MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  May 2015
 

Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.1.9 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016

The Maxwell 3ds Max plugins come with Maxwell Render, which is available for Max 2011 to 2016 and costs €595. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.19 are:
- Bug-fixes

miauu's Work Plane is available for Max 2009 to 2016 and costs €10.


Plugin News: Special offer on XrayBlendSkin

As Raylight S.r.l. are currently running a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for XRayUnwrap v2.0, they have announced that for the length of the campaign they are giving away XrayBlendSkin for Max 2009 to 2014 for free. All of the details can be found here.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.0.3 are:
- Adds the standard Output dialog
- Minor bug fixes


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.0.3 are:
- Adds the standard Output dialog
- Minor bug fixes


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1922 are:
- Fixes an Infinity Exporter / 3ds Max regression


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.4.0 are:
- Material Manager 1.0 Lite Edition is now integrated
- Adds a material preset library for V-Ray, Corona and scanline
- The latest Crossmap v1.4.0 is included
- New 'Render to Maps' feature (bake bitmaps and create new material)
- New copy protection with nodelocked and floating licenses
- You now get a full featured 14 day demo without activation
- Max 2014 or higher now display messages to improve viewport performance settings
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Fixes a MAXScript error when loading old scenes with missing bitmaps
- Infos are now updated correctly in statistics when clearing bitmaps
- Fixes auto-size calculation being wrong in some cases
- Fixes the last selected folder not being remembered correctly during session

Walls & Tiles is available for Max 2011 to 2016 and costs €79. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.1.0 are:
- Material Manager 1.0 Lite Edition is now integrated
- Adds a material preset library for V-Ray, Corona and scanline
- The lastest Crossmap v1.4.0 is included
- New copy protection with nodelocked and floating licenses
- You now get a full featured 14 day demo without activation
- Adds diagonal mirroring for tiles
- Adds global color correction for tiles with hue, saturation, value
- Max 2014 or higher now display messages to improve viewport performance settings
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Cancel on setting new library path no longer leads to a MAXScript error

Mosaic is available for Max 2011 to 2016 and costs €79.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.4.0 are:
- New Material Manager integration with a new texture / map library
- Adds support for VP Omnitiles
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Adds an online check for new versions
- The licensing/copy protection system now allows far more flexibility
- You now get a 14 day unrestricted trial period
- The UI map listing has been overhauled
- Adds a probability setting for each individual map
- Sorting of maps has been extended to also sort by colour or probability
- Fixes map changes not causing the viewport to be updated
- mental ray global color corrections now work
- Random but unique selection is now always the same when used in Walls & Tiles

Crossmap is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs €49. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds support for Max 2015 and 2016
- Improves baking performance
- Adds support for specifying ParticleFlow Events
- Adds an extensive set of viewport and playback acceleration options
- Adds framerate matching capability
- Various UI and stability improvements

SuperMesher is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $145. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.8 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Adds support for Maya 2016
- Adds a Z offset to the 'global' function
- Adds processing options for the post-effect rendering of edge lines
- Fixes a problem with the color picker under Windows 8.1

Hinomaru is available for Max 2013 to 2016 and costs ¥55,650.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.16.06 are:
- IES files are now rendered interactively
- Fixes an issue with adding a directory to favorites from the menu
- Fixes an issue with lost 'Attribute Holder' settings on merging
- Fixes problems assigning custom material types when dragging textures to submaterial slots
- Adds the ability to drag the texture into a Bitmap slot

Project Manager is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v3.10.00 are:
- Adds support for the latest version of Corona renderer
- Adds support for the latest version of Octane renderer
- Adds support for Maxwell renderer
- Fixes some issues when the system uses text with size greater than 100%
- Fixes an issue with hiding the V-Ray VFB window
- Fixes a bug with locking the Max hotkeys after opening some menus

FilePathFinder Lite is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $18.50. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.0 are:
- Adds installer support for Max 2016
- Changes install path due to installation fail on certain system configurations
- General bugfixes and improvements to multiMap
- Fixes multiMap Randomizers
- New multiMap transform mode using uvwXform modifier

refGuides is available for Max 2013 to 2016 and costs $15. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: MCG

