MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  March 2017
 

New Plugin: Modelling

Optimize Spline allows you to control the number of knots along a spline. You can specify the number of knots which make up a spline or the number of segments.

Optimize Spline is available for Max 2012 to 2017 and costs $3.


New Plugin: Import / Export

MaxToModo can transfer your current Max scene to Modo with 2 clicks, solving common problems between import/export problems automatically, to get the best results in the fastest way and with the least possible effort.

If you are a Max user you can add a new dimension to your workflow sending your scenes to Modo to use the advanced features of that software.

If you are more of a Modo user, maybe you would want to use Max modelling tools, or convert assets that you have bought in the .max format. The tool supports Modo versions 8 to 10.

MaxToModo is available for Max 2014 to 2017 and normally costs $49. For a limited time you can purchase a license for $29.


New Plugin: Modelling

Cables Spline is a shape plugin for Max which gives you the ability to create suspended cables along cylindrical paths.

Cables Spline is available for Max 2012 to 2017 and costs $8.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.2.4 are:
- Adds support for FStorm Render (v1.1.6 required)
- Replaces ART renderer with FStorm renderer in the attributes list
- You can now right click the image in the inspector to get the preset context menu
- You can now drag the image in the inspector to start the preset drag and drop
- Fixes a random Max crash when Material Manager is installed

Material Manager is available for Max 2012 to 2017 and costs €99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin News: FurryBall RT price reduction

Art And Animation Studio have reduced the price of permanent licenses for their GPU renderer FurryBall RT by 25% from €399 to €299.

FurryBall RT is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and now costs €299. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v3.0.0 beta are:
- Adds Macros, allowing you to create new nodes by creating sub-graphs
- Adds a new algorithm to align Linear Generator with planar and closed splines
- Adds an 'Auto Align' option to Array Generator->Extend X/Y Size mode
- Adds Generator A2S->Clipping Area->Hierarchy Checking Mode
- Adds RailClone Color, providing random textures and tint to each segment
- The continuous mapping feature (Segment->Mapping) has been completely rewritten
- Adds a 'UVW Offset' setting to Generators
- Adds modes to Compose: 'In Sequence' or 'Grouped'
- Adds Style Linking which lets you link one RC object's styles to another
- Adds a 'Retain Value Mode' setting to Numeric parameters
- Adds support for V-Ray 3.5
- 'Note' nodes are now resizeable, have user definable colours and can move child nodes
- Generator A2S->Limits and Padding are now disabled when using Clipping Area->Extend X/Y Size
- Adds a Y Spline mode to the A2S Generator
- Style->'Operate On' has been changed to 'Quad' by default
- More Generator parameters are now available for exporting (specifically combo values)
- Transform->Fixed Size is now computed before applying other transformations
- The expressions engine has been updated to V3
- Adds an option to extract all Segments to the scene
- Adds new Export Parameters/Attributes dialog to change multiple parameters from multiple nodes
- The seed parameter is now animatable
- Adds a 'Pivot Offset' setting to the Transform node
- Adds a number of new properties to Arithmetic->Expression
- Modifies the way that arrays are generated when using multiple splines
- Max 2010/2011 are no longer supported
- When creating a new node, dragging a category title to the canvas no longer causes a crash
- Closed splines planar to XY no longer generate flipped objects
- Conditional->Angle now returns the correct angle for the first vertex of closed splines
- Surface no longer modifies the Material IDs of the conformed spline
- Fixes an issue with disabled Sequence operators and Bevels
- Expression's 'print' statement now prints the result
- The 'X Spline Start' event is now only triggered for the first row of an array
- Fixes the 'SegmentXCounter' value for Start/End/Corner/Evenly segments
- Fixes RC2 expressions with Trigonometric functions converting to Radians instead of Degrees
- Segments no longer disappear on a closed spline if the Y Offset >= Generator Padding
- 'Display Limit exceeded' is now shown as an error in the General rollup and Lister
- Fixes Generator->Z Offset issue when using Segment->Deform->Adaptive mode
- Fixes alignment of Y Evenly rows when applying Bottom Padding to A2S Generator
- Fixes erratic movement of Max objects when the Style Editor is closed selecting other object
- Fixes missing Segment using Evenly on closed splines
- Style evaluation has been improved to remove redundancies and fix related bugs
- The Style Editor can now be closed if the Listener is open
- Fixes Style Linking being applied to the wrong objects
- Fixes cloned objects having all parameters initialized as 'unused'
- Fixes a crash when deselecting the RC object with the Expressions editor open
- Fixes a minor bug with Scale mode and Bevels on straight splines
- $.createdVersion is no longer copied from source objects on Copy Style and Library operations
- Fixes alignment on Vertical/Stepped modes when Generator->X Rotation is greater than zero
- Fixes a crash when connecting an Arithmetic node using an empty expression
- Style Editor->Undo operations now modify scene states
- Fixes a crash with dynamic geometry render and segments using the TurboOptimizer modifier

