Changes for v1.2.5.0 are:
- Adds support for .NET 4.0 assemblies while Autodesk.Max.dll can still be used in VS2008
- Fixes a crash when using IAnimatable.AddAppDataChunk(...)

MaxDotNet is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $675 for commercial use. For non-commercial use the plugin is free. A demo version is available here.

Siger Studio are offering a bundle of their Shader sets for the price of €50, a saving of €10 over buying the shader sets individually. The bundle includes SigerShaders VCarpaint2, SigerShaders VMetal2, SigerShaders VPlastic2 and SigerShaders VCeramic2.

mrProfiler is a profiling shader that is totally non-intrusive to the render process itself, and which produces as output a heatmap and a threadmap of the rendering process. This allows you to see the amount of render time spent on each individual pixel in the image, and shows clearly which parts of the image take a very long time or no time at all.

The threadmap which is stored in the alpha channel of the output image shows the distribution of different threads spanned by mental ray to render the image. The number of threads in the image does not necessarily correspond to the amount of CPU or hardware threads available on your machine. The mental ray message window also contains additional information produced by mrProfiler to further understand how many threads were used in the image, making it easier to understand the color coding in the threadmap.

Changes for v6.0.8 are:
- Fixes a client crash caused by processes allocating too much data for available memory
- Network operations have been optimized on POSIX platforms
- The Maya connector has been updated to work with Maya 2011
- The web server can now be disabled
- Logon detection on Windows Vista and 7 now works with weird domain settings
- You can now configure an image slicing job to remove the slices after a successful assembly
- You can now clear the entire log list either on a client or on the Dispatcher
- Kill and pause operations are now reported in the logs as intended
- Adds a field in the global job parameters to define additional environmental variables
- Various bug-fixes

Muster is available for Max 8 to 2011 and costs $85. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for V-Ray v1.5 SP5
- Reduced the price from €22 to €15

SigerShaders VPlastic2 is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €15.

Changes for v2.1.1 are:
- Adds support for previewing transparent materials in the viewport
- Padding and name format of image sequences can now be specified in a Maxwell Render bitmap node
- The warning window can now be minimized and shows up in the center of the screen
- Adds support for two-color sky dome
- The file browser for emitter MXI textures no longer defaults to the wrong file mask

The Maxwell 3ds Max plugins come with Maxwell Render, which is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs €895. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.01 are:
- Adds support for per-vertex normals (specified via nx/ny/nz)
- Adds support for files that specify face vertices via 'vertex_index' instead of 'vertex_indices'

Changes for v3.17.3 Beta 2 are:
- Adds a 'toggle visibility' control to the highpoly context menu
- Fixes problems with some controls when themes are disabled
- Now you can render a new kind of map: the curvature map
- Fixes some problems with probabilistic model rendering occlusion
- Fixes some problems with bent normals and radiosity normal maps
- Solves some problem with the unattended batch mode
- Fixes the base texture map's background color being loaded incorrectly

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for V-Ray v1.5 SP5
- Adds a load of new presets
- Reduced the price from €22 to €15

SigerShaders VCeramic2 is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €15.

Changes for v1.0.1 are:
- Fixes a load error on localized versions of Max and Windows (Japan)

SigerShaders VMetal2 is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €15.

Changes for v1.0.456 include:
- Fixes 'rgb_unit_conversion' parameter for the physicalskylight, physicalsun and physicalsky shaders
- Fixes 'multiplier' parameter for the 'mia_physicalsun' shader
- Fixes 'sun_direction' parameter for the mr Physical Sky environment map
- Fixes 'horizon_height' parameter for the mr Physical Sky environment map
- Updated export of the mr_photographic_exposure shader
- Updated export of the 'max_NodeData'
- Updated export of the 'max_SceneData'
- Implemented different shader declarations for various Max versions
- Max plugin uses global render settings data structures rather than custom UI
- Changed network IP entry to prevent odd Max font error
- Max plugin now handles multiple geometry objects with the same name
- Max plugin supports universal geometry handling if optimized export fails

Rendition is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $395. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.6.1.27545 are:
- Upgraded to .NET 4.0
- Adds right click layer menu option to toggle layer lights on/off
- Adds right click layer menu option to enable/disable pflow sources
- Adds keyboard action to toggle state set recording

Zookeeper is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $249. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v9.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2010 and 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)

This HABWare plugin is a bit late coming because I originally had a few problems getting it to compile for Max 2010. I've now sorted out the problems and it should work fine.