Changes for v1.01.00 are:
- Fixes a bug that caused the slices to be uneven, now they are all equal
- The graph has been refined, replacing chunks of logic with some simple nodes


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v3.5 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016

finalToon is available for Max 2013 to 2016 and costs €495. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.23.2-1.8 are:
- Fixes the Octane light On/Off - Visible/Invisible mess
- Implements gradient texture support for Octane DB
- Adds the missing 'Smooth' parameter to the gradient texture
- Materials imported from Octane DB are now named according to DB material name
- Adds parallel processing to some parts of global mesh translation
- Minor fixes and improvements

OctaneRender for 3ds Max is available for Max 2012 to 2016 and costs €459. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Animation

WeightPro is a plugin for automatic, fast and smooth Skin modifier weighting, no matter whether the mesh has good topology or not. It voxelizes the mesh with the skeleton using the GPU to calculate the shortest distances between bones and vertices. It also allows you to make adjustments during posing in realtime. Once the weighting is done you can delete the plugin from the scene and the skinned object is ready to use by everyone without the plugin.

WeightPro is available for Max 2013 to 2016 and costs €59.


New Plugin: Modelling

This commercial MAXScript allows you to procedurally make holes in a mesh by selecting desired vertices.

Create Holes is available for Max 2016 and costs $7. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- New Spline Overlap modifier detects spline self-intersections and displaces overlapping segments
- Freehand Spline now retains surface normals obtained during object constraint
- Improved normal accuracy of Freehand Spline
- Normalize Spline2 is now Freehabd normal aware
- Adds a 'Use Normal' option to PathDeform2 for use with Freehand splines
- Fixes a defect in Relax that prevented the spline from updating in some cases

SplineTools is available for Max 2010 to 2016 (64-bit only) and costs $95. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: MCG

MultiSlicer is an MCG modifier that slices your object into multiple slices. It has controls for the number of slices, the distance between the slices, a position offset and tilt / rotation options for the slices.


Plugin Update: MCG

Changes for v1.0 are:
- You can now define the angle to use for snapping in random rotation
- All features now work in both dimensions


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.0.1 are:
- Fixes some thread safety issues


Plugin Update: Connections

Changes for Build 006671 are:
- Adds PlantFactory 2014.7 compatibility
- Fixes updating the preview when loading NPR sub-styles with the load button
- Fixes reloading of default style when clicking the 'New' button in the NPR Options
- Avoids unwanted deactivation of NPR from the Post Render Options
- Fixes potential NPR render differences when rendering lines on a multi-core CPU
- Render areas now use the render settings set in the Render Options
- Fixes a network rendering communication failure on some networks
- Auto-scaling of cloud layers can now be toggled on/off from the Cloud Material Editor
- AlignTool improvements: when a single object is selected, it is automatically centered
- The render scene preview is now automatically cleared when loading a new scene
- In the Function Editor you can now directly edit a new node upon addition
- Fixes a potential EcoPainter crash when the EcoSystem layer is part of a mixed material
- Fixes resizing of the published parameters sub-section in the Plant Editor
- Fixes a potential crash when moving a plant while the scene preview is rendering
- Fixes refreshing of the sun color with atmospheres saved with VUE
- Fixes a potential freeze when using the Terrain Editor on procedural terrains with lens flares
- Fixes potential crashes when opening the Terrain Editor
- Fixes a potential crash when closing the Function Editor
- Improves the relighting engine with un-stacked renders
- PlantFactory vegetations are now created at the viewport's center
- Fixes a potential crash when editing hyperblobs
- Fixes a potential corruption of the saved interface layout
- Fixes the Basic Material Editor in MacOS
- Fixes a rare MacOS crash when deleting a layer in the material editor
- Adds a progress bar in MacOS when opening terrain editor or manipulating the terrain
- Fixes opening the object editor by double-clicking the object in the WorldBrowser on MacOS
- Vastly improves the MacOS user interface behaviour
- Reduces the content browser's cache footprint
- Fixes Load Particle System
- Fixes a potential duplication of Function nodes when loading a material
- Fixes potential crashes during the construction of CSG/Metablob/Hyperblob OpenGL preview
- Improves progression display when downloading Cornucopia3D content
- Fixes the loading of multi-materials
- Fixes a potential crash when exiting the Texture Manipulation Editor
- Fixes a potential infinite loop when modifying an animatable parameter in the Camera Options
- Improves the AddSomething() Python function to automatically center the object
- Adds a new Python function AlignObjectInViews()
- Adds PlantFactory compatibility to the AddPlant() Python function
- Fixes a potential crash while importing some .OBJ files
- Saving render resume info now handles files over 4GB
- Fixes inverted normals when writing or loading Alembic files
- Fixes a potential MaxOS C4D crash when moving the EcoPainter panel too fast

