MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  February 2014
 

Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.7 are:
- Align Verts To Vert: fixes a bug when moving vertices for Edit Poly modifier
- Round'Em: adds interactive preview of radius/offset for Edit Poly modifier

miauu's Script Pack Volume 2 is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €17.


New Plugin: Modelling / Animation

MaxGrass is a commercial MAXScript for creating realistic grass and vegetation with a single click. The script can also animate the grass/vegetation growth in a completely natural way.

No plugins of any kind are needed. It does not use hair or particles, it creates real geometry so that you get total control on each blade or leaf and the results are ideal for close up shots. Several parameters have been provided to get an infinite variety.

MaxGrass caters to beginners as well as advanced users. You can click just one button to start off, or you can customize many aspects of the grass/vegetation, such as use of custom models as seeds, custom grounds, distribution/height/color maps, various animation parameters, materials and much more. The script also has an Environment creation function to create Sky, Sun and Clouds with correct colors depending on the Sun's position in the sky.

MaxGrass is available for Max 2011 to 2014 and costs €14. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

Fur Guides Painter is a tool which will drastically speed up your Hair&Fur and Ornatrix workflow. It almost completely removes the need to use the Hair&Fur or Ornatrix brushes, and makes the fur styling much easier, letting you concentrate on the shading and the look of your fur.

Fur Guides Painter is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and costs €30.


New Plugin: Modelling

Voxel Creator is a MAXScript that allows you to voxelize any type of geometry. It's simple to use and you can either create the voxel grid as geometry (instanced boxes) or as a particle system based on mParticles. You have access to all the grids created and can delete them separately.

Voxel Creator is available for Max 2012 to 2014 and costs €5.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.6 are:
- Adds new 'Snaps Tool' script, which extends the usability of standard snaps
- 'Drop On' script has been updated to version 1.3

miauu's Script Pack Volume 2 is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €17.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v2.2.5.0 are:
- Schematic node for EPoly modifier now gives a list of commands available for the modifier
- Fixes pass-through node base object connection not always being established
- Reference target now uses parameter block ID's to generate child parameters
- Fixes anchor being created and disposed of twice on scene reset
- Fixes references not being collected from anchor
- Fixes schematic sub-material node connection not surviving undo operations
- Fixes dummy reference object being deleted with other unused references

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.03 are:
- Fixes the 'Receive Shadows' checkbox being reset on scene load

The link above is for the Max 2013 plugin, the other versions can be downloaded here:
Max 2012
Max 2010/2011
Max 2009
Max 9/2008


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v5.2 are:
- V-Ray 3 UI support first pass
- V-Ray 3 extra tex element has auto name and affect matte controls exposed in RPM
- The P and G buttons for the override material now support the Slate editor
- Use Viewport Background for preview updated with an 'Apply inverted view gamma' checkbox
- Update to EXR rendering: formats are now always updated on the slaves
- If a V-Ray preview fails, RPM will now offer to restore the valid settings
- Updated the licensing plugin for 2013/2014 to fix issues with other float licenses
- Viewport preview now supports the nitrous viewport modes for 2013 and later
- The 3dsmax.ini in the language directory is now edited when updating the MAXScript heap
- Unikey dll's update to support Windows 8
- Before scripts assigned to a pass are now run after XRefs scenes have been loaded
- Deferred XRefs now has an 'enable in previews' checkbox
- Fixes elements erroring when RPM was capturing the built in openEXR output
- Deleting a vis set via the RC menu no longer throws an error

RPManager is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs $300. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v1.63 are:
- Adds the RayFire Asperity modifier for adding detail to simple fragments

RayFire is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $365. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds 'Bevel Outline' to easily offset your bevel from your editable splines
- Adds 'Detach to Objects' to quickly detach letters/shapes into separate objects
- Adds 'PB Quads' to turn any Bevel Works object into clean subdivided quads

