Grant Adam has recompiled a load of his freeware and commercial plugins for Max 2017, including Tension, Betterwind, ColorPolyByVerts, BlurVColor, Map2VColor, SplineMesher, FrameInfo, SSPropagate, Transmographier, TranslucencyMod, SurfaceMorph and MultiIDMap2.

Changes for v1.1.0 are:
- Adds render elements: material / objects masks, zdepth, normals, coordinates, AO, wire, edges
- Adds a material mask color to the fstorm material
- Close confirmation message pops up after a set amount of rendering time
- Adds direct camera visibility
- Fixes render restart during scene autosave

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

Changes for v3.059 are:
- Fixes a GUI bug in the telescopic suspension rollout

MadCar is available for Max 2009 to 2017 and costs €200. A demo version is available here.

Changes for Alpha 3.07 are:
- Adds support for ActiveShade rendering

Changes for Build 013698 are:
- You can now export almost every single asset in your scene to a wide variety of file formats
- EcoSystem populations can now be exported as FBX and Alembic
- You can now preview your exports in OpenGL to check how your geometry/materials will look
- The new xStream Convert Tool makes VUE scenes renderable with any renderer
- You can now set specific export quality for all assets in your scene independently or globally
- Export textured assets as FBX
- Export textured assets as Collada
- Choose to export all texture maps when exporting to Alembic
- Import all objects included in an Alembic File, including instanced objects
- VUE automatically detects and applies a global scale factor when importing scenes or assets
- Export a meshes original maps with their UVs
- New HeightField Terrain technology for more flexible and powerful terrain modelling
- Heightfield Terrains are significantly faster to render
- Heighfield terrains are manually sculptable and parameters can be animated
- Adds new dedicated nodes and presets for Heightfield Terrains
- New Layout Nodes let you design a terrain's 'layout' using hand-drawn elements or simple shapes
- All terrain presets in the terrain Editor have been reworked
- Adds a hybrid GPU/CPU interactive path tracer
- Adds PlantFactory preset variations for adding subtle differences to your plant presets
- You can now populate your scenes with multiple Global EcoSystems layers
- Global EcoSystem populations can now be saved as EcoPainter brushes and re-used at any time
- Includes 12 EcoPainter brushes to get you started
- Includes 20 EcoPainter effector brushes to dynamically alter EcoSystem population placement
- You can now optimize memory consumption by using baked versions of PlantFactory species
- You can now reorganize the layout of the interface even further to better suite your workflow
- Optimizes Extrapolation/Interpolation commands by creating references instead of hard copies
- VUE can now automatically create a Scene Snapshot after each render
- A scene snapshot preview in the OS browser is automatically created after the render
- Compatible with HiDPI displays
- Scenes and assets thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer

Vue 2016 xStream is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $1695. A demo version is available here.

Changes for Build 2016013669 are:
- You can now generate geometry using a biologically inspired growth simulation
- Adds Preset Variations which let you include subtle differences to your plant presets
- PlantFactory now offers the ability to configure the level of detail in a plant model
- Adds new parameters to the Segment node to further help you customize your plant designs
- Fixes potential missing alpha maps when exporting a plant with two sided materials
- Fixes animation export for the MAXON Cinema4D format
- Fixes a potential crash when importing a mesh
- Fixes a potential compatibility issue with old plants
- Improves overall stability on MacOS

Plant Factory Studio is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $995. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.470 alpha are:
- Adds a post-processing contrast setting (0.5 by default), which makes the image more realistic
- cntlStdMaterial can now use glossyness as an alternative to roughness
- cntlStdMaterial now has a weight*color mixing mode similar to other engines
- Adds a parallel falloff mode to cntlFalloff
- Internal reflections inside complex glass objects are now faster
- Roughness has been remapped so the whole range from 0 to 1 is useful
- Many bugfixes for material behavior when roughness is changed
- Fixes environment map brightness when seen through reflections
- Post-processing can be performed when the render is paused

I'd like to wish all visitors to the site from around the world all the best for the holiday season, and a wonderful New Year! May all your wishes come true in 2017.