Changes for v1.014 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Fixes the MeshVerify crash

DMM Plugin is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs $599. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2.2 are:
- Adds support for merging models that have hidden objects
- The 'Reset transforms' option in the 'Merge Set' panel is now disabled by default
- The 'Use Custom Pivot' option in the 'Paint Set' panel is now disabled by default
- New function in the context menu to Send selected material to Active material editor slot
- Removed the 'Merge on Layer' setting
- Removed the 'Use Local Pivot' setting
- Placing models in the scene without 'Use Custom Pivot' will use the object pivot position
- Improves pivot claculation when creating V-Ray proxies
- Fixes a UI error when you had material asset type or texture selected
- Fixes a problem with Random Transformation when painting models with a group of objects
- Fixes a bug with align to normal
- Fixes a render thumbnail error when rendering single materials and models

HCG Asset Browser PRO is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $99. A demo version is available here.

I've just noticed that Siger Studio is offering their V-Ray Material Presets Pro v2.0 plugin at a 50% discount until September 1st. That makes it €55 instead of €110.

Changes for SR1.1 are:
- Fixes a problem installing PoserFusion for CINEMA 4D on 64-bit systems
- Provides provisional beta support for Maya 2011

Poser Pro is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $499.99.

Changes for v9.5 are:
- Adds support for Max 2010 and 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for Maya 2010 and 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for Softimage 2010 and 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for Alias 2010 and 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for Photoshop CS5 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- You can now save search queries from each search tab with the save search button
- A Property Inspector view has been added to the Administration Client
- Adds support for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Various components were updated to plug potential memory leaks

Alienbrain is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and pricing starts at $12,000. A demo version is available here.

The Power Body Object Toolkit provides a great set of complimentary tools for working with the new 3ds Max Body Objects. The creators of the Body Object (nPower Software) have packaged a set of tools to help you get the most out of the new Body Objects.

Features include:
- Export to STL format for rapid prototyping
- Export Power NURBS CAD compliant objects into STEP and SAT formats
- Power Join combines Power NURBS Objects into a single Power NURBS object
- Power Detailer lets you apply features such as labels, text, logos, holes, etc
- Direct editing of NURBS objects similar to the Editable Mesh tool
- Construct 3D blend curves tangent to existing curves or surfaces
- Create blended surfaces between multiple curves and surface edges
- Create corner blends or n-sided blends between multiple curves or edges
- Power Composite Sketch composes existing curves and edges into a sketching environment
- Power Edit Sketch collapses Max shapes and other Sketches into an Editable Sketch object
- Power NURBS lets you apply display and render settings to multiple Body Objects
- Power UVW Unwrap lets you unwrap the Body Objects into a 2D working environment
- Power Navigator provides a hierarchical view of the model, facilitating subobject editing

Power Body Object Toolkit is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $195. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v7.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 and Max Design 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds the new Power Slice tool for create section views or slicing up the model
- Adds the new Tangency Flipping tool
- Adds new selective part import option
- Improved manipulation UI
- You can now export to STL
- Improved and simplified interface for file importing
- New file formats for Power Translators Universal (JT, SolidEdge, SolidWorks, and Parasolid)
- Fixes several important bugs

Power NURBS / Solids / Translators are available for Max 9 to 2011, information on pricing can be found at the Turbosquid ACAP site. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.3.35 are:
- Fixes a ghosting mesh ball in gluBaker

glu3D is available for Max 8 to 2011 and costs €495. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.0.1 are:
- Workflow when rendering with renderfarms has been optimized
- Improved gamma handling with bitmaps
- Improved installation on renderfarms
- Bug-fixes

BRIX is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and normally costs $379. A special offer price of $259 ends tomorrow. A demo version is available here.