Vue xStream is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $1695. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Updates: ScalpelMAX, volumeBreaker and StairMAX for Max 2016

cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. have announced that their ScalpelMAX, volumeBreaker and StairMAX plugins are now available for Max 2016. Full details can be found here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.0.3 are:
- Adds the ability to export RIBs (not available in the free package yet)
- Adds the ability to output statistics files
- Fixes the Normal Bump shader


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v3.3.0.0 are:
- Fixes Ox Strand Gravity modifier diagram error and data loss when loading scenes
- Fixes Ox Mesh From Strands proxy mesh incorrect deformations
- Fixes Ox Edit Guides causing guide color flickering inside viewports on some computers

Ornatrix is available for Max 2009 to 2016 and costs $499. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.4.8 beta are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Adds native support for V-Ray 3.1 (previous versions used V-Ray 3.0 SDK)
- Adds experimental support for V-Ray 3.2 beta
- Fixes a random rendering crash with V-Ray 3.0 (not 3.1) and Max 2015
- Scene Explorers are now closed before rendering with Mental Ray and restored once completed
- RailClone objects can now be converted to Editable Polys or Editable Patches
- Fixes a memory leak with Mental Ray
- Fixes a rare crash in the network licensing system
- Fixes a crash in the Library Browser clicking 'Import' with no item selected

RailClone Pro is available for Max 9 to 2016 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Texturing

Changes for v4.3.8 beta are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Adds experimental support for V-Ray 3.2 beta
- General->Seed is now animatable
- Scene Explorers are now closed before rendering with Mental Ray and restored once completed
- Fixes a potential crash using animated objects
- Fixes a memory leak in Mental Ray
- Fixes a rare crash in the licensing system
- Fixes version checking in the Mental Ray shader
- Areas->Edge/Size modes are now properly affected by Geometry->Scale/Global Scale
- Animation->time parameters are now converted correctly in PAL mode

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 9 to 2016 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: MCG

This is a two-dimensional clone modifier with random position offsets, random local rotations and random MaterialIDs. It can be used to create tiles of any sort.


New Plugin: MCG

This MCG modifier allows you to clone objects spherically, with controls for normal alignment, scale and rotation.


New Plugin: MCG

This MCG compound is for randomly rotating an array of meshes. Normally, randomization only rotates in one direction, so use this compound for true randomization.


Plugin Update: MCG

Changes for v1.02.00 are:
- Changes the axis slider label to X/Y/Z rather than 1/2/3


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v1.65 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016

RayFire is available for Max 2011 to 2016 and costs $385. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v6.7 are:
- Job environment variables can now be modified after jobs have been submitted
- Bulk submission is now much faster
- Adds support for Yosemite OS X 10.10
- WranglerView is now 5x faster due to tuned database queries and full control over log data size
- Adds distributed rendering controls for Max users

Qube! is available for Max 7 to 2016 and costs $3,500 for one supervisor, five workers, MySQL and subscription for one year. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.19.1 are:
- Fixes a crash bug when the user checked 'Show cage' in the 3D viewer


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1919 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016


