MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  March 2013
 

New Plugin: Utilities

This commercial MAXScript allows you to make 3D models using curves drawn in Adobe Photoshop with a single click.

Curves to 3DS is available for Max 2009 to 2013 and costs $15.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.9.15.0 are:
- Fixes a crash in the mask source node rendering
- Fixes the DumpMeshTexture command to eliminate zero-area tris
- Refactored some boilerplate in gstate to make custom nodes easier
- Adds macros for creating passthrough Pose sampling functions
- Increases the precision of the linear equation node parameters
- GetDuration now takes an 'AtT' parameter for future use
- Adds Edit_RemoveOutputIfPossible and RemoveInputIfPossible functions
- Fixes the range query call for parameters passed as inputs to state machines
- Adds range query to Clamp and Linear Equation nodes
- Both container and node had eInvalidChild constants, only container should have this

Granny Exporter is available for Max 6 to 2013, and is part of the Granny Toolkit which costs $17,500.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for Build 1425 are:
- Changed the install path to userscripts
- Speed improvements (SplineBridge, gridDefrom...)
- IsolationMode now hides helpers
- Adds a TimeSlider tool, see ViewportTools or macros
- Fixes some bugs

RappaTools is available for Max 9 to 2013 and costs €39. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.0.3 are:
- Fixes a Unicode bug that caused the config files to be saved in the wrong place

Terrain is available for Max 2008 to 2013 and costs $199. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1811 are:
- Infinity Toolz upgraded to support relative path XRefs
- UI improvements
- Adds a new change option


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for Alpha v4 are:
- Adds a new Virtual Frame Buffer with better design and functionality
- Adds Optional Light portals for faster rendering of scenes with small windows
- Adds a better system of artistic control fakes (eg. selective visibility)
- New robust algorithms for rendering caustics
- Adds Windows Vista support (again)
- Adds an option to autosave renders during and at the end of rendering
- The GUI layout for settings and texmaps has been reworked
- Fixes unpredictable bluriness of some textures
- Fixes performance scaling on multiprocessor machines
- Massively improved convergence of scenes with tens of thousands of lights
- Fixes holes in objects with displacement and/or motion blur
- Massively improved performance when using displacement and textured light emitters
- Decreased memory consumption when using displacement and textured light emitters
- Fixes a bug that caused wrong defaults to be set after scene reset
- Fixes a crash when using some texmaps
- Diffuse/Reflect/... render passes now contain direct lighting
- Adds support for Blowup and Crop render modes
- Adds a Material editor rendering quality spinner
- Bucket rendering now works progressively
- Corona scatter now supports volume scattering
- Adds Colored Bokeh effect
- Adds support for camera clipping
- Adds an option to disable colormapping for a texture
- 'Hide edges' in Corona Edge texmap now works
- Implemented full sky model for high quality closeup renders of sunset
- Adds VPL renderer/GI solver


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.7.24 are:
- Adds support for moving cameras in FIRE
- The link camera FIRE option is now accessible from the ActiveShade window menu
- Adds support for solo layers
- A warning is now issued when PFlow instances can't be exported due to duplicate group names
- Fixes the API method MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetIntArray()
- Fixes the API method MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetDoubleArray()
- Fixes Chinese characters in exported IES paths
- Fixes the wrong camera being used when sending jobs to network
- Fixes a crash when rendering a RFRKMesher without any files
- All PFlow particles are now exported when a system contains empty groups
- The 'extra particles' parameter of the MxParticles object is now exported
- 'Send job to network' now starts when the output file doesn't already exist

The Maxwell 3ds Max plugins come with Maxwell Render, which is available for Max 8 to 2013 and costs €895. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.1 are:
- Adds the ability to use Bitmap2Material on Mobile in Unity 4.1

Bitmap2Material is available for Max 2012 to 2013 and costs $149. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

This is the first version of a new IndigoMax series. At the moment, some of the previous features have been locked for testing purposes. This release is intended for testing background / interactive modes, and material editor rendering.

Changes include:
- Adds background / interactive modes
- Adds progressive material refinement
- Adds interactive tonemapping (for background and interactive modes)
- Indigo materials are missing at the moment
- Interactive mode only supports object transformation and material updates for now
- No installer at the moment


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.1.6.0 are:
- Fixes the UI going blank after right clicking inside a Zookeeper docked to the CUI
- Fixes an error when toggling object filters

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2013 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.2.038 are:
- Fixes a problem with Forest Pro
- Minor bugfixes
- Adds enhanced Standard material support

