds 'SmoothKit' and 'ReelSmart' mode to p_motion_to_rgb
- Fixes a bug with NaN values in reflect/refract part of p_MegaTK
- Adds 'Coefficient Back Diffuse' parameter to p_HairTK
- Adds 'Saturation Variation' and 'Gain Variation' parameters to p_HairTK
- Fixes a possible bug with incorrect specular normals in p_HairTK
- Adds p_eye texture shader
- Fixes a bug with resaving all frame images if incremental mi and p_OpenEXR_saver was used
- Adds meta data to files written with p_OpenEXR_saver
- Fixes a rare crash with detail shadows in p_MegaTK and p_HairTK
- Fixes a rare crash bug with rasterizer and raytracing enabled in p_HairTK
- Fixes a crash in p_MegaTK_pass if 'half' buffer type used with 'frame buffer gamma'
- Fixes possible 'inf' value in p_math_output
- Adds optimization in p_MegaTK for FG with bump if 'Ignore Bump' is enabled


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.17.0 Beta 2 are:
- Fixes lots of bugs
- Adds vertex color support for PLY files
- Adds a new experimental GPU renderer based on the NVIDIA Optix/CUDA technology


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.2.4 are:
- Modified the 'Check for Mesh Instances' scene setting to be false by default

OgreMax is available for Max 8 to 2010 and costs $250. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1729 are:
- Shader optimizations
- Upgraded real-time shaders
- Shader model 2 support for the Infinity Shader plugin for Max


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds a procedural snow material (Scanline, V-Ray)

SnowFlow is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs €48.


Plugin Update: Objects

Changes for v1.14 are:
- Fixes a crash bug in the 64-bit versions


Plugin News: Special offer from iCube R&D extended...

iCube R&D have extended their special offer for 3 days only (1st, 2nd and 3rd February 2010) where you can get a 20% discount on any of their products including bundles. To get the discount, just use the following coupon code when making a purchase: MultiScatter

The discount is celebrating the upcoming release of their new plugin MultiScatter, which is due this month. The plugin includes all of the functionality of VrayScatter but also works with Mental Ray.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.1.7.30702 are:
- Falloff material now saves and restores its mix curve in composite templates
- Node hidden, frozen, box mode, and xray material state are now saved in templates
- Fixes the wrong node being previewed when creating preview floater
- Fixes extra nodes being added to a schematic view after it's used to create a template
- Texture maps now have the texture coordinate and map channel parameters
- Scale values are now remembered in templates
- When template has loading errors, it now still tries to restore composite inputs
- Fixes entity layout issue where multiple rollouts had same layout applied
- Gradient ramp texture now has its flag and flag color parameters exposed
- Composite node inputs and output are now recorded using node names instead of indices
- Upgraded to Max.NET 1.1.7

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 and 2010, and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Objects

Changes for v0.70b are:
- Adds support for Max 2009 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds auto optimization for large lawn structures
- Mental ray shader now supports final gathering correctly