Generates a 'knubbel' object (knubbel is german for lump). The mesh error on the bottom is supposed to be there ;o)

Paralelo Computação have updated all of their Fly3D import and export plugins to work with Release 2.10 of their Fly3D game engine.

Peter Watje has recompiled 2 more of his plugins for Max 6. They are:
- Mesh to Spline v0.4b
- Unwrap v1.1

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Enhanced performance through use of OpenGL extensions
- Enhanced compatibility with various graphics cards
- Improved installer
- Customisable branding
- Shadow volumes
- Max 6 compatibility

ScreenSaverMax is available for Max 4 to 6, and comes in two flavours: Professional, which allows you to freely distribute unlimited screen savers commercially, costs £170, and Standard, where you can freely distribute the screensavers you generate, you just can't charge for them, costs £60. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.1.50 are:
- New glu3D-forces SpaceWarp category created: glu3d pathFollow force keeps particles following a selected spline path
- Trajectory preview reflects SpaceWarp actions, including path follow influence
- glu3D installation setup added
- animation LOD preview added

WarpTexture distorts one texture with another texture. Each RGB component of the warp texture will distort the corresponding UVW/XYZ value of the Target texture (ie. the warp red will push the Target texture along U/X).

Changes for v2.7 are:
- Recompiled for Max 6
- A few extra options thrown in (no, I don't know what they are...)

MultiCar is a plugin for Max that allows you to easily create and customize cars with a few simple clicks. The plugin comes equipped with a rich library of cars, body parts, and accessories which give you the freedom to create up to 25,000 unique car models. The library contains geometry for most common cars such as sedans, SUVs, minivans, trucks, convertibles, station wagons, and roadsters. In the future the library will be expanded to include busses, utility and emergency vehicles, and trains.

Once you create a car in the scene you are able to parametrically customize individual parts such as body style, wheels, bumpers, headlights, and accessories. To improve performance in complex scenes the geometry comes in two resolutions - high and low - which allow you the freedom to balance between speed and quality. Furthermore, switching between resolutions is as simple as clicking one button which will preserve all other car customization efforts.

Multicar is available for Max 5 and costs $469. A demo version is available here.

Pavel Kuznetsov has recompiled his plugins for Max 6. They are:

Milky Way v2.2 - A render effect for creating a starry sky. Includes the possibility to assign stars Object / Material ID's, motion blur and other effects such as Hyperspace.

Object ID v1.0 - This is a World Space Modifier which allows you to animate the Object ID's of objects in your scene.

Replace ID v1.0 - This render effect allows you to change the Object ID's and Material Effect ID's after rendering, making them animatable.

Surface Blur v2.0 - This effect is intended for blurring down shiny surfaces, including transparent and reflective surfaces.

Throughout v1.0 - Allows you to apply effects such as Glow and Highlight to objects behind other transparent objects. Uses Object ID or Material Effect ID to apply the effect.

nPower Software have released 2 new free tools. Power Booleans viewer allows users to render and view models created using Power Booleans. Power Solids viewer provides rendering and viewing of Power Solids, Power Translators and Power RhinoToMax models. These viewer tools facilitate sharing of models created using nPower Softwares Power plugins. These viewer plugins are especially useful for people who want to render with render farms. If you have render farms, and you need to render 'Power' models, you should install these free plugins on the render farm machines.

Peter Watje has recompiled a load more plugins for Max 6. They are:

- 3D Painter Prototype v1.02
- Cellular 2D v1.0
- Noise 2D v1.1b
- Wave 2D v1.0b
- Texture Map Blender v1.02
- Object Texture v1.01a
- Radial Object Select v1.0
- Remove Dead UVs v1.0

MAXON Computers have updated their BodyPaint 3D file transfer plugins for Max 6. You can get the plugins here.

Changes for v5.0 are:
- Fixes a bug that prevented multiple bones from being used
- Fixes a problem with vertices being out of place

Changes for v0.1.3 Alpha are:
- Many improvements in stability, functionality, and robustness
- Now supports P4 controllers for MentalRay maps
- SME now reloads its layout including node states and link info when a scene is opened

This is a loopable version of the Noise Controller.

The link above is for the Max 6 version, if you are still on Max 4 or 5, you need this version.

Changes for v2.1 are:
- No changes, but the plugin is now available for Max 6 as well as for Max 5

Changes for v4.4.0.50 are:
- Alpha channel on vertex colours
- Multiple animation sets with start/end points
- Skin modifier fixed
- Development now focused on Max 6

This utility allows you to parse binary .max file data into a readable form. The process parses known data into a runtime dataset and provides access to that data for querying and exporting purposes.

Includes a CommandLineApp sample which leverages the IMaxFileReaderClient interface and a Sample Exporter, which leverages the SceneExporter interface.

This utility does not support compressed files and is officially unsupported.