RailClone Pro is currently available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs €200. This beta version is only available for Max 2012 to 2017. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.0.88 are:
- Fixes a bug that knocked out dome light backplates when using ICP GI with matte surfaces
- Fixes a bug when applying matte object alpha overrides to transparent materials
- Fixes a bug that would make the shadow material believe it was opaque
- Adds a potential fix for rare random corruption when texturing multiple-scattering inputs
- Fixes rules for resolving <RenderLayer> tags to match convention starting in Maya 2017.2
- Fixes a number of Maya problems when selecting non-default UV sets on several shading nodes
- Adds a 'Hidden in Viewport' display mode for proxies in Maya
- Fixes a bug in the XSI Integer Attribute shader that prevented it from working properly
- The Houdini log system has been refactored
- Adds a new option in the Houdini ROP node, IPR tab, to disable log files in the IPR sessions
- Removes the COP textures resolution limitation in the Houdini Indie version
- Fixes a bug in Houdini's shader extraction code related to networks with shared shader nodes
- Fixes a Houdini IPR crash while working at SOP level after a change in the available materials
- Fixes a Houdini IPR crash adding material nodes in scenes without lights
- Fixes a Houdini IPR crash removing complex OBJ nodes without other objects in the scene

Redshift is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs $500. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds a new Out From Normal Selection Center function in the Normal Tools custom attribute
- Adds a new Out From Selection Center for the Face Normals functions in the Normal Tools floater
- Updates the Stitch Colocated Normals to work faster
- Adds a Unify checkbox for stitch functions

Normal Tools is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.14.2 are:
- Email notifications now support secure connections (TLS and SSL)
- Testing email notifications and sending immediate status reports now asks for a recipient
- Updates the server to SQLite 3.16.2
- Automatic frame checking is no longer reactivated automatically
- Various other smaller fixes

RenderPal is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs €49 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v3.10 are:
- Adds a flatten unwrap mode
- New UV tile creation process
- Fixes a problem unwrapping objects with very large UV charts when using tile distribution mode
- Fixes an issue where unwrapping in tile distribution mode sometimes didn't work
- UV data initialization is now faster
- Improves performance of tile mode distribution
- Fixes slowdowns when objects share a plugin instance
- New simplified web manageable licensing

Unwrella is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs €149. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.1.6b are:
- Fixes a GPU crash in case of invalid UVW mapping channels
- The bitmap reload button now works
- Fixes incorrect emission in case of mix material change

FStormRender is available for Max 2014 to 2017 and costs €20 per month. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

Disc gives you the ability to create a disc shape with various controls to manipulate the shape of the disc. You can control how much of the disc is drawn radially, and you can also control the X-radius separate from the Y to create an ellipse type of shape.

Disc is available for Max 2012 to 2017 and costs $2.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.0.2 are:
- Adds 34 Parquet materials (Chevron pattern)
- Adds Fabric test scenes to Material Lab
- Minor UI style changes

Corona Material Presets Pro is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs €195.


