Changes for v0.2.26 Alpha include:
- Fixes a bug that could create subtle artifacts when doing raytraced shadows, skylight, gi, etc.
- There were a few reports of problems with lock failures. There was a small bug here and we think it has been solved, but it hasn't been very thouroughly tested.

NOTE: ROLLING YOUR SYSTEM CLOCK IN AN ATTEMPT TO GET MORE THAN 60 DAYS ON YOUR LICENSE WILL INVALIDATE YOUR LICENSE AND BRAZIL R/S WILL NOT RUN.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Multi-level undo.
- Object scaling.
- Keyboard accelerators.
- Multiple object selection.
- Copy/paste in 2D and 3D (very powerful).
- Expanded user preferences.

Changes for v0.2.25 Alpha include:
- Fixed the Grid bug!!!.
- Several ray depth related crashes fixed.
- Receive Shadows object property fixed.
- Displace Approx modifier (rendertime displacement mapping) now works!.
- and much much more....

For a complete list of all the new stuff, go here.

Cebas have announced that finalRender will start shipping 28th September 2001. finalRender is a raytracer that can do all manner of effects, such as global illumination, reflective and refractive caustics, soft (penumbral) shadows, illustration-style rendering, true depth of field, translucency and true blurry reflections.

The renderer is available for Max 4.2, and costs $495 if ordered before November 1st. From November on it will cost $695.

An upgrade has been released for Character Studio (for Max 3.x only!). The patch can be found here. Changes for v3.03 are:
- Physique now properly automatically updates CS 2.2 physiqued files.
- Biped problems from frame rate change after Mo-Flow and reset have been fixed.
- Some biped parameters were not correct until biped selected in motion panel.
- Several biped MAXScript bugs were fixed.
- Extracting footsteps with tolerance from z level is now working.
- Max no longer exits when resetting with crowds MAXScript instance open.

The full details are available here.

This plugin allows you to export your Max 3.x characters, scenes, objects and animations to Virtools Dev 2.0 (*.NMO file format), a toolset for creating interactive, game-quality applications for e-learning, e-marketing and traditional games. Includes support for Character Studio R3.x

AURAN Jet is a game authoring software currently in Beta, and available for free download. With this plugin you can assign weights to vertices which then affect how the mesh will be progressively collapsed by the Jet exporter.

AURAN Jet is a game authoring software currently in Beta, and available for free download. This plugin enables Max to export objects and textures to Jet in the following file formats: *.im (Indexed Mesh), *.pm (Progressive Mesh), and *.kin ( Animation File), and includes support for Character Studio v3.x.

EdgeMap is a procedural texture that draws lines along the face edges of an object.

Changes for v0.25b are:
- Fixed crash when accumulating vertex grit on objects with no existing vertex colors.

Changes for v1.0.0.17 include:
The exporter has been updated to work with AURAN Jet RC1.

Changes for v1.0.0.18 include:
The exporter has been updated to work with AURAN Jet RC1, and now includes support for Character Studio R3.0 and R2.2.

Changes for v0.25b are:
- Fixed crash when accumulating vertex grit on objects with no existing vertex colors.

SegTech are releasing a Max plugin version of their Segmation technology. The plugin is currently in Beta, and is expected to be released sometime in Q3 2001. This is the same technology used in the Segmation Photoshop plugin, marketed by Xaos Tools.

The following is a description of the Photoshop plugin:
Segmation transforms images into vectors, contours and patterns. This versatile plugin converts your Photoshop images into intriguing line art, paint-by-number, and Escher-like patterns. Apply within Photoshop or save outlines and colors in EPS for Illustrator or Freehand.

Presumably we can expect similar capabilities from the Max plugin, which will be available for Max 3 and 4.

The algorithm for this shader came from the book Graphics Gems II. It has been modified to incorporate the Blinn style of shading rather than Phong. It expands on the normal Blinn shader by providing two new variables, Tension and Bias.

This shader provides a continuous 'bridge' between Flat shading and Blinn shading, allowing you to vary the 'Blinn-ness' and 'Faceted-ness'. With settings of Tension = 0.0 and Bias = 1.0, the shader is equivalent to Blinn shading. With settings of Tension = 1.0 and Bias = 1.0, the shader is equivalent to Flat shading.

In addition to this, by setting Tension < 0.0 each face is rounded more than in Blinn shading resulting in a surface with each face bumping outwards. With Tension > 1.0 each face is rounded more inwards, resulting in a surface with each face bumping inwards.