Thea for 3dsMax is available for Max 2009 to 2013 and costs €320. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.50 are:
- Adds a progress bar
- Adds welding of UVW vertices
- Normals are now fixed after smoothing
- Adds a new licensing protection method
- Speed improvements to 'In Double Faces' calculation method
- Adds UVW map rotation
- Speed and algorithmic improvements to 'In Multi Edge' calculation method
- Speed improvements to 'In Open Edge' calculation method
- Speed and algorithmic improvements to 'In Auto-Edge' calculation method
- Replaced the slow Max internal smoothing group calculation with our own algorithm
- Replaced the slow Max internal vertex welding calculation with our own algorithm
- Removed polygon mode import and retriangulate

Din3D Importer is available for Max 2010 to 2013 and costs €59. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v2.88.00227.20090 are:
- Updated PhysX 2.8.5 and 3.2.2
- Updated APEX 1.2.2
- Makes 3.x SDK the default
- Adds support for exporting without the prompt dialog
- Adds rigid body script support for clothing type shape, radius bone and type
- Fixes a crash on Max start if mParticles is installed
- Fixes the crash when opening a file with mCloth/mParticles content
- Fixes a crash on exit in scenes containing a ragdoll with an open viewer
- Fixes a clothing baking script issue
- Fixes capsule collision with clothing in 3x mode
- Fixes the 'Pick Ragdoll Shapes' dialog not working under 2.8
- Fixes material and submesh parsing issue for a specific user
- Fixes a bug where the number of ContactAgents was saved with a size_t value
- Fixes a crash defect in the weld algorithm
- Fixes ragdoll meshes in old files having doubled translation
- Fixes global scaling support
- Projection mode is now exported correctly to the RepX XML format
- Fixes PhysX 3.x connect sphere being disabled in Max 2009 SP1
- Backstop no longer forces see-through mode
- Fixes a script error when using 'Pick source object' on the original object
- Rigid body color now differs from kinematic/dynamic ragdoll color
- Fixes a button missing from the root translation dialog


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.0.2.7 are:
- Projection Brush now sets up a Fixed Plane instead of a Viewport Plane
- Painting lag is now avoided by utilizing intelligent frame skipping
- Hotkeys no longer trigger while the mouse button is pressed down in the viewport
- Hotkeys that select tools no longer force the menu to show
- Removed the semi-transparent menu option since it wasn't working on some XP systems
- Tweaked interface text spacing to account for Windows XP fonts
- Some general interface tidying
- Fixes an issue with holding the ALT key while clicking on UI elements
- Fixes an issue with the application losing focus when the menu is closed

realityPaint Pro is available for Max 9 to 2013 and costs $199.95. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.2.0.3 are:
- Fixes a MultiPainter error which caused crashing when painting on certain objects
- Adds a filter so you can only select a spline for curved borders
- Improved the 'Border behaviour' function
- Adds a simple preview for scattered animated objects
- Improved performance due to engine optimization
- 32 and 64-bit registration utilities have been merged into a single file
- Fixes a license error if registration is done by a user with different system permissions

MultiScatter is available for Max 2008 to 2013 and costs €200.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.0.1 are:
- Fixes minor bugs

Ky_Color Variator is available for Max 9 to 2013 and costs €43. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2.4.4 are:
- Adds support for skeleton and morph mesh animation
- Adds support for using the mapping channel as the texture unit's texture coordinate set
- Adds logic to detect whether Max is being run as a network slave
- Adds settings to enable/disable query and visibility flags in the object settings dialog
- Adds render queue settings for sub-entities
- Adds logic to sort materials by name during export
- Updated all Ogre3D 1.8.x versions to use the latest Ogre3D 1.8.1 release
- Modified OgreMax texture unit animated scrolling limit, increasing it to [-10, 10]
- Modified storage of log files and settings files to use the user's 'AppData' directory
- Increased default precision of spinner control when using user data class files
- Increased the size of the 'Bone Include/Exclude' text box
- Modified the installer text to let user know they may need to run as administrator
- Fixes a bug that allowed some meshes with improper modifier stacks to be exported
- Fixes a problem when exporting a skeleton-based animation directly to a .mesh file

OgreMax is available for Max 8 to 2013 and costs $250. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for Build 1810 are:
- Infinity Toolz upgraded to support relative path XRefs
- Improved UI and new change option


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v4.0.2 are:
- Fixes a bug that could create continuous updating loops in Max
- The Presets texture path is now added to the Max configuration
- 3D Models are now properly loaded from the library in 'Merge' mode
- Adds compatibility for Maxwell plugin 2.7.24
- Maxwell render visibility flags are now used
- ForestLite / ForestPro macros are now available in Customize->Customize User Interface
- Fixes the Wild Grass Presets materials
- Fixes a crash when the distribution map cannot be loaded
- Material->Fast Opacity is back for compatibility with previous scenes

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 9 to 2013 and costs €180. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.1.5.0 are:
- Adds 'Read from File' and 'Write to File' options to base layer group
- Deleting many objects in scene now properly clears them from the layer manager
- Fixes background colors re-using roll-up background
- Renaming schematic reference target nodes now persists with the Max scene
- Some internal reworkings

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2013 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

Brixtoy is a set of 70 'toy brick' objects with a custom interface for use directly inside Max. You just click the models you want from the library and that's it. The objects easily snap, and the pack also includes extra stuff like an easy to pose figure and a full scene already made with Brixtoy objects.

