MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  May 2001
 

Site News: Updates

I'm going to be on the road for the next week, so I won't be able to update the site until Saturday 9th June.


Plugin Update: Spacewarps

This fixes a bug which was causing max to crash on creating a Spherical Gravity spacewarp.


New Plugins: Cebas Freeware for Max 4

Cebas have updated all of their freeware plugins for Max 4. They are:

- 3D Vision v1.0 - A videopost compositor filter that enables you to create red/blue or red/green stereoscopic images.

- Camera Distort v1.0 - A camera lens Videopost filter / render effect that enables you to render realistic camera lens distortions such as Fisheye lenses.

- Tables & Chairs v1.0 - A procedural object plugin that allows you to create an unlimited number of parametric tables and chairs.

- FreePyro v1.2.0.1 - A flexible 3D volumetric smoke/cloud generator.


Plugin Update: Controllers

This new build fixes a bug which caused scrubbing and saving to be muted in certain scenarios. Also, an updated user manual has been included in .CHM format and provides additional installation information and notes regarding Multi-Channel WAV files.


Plugin Update: Controllers

This new build fixes a bug which caused scrubbing and saving to be muted in certain scenarios. Also, an updated user manual has been included in .CHM format and provides additional installation information and notes regarding Multi-Channel WAV files.


New Plugin: Materials

This plugin provides you with a new shader model that offers a large amount of control over specularity, diffuse shading, colour correction and more. You can find more information here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.1 Beta 5 are:
- Updates for the Area Light.
- Updates for the Radiosity Solver.
- Updates for the Light Map Renderer including fixes and new features.
- Radiosity status report has been temporarily disabled due to a bug.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v0.9 are:
- Added a falloff graph for the brush falloff
- Added a mirror option
- Smoothed out the deformation some, especially when using high lag values
- Changed additive back to the old way
- Lag and Update on Mouse up have been changed
- Added a scale and move original normal ink types
- Minor speed increases
- Fixed a bug where the brush would paint on the opposite side of the mesh
- Fixed some update bugs after undos and reset where the surface did not update
- Added display line behind the brush so you can see the stroke if you're not automatically updating
- Added ability to assign pressure support to size and/or strength


Plugin Update: Character Studio 2.4

An update has been released for Character Studio R2 which allows you to use CS2 with Max 4. The update can be found here. There are no changes to the plugin, it is just an unsupported version for Max 4.


New Plugin: MAXScript Extensions

jbLib is a MaxScript extension that contains a collection of new functions for use in MaxScript. The functions are: ApplyVertexColors, ElementFromFace, GetClosestVertex, GetSpaceWarpForce, GetUNCPath, IsParticleSystem.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v5.13.2001 are:
- Added BindToPoint.
- Added BindToFace.
- Added BindToSpline.
- Added BindToNode.
- Added multiple weighted binds per point.


New Plugin: Import / Export

Exports scenes and animations to an HTML file which can be viewed using the WildTangent Web Driver 3D browser plugin. For more information about Web Driver, go here.


New Plugin: Materials

This is a recompile of the original Bitmaptexture, the only difference being the time rollout. I dumped the playbackrate spinner, and there is now a Framevalue that is animatable. This makes it possible to keyframe the frame of the image sequence. You can control the frame with script controllers for view-dependent texture mapping etc., allowing the creation of RealPeople-type effects.


New Plugin: Import / Export

Exports scenes and animations to an HTML file which can be viewed using the WildTangent Web Driver 3D browser plugin. For more information about Web Driver, go here.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v0.8 are:
- Changed the name to just Paint.
- Faster hit testing and painting.
- Different hitting testing routines.
- Added pressure sensitive tablet support.
- Changed how additive works.
- Added some display options for the cursor color.
- Added soft selection.
- Added keyboard short cuts for resizing and changing the strength.
- Single click support.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.01a are:
- Fixed a bug where the texture would only support mapping channel 1.


New Plugin: Objects

A spline object that uses a particle system as a reference. Basically it draws a spline between all the particles based on their age.

NOTE: Max 3.x files containing Particle Splines will not load the splines correctly into Max 4. The particle spline will have a stand-in object in its place, sorry :(


Plugin Update: Controllers

There was another small bug in the version posted 2 days ago. This has now been fixed.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for v1.01 are:
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Material Editor to crash when you picked a material filter.


Plugin Update: Controllers

There was another small bug in the version posted 2 days ago. This has now been fixed.


New Plugin: Utilities

This is a utility that enables Max to use the LabTec Spaceball as an input device.


New Plugin: Bitmap I/O

This plugin allows you to generate EPIX files which you can then import into Piranesi, which is a combination of a 3D paint program and an interactive renderer.


Plugin Update: Render Effects

Changes for v1.02 are:
- Fixed transparency overflow bug that caused incorrectly colored pixels on transparent objects.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v0.24b are:
- Fixed incorrect accumulated vertex grit on mapped objects.


Plugin Update: Controllers

There was a small bug in the version posted yesterday. This has now been fixed.


Plugin Update: Controllers

There was a small bug in the version posted yesterday. This has now been fixed.


New Plugin: Import / Export

N-Patches are a higher-order surface primitive developed by ATI for DirectX 8. This plugin gives the artist the ability to export N-Patch files (*.m) for viewing with the standalone N-Patch viewer conatained in this ZIP-file.


New Plugin: Global Utilities

N-Patches are a higher-order surface primitive developed by ATI for DirectX 8. This plugin gives the artist the ability to create a viewport for previewing objects using N-Patch tesselation rules. You can read more about the plugin here.


