Changes for v1.5 are:
- Adds a fresh UI with icons
- Adds actions cut: 'Cut', 'Split', 'Add', 'Carve', 'Extract' and 'Draw'
- Adds grid snap
- Adds adjusts pivot in local or world space
- Adds add symmetry, shell modifiers on top of the stack and adjust them
- Adds two types of projections: 'Cut Hit' and 'Cut View'
- Adds new cut type: 'Shape'
- Adds interactive toggle view shortcuts

FormCutter is available for Max 2017 to 2021 and costs $35.

This is a commercial MAXScript that enables you to apply vertex colours based on a variety of conditions such as by object, element or vertex, sorted by distance, X/Y/Z position, selection order, name or randomly. On top of this there are a number of sorting options, support for vertex alpha, the ability to individually set vertex colors for the R,G,B,A channels, and more.

Vertex Color Editor is available for Max 2014 to 2021 and costs $3.

This is a commercial MCG that enables you to set real world/local dimensions of an object by axes with scale deformation taken into account. You can fit one object to another by size, and it has built-in Reset Xform/Reset Scale functions.

Set Dimensions Modifier is available for Max 2018 to 2021 and costs $6.99.

Changes for v3.3 are:
- Adds initial support for Open Shading Language (OSL) maps
- Adds support for the Noise map in Verge3D
- The Matte/Shadow material is now supported in Verge3D
- Improves loading speed by optimizing shader compilation
- Some optimizations to improve rendering performance, noticeable on low-end / mobile hardware
- You can now export objects, groups of objects or entire scenes in glTF format
- Adds a glTF export puzzle capable of saving configured objects from your applications
- Adds a spherical trajectory option to the tween camera puzzle to orbit to a new position
- The tween camera puzzle now accepts coordinates alongside objects
- The HTML canvas can now be used as a material texture
- The category Misc in the Puzzles editor has been renamed to Advanced
- Adds new puzzles wait promise and promise value to the Advanced category
- Adds get color and get value puzzles to go with the available set color and set value puzzles
- The puzzle get object transform now has an option to retrieve all 3 coordinates as a list
- The JavaScript method Geometry.fromBufferGeometry() now works properly with vertex colors
- The variant of Verge3D run-time v3d.module.js is now provided with software installations
- Global product attributes are now supported for Woocommerce in the Verge3D WordPress plugin
- The advanced code-merging update feature has been further improved, accelerated and stabilized
- Various cleanups and refactoring of engine shader code
- Various minor improvements in the documentation (fixing broken links, missing media files, etc.)
- Fixes some bugs in the App Manager related to the application updating feature
- Improves the performance of updating
- Fixes memory leaks when unloading applications
- Fixes a crash with custom materials assigned to objects with JavaScript
- Fixes a flipping issue with the create environment puzzle

Verge3D is available for Max 2018 to 2021 and costs $290. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.8.2.0 are:
- Adds new Quick Merge(attach) and Explode(Detach) for editable poly / editable mesh elements
- Adds new Quick manage polygon material IDs
- Improves the Incremental Isolation tool
- Improves ribbon organization and vertical layout
- Improves the algorithm used in the reference scale tool
- Quick pivot: adds a command to match a node pivot to the current working pivot position
- Fixes a problem with Macro activation in Max 2017
- Fixes the behavior of reference guides in orthogonal views
- Fixes a problem with reference delete tool
- Several bug-fixes and optimizations
- Fixes and improves the 'Scale factor' setting for Measure tools
- Fixes an error in guide objects that disabled the command panel UI parameters
- Fixes an error in the 'Asset align' tool where node pivots where wrongly repositioned

DesignToolBox is available for Max 2015 to 2021 and costs $22.99. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2020.1.4 - 10.12.4 are:
- Updates to Octane Render 2020.1.4
- Fixes the vectron geometry input node not re-initializing correctly on scene rebuild
- Updates the vectron geometry input node to use node object layer settings
- Fixes material editor UI issues when loading old Max files
- Fixes the Octane light class name for MAXScript usage ('OctaneLight' instead of 'Octane Light')

OctaneRender is available for Max 2013 to 2021 and costs €699 per year. A demo version is available here.

I'm going to be out of the office for the next week, so things will be quiet here until I get back. If you have any news you want posted, send it anyway and I'll sort it out when I'm back.

Cheers, Dave

Hydra Renderer is an open source, standalone, physically correct GPU renderer for Max. It is tightly integrated into Max and supports most cameras, lights and materials. It renders using Multiplexed Metropolis Light Transport (MMLT), which offers a number of advantages over the usual Metropolis Light Transport (MLT).