Brixtoy is available for Max 2010 to 2013 and costs $5.


Plugin Update: Animation

Changes for v2.1.1 are:
- Advanced frustrum with adjustable planes
- Save to seperate folders for splitting the render output to left right and stereo folders
- Better gamma handling in the stereoscopic window
- Bug-fixes

3dHippie Stereocam Pro is available for Max 2011 to 2013 and normally costs €249. If you purchase a license before March 17th, it will only cost €125. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Texturing

RichScene is a manager plugin that massively improves your workspeed when adding dirt to a scene. It adds dirt to all materials / objects in a scene and can add up to 4 effects (layers) in one run. Change colors, styles and amount of dirt on a full scene or a selection of objects and easily fine tune dirt in each effect / layer. RichScene supports X-Refs and is ideal for larger scenes / projects with many materials and textures.

RichScene requires a RichDirt license (Standard or Extreme).

RichScene is available for Max 2011 to 2013 (64-bit only) and normally costs €249. For a limited time you can purchase a license for €199.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.0 are:
- New streak styles (breakthrough style, wash style)
- Dry area detection
- Better streets preset to get wider contact shadows
- Per-Object-Id variations of falloff, breakthrough, radius
- Worldspace bundling of streaks for full/wide shots
- Sill edges
- Merge Objects on the fly
- Built-in height (wind) function

Rich Dirt is available for Max 2011 to 2013 (64-bit only) and normally costs €79 (Standard Edition) / €179 (Extreme Edition). For a limited time you can get a Standard license for €49 and an Extreme license for €129. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v2013.2 are:
- Fixes a bug with HGM2OBJ.exe related to the Granny Update taken for 2013 support
- Removed deprecated FaceGen and Fixseam UI scripts from the Max tools

This version of Hero Engine Exporter is available for Max 2012 to 2013 and costs $99 / year. Max 2010 and 2011 are supported by an older version of the exporter.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v8.0.1.5911 are:
- Adds support for Max 2013 (32-bit only)
- Adds enhanced material support for FBX files


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v1.6 are:
- Bug-fixes


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v3.43 are:
- New 3D tools: create convex hulls from 3D points
- New plugin: Unity 4 javascript exporter
- Updated plugins: Collada DAE, DirectX, Lightwave LWO, LWS, and Half-Life SMD

Ultimate Unwrap 3D supports Max 4 to 2013 and costs $49.95. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.0.2.6 are:
- Adds a Silent Update option
- Implements an icon that appears near the cursor when there are surface issues
- Implements drag and drop for image files into the Brush Image and Brush Shape boxes
- Implements drag and drop for Image Maps directly into the Image Maps panel
- Implements drag and drop for any object importing into the Objects panel
- Hotkeys for menu sub-categories now make the menu appear if it is hidden
- Fixes a problem loading Display Group Sets
- Fixes a problem with Clone Brush overlay when cloning from a reference image

realityPaint Pro is available for Max 9 to 2013 and costs $199.95. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Particles

Changes for SP2 are:
- Adds further support and enhancements for ThinkingParticles' seamless interaction with FumeFX

ThinkingParticles is available for Max 2010 to 2013 and costs €1495. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modifiers

Changes for v0.17 beta are:
- Adds support for Max 2013 (32-bit and 64-bit)


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Adds custom Bond patterns
- Adds an online check for updates
- Adds global hue, saturation, value for tiles
- You can now select and store the default library path in global preferences
- Material preview now updates on random HSV, new random seed and random/linear sequence
- Autoload Filter settings are now stored in global preferences
- Fixes a MAXScript error when using color correction in a diffuse map
- Fixes crop edge sometimes not working correctly

Walls & Tiles is available for Max 2011 to 2013 and costs €59 (€129 for the 'Complete' version).


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.6.1 are:
- Fixes a memory leak
- Other minor bug-fixes

V-Ray Material Presets Pro is available for Max 2010 to 2013 and costs €140.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v2.2.3.0 are:
- Adds 'Strand length relative to base strand' option to Ox Strand Propagation modifier
- Numerous edit guides brushes now respect hair vertex soft selection
- Render settings modifier now respects assigned vertex color channel values for thickness
- Internal code changes for edit guides brushes

Ornatrix is available for Max 2009 to 2013 and costs $499. A demo version is available here.