Plugin Update: Global Utilities

Changes for v3.1.0.1 are:
- Max's smoothing groups are now obeyed when calculating vertex normals.
- Plugin will automatically create creases at smoothing group boundaries.
- Viewing plugin now allows loading multiple nodes.
- Plugin draws vertex normals to illustrate curve tangent planes.
- Project and source code files included for Max 3 and 4.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v0.24b are:
- Fixed incorrect accumulated vertex grit on mapped objects.


Plugin Update: Render Effects

Changes for v1.02 are:
- Fixed transparency overflow bug that caused incorrectly colored pixels on transparent objects.


Plugin Update: Materials

Changes for Beta 0.2 are:
- Added Viewport Display support.
- Bumpmaps now work correctly.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for Beta 0.3 are:
- Added vertex display.
- Fixed bug in fitting routine.


New Plugin: Controllers

This plugin provides several enhancements to Default Sound Plugin that is built into Max 4. It adds 1/4x, 1/2x and 2x audio playback and Multichannel 'WaveFormatEx' support, as well as fixing the following bugs: Audio Range not saved, Audio Range not used when rendering.


Plugin Update: Controllers

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Multichannel 'WaveFormatEx' support.
- 1/4x, 1/2x and 2x audio playback.
- All of the sound features in R4 ported to the R3.x build.
- Fixed audio lost in long animations.
- Fixed Audio Range not saved.
- Fixed Audio Range not used when rendering.


New Plugin: Import / Export

This is an exporter that allows tight integration with Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio. The exporter includes support for Multi-resolution mesh technology, providing streaming previews and levels of detail within Max, character studio biped and physique character animation, and the preview options to view a scene as it will be rendered as Shockwave 3D content.


New Plugin: Render Effects

This is just a version of Image Motion Blur as a render effect... handy for blurring atmospherics that output velocity information (i.e. Shag and Afterburn).

When using, add it as you would any other render effect, BUT make sure to turn off the Image Motion Blur checkbox in the Render Setup dialog and set the associated spinner to 1.0 (it defaults to 0.5). You can then ignore the blur settings in the Render Setup dialog, and just use the Render Effect's duration spinner instead.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.10 are:
- Bones should now be treated as BIPED parts.
- FOV controllers are now exported.
- Some camera and light attributes are now exported.
- New user-defined properties.
- New checkbox to export helpers or not.
- A whole load of bug-fixes.
- and much much more...


New Plugin: Misc

This plugin is designed so that animators using Max 4 and Perception / PAR / Hollywood will never have to leave the Max program window, and to simplify using video clips for backgrounds and compositing.

There have been a few changes for the Max 4 version:
- Field order could be reversed in certain situations on field based renders. This has been corrected.
- Better error messages added.
- Some situations that could cause Max to exit to the desktop have been addressed.


New Plugin: Misc

This plugin is designed so that animators using Max 4 and the dpsReality will never have to leave the Max program window, and to simplify using video clips for backgrounds and compositing.

There have been a few changes for the Max 4 version:
- Field order could be reversed in certain situations on field based renders. This has been corrected.
- Better error messages added.
- Some situations that could cause Max to exit to the desktop have been addressed.


New Plugin: Modifiers

Vertigo is a rigid-body dynamics plugin for Max which is based on Critical Mass Labs Vortex v1.0. The plugin allows animators to seamlessly integrate real-life physics into whole scenes or single objects.

While not strictly Freeware, this version runs unrestricted until 31st October 2001.


Plugin Update: Character Studio 3.12

An upgrade has been released for Character Studio. The patch can be found here (FTP) and here (HTTP).

Changes for v3.12 are:
- Physique now properly automatically updates CS 2.2 physiqued files.
- Biped problems from frame rate change after Mo-Flow and reset have been fixed.
- Some biped parameters were not correct until biped selected in motion panel.
- Several biped MAXScript bugs were fixed.
- Extracting footsteps with tolerance from z level is now working.
- Max no longer exits when resetting with crowds MAXScript instance open.
- Windows 2000 assignment selections no longer highlights all.


Site News: Broken Links

I just tidied up the databases a bit and found a number of broken links that are all fixed now. If you have any problems at all with this site, let me know so I can fix it...



Site News: BlurBeta Links

Due to the fact that the recompiled BlurBeta plugins are now available for Max 4, you can no longer download the R3.x plugins singly. There is one big ZIP-File containing all of the plugins for R3.x here.


New Plugin: Materials

This is a checker texture that randomly chooses the Checkercolor from 4 different Colors/Maps. This can be used to minimize obvious tiling of textures, etc.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.62 are:
- Tweaks the distribution map some more to make it work better with lower poly objects


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.61 are:
- Fixes a bug where if you deleted an emitter or scatter object, then tried to paint it would crash.
- Fixes the distribution map so it is a bit more predictable.
- Added undo support of apply and paint.
- It now remembers the last bitmap used.


New Plugin: Modifiers

This modifier is similar to the optimize plugin. The difference is that it works on splines. It tries to approximate the given spline with a spline that looks the same but has fewer knots. You specifiy the maximum error and an angle for corner detection. It works both on bezier points and on corner points. So you can use it to 'reverse engineer' tesselated splines that have only corner points back to splines with bezierpoints. Its main purpose is to clean up data from imported dxf and dwg splines.


New Plugin: Modifiers

A plugin that enables seamless communication between Magpie Pro and Max 4.