Plugin Update: Lighting

Changes for v5.0 include:
- Flexible new user interface
- New resizable canvas view
- Canvas can now display transparency via checkboard pattern
- New channel display dropdown, including HSVA, HSV, Alpha
- New display color LUT dropdown
- New toolbar for canvas interaction mode
- You can now zoom in and out of the canvas
- You can now zoom into a cropped area on canvas
- You can now pan around the zoomed canvas view
- Adds a 'Fit canvas into the view' function
- New Pixel Probe displays RGBA and HSV values under the cursor position
- Adds a new Presets Panel, replacing the old 'Picture Lights' concept
- Adds a new Light Controls Panel
- Render View (was LiveLight) is now integrated into main HDR Light Studio app
- The render engine is now powered by Embree 2 = faster
- No re-rendering is needed when changing settings such as HDR lighting, view exposure, etc.
- Adds a Pause/Resume button with progress bar
- Adds a time(Sec) setting for Alembic files
- Adds a toolbar for render view interaction mode
- Adds a dropdown for camera selection
- New Freecam mode unlocks the camera and adds buttons for camera controls
- Adds support for Alembic files
- Adds support for FBX files (Windows only)
- Supported file formats are BMP, Cineon, DDS, HDR, IFF, Jpeg, OpenEXR, PNG, PSD, Targa and Tiff
- You can now apply a LUT to the background image
- Adds new fresnel controls for shader
- Adds a max rendering samples setting
- Floor shadow rendering is now faster
- Adds display of the loaded 3D model file path
- Material settings are now presented in a simpler way and are no longer tabbed
- New solo state isolates a lights display without affecting its on/off status
- You can now make lights non-selectable via the canvas or render view
- You can now lock lights so their properties can't be changed
- New repositionable toolbars for adding lights, duplicate, delete, undo/redo and more
- Adds a new 're-render' production HDRI button using last settings
- New underlying architecture for light layer generation and compositing
- Faster multi-threaded final rendering of HDRI maps
- Lights are now positioned with 100 x more precision
- Light sizes are now specified with 100 x more precision
- New sky background procedural sky generator
- Adds a new Gradient Light Type with a linear or radial gradient
- The gradient background light now includes an alpha ramp
- Adds planar and spherical content mapping
- Adds new blend modes: Multiply, High Pass (via low pass with invert), Hue
- Blend mode now has 'preserve alpha' and 'invert' options
- You can now load images as lights
- You can now apply a LUT to a loaded image
- Image content can now be flipped horizontally
- You can now unpremultiply alpha on loaded images
- You can now invert the alpha channel of loaded images
- Adds a saturation slider control for loaded images
- Gradients used for coloring images can now be positioned anywhere with a radial or linear gradient
- Adds a new secondary alpha control on lights via Alpha multiply using gradient or image
- New Uber light type provides all possible lighting settings from a single light type
- Lights can be now be renamed in the Light Properties panel
- Adds a new content type: flat color
- Light preview view is now scalable
- Light preview now has a view exposure control
- HDRI Image output now uses EXR 2.0
- You can now choose between 16bit half or full 32 bit
- Adds a mip-map option
- You can now add a LUT to the rendered output
- And more... a full list of changes can be found here

HDR Light Studio is available for Max 2012 to 2016 and costs £295. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: MCG

This MCG modifier enables you to model with Radial Symmetry on like you can in ZBrush.


New Plugin: MCG

Vert2Vert is an MCG modifier that measures the distance from every vertex in the modifier mesh to every vertex in the target mesh. It then pipes the shortest distances into an affect region and outputs a soft selection. It works a bit like volume select, except it does not check if a vertex is within a target volume, it just measures vertex to vertex and then soft selects accordingly, which makes it super fast.


New Plugin: MCG

This pack consists of a few modifications to the building blocks in the MCG Sample Pack. The original graphs created lots of unwelded vertices, which has been fixed. It also corrects a bug with the segment count. Modifications were made to the Circular sector, Cylinder and Sphere.