The Bevel Works is available for Max 2012 to 2014 and costs $69.95.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.2.2 beta are:
- Adds support for V-Ray 3.0 final
- Adds 76 new styles to the library
- Library scheme has been reorganized to include new and future styles
- Adds icons and shortcuts to the Style Editor
- Renamed exported parameters of Transform operator to match Segment ones
- Adds a new parameter node: Random number
- Adds General->Stats information window
- Adds Segment->UV Mapping->Rotation
- New default mode 'Count' lets you define a fixed number of segments
- Linear 1S Generator can now be built without a spline
- Adds Style->Geometry->Free Object
- Adds up/down arrows to Base Objects/Parameters lists
- Fixes several bugs with Segment->Mapping
- Fixes alignment issues with certain Y Splines on arrays
- Fixes a potential crash on Max exit
- Fixes a crash when closing the Style Editor with nodes selected
- Fixes a crash cloning Mirror nodes
- Fixes the length of Left Padding on empty segments
- Fixes an error that would generate misaligned segments on render
- Fixes an error using the geometric shader and mirrored segments
- Constant parameters are now affected by Geometry->Global scale
- Compose operator now works properly with Default->Scale mode
- Material Sequence operator no longer adds 1 to the ID value
- Segment->Flat Top/Bottom controls are now disabled if Bend is off
- Fixes alignment of initial segment when using Vertical or Stepped mode
- Fixes some arithmetic expressions being evaluated as integer values
- Fixes the Randomize operator with nested RC objects
- Fixes Region Clipping using nested splines on specific viewport aligments

RailClone Pro is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €190. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Texturing

Changes for v4.2.0 beta are:
- Adds support for V-Ray 3.0 final
- Transform->Translation X/Y range is now defined with min/max values
- Adds Transform->Translation Map
- Adds Transform->Probability map (for translation, rotation and scale)
- Adds a new animation mode: 'Frame from Map'
- Diversity Map can now use its own texture regardless of the Distribution Map
- Area parameters are now imported from the Library Presets
- Adds a new scattering algorithm for UV Surfaces
- In Custom Edit mode, items are placed in the highest surface when stacked
- 'Material Optimizer' can now be applied to the material library
- Inverted fallof curves now work simultaneously with include and exclude areas
- 'VRay not compatible' message is now shown only once and no longer crashes Max
- Forest Tools now uses a more descriptive name for the generated items
- 2D library items are now compatible with V-Ray 3.0
- Fixes presets being loaded as XRefs instead of being merged

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €190. A demo version is available here.


Site News: Looking for work

I've just finished up on a very long project (over a year) and am now on the lookout for short to mid-term jobs. So if you need a 3D generalist that also does scripting, get in touch at the email address at the top of this page.

Cheers, Dave


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v1.0a are:
- Adds support for Max 2010 to Max 2014 (32-bit and 64-bit)


New Plugin: Modelling

Labyrinth is a spline plugin for Max which allows you to create splines on any given object in Max. The knots which make up Labyrinth are automatically attached to the objects they are generated on. This feature gives users the ability to easily produce a number of different effects, ranging from Plexus-like line animations to ropes and cables.

Labyrinth is available for Max 2012 to 2014 (64-bit only) and costs $20.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.54 are:
- Adds a Wall option 'Separate Each Segment'
- Adds a Wall option 'Weld Verts'
- Updated MultiMaterial functions to always make 6 sub-materials
- Updated MultiMaterial function to name the multimaterial using the CorVex node name
- Adds new Spline Pairs to CorVex option called 'Single Floor'
- Updated Spline Pairs to CorVex to detect some spline order problems
- Updated naming for splines generated with the Spline Pairs to CorVex function
- Updated spline base list double-click and right-click functions

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.41 are:
- 'Send To' has been fixed for command-line based applications
- Opening the preferences panel no longer resets the last used 'Send To' application
- Fixes an annoying message when 'Output Folder' was set to 'Permanent' in output preferences
- Using 'Send to Photoshop' no longer results in a MAXScript exception

VFB+ is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $19. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.8 are:
- Adds an export dialog option for custom scene root name
- Adds Export Options Dialog cancel button
- Adds some error trapping for Export Options Dialog inputs
- Adds Basepose transform export
- Updated SI_FileInfo template (now exports username, date/time, Max version used)
- Fixes animation export for procedurally animated objects
- Fixes Export Options Dialog Cancel button
- Modified ProgressBar code to properly process the Cancel button
- Adds an animated XSI logo to the ProgressBar
- Fixes toggling between ASCII/Binary file types in Export Options Dialog
- Fixes 'Export Selected' feature

The link above is for the Max 6 and 7 version, the Max 8 version can be downloaded here.


New Plugin: Texturing

Automap is a map plugin that creates height maps, normal maps, specular maps and diffuse maps from any bitmap. Several extraction algorithms provide great flexibility when generating materials based on photographs. Where specular highlights disturb the results and height maps are needed quickly for bump or displacement mapping, Automap is a great help to quickly generate these maps directly within Max, and is compatible with the scanline renderer, V-Ray 1.5 SP5 and above, mental ray and Corona (beta).

