This is an assortment of operators for ParticleFlow:

Stop- particles stop completely as soon as they enter the event. The operator has check boxes for Position and Rotation.
Stop Gradually- allows you to stop particles gradually. You can set the time at which particles should begin slowing down, as well as the time at which they should come to a complete halt.
Camera IMBlur- this operator is used when rendering a particle system with motion blur as viewed from an animated camera. It corrects a problem in which Image Motion Blur doesn't take camera motion into account when rendering a particle system.

Changes for v1.1.1 are:
- Fixes a bug that caused Max to crash when rendering
- Fixes a bug with opacity maps that caused Max to crash

Changes for v3.0 are:
- UV coordinates are now exported correctly
- Mirrored objects no longer result in flipped normals
- Completely new exporter dialog

cebas Computer GmbH are offering registered users of Afterburn a cross-grade to their plugin PyroCluster 3.0. The offer is only available until October 31st 2004, and costs $125 instead of the regular price of $345. It is available to all users who bought a full copy of Afterburn (any version) or TurboToolkit for Max. Every order has to go through the online store at cebas. To qualify for this offer every Afterburn user has to supply a proof of purchse when ordering.

For more information about the offer and pyrocluster 3.0, go here.

Changes for v2.5 are:
- Dynamic pathfinding
- Blind data on mesh objects
- Sharing of geometry
- AI.DE, a complete AI development environment
- Increased scripting support
- New product modularity allowing game developers to license only the technology they need

AI.implant is available for Max 4 to 6 (I think). Due to the new pricing structure mentioned above, I don't know what the plugin costs. A demo version is available here.

Combined with different Max plugins these packages allow the creation of animated speaking characters for TV graphics, animation movies, adverts, web graphics and games. The head models and animations created in the LifeStudio:HEAD editor can be exported to Max projects for linking to character skeletons and rendering.

The Pro version allows you to import and animate models which are not based on the default templates. It also includes a Muscles Setup plugin which allows you to pre-produce a unique model or enhance an existing model.

LifeStudio:HEAD is available for Max 4 to 6 and costs $899 for the Standard version and $1699 for the Pro version.

Chaos Group have started the public beta test for their upcoming fluid dynamics plugin AURA. Anyone can download, authorize and test it and can use it for any purpose. chaosAURA is currently only available for Max. It will soon be available for other 3D platforms as well. For a download link and more information, go here.

Changes for v1.3.06 are:
- Visualization and performance bugs fixed

glu3D is available for Max 5 and 6, and costs $295. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- ToneMapping operator that produces more colourful images
- Automatic brightness adaptation
- Multi-materials are supported
- Semi-transparent materials are supported
- Direct lights are supported
- Reflections from and refractions by Raytrace materials are supported
- Background texture is supported
- Default lights are supported
- BusyRay can now be used for preview of materials in Material Editor
- Rendering in orthogonal viewports is supported
- BusyRay now runs on PCs with hyper-threading technology
- More regular time prediction for the progress bar is implemented
- Bump mapping is supported

Changes for v1.3.05 are:
- Visualization bugs fixed

glu3D is available for Max 5 and 6, and costs $295. A demo version is available here.