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v3.03.00 are:
- Adds support for online licensing
- Adds a Pure Ocean mode that lets you render / preview an ocean without a cache file every frame
- Optimizes Body Force for scenes with multiple moving force geometries
- You can now modulate the Particle Texture Blend Radius by particle age
- Defscanline rendering is now aborted when a fire/smoke or particle pre-process is cancelled
- Adds an option to disable the 'Optimizing Volumetrics' rendering pre-pass
- Optimizes cache loading times for caches with many particles
- You can now override the simulation / render output folder when submitting to Backburner
- Displacement Volume FadeOut preview now updates after geometry changes
- Fixes a crash when plugging PhoenixGridTex for Smoke Opacity of the same simulator
- You can now add emitter objects to a copied Liquid Source
- You can now use Clear Inside to delete wetmap particles
- Mist birth from fast moving splashes no longer produces very fast mist jets
- Mist particles can now be born when the Splash Amount is zero
- Fixes a crash with Liquid Resimulation and Adaptive grid expanding in a negative direction
- User properties that don't end with a newline are now appended to correctly by Phoenix
- Fixes a crash when simulating with a simulator and source having the same name
- Multiple Body forces with moving objects no longer take a long time to simulate each frame
- Fixes foam appearing on positive simulator borders during liquid resim with a moving container
- Mixing colored liquids with high RGB diffusion no longer draws colors towards the negative axes
- RGB channel mixing no longer transfers colors across solid walls
- Moving non-solid bodies no longer create velocities in liquid simulations
- Fixes flickering ocean surfaces seen in reflections with a moving camera
- Changing foam texture options now updates in renders when the ocean texture or frame is changed
- Particles in Point Mode no longer render black with V-Ray Adaptive Lights
- You can now render with Thinkbox Krakatoa when a particle system has 0 particles
- You can now use Thinkbox Stoke MX's Field Texmap to control the smoke opacity channel
- Rendering an ocean with a hidden Particle Shader no longer resets the Ocean Subdivs to 0
- Fixes rendering artifacts in Splash or Bubble mode when looking straight along X, Y or Z
- Fixes a crash when the Particle Shader's Count Multiplier is very high
- Backburner simulation submission now works with Backburner 2015 and below

Phoenix FD is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs €600. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.85 are:
- Updates mesh generation to remove some isolated vertices that were created previously
- Adds controls for choosing what channel is used for the vertex colors
- Opening scenes created with pre-1.84 CorVex now sets Vertex Color display mode to None

CorVex is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v5.1.1.10519 are:
- Adds the ability to set logging level and get assertion count through MAXScript
- Adds a Strand Group feature to the Hair Clustering modifier
- Using strand groups on guides which don't have surface dependency now works
- Fixes the Symmetry modifier deforming guides by changing rotations
- Fixes incorrect icons in the Hair Clustering and Guide Clustering modifiers
- Fixes 'Ignore back facing guides' not working in Edit Guides
- Propagation and Dynamics modifiers now remember Length Control curve when copied
- EditGuides and MeshFromStrands modifiers now remember Length Control curve when copied
- Internally reworks how hair references guides, potentially solving some errors

Ornatrix is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs $499. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v8.6.9 are:
- This will be the final Muster 8 release, development will now switch to Muster 9 only
- Selection logic has been optimized from the new Muster 9 code, making it faster
- Fixes a dispatcher issue in the LDAP base DN construction
- Console templates and job exclusion lists can now be purged with a multiple selection
- Console chunk view now corrects open logs of historized chunks
- The console log view 'Remove all logs' button now works as intended

Muster is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs $85 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.53 are:
- Adds a new display mode for 'Use Node's Box Mode'
- Adds a global setting to use Subtitute Modifiers on source objects over a vertex threshhold
- Adds a button to add Substitute Modifiers on source nodes not using substitute modifiers
- Adds an 'Instantiate All' macroscript

PropLine is available for Max 2008 to 2017 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.055 are:
- Improves V-Ray integration
- Adds support for V-Ray 3.5
- Adds motion blur support for V-Ray
- Adds support for the VRayProxy 'Flip Axis' option
- Improves rendering speed for > 1M instances and > 16 core setups
- Adds render-time border spline geometry 'clipping' (V-Ray only)
- Fixes a bug with regular distribution (affecting mostly DR rendering)
- Fixes some 'Preview types' from causing a crash
- Fixes animated proxies
- Fixes Multi/Sub-Object materials
- Changes release version numbering from 1.x.x.x to 1.xxx and 1.xxx.xxx for development versions
- Adds an option to choose the V-Ray version during installation

