mental images have published a list of the most important changes coming in mental ray v3.5, which includes new final gathering modes and Catmull-Clark meshes. You can find the list here.

From the 16th August 2006 until the 1st August 2007, Autodesk in cooperation with Realviz S.A. will be offering the camera-tracking plugin MMTrack for Max and Maya for free. Up to now the plugin, which uses MatchMover Pro 4 algorithms and fits seamlessly into the workflow of Max and Maya, cost $560.

Changes for v4.1.1.0091 are:
- A lot! The whole list is available here.

RealFlow is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $2700. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v4.1.4 are:
- Version 4.0 .rh files are now supported

Changes for v4.5 are:
- Dynamic path refinement
- Special character actions
- AI content can now be streamed
- Hierarchical pathfinding

AI.implant is available for Max 7 and 8, and costs $4995. A demo version is available here.

This is a vast improvement on the standard ghosting in Max. It allows you to pick frames at which you want objects ghosted, works on selections of objects all at once (for example ghosting a whole biped), and more. There is a flash movie in the ZIP file which demonstrates all of its functionality.

Changes for v1.5 beta are:
- Adds PSC import to Max plugins

Point Oven is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $99. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.7.0.5 are:
- A complete list of changes can be found here

Granny Exporter is available for Max 5 to 8, and is part of the Granny Toolkit which costs $12500.

Changes for v1.3 are:
- Adds option to enable/disable Shift Copy & Shift Extrude
- dRaster Icon set now installs in both default UI icon folders
- Adds frame selection (universal command for viewports and Track View Curve Editor)
- Adds frame all (universal command for viewports and Track View Curve Editor)
- Demo timer pop up dialog comes up less frequently

Switcher is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $49.99. A demo version is available here.

Gruesome Arts have started public beta testing of their upcoming plugin RapidSD, which is a much faster alternative to Turbosmooth / Meshsmooth.

Changes for v1.05 are:
- I started writing them, and realised that there are so many it would take me ages. The ChangeLog is here.

greenworks organic software have uploaded a new alpha (Alpha 5) version of their XFrog plugin for Max.

Major changes for Alpha 5 are:
- Default input splines or objects
- Mesh importer is now built in
- A lot of internal improvements

You can download the Alpha version at the XFrog for Max forum.

Chaos Group will be revealing V-Ray 1.5 next week at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston.

V-Ray 1.5 builds on the existing foundation of the V-Ray rendering engine, extends its capabilities and adds many new features
- Full render elements support inside Max
- Physically based sun and sky for simulating natural daylight illumination
- Physically based camera model with real-world parameters
- New material types (VRayBlendMtl , VRay2SidedMtl, VRayFastSSS, and more)
- Detail enhancement for the irradiance map
- Adaptive path tracing
- VRayDirt texture map for simulating dirt or ambient occlusion
- Improved distributed rendering
- Improved V-Ray virtual frame buffer
- Multi-platform SDK for extending virtually any part of the rendering engine
- and much more...

The new version requires a hardware lock (dongle) in order to run. V-Ray users will have to fill in a dongle request form, just head over to the support section and follow the link to the form.

Changes for v1.8 / v3.8 are:
- Better G2 - G3 corner blends
- Improved 'Fill Surface' tool
- Performance improvements in primitive creation
- Improved importing of Catia models
- Improved importing of SolidWorks models
- Improved importing of UG models
- Improvements in Power Translators
- Fixes several crashing bugs

The nPower plugins are available for Max 4 to 8, and cost $495 (Power Solids / Power Translators), $995 (Power NURBs) and $1995 (Power Translators Pro). A demo version is available here.

On July 6th, Avid Technology, Inc. purchased the intellectual property assets of Character Animation Technologies Ltd. Those assets will be managed by Softimage Co., Avid's wholly owned subsidiary.

Which means that CAT now belongs to Softimage. There is no real news yet on the future of CAT for Max, but I did get an email from CAT this morning which says the following:
'We are very confident that Softimage's resources and experience combined with CAT's technology will continue to provide you with the best character solution available. Meanwhile we are very happy that existing users of the CAT Max plugin will continue to get the high level of support they are used to for the foreseeable future.'

Part of the Mod SDK, this plugin allows Max to export models in the *.w3d format used in the following games: The Battle for Middle-earth II, The Battle for Middle-earth, Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour and Command & Conquer Generals.

Changes for v5.03 are:
- Improved error feedback

groundExport is part of the PathEngine SDK, and is available for Max 6 to 8. A basic license for the SDK costs €4000.

Changes for v1.3.11 are:
- Many bug-fixes
- Adds support for Max 8
- Max 8 scenes now render faster

BusyRay is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $49.95. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v3.020 are:
- Bridge & Fuse can now handle separate edge selections on the same loop
- Modified the UI in the LOF panel

Orionflame is available for Max 5 to 8, and costs $149. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.01 are:
- Adds the ability to mask what is affected by using the reference nodes vertex selection

Transmographier is available for Max 5 to 8, and costs $20. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v4.0 are:
- Adds 'Sculpt Trunk' features to control the roughness of the trunk
- Adds 'Volumetric Mode' for 3D trunks and branches and billboard foliage
- Memory consumption has been reduced
- Tree animation skeletons can be exported to real-time engines
- Fully compatible with Mental Ray

natFX is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $990 (including 10 seeds). A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Speed optimizations
- Implements harddisk rendering
- Fixes a problem with persistent noise pattern artifacts
- Dielectrics improved regarding noise and Total Internal Reflections
- Fixes a problem with dielectrics when used with roughness
- Refraction Index expanded up to 1000
- Lots of network problems have been fixed
- Cooperative merging problems fixed
- Bump and Normal Map system has been completely reworked
- Fixes a problem with ComplexIOR data rendering
- SSS completely re-written for better performance
- Coatings have been vastly improved
- Angle Map interpretation method improved
- Caustics are now faster
- RGB <-> Spectral conversion has been improved
- ISO and shutter controls have been added to the EmiXer
- A lot of enhancements to Maxwell Studio
- Adds numerous, easy-to-use material wizards
- Material libraries have been renewed
- Plugins have been improved

Maxwell is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $895. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v3.508 are:
- Fixes a UI bug when multi-selecting passes
- Fixes a problem with the submission feedback dialog
- Deadline support now works properly
- RPMMaterial no longer crashes when using scripted materials

RPManager is available for Max 6 to 8, and costs $300. A demo version is available here.

This is just a recompile of the Max 6 plugin for the Star Wars: Empire at War map editor.

hbBool performs Boolean Set Operations on polygonal meshes. The user interface is the same as the standard Max Boolean with some additions:
- Slice uses the second operand as a knife to cut the first operand into 2 solids
- Local Boolean limits the operation to the vicinity of a selected vertex
- Surface operations does Boolean operations on surfaces (not only on volumes)
- Scene union turns a set of patches into a solid
- Perform Boolean operations on self-intersecting meshes

hbBool is available for Max 7 and 8, and costs $250. A demo version is available here.