Things have a bit irregular here the past few weeks as you can tell from the frequency of the updates, but hopefully I'll be back up to speed in the New Year :o)

Dave

Changes for v1.0.2 are:
- Adds Object Properties (visibility, casting shadows, wire color)
- Adds Object Color Texture (reading objects wire color)
- Adds Material ID as a random seed for FStorm Random Color texture
- Adds FStorm Bitmap texture border mode (tile, mirror, clamp)
- Fixes incorrect mirror option scale (different with viewport)

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

Changes for v2.0.5 are:
- IPR integration in SR interface (V-Ray 3.5 feature)
- Adds an adaptive lights option in V-Ray 3.5 (ON by default)
- Main: Denoiser integration! (new 'denoise' button)
- Main: Incremental autosave is back (rename elements as well)
- Options: New 'User color mapping' option, where SR does nothing about color mapping
- Options: New 'LightCache Store Direct light' option (ON by default and renders faster)
- Main: Simplified gamma, it's now only sRGB or 'user' (see preview panel)
- Main: Info panel now shows correct values with VBAA and Autopilot
- Presets: Raises the precision to 4 digits for precise progressive values tweak
- Presets: Optimises presets for V-Ray 3.5 (better noise threshold values)
- Removes the interpolation options (because they were removed in V-Ray 3.5)
- Fixes SR hanging on start if no internet connection is available
- Fixes scene sometimes rendering longer when SR settings are applied
- Fixes V-Ray 3.3+ goodies not initializing on SR launch

SolidRocks is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs €74. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v4.0 are:
- You can now save Max gamma correction as a precise Photoshop Adjustment Layer in the PSD file
- You can now save V-Ray color corrections as an Adjustment Layer (embedded LUT)
- New Auto-Sort mode for Render Elements keeps layers organized continuously
- Render elements can now be enclosed into a global layer group
- Adds per render element control over gamma correction and V-Ray color corrections
- Updates built-in presets for over 200 render element types
- Named selection sets can now be used for creation of masks
- Masks can now be exported as layers (Alpha Matte, Luminance Matte, Render Cut-out) or channels
- psd-manager now supports Corona (Rendered Image Output and Render Elements Output)
- Adds built-in presets specifically for Corona render elements
- Adds automatic Corona CMasking_Mask render element splitting and naming
- Optimizes the workflow for the V-Ray Denoiser
- You can now export V-Ray color corrections as a Color Lookup Adjustment Layer
- Adds new built-in presets for V-Ray Render Elements
- V-Ray color corrections are now automatically applied to specific render elements only
- V-Ray color corrections can now be enabled per render element
- VRayMtlSelect and VRayObjectSelect elements now use layer transparency by default
- Adds PSB format support for creating Photoshop documents larger than 2 GB or 30000 pixels
- psd-manager automatically switches to PSB format when the limits of the PSD format are exceeded
- The list of scene layers is now shown as a hierarchy, sorted and resizable
- Scene layers appear in the order of the flattened hierarchy in the PSD file
- Empty layers are now filtered out even when objects are obscured or outside the field of view
- Adds a custom dithering algorithm
- Adds an option to show or hide all masking layers
- Adds support for ART Renderer render elements export
- Simplifies licensing, deployment and updates using Cebas Product Manager

psd-manager is available for Max 2013 to 2017 and costs €159. Upgrades are available for €79, as well as a yearly subscription for €59. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.64 are:
- Adds a Batch Proxy Exporter for multiple Max files (supports Corona proxy and V-Ray proxy)

Library Track and Relink is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v2.60.27 are:
- Adds the ability to work with material library assets directly from an opened library
- Adds the ability to work with Max file assets from the 'Explorer' tab without opening the file
- Adds support for FStormRender - merging Proxy, creating IES and FStorm materials
- Adds the menu item 'Save Material From Material Library'
- Adds a 'VRmesh Viewer' to the list of 'Programs' on the toolbar
- Increases the speed of merging models with missing network maps
- The sceneMaterials and meditMaterials lists now refresh automatically on loading a new scene
- You can now select in the delete dialog which dependencies will be removed with the main asset
- Adds a 'Strip Paths' menu item to the 'Asset Files' context menu
- Adds a 'Reveal in Windows Explorer' menu item to the Material TreeView context menu
- Optimizations and speed improvements for searching files
- Fixes an issue with creating an Octane Proxy with Octane Renderer 3.xx
- Fixes an issue with detecting a compatible renderer for materials
- Fixes a minor issue with sorting items into listview
- Fixes a bug that crashed Max when adding a model to a library in some specific situations
- Fixes a bug in Max 2016-2017 when merging files as 'Xref Objects'
- Fixes an issue when creating the identification file on Windows 7 in versions 2.51.43-2.51.51
- Fixes an issue with creating a MySQL database in versions 2.51.43-2.51.50

Project Manager is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.461 alpha are:
- Glass is now created by setting only transmission.weight to 1
- Fixes incorrect glass rendering with IOR values larger than 1
- Fixes the 'black highlight' bug in subtle rough reflections

Changes for v1.0.1c are:
- Fixes a crash with displacement

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

Reindeer is a tool for managing different render setups from the same scene. It uses a node based interface for an intuitive workflow. The main goal is to help you automate the boring stuff so you can focus on what matters: Animation, Shading and Lighting. By making render submission simple and predictable you can better utilize your time. Easily submit renders before you go to lunch, before you go home for the day or before the weekend. Always with just a single click of a button and with the same results.

