Changes for v2.6.18 are:
- Fixes Max errors in the Redshift startup script affecting Create menus
- Fixes a Houdini bug in the OBJ spare parameters GUI
- Fixes a heap corruption crash during RT Hierarchy construction when rendering hair strands
- Fixes a bug that stopped the 'Non-Photon GI Receiver' visibility flag from working on volumes
- Fixes a bug that could break bump mapping when using tri-planar/projection/shader switch nodes
- Fixes a bug introduced in 2.6.14 that made 'refraction' light group AOVs return black

Redshift is available for Max 2013 to 2019 and costs $500. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.94 are:
- Fixes a rare bug that could cause a MAXScript error in some cases

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs $10.

Changes for v4.5 are:
- Work flow improvement: right-click on a button allows you to make presets
- Smooth Road tools can now smooth more than one road and work on face selections
- Adds SMRoad(diff), a quick smooth tool for smoothing each border individually
- AutoCAD quick import: Ctrl+C to copy objects in AutoCAD then run 'ImportDwg' to paste into Max
- Adds two parameters to 'PleaseMesh': refine long edges and relax the blend faces
- Adds a rebuild border function to 'Slice'
- Adds 'SmplTerrMat', a simple terrain material tool
- Adds a new UV mapping tool called RingMap

TerrainAxe is available for Max 2011 to 2019 and costs $217. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.5.4 are:
- You can now check the external resources of your .mat files in MEF (Manage External Files)
- Adds an option to set 'Found In Directory' to all files in MEF
- Adds custom previews for EXR files
- The file details panel no longer shows external resources as missing if found through MEF
- Minor bug fixes and performance improvements

Changes for v1.0.26 include:
- Adds support for Max 2019
- Adds support for Arnold 5
- Fixes a bug in Laubwerk material creation for V-Ray RT
- Fixes a bug that caused the ART renderer to crash
- Fixes a crash bug when double-clicking inside the Laubwerk browser where there are no plants
- Acer campestre - improves the shapes of several tree variants for a head-free crown base height

Laubwerk Plants Kits are available for Max 2010 to 2019 and cost €149 each. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.63.98 are:
- Adds support for Max 2019
- Speeds up the relinking of asset files by approximately 7 times
- A progress bar is now displayed when copying and relinking assets
- Adds the ability to render using Maxwell Renderer
- Material real world and map channel settings are now used when rendering material previews
- Improves accuracy finding compatible renderer by material
- Simplified deployment: silent mode plugin installation and creation of identification files
- Fixes a minor issue with relinking background images
- Fixes a crash bug in scenes which contain VRayOSLTex and VRayGLSLTex texture maps
- Fixes an issue with using the V-Ray Frame Buffer for rendering thumbnails in V-Ray Next
- Fixes a potential issue with generating bug-reports
- Fixes some potential issues with compatibility with other Max plugins
- Fixes a bug with rendering some 3D models
- Fixes a logical mistake in using variables 'FilePath' and 'FileName'
- Fixes a bug where preview rendering works very slowly when V-Ray material uses displacement
- Fixes a bug when applying the license key

Batch Render&Relink is available for Max 2012 to 2019 and costs $18. A demo version is available here.

Changes for Beta 2.01 are:
- Meshes now render with the tangents provided by Max
- Adds a Cycles Volume Add material
- Adds a Cycles Volume Mix material
- Fixes a potential hang up during mesh translation
- Corrects a case where Shader Graph materials would render incorrectly in Max 2019
- Various minor bug fixes in the shader graph editor
- Surface Mix and Add materials now only accept surface shaders as input

Changes for v2.5 are:
- Physical Material now uses a shading model which simulates real world materials and environment
- Physical materials can now have internal structures of any complexity
- Adds support for Photometric light sources
- Adds support for animated inputs for Standard and Physical materials as well as some maps
- Exported files are now 4-5 times smaller on average thanks to geometry optimization
- Skinning and animation are now supported for bipeds and CATRigs
- UV transformations are now properly supported for textures
- The exporter now automatically suggests file names for your scenes
- You can now re-export scenes in bulk by using the Reexport All glTF Files button
- The default light source is now parented to the camera, the same as in the Max viewport
- Adds a new set of 'drag' puzzles
- Adds new 'set animation' puzzle
- Adds new 'get transform' puzzle
- Adds new constraint puzzles
- All puzzles dealing with object coordinates/angles now match the Max coordinate system
- To check if a particular sound is currently audible you can use the new 'is playing' puzzle
- A gear icon in some puzzles lets you re-configure the puzzle, adding new settings or slots
- The Puzzles editor now preserves its window dimensions even if the page is reloaded
- Adds support for nested puzzles
- New set CSS rule puzzle allows for changing a CSS property for a specified CSS rule
- The set style puzzle adds the rest of the CSS properties available to a web developer
- Adds new 'is animation playing' and 'when moved' puzzles
- App Manager - Unicode characters can now be used for file names
- App Manager - a warning is now printed in case of incorrect system time
- App Manager - uploading to the Network has been optimized
- App Manager - minor UI tweaks were made
- App Manager - asset files and HTML files are now sorted
- App Manager - blue icons now denote HTML files, green icons are glTF files
- Adds anisotropic filtering support for textures
- The outlining effect now works for skinning and morphing and also for orthographic cameras
- Unicode characters can now be used for object and animation names
- The Puzzles editor can now be zoomed with the mouse wheel
- A scene with no camera now gets one upon export based on the current viewport view
- The minimum camera angle setting now works
- Updates the Beginner's Guide and User Manual to reflect recent changes
- The User Manual has been made mobile-friendly
- The Verge3D menu is now located just before the Help menu in Max
- Shadow volumes now respect scenes covered by a light source, resulting in better shadow quality
- The shader generator has been optimized to produce shorter and faster shaders

