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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

If you are a developer of freeware plugins and are hosting your plugins on a site with restricted download traffic, then maybe I can help out.

I can offer a subdomain (eg: yourname.maxplugins.de) here with space to host your plugins and HTML stuff for free. There will also be a link to the hosted pages in the menu on the left. Interested? Just drop me a line at the email address at the top of the page.

You can also contact me if you have got source code for plugins that you don't develop anymore. I would be glad to recompile as many old plugins as possible. Just mail me to let me know what sort of stuff you've got.

Dave

This is my monthly news entry to let people know that I am always available for 3D work (I don't just run this site). My main areas of work are commercials, industrial and technical animation, as well as programming / scripting. All of the relevant information can be found on my other site htp://www.anidesign.de, along with some videos of my work to give you an idea of what I can do. I will finally be updating the site with some new stuff this month.

The news from previous months can be accessed by clicking on the 'Plugin news archive' link in the menu.