The SceneExplorer consolidates various max functionality into one window and thereby simplifies and speeds-up the day-to-day workflow. The individual features are:

Max Functionality
- Graphically indicated object type
- Select/Deselect objects
- Shift select for selecting a range of objects
- Select entire sub-hierarchy by double clicking on object
- Hide/Unhide with state shown by icon - object can remain visible based on filter settings
- Freeze/Unfreeze with state shown by icon - object can remain visible based on filter settings
- Group open/close - independent of collapse/expand
- Show hierarchy with selective collapse/expand
- Rename an object - even if it is not selected
- Hide/Show by Type
- Indicates if an object is an XRef object
- Indicates if an object is animated

Scene Explorer Funtionality
- Multi column layout
- Flattened or Hierarchial layout
- Alphabetical or Max sorted layout
- Filtering of contents of SceneExplorer
- Filter sets for multiple instances of SceneExplorer with Undo/Redo
- SceneExplorer as a floating window or in a Max viewport
- Action for hide/show of a floating SceneExplorer to replace the SelectByName Max build-in
- Mouse as well as keyboard based scrolling/paging through contents
- Collapsable and completely hidden toolbars for space saving
- Configurable fonts and colors for various states of object (not/selected, hidden, frozen)
- Remember collapse/expanse state in scene file
- Display objects with their wirecolor (selectable mode)
- Saves layout of all open explorers and filter set states at exit
- Customizable background color
- Different image options for different background colors
- quad menus for quick access to SceneExplorer as well as Max functionality within SceneExplorer

The plugin is available for Max 4.2, and costs $95. A demo version is available here.

TextureTools.Com has released a partial feature list for their TrU-V v2.0 texturing tool. You can see the list here. There is no fixed release date yet, but hopefully it won't be long now.

New features include:
- Completely rewritten user interface.
- Redesigned PolyMap window.
- More UV manipulations.
- More OpenGL renderer features.
- Interactive face selection for surface definition.
- Apply TrU-V to all surfaces at once.
- TrU-V is Faster.
- More surprise goodies...

CoreVision has announced a new scripted render effect called VisualRays. There is very little information about the plugin at the moment, but it promises to render very realistic images based on Human Visual Systems.

This plugin creates parametric chairs and similar objects. It is extremely flexible, allowing full control of all possible creation parameters. Known possibilities of objects that can be created with this plugin are chairs, tables, stools, benches, space vehicles,.....! You can find a few examples of uses for this plugin here.

I'm going to be on the road for the next week, so I won't be able to update the site until Friday 21st. If you need something to do instead of checking this site for news updates, try going to the American Red Cross donation site, they are supporting the victims of the catastrophes in America.

VR4MAX is a a high performance real-time interactive virtual reality environment to view, check and distribute Max 4 models with only mouse clicks while still working within the Max 4 environment. VR4MAX is fully compatible with Max 4. Using its advanced interface your complete Max design including advanced features like (Character Studio) object animation, particles, animated meshes, inverse kinematics, and more can be exported for use in VR4MAX within minutes. Its functionalities are a must for every Max user if you wish to extend beyond stills, and static animations, and want to explore the exciting world of possibilities of Virtual Reality.

The plugin is available for Max 4, and prices start at €550 (roughly $500). A demo version is available here.

Changes for Beta 0.4 are:
- Fixed the bug that when you cloned a material all the sub materials would not clone.

Fatlips is a tool for the automation of lip-synching. Features include:
- No special character setup required.
- Can be used for characters with any morphology.
- Fast and easy to use and learn.
- Smooth transitions for astonishing results.
- Generates standard keys on Bezier controllers: animation can be touched up freely and easily.
- Compatible with any export module supporting the Max Morpher.
- 40 different phonemes.
- Any combination of morph targets can be used as a phoneme pose.
- Exposure sheet export in Microsoft Excel format.

The plugin is on special offer at the moment for $595, from September 30th $795.

Changes for v1.02 are:
- Fixed the bug that when you cloned a material all the sub materials would not clone.

Changes for v1.63 are:
- Adds a Clone Children check box that lets you clone all the children in the hierarchy in addition to the scatter object.

George Barjoud has released details of the new version of Vehicle Simulator, which should be available soon. New features include:

Auto Drive
The user draws a path, and the car drives it! Based on engine horsepower, torque, brakes, tires and traction, VS 1.5 calculates the behavior of the car. The user can choose driving style, determining how aggressively the throttle and brakes are applied.

Multi-Vehicle Interaction
Vehicles are able to crash (with no denting), drive over each other, roll over, pile up, and whatever else the circumstance allows. Multiple vehicles are managed in the same interface easily and efficiently and their keyframes are calculated simultaneously.