Changes for v5.00.04 are:
- Adds a VRayBackToBeauty render element that will expand to all beauty render channels
- Simplifies the image sampler options
- View image button in VRayBitmap should now work for .tx bitmaps
- Adds a VRayDistanceTex option to not compute for the viewports
- Raises the default Refraction and Reflection Max depth to 8 in VRayMtl
- Adds a VFB2 keyboard shortcut for Lock Pixel Coordinates ('L')
- Adds VFB2 support for the color corrections and VRayDenoiser in V-Ray Viewport IPR
- Adds VFB2 support for zoom key combinations
- V-Ray Material Library download progress should now display downloaded/total size in the installer
- Fixes VRayDisplacementMod's Subdivision not working far from scene origin
- Activating Max menus during V-Ray GPU IPR no longer stops image updates in the VFB
- Fixes a V-Ray GPU memory leak with VRayDistanceTex
- Orthographic projection now renders properly in V-Ray GPU IPR with RTX
- Fixes wrong objects in the VRayClipper exclude list when merged in scene
- Fixes NaN pixels occurring with textured adaptive dome lights
- Fixes overlapping MAXScript names of gradient parameters in VRayToonMtl
- Fixes incorrect motion blur in VRayTriplanarTex
- Fixes more noise in VRayVolumeGrid with Blue Noise Sampling enabled for grid volumes
- Fixes VFB2 artifacts with Filmic tonemap
- Fixes a halo in VFB2 with Lens Effects and positive lightness values in color correction
- Fixes a VFB2 crash on consecutive V-Ray GPU IPR restarts when selecting different layers
- Fixes a VFB2 crash on scene open when the scene was saved with legacy VFB LUT color correction
- Fixes a different convert to composite result in VFB2 if the first light is turned off
- Large color values are now formatted properly in pixel info in VFB2
- Fixes missing color corrections/post effects on image copied to clipboard from VFB2
- Fixes a resize on region IPR in VFB2 when an image has been previously loaded from history
- Show corrected colors now works in VFB2
- Switching from OCIO to sRGB and back in VFB2 no longer loses the OCIO settings
- VFB2 window position can now be saved on a non-primary monitor
- Fixes the 'Too many open files' error when loading many LUT files in VFB
- Downloading the V-Ray Material Library now works with network paths starting with '\\'
- The install log is no longer empty when an error occurs

V-Ray is available for Max 2016 to 2021 and costs €1060. A demo version is available here.

On the 12th of July 2000, MAX Plugins.de went online after a month or so of getting everything set up. You can see the news page for July 2000 here. Back then we were on Max 3, and there were 382 plugins in the database. Today we are on the 23rd version of Max and the database contains a total of 4,957 free plugins, 257 mental ray shaders, and 793 commercial plugins.

The year 2000 seems to have been a good one for Max sites, because both MaxUnderground and ScriptSpot also started in that year. The site is still getting a fair amount of visitors, and up to July 1st, the site has had 35,355,017 pageviews. Even Max 1 is still generating traffic: last month the Max 1 page had 1425 pageviews and 153 downloads! :o)

I had a big plan to completely re-design everything a few years ago, but to be honest real life is always getting in the way and I just didn't have the time to do it. Other than regularly updating the code behind it all to prevent the script kiddies from breaking anything, I won't be investing any more time in the way the site looks.

I'd like to say a big thank you to the few people who have actually helped to support the site financially, and special thanks go to Marco for the huge amount of help over the last 15 years(!) in tracking down news to post. Without his help there wouldn't have been an awful lot of news posted.

I've got no idea how long the site will go on for, hopefully as long as Max is still around. I never thought it would last 20 years, so let's just wait and see! All the best, Dave