MultiScatter is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs €200.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.0 are:
- New integrated Submission UI
- Deadline submission improvements
- Streamlined UI and node appearance
- Improvements to node insertion/deletion
- Adds right click 'Enable/Disable', 'Execute' and 'Quick Render' options
- Snippet editor improvements
- Settings dialog and new setting Options
- Startup Graph support
- User layout is now saved between sessions
- Adds support for Node Preset Settings
- Camera selection now supports regular expressions
- Improves drag & drop support (Open/Merge)
- Adds a custom MXS Node
- Adds a Render Preset Node
- Adds a Generic Light Node
- Adds a Reroute Node
- Adds a Render Settings Node
- Adds an Object Visibility Node
- Adds a Redshift Render Element Node
- Adds a Krakatoa Render Element Node
- Adds an Octane Render Element Node
- Adds a Corona Render Element Node
- Improves error checking, output is now less verbose
- Eliminates the snippet 512 character limit
- Adds a billboard option for the Vexus Helper icon
- Adds an 'IsNodeEnabled' MXS command
- Tokens can now overwrite prior assigned values and be assigned using MAXScript snippets
- Adds 3 global Max variables: VEXUS_CURRENT_SHOT, VEXUS_CURRENT_CAMERA, VEXUS_CURRENT_PASS
- Adds a new Output Settings node
- Adds color support for VRay Override nodes
- Adds a SELF node token
- Adds render element support for unique bitmap paths
- Adds grid and grid snap support
- Adds user definable graph connection and grid colors
- Adds editor workspace panning using the SPACE bar
- Editor node insert with the 'X' key
- Various V-Ray property fixes
- Fixes Scanline and Corona Render nodes
- Improves the socket listener and fixes the 'bad tail' error
- Fixes Render Options re-opening if closed through a Vexus action
- Improves drag & drop support in the Vexus Helper
- Improvements to the Vexus Material preview
- Improves socket communications
- Fixes the Reroute Node
- Fixes a bug in V-Ray - Split Output Path
- Fixes Common Render Settings output type
- Minor tweaks including improved error handling/messaging
- Fixes Common Render Settings for legacy files
- Fixes a problem with spaces in node names for addition in render elements
- Removes 'VRayDenoiser' from V-Ray nodes as it is no longer supported in V-Ray 3.5 and higher
- Various Vexus Editor UI tweaks including improved input/output pin labeling
- Various Vexus Plugin tweaks including improved error handling/messaging

Vexus is available for Max 2015 to 2017 and costs $200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v1.1.6a are:
- Improves DOF, number of blades and blade rotation
- Fixes a resolution change causing a crash
- Fixes watermarks in the material editor
- Rendering via the MAXScript render() command no longer ignores render settings
- Fixes object render settings (such as mesh smooth render iterations) not working
- DOF now affects environment textures with screen mapping
- Fixes environment direct lighting not working in some cases

FStormRender is available for Max 2014 to 2017 and costs €20 per month. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: Modelling

This spline plugin gives you the ability to quickly create pipe like paths with a variety of options. You can also distribute custom geometry along the path at each pipe intersection.

Simple Pipe Spline is available for Max 2015 to 2017 and costs $5.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.51 are:
- Adds Source Model integration so you can manually use Lowest/Highest LOD models in the scene

PropLine is available for Max 2008 to 2017 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v4.91 are:
- Adds an 'Integer only' option to the random controller to generate random integer numbers
- Various bug-fixes in Para EditPoly

Parametric Array is available for Max 2011 to 2017 and costs $150. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v9.0.0.18 include:
- Adds an SSL-enabled version of the MongoDB database
- New installation and configuration options
- Remote Commands sent between Deadline applications are now encrypted
- Adds validation checks to ensure that Remote Commands originate from the sender
- Remote Commands can now be sent to remote machines indirectly through Deadline Pulse
- Improvements have been made to the shutdown/restart machine remote commands
- Adds a new dedicated 'Check for Upgrade' command
- Improves 'Find' options in the user interface
- New unified pipeline tools interface for submission scripts
- Draft support has been improved
- Adds a new Amazon Spot event plugin to add AWS Spot Fleet support
- Adds support for Altus, Cinebench, Clarisse's CNode, Composite 2017 and Corona 1.4 / 1.5
- Adds support for Episode, KeyShot, Media Encoder 2017, Microstation CONNECT and Silhouette
- Adds support for Redshift for Houdini, Redshift Standalone, SketchUp 2017 and V-Ray's vdenoise
- Draft has been upgraded to v1.6.1.1
- Many improvements have been made for V-Ray Distributed Bucket Rendering (DBR)
- Adds V-Ray DBR support for modo and Rhino 5
- The 3dsCmd plugin now supports Dynamic V-Ray DBR offloading
- Adds a V-Ray standalone submitter for Nuke
- Adds path mapping of 3ds Max scene file contents
- Adds jigsaw rendering for Redshift for Maya
- Adds local asset caching for Maya
- Adds tile rendering for Cinema 4D
- Adds tile rendering for VRED
- Adds support for Redshift export from Maya
- Adds support for Renderman export from Houdini
- And much more... a full list of improvements and fixes can be found here

