MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  November 2022
 

Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v8.0.4 include:
- New ForestSet helper works as a container for sets of objects that can be assigned in Forest
- The 'F' icon is now drawn in different colours, depending on the error condition
- Geometry->'Keep Group' can be used with hierarchies ('Include Children' option)
- Adds animation support to Geometry->'Include Children'
- Adds a Geometry->'Include Children' option
- ForestSet can now set Wireframe Colour to Icon, to distinguish it for different uses
- Adds Distribution by Path->Rand.Pos. to randomize position along the path
- Adds a warning when loading a scene created with a later Forest version
- Adds a button to rebuild selected objects to Forest Lister
- Adds a 'Brush Size' setting to Areas->Paint
- Adds support for UV Surface mode to Areas
- Adds 'Get from Forest' to Surfaces which lets you use the Surfaces from other Forest objects
- Adds a selector in Forest Effects to filter effects by geometry model, similar to Areas
- Adds a new type of parameter to Forest Effects: Spline
- Adds multiple new functions for spline checking, all working in 2D using the XY local plane
- Adds two new fpItem attributes to Forest Effects: surfMatID and splineMatID
- User Properties of source nodes are now inherited on instanced items in V-Ray CPU
- Adds Arnold Renderer support for vertex color
- Adds a workaround in Max 2018 and above to restore toolbar position
- Display->'Use Direct X' has been removed and is now enabled by default
- Fixes a crash in ForestLod when Forest is not initialized yet
- Fixes a rare crash in V-Ray with VRayMultiTexmap
- Fixes an updating issue using animated hierarchies
- Fixes several issues with Areas in UV mode
- Fixes issues in the Library Browser with HiDPI screens
- Fixes UV Mode not working well with multiple Include areas
- Fixes Effects help: 'includeSpline' should be 'insideSpline'
- Fixes texture errors when rendering V-Ray Alembic proxies
- Forest Effects parameter attributes are no longer duplicated when multiple editors are open
- Fixes Forest Effect names being overwritten when edited
- The Texmap->Clear button in Forest Effects now works
- Environment variables can now be used to define the Effects path
- Fixes issues in the Effects browser for paths with non-ascii characters
- Fixes alignment of a single item when it is part of a group
- Fixes Custom Edit with 'Link to Surface' off applying a random Z translation twice

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 2013 to 2023 and costs €230. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Atmospherics / Animation

finalFluid is an NVIDIA GPU-only based dynamic Eulerian fluid simulation system, used to create advanced smoke and fire effects, leveraging a sparse voxel grid within an unbounded simulation domain. finalFluid's solver allocates simulation blocks in a dynamic way, so it uses only memory in active/resident regions of interest. Thanks to its deep integration in Max, finalFluid is able to make use of the wealth of advanced Max animation tools on the market. finalFluid is compatible with most Max tools including standard particle systems and renderers. In addition to the integrated toolset, advanced plug-in tools such as thinkingParticles, finalRender, tyFlow and vray are perfectly integrated with finalFluid.

Major features include:
- 100% NVIDIA-GPU accelerated sparse grid solver
- Real-time workflow right inside of Max
- Movie quality fire and smoke VFX in real-time
- Standard particle support
- Advanced 3rd party particle system support
- Internal and external renderer support via OpenVDB
- Direct volume rendering with finalRender

finalFluid is available for Max 2021 to 2023 and normally costs $395 per year. For a limited time you can currently get a license for $295 per year. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.57 are:
- From now on, renderStacks only supports Max 2017.1+
- Adds a RenderEffects pmodifier
- You can now disable the ::base pmodifier support
- Adds an overscan warning for Alembic cameras
- Adds a number of new hotkeys
- When treeview is not in focus, the selected node color now turns dark gray

renderstacks is available for Max 2017 to 2023 and costs $59.99 per year A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.9.5.1 are:
- Pressing SHIFT when launching 1D array clones the source at the segments middle
- Holding the CTRL key when rotating will rotate an instance of the object instead
- Divide distance: the points will now be aligned to follow the reference line direction
- Fixes a problem with the 'Pivot from 3 points' option when used directly from the shortcut
- Improves some of the pivot tools to work with multiple selected objects at once
- Some quality and performance improvements

DesignToolBox is available for Max 2016 to 2023 and costs $23. A demo version is available here.