MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  February 2011
 

New Plugin: Modifiers

This is a version of the Houdini Ocean Toolkit (HOT) ported to Max. It is a modifier for creating ocean surfaces based on the Tessendorf algorithm published in the Siggraph 2004 course notes.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.4.6 are:
- Adds an edge cookie-cut method
- Fixes a problem with roof polygons containing more than one hole
- Edge cutting methods are now written to disk during scene save

Roof Designer is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $55. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v2.5.1 are:
- Fixes some minor bugs
- Adds tooltips
- Adds a sample scene

BonyFace is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs $399. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.5.1 are:
- Improved the performance of the job dispatcher
- Fixes several issues with Asian (and other) Windows versions
- Fixes missing text in some message boxes

RenderPal V2 is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs €45. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.1.8 are:
- Fixes a problem with smoothing groups on the base surface

VRayPattern is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €150.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v3.3.5 are:
- New 'Power' helper can simulate any external forces
- New 'Collision Sphere' helper simulates collisions between the ground and your vehicle

MadCar is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €200.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for Service Pack 1 are:
- Fixes problems with Harmonics GI and network rendering
- Harmonics GI is now much faster with blend and mix materials
- Fixes problems with thinkingParticles instances and opacities
- Fixes the 'Frame Finished' bug
- finalRender Scanline core renderer is now more tolerant of defective meshes
- 2Sided material now works properly with Harmonics-GI
- Fixes a problem with the fR-Layer material
- Fixes issues and random artifacts with Rectangular Lights
- Fixes an issue with fR-Light material when using multi-sub materials
- fR-Light material is now faster
- Improvements have been made to Alpha Channels
- Fixes a few issues with fR-Proxy objects
- Fixes a problem with the fR-Architecture material 'Visible area lights cause no highlights' setting
- Anaglyph Stereo rendering output has been enhanced
- Fixes a problem with the Stereo Camera 'only left/right' setting not working

finalRender is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €995 (Standard) / €1295 (Studio Edition).


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1748 are:
- Bug-fixes


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v0.1.3 are:
- Adds 64-bit support for Max 9, 2008, 2010 and 2011


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.04 are:
- Adds support for ranges when exporting animations
- You can now use the material name instead of diffuse texture
- Adds a MAXScript interface allowing you to call the exporter directly
- Adds 64-bit versions of the plugin


Plugin Update: Lighting

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Global 'Select all rigs' feature for easily selecting and scaling your rig
- Visibility to Camera now has a built-in workaround for a Max/mental ray bug
- Adds a lock feature for the Length and Width parameters
- Adds colour swatch storage bins to quickly store your light rig colours
- A new import / export workflow allows 5 rigs to be stored in the GUI at once
- Various bug-fixes from earlier versions

Studio Light Rig is available for Max 2010 to 2011 and costs $195 for either the V-Ray or mental ray version. A bundle with both versions is available for $295.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v2.5 are:
- Faster alignment of splines
- Minor improvements to rigs and poses
- Some bugfixes

BonyFace is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs $399. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Particles

Changes for SP2 are:
- Blurp Operator now has an Operator Input for external control of the Animation Phase
- StdShape Operator now supports automatic mapping based on the type of particle shape
- Network rendering with BackBurner is now working with particle cache files
- Improves overall program stability

ThinkingParticles is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €1595. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.17.4 are:
- Adds an interactive post-render visual tool to control height clamping
- You can now output unnormalized raw floating point height / vector displacement maps
- Slightly improved the curvature map algorithm
- The ASE mesh importer now can read vertex colors
- Doubled the speed of the Optix renderer
- Fixes several bugs


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.7.6.20805 are:
- Fixes a warning when dragging out a schematic node's output to a blank space
- Fixes hidden node connections not being displayed after a collapse/expand all
- Major reworking of schematic view under way

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.4 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit only)
- Fixes a problem with the 'Include Quads' feature


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.1.05c are:
- Fixes a problem with XRef instability

MultiScatter is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €200.


Plugin News: pmG's Dare To Share $10 Challenge

pmG, authors of the Messiah:Studio animation software, have launched a very interesting viral campaign. They are selling Messiah:Studio and Messiah:Studio Pro licenses at $10 and $40 respectively (normal pricing is $499 and $1195). The only catch is that you will only receive your license if their total sales goal has been met. If they don't meet their target, then you will get your money refunded. This means that they are relying on those who purchase a license at the discounted price to spread the word and help bring more users to Messiah.

Messiah:Studio comes with a live connection plugin for Max which means you can instantly move assets from Max to Messiah for animating, and as soon as you've finished, all changes and animation are instantly available in Max. Messiah ships with plugins up to Max 8, but the code is open-source and I recompiled the plugins for Max 9 to Max 2011 in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours.


Plugin News: Want a free copy of SnowFlow?