Automap also comes with the scripted plugin Automaterial that makes material creation very easy. Just load a bitmap, press 'Generate maps now' and you're ready with a base material that includes bitmaps for height, specular and diffuse layers. The extracted bitmaps are ready assigned to diffuse, reflection, bump and displacement so you'll immediately see the result in the material preview.

Automap is available for Max 2011 to 2014 and costs €49.


New Plugin: Texturing

Mighty Tiles Pro generates high quality textures of brick walls, tiles, parquet, laminate, cobblestones and much more. It can make your textures tileable on demand, making it useful for virtual environments such as games, but also has no problems generating high quality textures for architectural visualization. Mighty Tiles Pro supports not only diffuse maps, but also reflection, specular, bump, and displacement maps.

Mighty Tiles Pro includes the oranization tool Mighty Library, which has integrated tagging techniques to retrieve the maps you are looking for more comfortably than simply searching by name. All of the integrated content is already pre-tagged.

Mighty Tiles Pro is available for Max 2012 to 2014 and costs €240 per year. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v4.6.3096 are:
- Adds a feature selector for each effect separately
- Adds support for object instantiation
- Fixes loading of camera parameters

FurryBall is available for Max 2013 to 2014 and costs €959. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.9.6 are:
- Exporting morpher animation now works correctly
- Setup has been updated


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.4 are:
- Adds new image filters: Blur/Sharpen, Bloom and Firefly speckle reduction filter
- Adds composition guides overlays
- Adds an option to persist history images between Max sessions
- Adds advanced options for creating 'Send To' applications
- CamLink button now automatically associates color correction settings with a specific camera
- Adds an option to auto-save images using a timer during rendering
- Adds MAXScript access to Stamper variable values
- Adds Copy/Paste buttons for Color Correction settings
- Adds manual loading of .VFB cache files
- Adds an option to get output from the V-Ray framebuffer even if VFB+ is active
- Adds 'Active Element' image variable in Stamper text layer variables
- VFB+ can now capture images rendered with batch render
- Adds support for Unicode text in Color Correction paths and stamper text and image paths
- VFB cache files are now compressed, resulting in much smaller files
- 'Send To' button now remembers last used option
- Improved readability of element names in active element dropdown list
- Adds an option to not display the default 'Send to Photoshop' button
- Deprecated 'Store CC/Stamper settings with scene' settings
- Chromatic aberration is now saved in images
- Fixes a crash when using 'Grab Viewport' with multiple objects selected
- Fixes paint issues on B image label in A/B split mode
- Fixes an unhandled exception with invalid images in a Stamper image layer
- Fixes an unhandled exception checking for updates with no internet connection
- 'Default Stamp' feature now works correctly
- Fixes spinner values 'jumping' when wrapping around screen
- In A\B Composite mode, the alpha mask display mode now works correctly
- Stamper {Frame} variable no longer disappears when the render starts
- Fixes an exception that could occur during saving of the Max scene
- Saving all image elements no longer causes the VFB to flash
- Zooming out using scrolling of the mouse now works properly
- Strings passed to the MAXScript interfaces are now properly escaped
- Fixes a 3 pixel offset in the vignette effect when saved
- Images using the 'RealPixel' image format are now properly saved in the history

VFB+ is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $19. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.1.141 are:
- Output license retrieval information to log file
- Adds support for reading/writing of Alembic UserProperties

Alembic for 3DS Max is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and costs $399. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.67.92 are:
- Adds the ability to save the VRayDisplacement modifier with Texmap map
- Fixes an issue with saving two or more modifiers with the same class
- Fixes an issue with filtering the materials
- Fixes a bug with updating the selected material library when using filters
- Fixes an issue with locking shortcuts occurring on some computers
- Fixes some minor issues with the interface
- Fixes a bug with setting the Material/Map Browser to old style

Project Manager is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.51 are:
- Fixes a bug when a shape in Base Splines has an Edit Spline modifier applied
- Adds the Successive function to the CorVex utility floater
- Adds tooltips to the CorVex utility floater
- Adds Side Method 'Side 1 Flow (Block Mode)'