Verge3D is available for Max 2015 to 2019 and costs $290. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.74.82 are:
- Adds support for Alembic (.ABC) files
- Adds the capability to export selected objects to several file-types
- Fixes a viewport issue when merging some models
- Adds the ability to render in batch mode using Maxwell Renderer
- Fixes a bug with rendering some 3D models
- Fixes an issue when using the V-Ray Frame Buffer for rendering thumbnails in V-Rray Next
- Fixes a bug with very slow preview renders when V-Ray material contains displacement
- Fixes a minor issue with dragging directories in the treeview
- Fixes an issue with copying a Favorites directory with files
- Fixes an issue with renaming a directory with the same name in a different case
- Fixes an issue with dragging files between directories
- Fixes a bug where selecting .max files in the listview can slow down Max
- Simplified deployment: silent mode plugin installation and creation of identification files
- Fixes an issue with opening files with the associated application in Windows 7
- Fixes a potential issue with generating bug-reports
- Fixes some potential issues with compatibility with other Max plugins
- Fixes some minor issues with the backup database

Models Manager is available for Max 2012 to 2019 and costs $30. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.4 are:
- Middle mouse button on [Measure Length/Area] button now measures the length of the selected line
- Fixes an error when the [Update] button is pressed and the spline length has to be updated
- Fixes an error in Max 2019.1 that prevents the script from running

miauu's Live Measure Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2019 and costs €6.

Changes for v2.91.05 are:
- Adds the ability to drag texture maps to the Material Editor without converting it to a material
- Materials and texture maps dragged into the Slate Material Editor are now placed under the cursor
- Adds support for Alembic (.ABC) files
- Adds the capability to export selected objects to several file-types
- Fixes a viewport issue when merging some models
- A progress bar is now displayed when Copying and Relinking assets
- Speeds up the relinking of asset files by approximately 7 times
- Fixes a minor issue with relinking background images
- Fixes a bug in scenes which contain VRayOSLTex and VRayGLSLTex texture maps
- Fixes an issue when using the V-Ray Frame Buffer for rendering thumbnails in V-Rray Next
- Fixes a bug with rendering some 3D models
- Fixes a minor issue with dragging directories in the treeview
- Fixes an issue with copying a Favorites directory with files
- Fixes an issue with renaming a directory with the same name in a different case
- Fixes an issue with dragging files between directories
- Fixes an issue when dragging materials/maps between material libraries
- Fixes a bug where selecting .max files in the listview can slow down Max
- Fixes an issue with generating previews for some .PSD files
- Fixes an issue with opening files with the associated application in Windows 7
- Simplified deployment: silent mode plugin installation and creation of identification files
- Fixes some potential issues with compatibility with other Max plugins
- Fixes a potential issue with generating bug-reports

Project Manager is available for Max 2012 to 2019 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.12.11 are:
- Select / Filter by selected layers now works with all Max versions
- New 'Include Names' option in the Add to Render Elements dialog
- New 'Mono Mask' option in the Add to Render Elements dialog
- New 'Red Mask Only' option in the Add to Render Elements dialog
- New 'Save Log' button in the Add to Render Elements dialog
- Right click on the new 'Save Log' button opens the log in Notepad

Object ID Organizer is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs $4.

Changes for v2.3.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2019
- You can now decide whether to clear isolated faces or not in Optimize Smoothing Groups
- You can now decide whether to clear Isolated faces or not in Set Hard/Soft Edges
- You can now decide whether to clear Isolated faces or not in Set Smoothing Groups from UV Shells
- Optimize can now work on selected elements only
- Previewing Channel can now be forced
- Adds support for modifying Edge Weights
- Adds support for modifying Edge Crease
- The colours for single Smoothing Groups can now be customized
- The colour palette has been optimized for 128 colours
- Fixes a bug where deleting faces and issuing an undo would throw an exception
- Fixes a bug in Set Soft Edges where faces with more than 30 neighbours would fail

PolySmoother is available for Max 2014 to 2019 and costs $35.

