Changes for v1.2 are:
- Faster export with improved MAX2VMX exporter
- Specular reflection on textured surfaces for extra visual realism
- Improved render quality on GeForce cards by forcing a 24 bit z-buffer
- New product names for the Windows based products products
- VR4MAX Navigator, the FREE player version of VR4MAX
- VR4MAX Extreme bringing VR4MAX to Unix
- And more...

Full details are available here.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Now supports Max 4.2
- Fixed texture U and V Alternate bug
- Fixed texture mapping type bug
- Fixed FCurve naming problem
- Added support for compound fcurves.

More information and source-code is available here.

J. Antonio Amblés, author of the LightMesh plugin, has got a new website. The links in the plugin database have been updated.

Cubicspace Studios, Ltd have released NoiseLibrary Essentials Volume 1, consisting of 1,500 original sound samples across 11 categories for use with their Thunder 3D Positional Sound System plugin and other applications.

The sound clips are all sampled at 48KHz and provided in WAV format, the uncompressed industry standard, and come with a royalty-free, commercial-use license. The 1,500 sound samples are split into a range of categories including: Ambience, Hits & Scrapes, Sci-fi, animals, household, human, machinery, Sport, Ear Candy and Transport. The sound clips range from traffic noise to explosions, from guns and lasers to horses, from baseball to VW Beetles.

NoiseLibrary Essentials Vol. 1 is available directly from Cubicspace Studios and costs $99. Further volumes will follow during 2002.

This is an OpenSource exporter plugin that allows Max to export files in the SOFTIMAGE / Avid *.XSI format. More information is available here.

dotXSI Trader is an import / export plugin for max that allows an almost seamless transfer of data between Softimage|3D and max.

The plugin is available for Max R4.x, and I think it costs ¥150,000 (approx. $1210). What may be a demo version is available here.

If anyone out there can read Japanese better than I can, I would be very grateful for any information you can give me about this plugin.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- LMB shift click to un/hide, un/freeze, open/close, collapse/expand multiple nodes at once.
- LMB double click to un/hide, un/freeze, open/close, collapse/expand entire hierarchy at once.
- Hotkey to jump to last selected node in Scene Explorer.
- Properties option in general tab to always automatically jump to last selected node.
- Rename can now be entered by alt left click on the node name. See the general tab to enable it.
- Targets are now shown as linked under the look-at node.

AIP is a commercial MAXScript that works like a simple version of RealPeople. AIP (Auto Image Planes) creates two planes, one facing the camera and the other facing the main light. Each of them is linked to a dummy that has an orientation constraint applied... therefore if you move the camera or light they will automatically face them. This feature gives you the freedom to do animations or change the camera angle without trouble.

AIP is available for Max 4 and costs $19. A demo version is available here.

Thunder 3D Positional Sound System is the first product of its kind. It includes Sensaura's 3DPA technology, enabling sound to be heard in 3D from only 2 speakers or using headphones. It promises to empower 3D artists by enabling them to incorporate sound whilst working on their 3D animations.

Thunder will remove the workflow bottleneck that usually occurs when sound is added on projects such as game trailers, FMV sequences, cut-scenes and intros and give artists complete control over their work. Thunder enables professionals and consumers, including game artists and developers, pre and post-production film houses and multimedia designers to quickly build a soundtrack perfectly synchronized with their key-framed events.

Thunder supports professional features including material occlusion and dynamic reverb. It works with every appropriate feature in max and viz including character animation and particle systems.

Thunder is available for Max 4 and costs $399. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Extended automated texture mapping.
- Added viewpoint hotkeys to make navigation easier.
- Explicit blend targets, making it easier to model complex roof shapes.
- Added a thickness attribute to slab objects.
- Selected objects can be saved to a session file.

The entire press release is available here.

An unsupported patch has been released for Character Studio. The patch can be found here.

This is what it says in the readme:
This update has not yet been approved by Discreet QE. Use at your own risk. Only use this update IF Character Studio is pausing on a Windows 2K-SP2/XP system. To install, simply replace the files in the plugin directory.

Changes for v0.9 include:
- All parameters are now animatable.

Changes for v0.2.26b include:
- This is exactly the same as v0.2.26, except that it resets the timelock so the renderer will work for another 60 days.