New Plugin: MCG

This is an MCG modifier for creating multidimensional arrays. It has options for conforming to surfaces and aligning to normals, as well as various options for scaling and rotation.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.1.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Adds the ability to array any meshable object
- Adds the ability to array splines

Array is available for Max 2015 to 2016 and costs $0.99.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.65 are:
- Adds a function to collapse all control splines into a single spline
- Adds a button to create a Point Helper at each knot of selected splines in CorVex Utility Floater

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v7.1.0.35 include:
- Enhanced logic for balanced/weighted job scheduling
- New slave metrics
- Improved slaves statistics reports
- Improved graphs in the Monitor
- Expanded font synchronization
- Improved job batch display
- Jobs now have a 'Protected' property
- Flexible image viewer configuration
- A standalone Web Service application is now shipped with Deadline
- You can now install the Launcher as a Daemon on Mac OS X
- Improved submission script installers
- Draft has been updated to version 1.3.2.58232
- New application support including Max 2016, Maya 2016, Houdini 14 and Corona DR
- And much more... a full changelog can be found here

Deadline is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $185 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.23.2-1.7 are:
- Adds the new 2.23.2 engine
- Adds new 'Cube map' camera modes
- Fixes a bug with saving 'alpha shadow' and 'keep environment' values
- The OctaneProxy unit scale is now respected
- Adds a stereo mode for the panoramic camera
- Adds a 'Lock camera' feature to the Octane viewport
- Fixes the Octane viewport background bug

OctaneRender is available for Max 2012 to 2016 and costs €459. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: MCG

BUR_SpinScatter is an MCG object clone modifier that creates clones of the underlying object using an offset value and a rotation angle to create naturalistic patterns, i.e. sunflower, sea anemone, etc. You can push the tool pretty far to create a wide variety of effects and all of the settings can be animated. The graph also contains notes on how everything works.


New Plugin: MCG

This is a modified version of the MCG ASlicer modifier that gives you Rotation and Tilt controls rather than simply slicing in 90deg X/Y/Z.


New Plugin: Animation

Wind_Anim is a commercial MAXScript that makes it easy to animate your objects waving in the wind. It has controls for rotation, loop, delay, delay for each hierarchy, shaking width, and how much the end of the hierarchy sways.

Wind_Anim is available for Max 2014 to 2016 and costs $10. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

Oblong and Oblong Void is a pack of two new Max primitives. They are fully parametric, and can also apply mapping coordinates and material ID's.

Oblong / Oblong Void is available for Max 2014 to 2016 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.18 are:
- Fixes a bug when Snap is turned on
- Pick 3 points to align Work Plane uses 1: WP center, 2: positive X, 3: positive Y

miauu's Work Plane is available for Max 2009 to 2016 and costs €10.


New Plugin: MCG

This is an MCG version of a Volume Select modifier that approaches the solution in two ways: a 'dummy' approach and a mathematically correct one.

The 'dummy' one just shoots rays and waits to see if all return report a hit. The mathematically correct approach uses only one ray and computes the angle between the hit normal vector and the ray direction vector.


New Plugin: Utilities

VoxBoss is a (work in progress) plugin that allows users to activate common commands and custom MAXScripts via voice recognition. VoxBoss was born through a small R&D project with an interest in voice recognition within Windows applications, as well as how the plugin could possibly aid 3ds Max users with disabilities.

I seem to have missed this when it came out, but better late than never :o)


New Plugin: Materials

This texture map reproduces the effect of thin film interference on a surface, such as soap bubbles, an oil film or insect wings. It can be used as a reflection color map in a material with the materials' Fresnel option, as the plugin does its own Fresnel calculations.


New Plugin: Materials

This texture map can be used to render materials with a complex index of refraction (IOR). The Fresnel functionality in renderers such as V-Ray and Corona is for dielectric materials such as plastic and is based on the IOR of the material. Metals however have a more complex Fresnel reflective curve that depends also on another parameter called the extinction coefficient. The IOR and the extinction coefficient determine the two characteristics of the Fresnel curve for a material: the reflectivity at normal incidence and how quickly it fades to white at grazing angles.


New Plugin: MCG

stackMesh is an MCG modifier that can add a mesh on top of the current mesh. If the underlying mesh changes its height, the stackMesh will also update.