48design are offering a free copy of their SnowFlow plugin to people willing to translate their website to other languages. Just send them an email asking which languages they need, and if you can do the translation, a copy of SnowFlow is yours!

SnowFlow is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €48.


Plugin News: Max 2011 and XidMary

I've just found out that the XidMary plugin from Habware that I've been keeping up-to-date for the past few years doesn't work as expected in Max 2011. It's due to a bug that has always been in there, but only became apparent with the new Max 2011 SDK.

I'm working on a new version of the plugin without the bug, and the VideoPost compositor plugin has already been brought completely up-to-date by a friendly user/programmer called gl.tter. I don't know when I will have the new version ready, but in the meantime, if you need to use XidMary with 2011, then the following workaround will help.

Instead of adding the left and right cameras to your VideoPost queue and combining them with the Compositor, render out the two cameras to an image sequence and then use the Compositor on the 2 image sequences.

Dave


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.0.1 are:
- A trial version has been released

MaxMount is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $49. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.1.05b are:
- Fixes a memory leak

MultiScatter is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €200.


Plugin Update: Atmospherics / Animation

Changes for v5.0 are:
- New Spectral 3 engine gives you volumetric clouds, accurate light dispersion, godrays, etc.
- Adds support for mental ray specific technologies (Sun&Sky, photometric lights, etc.)
- Adds support for V-Ray Sun and Sky
- Ozone 5 renders its atmospheric effects faster thanks to highly optimized technology
- Cloud cross shadowing is fully user controllable allowing clouds to cast shadows on each other
- Extensive library of 150+ predefined atmospheres and 140+ preset cloud shapes

Ozone is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs $295. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling / Animation

Voxelator is a commercial MAXScript grid-based voxel generating solution. It supports all object and animation types and converts them to voxel boxes in a few seconds. You can define unlimited grid density and size, and you can also animate your voxel sizes after generating them.

Voxelator is available for Max 2010 to 2011 and costs $5.


Plugin News: Prototype skin modifier updated

Morten Goder has posted an updated prototype version of his new skin modifier called MeshSkin which works with editable meshes.

The new version has the following changes:
- Using the modifier is now much easier, thanks to listboxes for the bones and checkboxes for picking the bones that influence the mesh selection.
- The MeshSkin modifier can handle 10 bones at a time. If you need to work on more bones, you can just add multiple MeshSkin modifiers to the stack.
- The new prototype is much faster than the old one.
- Unlike his other demo versions, the MeshSkin Demo only works in conjunction with the tutorial files.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.1.0 beta are:
- Adds multi-core CPU support, improving global performance
- Adds support for proxies and high-poly meshes in V-Ray
- Adds randomness for mapping coordinates
- Adds a new 'Display' rollout for configuring both viewport and render settings
- Fixes geometric issues when applying both random rotation and scale
- Bevel now works properly on splines with colinear vertices
- Geometry->Copy From/To now works properly on RailClone objects with modifiers
- Fixes minor Library Browser issues

Registered users of RailClone Pro can download this beta version from the Itoo User Panel in the 'My Betas' section.

RailClone Pro is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v3.4.1 are:
- Fixes a bug that was rotating the items randomly at render time
- Reduced memory footprint for high-poly meshes and xrefs in V-Ray
- Fixes a potential memory corruption in V-Ray 2.0 when using high-poly objects
- Other minor issues fixed

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v5.0.1 are:
- Adds an option to convert particle velocities to meters/second for PFlow
- A viewport gizmo is now used if the mesh loader can't load the current BIN file
- Adds support for exporting individual PFlow events to particle BIN files
- Adds support for PXY particle files in PFlow
- Adds controls for pre- and post-range behavior in the BIN mesh object
- Adds display LOD support for the BIN mesh object
- Adds a mental ray velocity shader which can be used with BIN meshes
- The BIN mesh loader now skips degenerate triangles if present in the source file
- SD files starting on a frame greater than 0 now import correctly
- The BIN mesh object now reports 1 fluid for files with no texture chunk
- Fixes wrong velocities for BIN files with no texture chunk
- The force channel now imports correctly in PFlow

The RealFlow 3ds Max plugins come with RealFlow, which is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs €2995. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.10.52 are:
- Fixes issues with scenes that contain LinkComposite objects
- Fixes issues with material names that contain invalid path characters
- Fixes problems with restoring light states after rendering thumbnails
- Fixes some issues with relinking of bitmaps using the 'Browse' dialog
- 'Translate path to local' now works properly with UNC paths
- 'Translate path to network' now converts to mapped network paths if possible

Project Manager is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs $60. A demo version is available here.


Site News: Lack of updates recently...

I just wanted to apologise for the lack of regular news updates recently, but I've been a bit busy. I'll try to get things posted a bit quicker this month :o)

Dave