A Direct X-file exporter with support for Physique modifiers (Character Studio 3.x), released as part of the Direct X 8.1 SDK. Includes the source-code.

Changes for v3.0 include:
-Added shininess strength to Material export
- Plugin generally updated to work with DirectX 8.1

Allows you to set the active viewport to shaded, faceted or wireframe mode using MAXScript.

This is a utility which allows you to change the splash image of Max 2 to 4.2 splash screen, and includes options for alignment of text, logging of your Max sessions and replacement of the text messages with a progress bar.

There are no changes to the plugin itself, but AURAN Jet is no longer in Beta, and this is the release version.

Changes for v1.0.0.18 include:
There are no changes to the plugin itself, but AURAN Jet is no longer in Beta, and this is the release version, which includes support for Character Studio R3.0 and R2.2.

This Global Utility opens up Physique to MAXScript. This version is for Character Studio 3.x, and gives access to the following methods:
- getPhysiqueModifier
- getAPIVersion
- getBones
- getBoneCount
- getVertexCount
- getInitialNodeTM
- getInitialBoneTM
- getVertexType
- getVertexBones
- getVertexBoneCount
- getVertexBone
- getVertexOffset
- getVertexDeformableOffset
- getVertexWeight
- setInitialPose
- setFigureMode
- attachToNode
- initialize
- lockVertex
- unlockVertex
- setVertexBone.

An export plugin for Direct3D X-files that includes mesh, material, texture and node information.

This utility allows you to change the tangent type of multiple Bezier type keys, or change the properties of multiple TCB type keys.

I have no idea what has been updated in the plugin, but this is definitely a newer version...

Discreet has released an upgrade for English versions of Max 4.2 which updates the program to v4.2.5. It will not work with foreign language versions of Max. The patch can be found here, and is 7 MB in size.

Also included is the Intel-Optimized Performance Pack, which provides optimizations for Pentium 4- and Pentium III-based Max 4.2 users. Performance increases on other platforms, including AMD, are likely, but not guaranteed. Pentium 4 performance increases are the most significant. Max installations with the Performance Pack will have the version number 4.2.6

The read-me file can be downloaded here. Changes include:
- Raytrace Reflections now supports Face Mapping.
- Morpher modifier was changed so that deleted Morpher TARGETs still have tracks in Track View.
- Fixed a bug with cloning multiple keys at once in the TCB controller.

Darwin is a set of special parametric primitives designed to help artists create new and unique life inside of Max 4 quickly and efficiently. With over 600MB of component mesh parts and real-life maps to work with, you can create a new lifeform in just a few minutes.

What's more, all the flexible body parts contain pre-skinned skeletons (Max bones) for animation. Your creature will be ready to start walking - or whatever you want it to do - almost from the moment you've finished building it.

Darwin contains the following components:
- 23 heads
- 39 body types
- 29 necks
- 48 tails
- 27 hands and feet
- 47 leg types
- 46 miscellaneous parts (fins, horns, antlers, etc.)
- over 250 texture maps.

Darwin is available for Max 4 and costs $395.

TextureTools have released their TrU-V v2.0 texturing tool. This plugin, which comes with TrU-V, enables you to connect to TrU-V from within Max.

It is available for Max 3.x and 4.x, and costs $89.95 for the CD version, $79.95 for the download version. Upgrades from v1.5 cost $49.95 if purchased before July 31 1999, and are free if purchased after this date. A demo version is available here.

Sitni Sati d.o.o. are giving away a free CD with every plugin purchase from their online store. The CD contains various examples and media, and software installation.

Exluna have announced the first major upgrade to their Entropy rendering system. It will be shipping in January 2002 along with a seamlessly integrated Max plugin. Read the full press release here.

This render effect allows you to do colour correction and colour effects on your rendered images. It gives you full control over the individual RGB channels using bezier curves.

According to Darvin Atkinson from Discreet, the Service Pack for Max 4.2 that was announced yesterday is not yet official. There will be probably be a newer version posted when it does finally become official, so anyone who has already downloaded the patch should wait before installing it.

Right Hemisphere have released details of their upcoming products. These include Deep Paint 3D v2 and a new version of Texture Weapons, now called Deep UV. The plugins are expected to ship in Q1 2002.