A great usage example is mixing and matching buildings by stacking one on top of another. The result is non-destructive modelling, and simply by moving the modifiers in the stack you can completely change the order in which everything is put together.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.0.15 are:
- Adds support for Maxwell Render for Max
- Extends the Max importer dialog
- Significant performance improvement in Houdini when loading plant objects
- Adds Laubwerk Browser with drag-and-drop function in Houdini
- Adds support for Maxwell Render for Cinema 4D
- You can now change multiple selected plant objects at once in C4D
- Extends the C4D importer dialog
- Fixes a C4D bug where high quality materials had the wrong reflectance type

Laubwerk Plants Kit 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are available for Max 2010 to 2016 and cost €149 each. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v4.3.0.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016

This version of RPC is available for Max 2016 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.16.4 are:
- Texture names are now converted to POD for Collada files exported from Maya's FBX Exporter
- Adds support for igame version 17.3.374.0
- Fixes the output of logging information
- Fixes a crash that could occur when doing multiple exports


Plugin Update: Bitmap I/O

Changes for v4.1.5 are:
- Add support for ASTC textures
- Fixes loading of KTX textures with mipmaps
- Encoded textures now correctly report that they are modified
- Freshly generated textures now correctly prompt the user to save


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.9.33.2 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016 and Maya 2016
- Adds a 64-bit build of Animation Studio

Granny Exporter is available for Max 2009 to 2016, and is part of the Granny Toolkit which costs $17,500.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v3.19.0 are:
- The xN's UI frontend is now a little bigger, 1024x768 instead of 800x600
- Recompiled using VS2013CEu4 (3rd party plugins must also be recompiled)
- Adds support for Max / Maya 2016
- Updates xVid 1.3.3 and x264vfw_full_42_2538bm_41390 codecs in the installer
- Fixes a crash in the batch renderer using Optix and OpenRL
- Fixes a small bug with incorrect Optix VRAM paging text progress messages
- Improves compatibility with NVIDIA Quadro cards
- Updates the German translations
- Removes the super-high-density mesh version of the Smiley example
- Fixes a bug with storing the heightmaps min/max scale in the XML settings
- Fixes some problems in the COLLADA importer
- Fixes a bug that caused the preview window to show in AO batch mode
- The installer now uses NSIS's Modern UI 2.0
- You can now use the OBJ2SBM and the tangent-object space converters from the comandline
- Fixes a bug that stopped the app from being removed from the installed programs list
- Removed the dotXSI mesh importer temporarily due to incompatibility with VS2013CEu4
- Fixes a bug in the installer that was not copying the Photoshop CC 2014 filters correctly
- Recompiled using the latest libraries


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.4.3 are:
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Silent installer now adds Frost to all detected versions of Max
- Fixes an error when running silent installer on a system with no Max installed
- Fixes the Custom Geometry Seed control
- Fixes an error that caused meshing to end prematurely in some cases

Frost MX is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $495. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.23.1-1.5 are:
- New 2.23.1 engine
- Adds the 'Cube map' camera mode
- Fixes the Octane viewport crash bug
- Fixes the Hair&Fur bug
- Fixes an Octane render settings dialog bug
- Adds some lost textures to the Octane material DB
- The Octane viewport passes rendering now respects the current pass settings
- Max versions prior to 2012 and 32-bit versions are no longer supported
- Minor fixes and improvements

OctaneRender for 3ds Max is available for Max 2012 to 2016 and costs €459. A demo version is available here.


Plugin News: More MCG plugins from Vu Nguyen

Vu Nguyen has released a couple more MCG modifiers:

MCG Venetian Blind v1.01.01 - This MCG modifier takes one vane of a venetian blind and clones it evenly up to your window height. As you pull up the blind, the vanes move accordingly. You can also rotate the vanes to open/close positions.

MCG CloneRotLocal v0.0.54 - This is based on the original ACloneModifer, except it rotates the elements in local mode.


New Plugin: MCG

This MCG modifier applies an image plane to a camera of your choice, allowing you to display a background image that is always aligned to your camera.