Changes for v10.1.8.5 are:
- Adds the ability for SEP House Cleaning functionality to run on EC2 instances using IAM Roles
- Adds a Health Check API and additional alarms to the Deadline RCS
- Upgrades various Python dependencies used by Deadline via the pythonsync folder in the Repository
- Upgrades the Python for .NET dependency from v1.0.0 to v2.4.0
- AWS Portal now uses AWS managed IAM policies
- Changes the IAM permissions required on your AWS Portal IAM User
- Changes how AWS Portal creates IAM resources in your account
- Changes when the Asset Server S3 bucket is created in your AWS account
- Removes the 'Choose Bucket' and 'Fix Policies' buttons from the Asset Server Settings dialog
- Adds a new AMI for Max 2021 with support for both V-Ray and Arnold
- Replaces the IAM policies in the documentation with AWS managed IAM policies
- New IAM policies restrict the IAM Role names that you can use for your Spot Fleet instances
- Before running the Spot Event Plugin, you must now create an IAM Role for the Resource Tracker
- Enhances UserAgent messaging in the Resource Tracker's Lambda script(s)
- You must now create an IAM Role in your AWS Account prior to using the Resource Tracker
- Fixes a bug in SubmitMaxToDeadline with IFLs where Python errors were not being caught properly
- Adds support for Clarisse 4
- Adds support for Clarisse BUiLDER
- Adds support for Nuke 12.1
- Adds support for Octane 2018 and 2019

Deadline is available for Max 2010 to 2021 and costs $48 per node per year. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.0.3.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2021
- Extends the trial period to 45 days
- Fixes a license failure in some cases requiring reopening of the scene

ReDeform is available for Max 2016 to 2021 and costs $20. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v3.10.37 are:
- Adds support for VRay 5
- Vray Bitmap is now used as the default texture type
- Fixes a bug with opening the 'Mass Rename Tool' in versions 3.10.27-3.10.33
- Fixes an issue with searching in materials
- Fixes some minor issues

Project Manager is available for Max 2014 to 2021 and costs $60. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.75 are:
- Adds support for Max 2021
- Ivy growth is now multi-threaded
- You can now create multiple ivy's in the same session
- Adds a new leaves algorithm
- Adds support for custom leaf meshes
- Several bug-fixes and GUI tweaks

Gtools Ivy is available for Max 2018 to 2021 and costs $15. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.21.2 are:
- Adds support for V-Ray 5
- V-Ray IPR is now supported from V-Ray 4.3 and V-Ray 5
- Fixes a Desipher text error when auto-login is unchecked
- In Forensic, the Illumi compass is no longer counted as an unused helper
- Disperse can now export as proxies (ProxSi + VRay + Corona)
- Scatter can now export as proxies (ProxSi + VRay + Corona)
- SiClone can now export as proxies (ProxSi + VRay + Corona)
- SiClone can now export as single objects

SiNi Software is available for Max 2015 to 2021 and costs £180 per year. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v4.0.3 are:
- Improves application compatibility in environments that use very long file paths (+256 chars)
- Improves scene loading times in Max and Cinema4D
- Fixes an issue where assets displayed as bounding boxes were incorrectly exported in T-pose
- Fixes a Max issue where mesh normals could be wrong when rendering animations using render nodes
- Fixes a Max issue with 4D model normals displaying incorrectly in the UV seams when using V-Ray
- Fixes a stability issue in Max with Octane and 4D characters
- Fixes a C4D issue where the alive connection would lock any animated cameras in the C4D scene
- Fixes material conflicts in C4D when multiple shaders were applied to the same mesh selection tags
- Fixes an issue where UE4 could crash when importing an asset that was already in the scene
- Fixes a UE4 issue with packages including 4D models made in UE 4.25

Anima is available for Max 2013 to 2021 and costs €279. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2020.1 - 10.12 are:
- Updates core to Octane render 2020.1.3
- Adds volumetric spotlights
- Adds a universal camera
- Fixes the RTX enable option not being saved as a global setting
- Fixes the RTX enable option not updating when changed from the Octane device setting window
- Fixes Camera and Light target position not being set correctly when turning on target mode
- Fixes octane light instances when changing vectron mode while rendering in viewport
- Fixes export of some animated textures (3d transform, projection, displacement, etc)
- Fixes Kernel pixel grouping settings
- Set unique names to object layer nodes for render pass CryptoObjectNode

OctaneRender is available for Max 2013 to 2021 and costs €699 per year. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.3.4 are:
- Adds a workflow option for the PBR (Spec/Gloss) shader for Max 2021
- Adds a workflow option for the PBR (Metal/Rough) shader for Max 2021
- Workflow scripts no longer fail when moving nodes between different views in the SME
- Setting a relative path in the asset tracker will now work
- If an output that a workflow script expects is missing, it is now logged to the console
- Adds an About dialog containing information about the plugin, along with used libraries
- The About dialog has a 'Copy to Clipboard' button allowing diagnostic information to be saved

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Adds a new user interface
- Adds a 'Keep Multi Materials' function so Multi/Sub-Object Material geometry is not affected

miauu's Manage Links is available for Max 2009 to 2021 and costs €17.