MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  November 2023
 

Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.5.50 are:
- Adds a Linux version of the stand-alone renderer
- Updates external libraries to the latest versions
- Updates the Intel denoiser to the latest version
- Adds new StateMask material and integrates system of scene states
- Adds Dali FrontBack texmap
- Updates retro-reflection mathematics for all materials
- Fixes motion blur rendering with time window outside the frame
- Fixes faked shadows not rendered
- Fixes wrong illumination of thin materials
- Fixes wrong rendering of coated thin dielectric
- Fixes wrong emission in volumes
- Fixes volumes not illuminated by geometrical emitters and other volumes
- Fixes a lot of minor bugs

Dali Renderer is available for Max 2018 to Max 2024 and costs $150 per year. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Miscellaneous

Changes for v1.6.5.0 are:
- Enhanced file relocate capability
- Adds support for archives larger than 4GB

Batch Relink is available for Max 2010 to Max 2024 and costs $22.40. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.4 are:
- Adds support for Max 2021 - 2024
- Resolves Function Publishing compilation errors for Max 6
- Updates code to use Scooper's method to get vertex normals and texture coordinates
- Fixes support for allowing helpers (Dummy / Point Helpers, and Bones) to be used as tags
- Fixes vertex indices ordering for triangles (so mesh faces are not flipped incorrectly)
- Adds a checkbox option to the export dialog for disabling tag scaling
- Adds code to check for bad UV mapping on geometry surfaces
- Improves error handling when the exporter fails to open a file for writing
- Fixes a potential issue of improper LOD filenames (for embedded LODs)
- Modifies internal file naming behavior
- Various wording changes in the export options dialog
- The material slot name now has precedence over 'smart paths' and warns if both should fail


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v4.5 include:
- Adds options to customise the look and feel of many properties of an application
- Adds a new puzzle for boolean operations on input objects (union, subtract, intersect)
- Adds a new 'style constructor' puzzle which simplifies assigning CSS rules to HTML elements
- The bloom effect has been reworked to improve it in many ways
- Adds a new educational demo called 'Swiss Army Knife'
- Adds a new 'Scroll Animation' demo to show how page scrolling interaction in a 3D scene
- You can now use all params from the Lightness/Advanced settings of the Color Correction map
- Rotational animation of cameras and lights now properly works with Verge3D
- Introduces a new more flexible 'drag move' puzzle (the old one is deprecated but still works)
- Revamps the 'drag rotate' puzzle to properly determine the pivot point and work in world space
- Adds options to the 'get/set prop' puzzle to restrict input fields
- Adds missing loop and muted properties to the 'get prop' puzzle for consistency with 'set prop'
- Adds a new 'page name' option to the 'get URL data' puzzle
- Adds options to the 'event' and 'get event property' puzzles to handle incoming messages
- Adds a right-click option to the 'add HTML elem' puzzle
- Adds the CSS property float to the set style puzzle
- The puzzle 'clone object' can now be inserted into all puzzles accepting objects
- The recently introduced 'close app' puzzle now works inside iframes
- Simplifies and updates some entries in the Puzzles library
- Removes the map range group from the library
- On the first start of the App Manager, you can now specify an empty folder for your applications
- Various styling changes in the App Manager
- The default WebGL error message has been redesigned and is now customisable
- The update procedure for applications has been refined
- The default application templates have been cleaned up by removing unused code lines
- Updates the demo glTF compat by adding buttons for exporting to glTF and USDZ formats
- Fit to Camera Edge / Fit Offset parameter now works properly for objects with zero size
- ESM shadows now render faster thanks to some optimizations in their shader code
- Removes the legacy EquiCube class
- Refactors and optimizes the GraphUtils module the engine uses to process material node trees
- Removes more legacy Python 2 code from the exporter script (there is still some old code left)
- The CSS code used internally by the engine has been refactored
- Scene export now ignores clipping planes if they are present
- Removes obsolete files from the media folders of all demo applications
- Fixes a regression in the WordPress plugin so that it now properly works the load data puzzle
- Improves the template for creating mobile apps and updated docs on mobile app development
- Updates numerous sections of the User Manual

Verge3D is available for Max 2021 to 2024 and costs $290. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Animation

This commercial MAXScript animates wheels on vehicles based on a path constraint / motion. It simulates wheels, steering, spins, as well as rear weight drift.

PathWheels is available for Max 2018 to 2024 and costs R$50 (roughly $12.50).