New Plugin: MCG

A very simple MCG modifier that centers an object at the center of 2 selected nodes. It's dynamic so you can move either node around and the middle node will always stay centered.


Plugin News: MCG plugins from Javier Castellanos

Javier Castellanos has released a couple of MCG modifiers over at ScriptSpot:

MCG Clone-Local Tool v1.0.20 - Similar to other clone modifiers, but it has not only the regular group rotation but also local rotation. It also has single X, Y, and Z spinners for scale to give a bit more control.

MCG Radial Clone JC v1.1.36 - This MCG clone modifier is based on the Clone-Local modifier above, but it adds a Radial Clone parameter.


New Plugin: MCG

Voluminance calculates the amount of light each vertex receives taking into account the distance travelled inside a mesh. A longer distance travelled inside means more of the light got absorbed, resulting in a darker vertex color. Basically this is a very quick way of getting a sub surface scattering look and feel that renders in seconds.


Plugin Update: Atmospherics

Changes for v3.5.5 are:
- Updates the installer to work with Max 2016

FumeFX is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $845.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Adds a new option to use a Normal Bump texture when outputting textures / making materials
- The Render function now names the new material from the ProPal node name
- The Render function now names all bitmap texture nodes from the node name and element name
- Updates Render function to create the output folder if it does not exist

ProPal is available for Max 2008 to 2016 and costs $6.95.


Plugin News: MCG plugins and tutorials from Elara Systems

Bob Dyce and Michael Spaw from Elara Systems have released a number of MCG plugins together with great tutorials on how they were made. Head on over to their Elara Labs page for the videos and plugins.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.0 are:
- You can now add / selete MuliMatteElements
- Adds custom naming
- Adds preview of names
- You can now save the base name and basic settings

Material ID Organizer is available for Max 2009 to 2016 and costs $4.50. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.3 are:
- You can now use a 'Metal' material type to disable fresnel reflections
- You can now use the 'Soften' material parameter to adjust fresnel power
- Shader optimizations on UV coordinatess (2 coords per TEXTURE(n))
- Corrections to the UV index of normal map textures
- Corrections to 3 light shaders
- Setup has been updated


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v0.40 are:
- Fixes a set path issue in Rename, Copy Selected, Set/Rename path

Library Track and Relink is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.14.24 are:
- A list of compatible renderers is now displayed in the material tooltip
- Adds an option to only render thumbnails for materials if compatible to the current renderer
- Adds the ability to set the intensity multiplier for rendering IES files
- Fixes a minor issue with relinking paths for IES lights
- Fixes a minor issue with object placement
- Adds the ability to rotate the objects by moving the mouse
- Adds a minor redesign for the 'Object Place' tool
- Fixes a startup issue on x32 systems
- Fixes some issues with generating previews for HDR, EXR and PSD files
- Fixes a potential issue with translating paths to local\network

Project Manager is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds automatic material transfer from Max V-Ray to V-Ray for C4D
- Various improvements

MaxToC4D is available for Max 2015 to 2016 and normally costs $49. For a limited time you can get a license for $34.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds new command CA: close and start attached spline
- Adds new command CN: close and start new spline (not attached)
- Adds new command CE: close and exit miauu's Polyline
- Adds new command VA: finish and start attached spline
- Adds new command VN: finish and start new spline
- Adds new command VE: finish and exit
- You can now choose which symbol to use as separator sign, comma or backslash
- Pressing the Esc key now returns focus to the Dimensional Input field
- Fixes a bug when drawing arcs

miauu's Polyline is available for Max 2010 to 2016 and costs €15.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.45 are:
- Fixes a set path issue in Rename, Copy Selected, Convert to, Set/Rename path

Bitmap Tracking/Resizing is available for Max 2009 to 2015 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Texturing

ProPal is a scripted geometry plugin and a special custom attribute to work with Projection modifiers, which allow you to quickly convert geometry into tiling textures with various render elements. It reduces the amount of clicks necessary when baking geometry to textures with Render to Texture (RTT).

ProPal is available for Max 2008 to 2016 and normally costs $6.95. For a limited time there is an introductory price of $4.