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and normally costs $10. Until February 15th, a license can be purchased for $4.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.5 are:
- Vert Stitcher now supports Edit Poly modifier with soft selection
- Drop On now supports splines (editable splines and line objects)

miauu's Script Pack Volume 2 is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €17.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v3.00.01 include:
- Faster ray tracing performance
- New progressive production renderer
- 'Render Mask' to specify render regions using object selection or image masks
- Reflection/refraction trace sets to control visibility in reflections/refractions
- New 'Max Ray Intensity' parameter helps remove noise
- Faster hair rendering
- Deep image support including OpenEXR 2.0 output
- Improved V-Ray RT GPU with support for render elements
- Improved V-Ray RT CPU with support for SSS, VRaySkinMtl and VrayDirt
- Improved DR with automatic asset transfer
- Probabalistic light sampling for optimized rendering with multiple lights
- Improved SSS with support for object-based and raytraced illumination
- New VRaySkinMtl with layered reflections and artist-friendly controls
- VRMats for sharing V-Ray materials across host applications
- OSL support for programmable shaders
- VRayClipper for creating cutaway and section renders
- Metaballs with support for rendering implicit surfaces
- Simplified UI with easy access to common controls
- Quick settings with production-ready presets
- New V-Ray toolbar for quick access to common tools
- New online documentation
- Improved V-Ray frame buffer with added color correction tools
- Improved lens effects supported directly in the VFB
- OpenColorIO support for advanced color management
- Alembic integration with support for hair and particles
- Improved lens analyzer tool to match barrel distortion using any image
- Support for object-based custom tags in filenames using VRayHDRI
- Support for Mari <UDIM> and Mudbox <UVTILE> tags in VRayHDRI
- Support for Ground Environment Projection in VRayHDRI
- Support for PTex object-space vector displacement

V-Ray is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs $1040. Upgrades from v2.x are available for $420. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v1.15 are:
- Updated the Collision selection Scale in the object manager
- Physical Materials have been added to the 'Extras' menu
- Capture Transforms have been added to the 'Extras' menu

MassFX Toolkit is available for Max 2014 and costs $69.95.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.4 are:
- Extrude Along Path has been updated to v1.1
- Extruded faces can now be separated as an element of the selected object
- You can now use 'Cap End' to cap the end faces (or not)

miauu's Script Pack Volume 2 is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €17.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.6.2 are:
- Modified the method for running the OgreMax viewer
- Modified the export of composite diffuse maps so that it only exports the first bitmap
- Fixes the OgreMax material user data being exported multiple times into a scene file
- Fixes the exporter internally selecting the .scene exporter when exporting to a .mesh file
- Fixes a bug in the 32-bit Windows installer
- Removes support for the intensity map in Architecture materials
- Removes the Max 8 and 9 versions of the OgreMax scene exporter

OgreMax is available for Max 2008 to 2014 and costs $250. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v8.0.2 are:
- Changes an output mode on mrtool to address an issue with the new Connectors
- New integrated connectors for Maya (2009+) ,Nuke (6+), After Effects and Cinema4D
- Fixes an issue with some Maya templates not using the by frame value
- Fixes an issue with the single frame output image mode not loading the correct value

Muster is available for Max 8 to 2014 and costs $85 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1831 are:
- Adds Infinity Shader, a real-time max viewport shader
- Bug-fixes


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.2.1 Beta are:
- 76 new styles have been added to the library
- Library scheme has been reorganized to include new and future styles
- Adds icons and shortcuts for Enable, Disable), Expand and Collapse actions
- Renamed exported Transform operator parameters to match Segment ones
- Fixes several bugs with Segment->Mapping
- Fixes alignment issues with certain Y Splines on arrays
- Fixes a potential crash on Max exit
- Fixes a crash when Style Editor is closed and there are nodes selected
- Fixes a crash when cloning Mirror nodes
- Fixes length of Left Padding on empty segments being too long

RailClone Pro is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs €190. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v2.6 are:
- Adds new 'Controller' mode
- Adds 'Slice Fragmentation' tool
- Adds support for layers
- Adds 'Collapse Controller' tool for 'Controller' mode
- Adds a utility for cleaning garbage collection
- Increased the speed of the script

PolyFX is available for Max 9 to 2014 and costs $49.99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v1.0174 are:
- PathRig 1.01 - new render spline controls and bug fixes

Animators Tool Kit is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and costs $25. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.0.8 are:
- V-Ray distributed rendering clients should now start up properly for everybody
- Fixes a glitch in the iToo Forest pack catalog files
- Fixes problems selecting a Laubwerk Plant while still in a creation state
- The mouse wheel now works for scrolling in the browser
- Material creation settings were cleaned up slightly
- Skeleton now draws, even when no material is assigned
- GUI icons are no longer added twice

Laubwerk Plants Kit 2 and Laubwerk Plants Kit 3 are also available now with the same fixes.