Deadline is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $185 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v0.4.4 beta are:
- Fixes a major regression in the appleseed version that shipped with the previous release


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v3.50.04 are:
- Optimizes V-Ray / V-Ray RT geometry compiling in scenes with displacement on multicore machines
- Adds IPR options whether to track changes to VFB size / always use progressive sampling
- Adds a V-Ray RT option to only render the visible part of image for OpenVR and Oculus renders
- V-Ray GPU no longer considers Intel GPUs for rendering
- V-Ray GPU now takes the adaptive lights number of lights into account
- Unoccluded subtexmap slot is now default when keeping replaced texture as subtexmap in VRayDirt
- VRayMDLMtl now shows MDL enum parameters as combo boxes instead of spinners
- img2tiledexr now stores its version and build date into the converted OpenEXR files
- Animated noise in VRayLightMtl with Direct Illumination On no longer slows down the rendering
- Fixes artifacts in V-Ray with Adaptive Lights in certain scenes
- The deep image result is no longer overwritten when post effects are enabled in V-Ray
- V-Ray distributed rendering without 'Use local host' no longer requires an additional license
- Improves saving time of progressive resumable files to a network location in V-Ray
- Fixes a log flood with 'Invalid normal index found on face' with specific geometry in V-Ray
- Saving to raw images with non-ANSI names no longer fails with post effects in V-Ray
- The main V-Ray thread no longer hangs when some of the license servers are offline
- Fixes very slow compile geometry phase on particular scenes in V-Ray
- Fixes incorrect VRayZDepth with camera clip boundaries enabled and clipping planes disabled
- Fixes a constant IPR refresh with VRayPhysicalCamera and V-Ray Exposure Control
- Fixes a crash when adding a render element during IPR
- Fixes an IPR crash when using adaptive lights and a new light is added to the scene
- Fixes IPR hanging and Max 2017 UI freezing when physical camera lens shift is modified
- V-Ray RT now exports display sRGB parameter to .vrscene
- Fixes some machines not loading IFL files in V-Ray RT when accessing them from shared location
- Fixes a V-Ray RT exception when rendering scenes with Ornatrix feathers and displacement
- Fixes black regions with projections in V-Ray GPU
- Fixes differing results with VRayClipper and Camera rays only option enabled in V-Ray GPU
- Adaptive lights now update after change in region/resolution during ActiveShade in V-Ray GPU
- Compensate camera exposure of VRayLightMtl now works in V-Ray GPU
- Fixes CUDA error 719 with specific scenes in V-Ray GPU
- Fixes a potential crash with unsupported render elements in V-Ray GPU
- Fixes missing alpha pixels with matte/shadow plane in V-Ray GPU
- Fixes overexposed lighting when rendering with V-Ray GPU
- The specular contribution now gets adjusted by the fog attenuation in V-Ray GPU
- Denoiser hardware acceleration type is now updated in the VFB at render end
- Denoiser is now applied progressively in the VFB when rendering with V-Ray RT
- Denoiser is no longer applied on load from VFB history
- Lens effects hardware acceleration mode now works in the VFB
- Selecting a point in the VFB curves color correction window no longer causes the point to move
- The curves color correction in the VFB is now applied after the exposure
- Turning off Select object mode in the VFB during ActiveShade no longer leaves the wrong cursor
- Denoiser is no longer calculated every time before V-Ray RT rendering start
- The VRayDenoiser option Only generate render elements no longer produces a corrupt file
- VRayFur is now properly generated with Bitmap texmaps
- VRayGLSLMtl / VRayGLSLTex Materials are no longer transparent in BRDF mode
- VRayGLSLMtl / VRayMDLMtl / VRayOSLMtl general shader properties now have MAXScript access
- VRayOSLMtl / VRayOSLTex no longer crashes with 1000+ shader nodes
- Exporting OSL materials with unconnected textures for V-Ray RT no longer produces broken scenes
- Fixes a VRayProxy crash with Alembic files containing incorrect UVW mapping indices in V-Ray RT
- Custom attributes for alembic files are no longer lost in Show whole mesh display mode
- VRayToon Active checkbox is now exported for V-Ray RT
- Adds VRayToon render element export for V-Ray RT
- Fixes missing toon effect with Max standard cameras
- Fixes a crash when loading an .mdl while V-Ray RT is running and then stopping it
- Exporting empty MDL materials no longer fails
- Fixes slow merging of light cache passes when rendering a scene with missing MDL resource files
- VRayMDLMtl no longer shows as incompatible when V-Ray RT is set as production render engine
- VRayMDLMtl spinners no longer reject negative parameter values
- Fixes VRayMDLMtl treating df::bsdf() as black diffuse
- Fixes incorrect rendering of MDL texture with bump on geometry with incorrect tangents
- Fixes NaN pixels occurring in VRayScatterVolumeMtl
- VRayScene animation now works for V-Ray RT
- Fixes missing objects from imported vrscene when rendered with V-Ray RT
- VRayScene snippet override with wildcards now works in Windows 7
- Fixes broken light instances after conversion with the V-Ray scene converter
- img2tiledexr now converts files properly after 3.50.03