Realism
A new physics algorithm takes into account more variables such as weight on each wheel. The body of the vehicle can now collide with its full shape, instead of 8 points. Collisions can occur from any angle allowing for vehicles to drive an upside-down loop with the appropriate conditions!

Workflow
From the start, the new Vehicle Simulator is designed to be intuitive. Most procedures will be context sensitive. For example, to set up a vehicle for simulation, a separate setup program is no longer required. Questions to the user about the vehicle come up when Vehicle Simulator detects that the vehicle is not setup. Settings are now based on regular measurements such as pounds or kgs, newtons, and have many usable presets.

The plugin is available for Max 3 and 4, and costs $99.

Changes for v0.2.21 Alpha include:
- Brazil is now accessed as a plugin renderer.
- Brazil now performs all scene enumeration and database collection.
- Efficient adaptive antialiasing and initial image undersampling for fast preview renders.
- Proper system wide filtering is provided by native filters.
- Ray tracing / shading pipelines are completely retooled to provide more flexibility and speed.
- The system now supports separate shading rates for different effects.
- Brazil features a native frame buffer using 128-bits per pixel.
- Initial CSG style primitive support has been added.

For a list of all the new stuff, go here.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Added 1/4x, 1/2x and 2x audio playback during Scrubbing and Motion Capture.
- Fixed loss of sound during motion capture.
- Track Bar preview was causing Max 4 to crash - Fixed.
- Fixed memory leak.

Changes for v1.1 are:
- Added 1/4x, 1/2x and 2x audio playback during Scrubbing and Motion Capture.
- Fixed loss of sound during motion capture.
- Track Bar preview was causing Max 4 to crash - Fixed.
- Fixed memory leak.

Changes for v1.0b3 are:

New Features:
- Customizable background color.
- Quad menus implemented.
- Animated objects shown with a red background.
- All toolbars hideable via quad menu.
- XRef objects indicated by an additional icon.
- Filter for XRef objects.
- New type and filter for Bipeds.
- Middle mouse button wheel scrolling implemented.
- New type and filter for Bones.

Bugs fixed:
- Menus now register only once.
- Renaming a TARGET light/camera renames the TARGET as well.
- Hiding a TARGET light/camera hides the TARGET as well.
- Object name is selected when entering rename state.
- Empty names no longer allowed.
- Rename is aborted by pressing escape.
- Loads more little bugs were fixed.
- For more details go here.

This build expires 21 September 2001.

Exports skeletal animated meshes (including Character Studio animation) from Max as K3G files (*.k3g) for the Fly3D game engine. This plugin is part of the Fly3D SDK v2.0

Exports meshes from Max to the Fly3d format (*.f3d) for the Fly3D game engine. This plugin is part of the Fly3D SDK v2.0

There was a bug in the export plugin that was causing problems, so the export plugin has been recompiled. I've also updated the links to the plugins as the old ones were no longer correct.

Allows you to import and export Scene Maps (levels) to and from Max as FMP files (*.fmp) for the Fly3D game engine. This plugin is part of the Fly3D SDK v2.0

The plugin has been updated to work with the Fly3D SDK 2.0 beta6.

The plugin has been updated to work with the Fly3D SDK 2.0 beta6.

There was a bug in the export plugin that was causing problems, so the export plugin has been recompiled. I've also updated the links to the plugins as the old ones were no longer correct.

Due to the fact that this plugin wasn't loading properly in Max 4, it has been recompiled again, and should work now.

Edgewise Consulting has created a much improved VRML97 exporter for Max.

New Features:
- Scales to VRML units
- Improved NavInfo helper
- CreaseAngle support

Bug Fixes:
- Normals correctly generated
- Output as quads and ngons now works correctly
- No more empty IndexedFaceSets
- No more duplicate DEF named IndexedFaceSets
- Material Editor's coordinates roll-up settings correctly output as TextureTransforms
- Hidden Bindable Nodes no longer exported.

The plugin is available for Max 3 and 4, and costs $40. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.0 are:
- This new version adds a few more parameters to the earlier version to make life easier. If you have the old version of F-Pot please delete it and then install the new version. If you have created any models with the old version please don't open that file into new version of F-Pot otherwise your max will crash. This is a known bug and we are trying to overcome it.

This plugin is part of RealiMation Designer v5.10, a software toolset designed for developing real time 3D interactive applications and environments. The plugin allows you to launch RealiMation from Max and preview your models in realtime, as well as enabling Max to export *.rbs file for RealiMation.