Changes for v1.15 are:
- Even more flexible, intuitive limb manipulation
- Character comes to a stop automatically
- Preset list box navigation
- Animation Limb Symmetry
- Ghost Parent for EVERY absolute animation layer
- Numerous improvements to stability and workflow
- Update problems with Physique sorted
- Reactor issues solved
- Right click on keys in timeline crash fixed

CAT is available for Max 4 to 6, and costs $995. A demo version is available here.

This is just a recompile of the plugin for Max 6. Big thanks go to the person from CGTalk that recompiled it.

Changes for v3.61 are:
- Translator now supports the export of Max 6 radiosity solutions
- Translator now exports all visibility tracks (gradual visibility, on/off visibility, visibility inheritance)
- Actual offset of a VR4MAX Offset was not exported correctly - Fixed
- Offset materials as parent or sub material of Multi-Sub Materials were not exported correctly - Fixed
- Lightscape button in Mesh Options dialog was always greyed out - Fixed

VR4MAX is available for Max 3 to 6, and pricing starts at €850. A demo version is available here.

Animator's Posetool or PoseTool for short is a Max utility inspired by Steve Johnson's script anipose. PoseTool's purpose is to improve the character animation in Max. It gives you a unique combination of features that helps you bring your characters to life. PoseTool is not a complicated character animation system like Character Studio or CAT. It works with your own objects. PoseTool is simple and offers you creativity and pleasure of animating.

3D Aliens have released their fluid simulation plugin glu3D v1.1. Up to now, the plugin has been in open beta-testing. Its main features include:
- Particle based dynamic engine that automatically animates liquids that interact with surrounding geometry
- Triangle mesh surface sequence is generated to visualize liquid surface
- Fully integrated in Max environment in order to simplify production workflow
- File cache system to store pre-calculated dynamics results
- Crowd object: A sample object is instanced at every particle position
- Motion blur
- Wet maps
- Texture mapping
- Arbitrary planar shapes as sources
- Fill objects function to speed up scene initial condition setup

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

Changes for v5.3 are:
- Recompiled for Max 6
- The 'Draft' renderer option is no longer available in Max so Illustrate! no longer supports it
- Corrected some minor issues

Illustrate! v5.3 is available for Max 6, and costs $395. Registered users of Illustrate! v5.x can update for free. A demo version is available here.

Paralelo Computação have updated all of their Fly3D import and export plugins to work with Release 2.09 of their Fly3D game engine.

Discreet have released Service Pack 1 for Max 6. The service pack is only for English language versions of Max 6. Japanese, French, German Italian and Spanish will be available later this year.

Service Pack 1 includes a number of fixes for Max 6, including XRef, Network Rendering and mental ray revisions, as well as a fix for edited Normals to properly collapse to a Mesh or Poly object. You can get it here.

Changes for v1.1.49 beta are:
- New MAXScript function added to glu3D plugin allowing motion blur together with mental ray rendering
- Fixed renders flickering in the area near to container object

Changes for v2.2 are:
- Max 6 support
- Improved processing speed
- Improved memory management
- New loop options
- Many user interface enhancements

Foley Studio MAX is available for Max 4 to 6, and costs $375. A demo version is available here.

Changes for this release are:
- All new Max 6 optimized volume light Render Effect
- Max 6 optimized and enhanced finalRender volume light atmospheric
- Enhanced and optimized Max 6 raytraced shadows
- Quality and speed optimized raytrace area shadows
- Max 6 oprtimized Global Illumination
- Refined and optimized LumaObject with full GI support
- Unlimited network rendering with Backburner for Max 6
- Fully documented manual in PDF format for easy reading and printing

All Max 6 users (including registered users of the Max 4/5 release) may get the latest version of finalRender Stage-0 for only $95 US. Every copy of finalRender Stage-0 for Max 6 may also be upgraded to finalRender Stage-1 for just the difference in price.

PMorphTools is the quick and easy way to create full-body and group morphs for Poser cr2 files (characters, clothes, etc). PMorphTools allows you to load a cr2 directly into Max, create new morphs, edit existing morphs and save them directly to a cr2 file! No more importing and exporting .obj files to create morphs. PMorphTools also automatically handles scale conversion between Poser and Max scale. Furthermore, if you need to export obj files for distribution, PMorphTools can export each morph as a 'squished' obj file which can be added as a morph manually in Poser (exports one obj file for each group affected by the full-body morph). PMorphTools can also export morph injection files for figures that support it (eg. Victoria 3). Additionally PMorphTools will allow you to mirror a morph for one side of a character to the other side.

PMorphTools is available for Max 4 and 5, and costs $49.95.

A great little plugin for creating panelled doors and stuff for furniture.

I am away for a few days, so I won't be able to update the site until Wednesday or Thursday. Dave