V-Ray is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs $1040. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Chnages for v1.9 are:
- Adds display of custom text for each measurement in the viewport

miauu's Live Measure Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2017 and costs €6.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v4.0.1 are:
- Deprecated psd-manager 3 render slave installer options are now ignored
- Fixes an exception error if a Corona CMasking_Mask element references a deleted object
- Fixes an exception error if a V-Ray MultiMatte element references a deleted object
- psd-manager 4 is free for a month with each issue of 3DArtist magazine #104

psd-manager is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs €159. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Import / Export

Changes for v0.7.0 are:
- Adds support for setting the private 'customType' property for PBR material subclasses
- Adds a few shadow generator serialization support features
- Adds a light falloff property to Babylon entities
- Adds instance parenting support
- You can now export entities with an optional default camera
- Babylon entities PBR material fixes
- Babylon entities must now include the 'metallic' and 'roughness' properties in the output json
- Babylon entity fixes
- Adds support for animation blend info serialization and cloning
- Adds particle system serialization items
- Adds roughness and alpha mode serialization support
- Adds emissive material settings
- Enables worker collisions and ortho mode / stereo serialization options


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v8.0.17.1 are:
- Fixes empty task logs when rendering with concurrent tasks or multiple Slaves on one machine
- Fixes a Slave bug that could affect UBL/3PL render time consumption
- In the Python plugin API, AbortLevel is now respected when calling the AbortRender() function
- The ExitWithSuccess() function in the Python plugin API now simply calls AbortRender()
- The SetUpdateTimeout() function in the Python plugin API now works properly
- Adds DeleteJobEnvironmentKey() and DeleteJobExtraInfoKey() functions to the Python Job object
- Improves logic for V-Ray specific valid file path checking in the 3ds Max Sanity Check
- Reorders a couple of the Houdini Stdout handlers so that the most general one is checked last
- The integrated modo submitter now ignores outputs that are enabled but have not been set
- The integrated modo submitter now ignores render passes that are disabled
- The Softimage plugin now ignores errors that say a command cannot be used in batch mode
- Removes the RegisterNewFontsOnly option from the FontSync plugin

Deadline is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $185 per node. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v0.1.0.b are:
- Fixes a critical memory leak
- Sequences can now be rendered
- All objects now 'translate' to the renderer properly
- Removes 'default lighting': you will now be warned if there is no supported light in your scene