Changes for v1.6 are:
- Optimizes loading of meshes
- Fixes a bug loading some meshes
- Fixes incorrect offsets when using some kinds of nodes
- Updates internal Wall Worm classification for being tracked by the latest Wall Worm scene manager
- Fixes a bug in setting to Box mode
- Fixes a bug when using WallWormMDL nodes and the Source Model Display is set to Per Node

PropLine is available for Max 2014 to 2019 and costs $10.

Changes for v1.70 are:
- The Rename / Copy Files dialog is now re-sizable
- Fixes an error on script start in Max 2017 / 2018 / 2019

Bitmap Tracking/Resizing is available for Max 2009 to 2019 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v4.3.1 are:
- Adds support for Max 2019
- Adds Ring and Align Edges command
- Loop and Ring now works on Geometry level when Shift is pressed
- Adds an update check
- Fixes a bug in Select Pelt Seams
- Fixes a bug in Unfold Map in Max 2018+
- Improves Align Edges undo
- Changes the Render UV Tile to match the Unwrap modifier nomenclature
- The range of Render UV Tile has been extended

PolyUnwrapper is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs $45. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.5.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2019
- Drops support for Max 9, 2008 and 2009
- Adds a Detach utility
- Adds display of object bounding box
- Axis helpers can now be auto-sized
- New automatic preview when 'Always Align to Z Axis' is on
- Models can now be aligned to the Z axis without defining the X axis
- Showing the 'Apply Changes' dialog can now be turned off
- Adds XFormer license validation
- Dialogs are now centered to the Main window
- The main UI dialog now remembers its last used position
- Adds a check for updates
- The Changed Axis Helpers are no longer plugins but are drawn directly to the viewport
- When switching to the Pivot Tab you now have the option to cancel the operation
- Fixes a bug where an invalid selection may modify the original node transform
- Fixes a bug where redefining the Z and X axis could lead to a corrupted Matrix

XFormer is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs $20. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2 are:
- Adds support for heterogeneous media shading (Phoenix FD, FumeFX, OpenVDB, Max texture maps)
- Adds support for core V-Ray 3.60 features: VRayLight, VRayMtl
- Adds advanced Bokeh controls for Center Bias, Vignetting and Anisotropy to Corona Camera
- Adds around 110 new materials to the Material Library
- Material Library now uses Real World Scale in most materials
- Material Library now uses CoronaTriplanar map wherever it makes sense
- Decreases memory consumption of all scenes by 5-15%
- Parsing of Motion Blur is now faster and takes significantly less memory
- Corona Shadow Catcher Material now renders significantly faster in 'For compositing' mode
- Fixes adaptivity oversampling of dark areas
- Improves denoising of bump maps
- CoronaOutput texture map has been split into CoronaColorCorrect and CoronaToneMapControl
- Adds material override options in a pop-up dialog in the Scene tab of the Render Setup window
- Speed-up of IR restarts in scenes containing environment lighting
- Switches to Visual Studio 2017 compiler, giving up to 5% performance gain in rendering
- Martin Geupel's Corona Converter script has been updated to version 1.42
- Corona Image Editor now has a bloom & glare virtual element
- Corona Standalone now supports hair rendering
- Adds support of lens distortion to the Standalone renderer
- In IR the UHD Cache doesn't reset if only the current camera / viewport has moved / rotated
- Multimap can now be created with just one map
- Optimizes sampling of volumetric media (homogeneous and heterogeneous)
- Adds Subdivision Quality override to the CoronaDisplacementMod modifier
- Adds a console mode for installer and uninstaller
- Faster IR start
- Adds a CoronaUserProperty map
- Removes compatibility with Alpha 6 and older versions of CoronaScatter
- Implements anamorphic factor in the native Max Physical Camera
- Lens breathing/Zoom is now used in aperture size calculation in the native Max Physical Camera
- Corona now respects LUT_xD_INPUT_RANGE when loading *.cube LUTs
- And much much more... a full list of changes can be found here

Corona Renderer is available for Max 2013 to 2019 and costs €24.99 per month. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2.11 are:
- Fixes the texture vScale transform
- Adds an input field to control compression
- Updates the input field for compression quality
- Updates the error message for quality

Changes for v3.4.136 are:
- Adds support for Max 2019

Changes for v1.2.4h are:
- Adds light source include/exclude to FStorm GeoPattern
- Fixes a glare crash with high resolutions
- Fixes a GeoPattern crash with incorrect geometry
- Fixes incorrect rounded edges shading
- Fixes an SSS shading crash
- Fixes an RT closing crash
- Fixes incorrect dirt texture shadows
- Fixes incorrect gradient texture bump

FStormRender is available for Max 2014 to 2019 and costs €20 per month. A demo version is available here.

You may have noticed I've been a bit slow updating the site this month. Real life and work has been getting in the way, and July will probably be similar. As soon as I can, I'll catch up and update everything behind the scenes.

Dave