ThinkingParticles Classic is a re-branded version of ThinkingParticles R3, offered at a reduced price to enable smaller studios to learn and use the powerful procedural animation effects tool. There have been no restrictions added to the program core, and all scenes created with Classic or R3 are fully interchangeable and can also be loaded into R4.

Classic is priced at only a 3rd of the cost of ThinkingParticles R4, and can be upgraded to the latest release at any time by simply paying the difference in price.

ThinkingParticles Classic is available for Max 2008 to 2011 and costs €595.

Autodesk have released a new hotfix for Max 2011 and Max Design 2011.
It addresses the following problems:
- Fixes a problem when using the Transform Type-In together with CAT
- FBX files from Revit with RPC content now load correctly
- When loading a BIP file, Xtra bones now scale properly
- Fixes a bug in Max Design 2011 when applying modifiers on top of the Optimize modifier
- Fixes mesh corruption in Quicksilver when rendering more than 100 frames
- Cullmode is now restored properly after rendering double-sided materials in Quicksilver
- Fixes banding when using the DirectX display driver with Gamma and Exposure Control
- Fixes various viewport gamma refresh problems in wireframe mode
- When locking and then unlocking the computer, viewport gamma is no longer disabled
- Fixes viewport artifacts when using Snap with gamma turned on
- Active viewport hotkeys now work when the viewport is maximized
- Fixes flickering problems with the SteeringWheel and ViewCube

Localised versions of the hotfix are also available at the links above.

Changes for v1.0 are:
- There is now a demo version available for download

Althiar Stage Director is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $2,980. A demo version is available here.

Phoenix Fluid Dynamics perfectly combines a grid based simulator with outstanding rendering capabilities. In addition to the usual uniform fluid behavior, Phoenix FD is capable of simulating a whole array of additional processes like pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling and mass-temperature dependence.

Key features include:
- Fast physically based simulation core
- Background simulation (doesn't lock the Max UI)
- Support for all standard space warp modifiers
- Wind from movement (both linear and angular)
- Simulation of slow-moving fluids
- Fluid source from pre-simulated surfaces
- Particle based sources
- GPU accelerated preview
- ParticleFlow operators
- MAXScript support
- Texture driven simulation
- Fully multi-threaded fluid displacement
- Procedural texture export
- Rendering of textures
- Particle texture tool
- Proper blending (requires V-Ray)
- Heat haze (requires V-Ray)
- Solid mode (requires V-Ray)
- Playback time scale
- Various simulation modes
- 2D simulation mode
- User-defined cache compression
- Proper GI support with V-Ray
- Dragging of UVW/mapping channels coordinates

Phoenix FD is available for Max 9 to 2011 and normally costs $895. For a limited time (until September 10th) Chaos Group are offering a promotional price of $445. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.45 are:
- Fixes several minor bugs
- Adds the Project Creator

Studio Clouds is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €1999. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v3.2.64 are:
- Fixes issues with the cancel dialog in Max 2011 when collecting Asset Files
- Fixes issues with cancelling the Collect Files operation

FilePathFinder Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $30. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2.3.0 are:
- Splits remoting classes into a separate Autodesk.Max.Remoting.dll
- Texmap plugins can now be created with proper auto-generated UI's from parameter blocks
- All methods taking RECT pointer are now properly exposed
- Fixes EdgeVisibility enum being empty in Max 2011
- EnumAnimList and ParamDlg classes are now pluggable

MaxDotNet is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $675 for commercial use. For non-commercial use the plugin is free. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.01 are:
- Fixes a bug that prevented the Lock/Unlock and Flatten XYZ buttons from working

Wrapit is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs £35.