Reindeer doesn't dictate how you should use it and many different workflows and uses are possible. For example:
- Easily manage and automate multiple render setups
- Use it as a state machine
- Use it to develop scripts and workflows
- Store scripts within the scene so you don't have to worry about losing them
- Use it to assign materials based on name
- An alternative to selection sets with new possibilities
- All of the above, at the same time. You choose!

Reindeer is available for Max 2014 to 2017 and normally costs €45 per year. For the next few days you can get a license for €37.

Changes for v8.0.12.4 are:
- Fixes a bug where Limits having their stubs force-returned would decrement the in-overage count
- Fixes an issue that caused duplicate entries for Plugin settings to be created in the Database
- Fixes a bug where asset dependencies without frame padding prevented a Job from being released
- The Repository Installer now respects the -prefix command line argument
- The Repository Installer now respects the -backuprepo command line argument
- Improves how Client applications copy the PythonSync package from the Repository
- Fixes a problem when Client applications connect to Proxy but can't determine their IP address
- The Repository Repair operation can now fix Limits with negative in-use counts
- Fixes an issue where the Balancer could not properly update Amazon cloud instances
- Fixes a bug that could cause the Balancer to terminate instances that are currently rendering
- Fixes an exception in the Balancer if Amazon cloud instances were terminated while initializing
- Fixes Balancer housekeeping cycles failing when trying to terminate non-existant instances
- Fixes a couple bugs in the job info parsing code for dependencies
- Launcher no longer ignores the LauncherListeningPort setting in the global deadline.ini file
- Changing the launcher listening port value using deadlinecommand now properly sets the value
- Improves primary forwarder detection during startup
- Repository Repair now checks for stalled Forwarders
- Repository Repair now handles primary forwarder election
- Improves how the environment is registered for different applications from the same vendor
- Fixes a bug where addresses expressed as IPv6 would not work with the forwarder
- Adds a Repository Option to automatically elect a Forwarder Primary if no primary is offline
- Adds a Repository Option to specify how long before a Forwarder is considered stalled
- Adds a Repository Option to control how often the Monitor refreshes Forwarder data
- Adds User Group permission features to control access to the Usage Based Licensing panel
- Adds User Group permission features to control access to the Web Service panel
- Improves some tooltips in the Repository Options
- Fixes a bug where enabling/disabling primary forwarder using the dialog didn't work
- The job dependency view now properly respects the maximum item limit
- Improves initialization speed of job dependency graph
- Fixes a bug that caused the Monitor status bar to show N/A for last housecleaning times
- Fixes an error where the User Group Management UI sometimes wasn't updating properly
- Changes the Sandbox processes to allow further subprocesses to break away from the Job Objects
- Fixes a crash that could occur on Slaves running concurrent tasks
- Fixes a regression preventing Slaves using a custom plugin path if defined in the job settings
- Fixes an issue where the Slave can crash if the sandbox process' handle becomes invalid
- Fixes a bug with the MultiLineString control in the .options file for application plugins
- File-based controls in the .param and .options files no longer ignore the 'Filter' property
- Fixes a bug in the ArrayToCommaSeparatedString function in DeadlineUtility.py
- Updates version dictionary entries with latest Max Service Packs for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017
- Fixes issues in Max with improper casing for V-Ray renderer properties
- Fixes a crash in the Max SMTD when submitting a stereo camera and a camera as an XREF
- Improves Max logging to log when region rendering via V-Ray's VFB plus the region coords
- Fixes a bug in V-Ray render region array
- The rgbColorSpace property for V-Ray can no longer be changed after the job has been submitted
- Adds support for After Effects CC 2017
- Adds an environment variable which ignores Red Giant errors if they occur in After Effects
- Adds/improves various StdOut Handlers and Pop-up Handlers in After Effects
- Adds improvements to ensure After Effects shuts down after rendering
- When rendering locally, the After Effects render no longer fails if the output folder is empty
- Fixes a bug in the C4D Team Render submitter that caused it to fail on Mac OS X
- Fixes a syntax error in the Cinema4DBatch plugin
- The Cinema4DBatch plugin now supports nested Takes
- Reverts a StdOut handler introduced in Deadline 8.0.11 that caused jobs to fail
- Moves the 'Startup Directory (Optional)' setting to the bottom of the CommandLine submitter
- Updates Corona DRServer.exe default exe path in the CoronaDR param file
- Improves path mapping support in the DraftTileAssembler plugin
- Exit code -1073741819 is no longer treated as an error during rendering with Fusion
- Adds support for Harmony 14
- Fixes a bug in the Harmony Monitor submitter that prevented submissions from working properly
- Fixes a bug in the integrated submitter installer for Harmony 12
- Adds support for Houdini 16
- Fixes a Houdini submitter bug that was causing Wedge nodes to render too many frames per task
- The Katana scene file path is now wrapped in quotation marks
- Adds support for Mantra 17
- The Maya integrated submitter now disables Vrimg2EXR Options if no dependent job is submitted
- Adds Redshift/CUDA specific error messages which are piped as StdOut to Maya
- Fixes a syntax error in the integrated Maya submitter
- Adds support for Maxwell 4
- Updates the Media encoder plugin to be able work with Unicode characters
- Correct path separators are now used in Modo depending on the operating system
- Fixes a bug in the Nuke integrated and Monitor submitters due to a missing errno module import
- Updates the Nuke integrated submitter to fix a problem when connecting using FTrack
- Moves Shake submission to the 2D submitters from the 3D submitters in the Monitor
- Adds default V-Ray Standalone executable paths to the plugin configuration
- Improves V-Ray Standalone StdOut handlers
- Improves V-Ray Standalone progress handling