Chaos Group have updated the gallery for their upcoming renderer VRay. VRay is currently in alpha, and will soon be entering (open?) beta-testing stage.

Sitni Sati d.o.o. are now offering demo versions of their plugins for download. The demos are for Max 3.x and 4.x, and include the plugins AfterBurn, Enlight and ScatterVL Pro. You can find them here.

As reported 2 weeks ago, Digimation are celebrating their ninth birthday by offering special discounts on their products from November 1st to December 21st, 2001. They have now released a price list showing all of the discounts on offer. You can find it here.

This is a simple utility to delete render jobs from the command line for Max 4.2

I don't know what, if anything, has been changed for this version, because the version numbers are the same, but the compilation date is newer, so I've included it as an update. For more information on the plugin, take a look here.

Discreet has released an upgrade for English versions of Max 4.2 which updates the program to v4.2.5. It will not work with foreign language versions of Max. The patch can be found here, and is 7 MB in size.

Also included is the Intel-Optimized Performance Pack, which provides optimizations for Pentium 4- and Pentium III-based Max 4.2 users. Performance increases on other platforms, including AMD, are likely, but not guaranteed. Pentium 4 performance increases are the most significant. Max installations with the Performance Pack will have the version number 4.2.6

The read-me file can be downloaded here. Changes include:
- Raytrace Reflections now supports Face Mapping.
- Morpher modifier was changed so that deleted Morpher TARGETs still have tracks in Track View.
- Fixed a bug with cloning multiple keys at once in the TCB controller.

This is a simple texture that adds light to the front of a face based on the light hitting the back of it. It's good for simple 'paper thin' translucency.

This is a helper object that lets you directly visualize the effects of spacewarps in a scene.

Changes for v11.14.2001 are:
- Added 'EvalTextureColorPoint' - this gets the color of any Max texture for the given position/uvw coordinates.

Changes for v11.07.2001 are:
- Cranked the res on the Sphere shapes.
- Fixed the creation behaviour so the null size matches the distance you drag.
- Added Line shape type.
- Changed the way backfacing None/Jack points displayed.

Changes made after v2.30 Beta are:
- Fixed several bugs in Fuzzy Reflections feature.
- Fixed a bug in atmospheric effects.
- Fixed a bug in background brightness with manual Adapted Luminance.
- Provided interruption of all processes.
- Improved memory usage.
- Added wire mode in Illumination Map.
- Added object base subdivision.
- Added excluding objects from Illumination Map.

Integra is now available for Max 3 and 4, and costs $350. A demo version is available here.

I'm going to be on the road for the next week, so I won't be able to update the site until Wednesday 14th.

Changes for v4.21 are:
- There was a DLL problem with version 4.2, this has now been fixed.

Those of you who have already received a serial number for v4.2, this still works with v4.21.

As reported yesterday, Digimation are celebrating their ninth birthday by offering special discounts on their products from November 1st to December 21st, 2001. Any Digimation Branded Plugin, with a list price of over $150, will be discounted 30%. Not a bad deal!

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Many new types of group constraints.
- Cloth Properties on group by group basis.
- A new cloth to cloth collision engine.
- Can now collapse stitch simulations to vertex animation and bake the animation into the mesh.
- Groups can now work with Soft-Selections.
- Garments can now have seam relations defined in 3d instead of 2d.
- Cloth objects can have two sets of cloth properties assigned and you can animate between them.
- Real time cloth simulation. You can now interactively drag cloth objects in your scene.

Stitch v1.1 is a free upgrade for registered users. It is now available for Max 3.x and 4.x, and costs $695. A demo version is available here.

Digimation, the largest publisher and distributor of plugin software for Max, are celebrating their ninth birthday by offering special discounts on their products from November 1st to December 21st, 2001. Keep an eye on their website for more details.

Changes for v1.1a are:
- The plugin for Max 4 was corrupted, and has been replaced with a new build that works.
- There are also some bug-fixes and additions to the renderer. More information here.

For everyone that has been using the free pre-release of Vertigo (a rigid-body dynamics plugin for Max), the license ran out yesterday. Starting Friday November 2nd, Critical Mass Labs are offering a newer version for download and testing, which will be fully functional until November 16th.