Changes for v5.0.1 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 and Max Design 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Removes legacy UI items
- Adds intelligent 3D navigation and pop-up menu features
- Improvements to the I3DM feature

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for V-Ray v1.5 SP5
- Reduced the price from €22 to €15

SigerShaders VCarpaint2 is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €15. All registered users of VCarpaint will receive a free upgrade to VCarpaint2.

Wrapit is a scripted plugin for conforming meshes to other meshes. This lends itself to various scenarios such as retopologising high-res meshes like those created in ZBrush, Mudbox, 3D scan data etc., and creating low poly proxies for situations where those are preferable, eg. collision detection, LODs etc.

Wrapit's strength lies in allowing you to use the full set of Max's editable polygon tools, including the already great Graphite tools, whilst working on the surface of a target object. Wrapit uses 3 different projection modes to conform the meshes: the super fast 'Closest Point','Vertex Normal' and 'Screen Space', each catering for specific projection needs. It also comes with a number of additional tools for making modelling even easier.

Wrapit is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs £35.

Changes for v4.1.42706 include:
- Pulse now uses multiple threads to load data from the Repository
- Pools and Groups can now be assigned to slaves in the Monitors' Manage Pools or Groups option
- Power Management groups are now defined at the top level
- Deadline is now Windows UAC compliant
- Deadline Mobile is now available as a free download from the App Store
- Adds support for AFX CS5, Arnold Standalone, Lightwave 10, RVIO, RealFlow 5 and Softimage 2011

These are just the hightlights of the release, the whole list of fixes and improvements can be found here.

Deadline is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs between $110 and $140 per node. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v6.0 are:
- Integrated charting in the GUI
- External reporting to iPad and iPhone with Roambi
- Automated render wrangling
- Simplified job submissions
- Automated movie generation
- Job ETA predication
- Regular expression parsing of stderr and stdout
- Integration with Tweak Software RV
- Integration with Shotgun Software product

Qube! is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs $250 (Worker license) / $500 (Supervisor license). A demo version is available here.

Changes for v0.35a are:
- Adds support for Max 2010 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds volume shading rendering mode
- Fixes the hardware viewport render alpha cut
- Hardware viewport render now supports up to four viewport lights
- Mental ray rendering now supports shadow casting on non volume objects
- Fixes mental ray render artefacts with non volume objects

Changes for v1.3.34 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Fixes an installation issue in 64-bit Max 9

There is also a new version of PWrapper (v1.0.15) on the download page of the 3D Aliens website, but I've got no idea what's been changed.

glu3D is available for Max 8 to 2011 and costs €495. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.51 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Adds support for Pencil+ 3 strokes

Liquid+ is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs ¥46,200. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.0 Build 20100725 are:
- Adds a new heuristic algorithm for sampling and reflection/refraction depth
- Fixes a few minor bugs

Shader Utilities Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs €149. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2.1 are:
- Fixes a bug with models' rendered thumbnail
- Fixes a bug when rendering thumbnails in a scene with multiple cameras

HCG Asset Browser PRO is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $99. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.0 RC are:
- New studio lighting and camera setup scenes
- Optimised memory usage
- Completely rewritten code
- Adds 'Pre-built Scenes' section with 10 scenes

V-Ray Studio Setup Pro is available for Max 2010 to 2011 and costs €56.