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

Changes for v1.0.1a are:
- First commercial release
- A speed-up of 5%-7%
- Improves GPU memory management
- The initial RT window size is now correct
- Adds real-world scale setting to FStormBitmap texture
- The tonemapping burn value range now includes negative values to increase the effect
- Fixes a crash during geometry reloading

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

This is an MCG modifier for normalising splines. It can normalise based on vertex count or spline length.

Changes for v0.63.06 are:
- Updates the Batch Proxy Exporter for multiple Max files to also support Corona Proxies

Library Track and Relink is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v3.4 are:
- New 'Align WP to OP' script aligns the Working Pivot to the pivot of the selected object
- New 'Align OP to WP' script aligns the pivot of the selected object to the Working Pivot
- New 'Turn Off WP' script turns off the Working Pivot
- Adds 'Align to Sub-Object' function to 'Visual Pivot Placer' script

miauu's Script Pack Volume 1 is available for Max 9 to 2017 and costs €12.

Changes for v0.62.03 are:
- Adds an experimental Batch Proxy Exporter for multiple Max files (currently V-Ray Proxy only)

Library Track and Relink is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2.1 are:
- Fixes downloads not starting when a message box with download limit information is shown
- The 'Online' tab in preferences has been renamed to 'User Library'
- The message when the license has expired is now more user friendly

Material Manager is available for Max 2012 to 2017 and normally costs €99. For a limited time you can get a license for €79. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.452 alpha are:
- Fixes a numeric bug which caused a render convergence slowdown for HDR lighting
- Fixes potential crash problems in Centileo material, IPR and Uber light source script data
- Significant performance improvements with many light sources in the scene
- Adds a special image AOV called 'Blend light passes'
- Adds a special image AOV called 'Blend beauty passes'
- The simple Visibility settings for light sources have been changed to more flexible spinners
- Adds a shadow catcher as shader
- Alpha channel now renders automatically with a black background
- Adds a translucency slot to the CentiLeo standard material
- Adds an IOR slot for each reflection layer of the CentiLeo standard material
- Fixes confusion when color doesn't change when adjusting material layer weights
- Adds an advanced mixing mode for the CentiLeo Multi-Material
- Adds multipliers for Direct Lighting, Direct Specular and Indirect Lighting render components
- Fixes weird bump map and normal map bugs when using cntlMath/Binary or cntlColorCorrection
- Adds 3 modes for IPR region render (play, pause and stop)
- Fixes an IPR bug where black borders appeared when changing region render to full image render
- The Max UI now has less lags when IPR is running
- Changes to simplify the Standard CentiLeo Material UI
- cntlNoise shader can now be rendered and manipulated in the Max viewport
- Adds a 'Save current IPR image' button to the render settings
- Fixes a few other small bugs

Changes for v2.1 are:
There seems to be no changelog online, if I find out I'll update this post

MotionFX is available for Max 2010 to 2017 and costs $25.45.