Plugin Update: Modelling / Animation

Changes for v5.1.0.10324 include:
- Adds a new 'Push Away from Surface' modifier
- Adds a new 'Guides from Shape' Object
- Adds a MAXScript function / toolbar button to attach selected strand objects to their surfaces
- Adds the ability to toggle longitudal and directional changes by Surface Comb modifier
- Propagation modifier now uses per-vertex transforms instead of calculating its own
- Adds a new 'Generate Guide Data' modifier
- The 'Hair from Guides' modifier can now use the guide channel to control guide distribution
- Adds an option to mirror all brushing along the current viewport's vertical/horizontal center
- Adds an option to mirror all brushing along the mesh's center
- Adds and simplifies channel group visualization for guides
- Adds a new 'Import multiple splines' option to the Edit Guides modifier
- Adds a button to create a new per-guide channel and assign it to a specific strand parameter
- Adds a button to create a new vertex color channel and assign it to a specific strand parameter
- Adds a new 'Hair from Particles' object
- Implements sinks detaching/reattaching in the Surface Comb modifier
- Allows detaching roots in the Guides from Surface modifier
- Using 'Remember Clusters' button in the Hair Clustering modifier
- Changes Hair from Guides root generation to have viewport preview be a subset of render hairs
- Adds a new 'Guides from Hair' modifier
- Adds a new Cache modifier capable of storing output hair and guides if input stops being valid
- Allows the user to add a groom which has base curves and ground strands modifier to a mesh
- Adds a new 'Apply Amount' parameter to the Edit Guides modifier
- Updates the Strand Animation modifier to allow Alembic animation time rescaling
- Updates the Strand Animation modifier to allow handling of different point counts
- You can now assign guide channel values through a new Edit Guides modifier rollout
- Brush settings in the Edit Guides modifier are now independent for each brush
- Adds pen pressure sensitivity to the Edit Guides modifier brushes
- Adds a new 'viewport preview only' option to the Hair Clustering modifier
- Adds tooltips to all hair clustering modifier parameters to clarify their function
- Adds minimum and maximum allowed values to the Length modifier
- Adds a new 'Strand Group' option to the Strand Multiplier modifier
- Adds new buttons to cycle through a selection of hair strips
- Right clicking while dragging a brush in Edit Guides now cancels the current action
- Adds a new strand group option to the Mesh from Strands modifier
- When the 'Remember Hair Positions' option is on viewport uses the cached hairs
- Moves the Edit Guides guide options into own rollout, makes them persistent and adds tooltips
- Moves external collision object selection to the Push Away From Surface modifier
- Adds a new 'Use World Coordinates' option to the Alembic exporter
- The Baked Hair object now displays a percentage of render hair
- The Baked Hair object viewport preview is now generated on the fly
- Curve diagrams can now save and load presets
- Adds new symmetry options to the Surface Comb modifier
- Grooms can now have a 'Sphere' base object, minimizing groom file size and simplifying them
- The Ground Strands modifier now assigns the base surface as distribution object
- The Made Strand Multiplier modifier is now part of hair groom
- The Push Away from Surface modifier is now part of hair groom
- Switches to using Detach button toggle in Ground Strands modifier instead of Ground button
- And much much more... a full list of changes can be found here

Ornatrix is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs $499. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for Alpha 3.09 are:
- Reworks the CUDA device options
- Render options can now be configured with MAXScript
- Most render options now have tooltips
- Corrects various errors with multi-GPU rendering


Plugin Update: Modelling / Texturing

Changes for v5.2.4 beta are:
- Fixes a crash with missing VRayProxy assets
- Fixes crashes with V-Ray 3.5 IPR mode

Forest Pack Pro is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v6.9-2 are:
- Supervisor and worker now use sytemd unit files for managing startup and shutdown on CentOS 7+
- Jobs in a 'badlogin' state can now be retried or killed

Qube! is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs $3,500. A demo version is available here.


New Plugin: MCG

This is an MCG tool to select quad faces where the angle of the 2 tris is more than the Tolerance level. It is a selector only, it does not auto-alter your geometry.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v1.25 are:
- Fixes Max 2017 not working when the Work Plane is selected after creation using Pick 3 points
- Fixes an error that occurs when Deactivate Work Plane is executed

miauu's Work Plane is available for Max 2009 to 2017 and costs €10.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.49 are:
- You can now automatically apply the custom attribute to any Edit Normals modifier in the scene
- Updates the Normal Tools Custom Attribute to use an AttribID to reduce file size
- Updates the Normal Tools Custom Attribute to make it easier to get updated functions
- Updates button functions in the custom attribute to check if the Normal Tools are installed
- Adds a new group of functions to manually set the normals in the Normal Tools custom attribute
- Adds a new setting in the custom attributes that controls how the selection functions are used
- Changes the default Apply To setting to All Normals

Normal Tools is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs $10.


Plugin Update: Particles / Animation

Changes for v1.71.0 are:
- Adds the Shatter modifier, a tetrahedron based damaging and fragmentation modifier

RayFire is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs $385. A demo version is available here.