Laubwerk Plants Kit 1, 2 and 3 are available for Max 2010 to 2014 and cost €149 each. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.1 are:
- Adds an InvertNormals parameter to help fix problems with inverted normals


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.2.0 are:
- Fixes DOFTransform nodes being optimized away by marking them as DYNAMIC
- Summary Info of current scene is now added to description of root node
- Helper object property names changed to allow easier access from MAXScript
- Visible children of hidden nodes are now exported properly
- Adds the ability to open texture format settings dialog from within export dialog
- If vertex normals option is disabled, only a single overall normal is assigned
- Animations with negative scale are now exported correctly
- Fixes certain bitmaps not being converted correctly
- Gamma is now disabled on bitmaps during export
- Texture compression is automatically disabled for bitmaps with invalid dimensions
- Adds export shapes option
- Alpha blending is always enabled if opacity map is specified
- Additive transparency option of material is now applied to exported BlendFunc
- Cubemaps with alpha channels are now exported properly
- Fixes cubemap images being incorrectly rotated in some cases
- Cubemaps with empty filenames no longer crash during export
- HDR bitmaps are now scale/clamped to 8-bit range
- Fixes offset transform being incorrect in some cases
- Name is now applied to LightSource nodes
- Fixes Unicode issue when displaying error message during file writing
- Adds extra field to normal map description data to show if map was in additional bump slot
- Unknown materials are now converted only if they don't contain any sub-materials


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.2.4.0 are:
- Fixes schematic view being loaded instead of tree views when reloading a scene
- Nodes located under a layer no longer have a long list of child properties
- Fixes a periodic error when trying to reset Zookeeper's layout containing a schematic view

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2014 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v6.1.54655 include:
- Increased scheduling control
- Simplified secondary resource allocation
- Node-based job dependency view
- Asset and script dependencies
- Updated API
- Standalone Python API
- Additional cloud provider support
- Maintenance job mode
- Popup message notification system
- 'Jigsaw' multi-region rendering for Max
- V-Ray DBR support for Maya and Max
- Expanded product support
- For a full list of changes and bug-fixes, go here

Deadline is available for Max 7 to Max 2014 and costs $185 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v1.3 are:
- 'Ctrl-click' on a track now sets the current viewport to the track's camera
- Adds 'Auto setup from camera selection' to replace all tracks with selected cameras
- The scene's 'setSaveRequired' flag is now set when edit is altered
- Adds undocking ability: ProSequencer can now be resized when floated
- Adds auto alignment of the sequencer's width on load/init
- Adds the ability to re-order tracks
- Adds snapping by holding shift while manipulating a clip
- Shift-drag has become Alt-drag to move a clip including camera's keys
- Adds 'Options' to the track's context menu
- Adds an option to jump gaps on playback
- Adds an option to enable a simple weekly update checker
- Adds an option to enable/disable the autostart feature
- Adds an option to ignore StateSets switching
- Adds a macroscript to toggle ProSequencer on/off
- A '#' sign on the track indicates that a StateSet is linked to it
- Adds the ability to scrub by dragging the red line, shift-drag to make it snap
- Linking a new camera now sets initial track range based on camera's first/last keys
- Lots of small improvements and details
- 'Link selected camera' is now available when both camera and target are selected
- Fixes issues when deleting XRef'ed cameras
- Fixes the 'get camera from viewport' bug
- Fixes a few navigation bar / animation range imperfections
- Fixes rendering the wrong camera when maximized viewport is not the render viewport
- The link to StateSets is now much more reliable
- Fixes jittery track position when altering in/out points due to pixel rounding error

ProSequencer is available for Max 2013 to 2014 and costs €10. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds support for all shapes
- Adds an 'Interpolate Splines' checkbox
- Adds a Utility Floater with several utility functions
- Objects double-clicked in the Spline Base list are now selected in the viewport
- Faces for Top/Bottom are now swapped when there is a negative height

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2014 and normally costs $10. Until February 15th, a license can be purchased for $4.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v0.4.1 beta are:
- Local saved files have been moved to the user profile folder
- Adds a MAXScript that converts V-Ray scenes to Nox scenes
- Luminance curve has been fixed to work in linear color space