Changes for v2.1 include:
- Adds the new Multishadow feature
- The Shadow Channel has been vastly improved
- Adds support for embedding render channels as additional image layers
- Adds support for render region in Maxwell.exe
- Simulens maps are now embedded in the MXI file
- MXI files can now contain info from the camera used to generate the files
- You can now render regions smaller than 32 x 32 pixels
- Sky dome color can now be set using two colors
- New core routines dramatically improve performance in scenes with Motion Channel enabled
- Adds a new GUI option to automatically save lights in separate files
- A number of new global flags have been added to the render options
- Emixer files are now XML files
- Multilight sliders are now logarithmic, providing improved control
- New script included in the script folder 'progressive_animation.ms'
- Adds new scripting functions
- Adds new command line parameters
- Adds new SDK functions

These are just the improvements to the Maxwell core. For a complete list of changes and bug-fixes, take a look at the What's New PDF

Maxwell Render is available for Max 7 to 2011 and costs €895. A demo version is available here.

Changes for SR1 include:
- Improved conforming with a non-matching number of children
- Figure->Create full body morph is now undoable
- UI preferences are no longer incorrectly written when exiting Poser while minimized
- Fixes instabilities when reparenting/rearranging objects in hierarchy palette
- Fixes an uninitialized variable causing occasional crashes in new scenes
- Menu commands for setting background and foreground colors now work correctly
- Fixes issues with out of sync app menu item states to improve Undo
- Enabled Display Origin option
- Fixes library drag/drop of files with non-western/non-ASCI path characters
- Enabled drag/drop from Library when SreeD preview rendering is selected
- In Material room, Reflection_Lite_Mult is now disabled by default
- Fixes a crash when disabling superfluous app menu items
- Exporting textures from Face Room now works correctly
- Fixes instabilities in cloth simulation with multithreaded bending enabled
- Faster raytracing in scenes with complex geometry
- Extra key-frames on lights are no longer created
- Enabled multithreading configuration in Queue Manager preference file
- Fixes a problem with international decimal point symbol changes
- Adds new Python methods to enable/disable IDL from scripts
- Fixes Python script dialog instabilities when running in 64-bit
- Fixes a problem writing .max files with embedded Poser scenes on 64-bit

Poser Pro is available for Max 9 to 2011 and costs $499.99.

Changes for v1.2 are:
- The script hotkey now auto-minimizes if open, and restores when the hotkey is pressed again
- The last window position and size are restored when restarted
- New objects are now numbered differently to avoid conflicts with number-based named models
- Adds support to display all Max image format items in texture categories
- F2 now renames scene materials in the selected materials category items
- You can now replace a selected material for another one keeping the original material name
- Adds quick select on objects in the scene that have the selected material
- Adds a menu item to select all instances of the current selection
- You can now reset object rotation and scale in the random transformation panel
- You can now apply random transformations to selected objects in the random transformation panel
- You can now convert proxies back to models
- New proxies are now saved with a material library
- HCGAB now checks for saved proxies before automatically creating one
- Adds a button to apply custom pivot settings to the selection in the Pivot panel
- When renaming a material library the new field will have the current name
- Changes to asset paths in the preferences dialog now auto-refresh
- Now when you replace an object it will keep the local scale of the object
- Fixes inconsistencies in the Offset and Random Transforms panels
- Fixes a bug where Lights were disabled after rendering a thumbnail
- Fixes thumbnails not working in the materials categories
- Fixes a problem when using a network folder as an asset
- It is no longer possible to open two instances of HCGAB
- Material categories will now properly update the item list after actions
- Setting thumbnail size in the Preferences dialog no longer gives wrong results
- Newly rendered thumbnails now display automatically in the items list
- Many other minor improvements

HCG Asset Browser PRO is available for Max 2009 to 2011 and costs $99. A demo version is available here.

Changes for v1.2 are:
- Adds support for Max 2011 (32-bit and 64-bit)

Changes for v3.17.2 are:
- Adds support for Growl notifications
- Optimized the software CPU rendering by 5%
- The Optix renderer now uses a better sampling to reduce banding artifacts
- Fixes some bugs in displacement map computations with the MatchUV option enabled
- Removed the dependency from the CUDA runtime DLL
- Fixes a bug in the installer due to incorrect .NET 2.0 detection under Windows 7
- Removed the VS2005 SP1, CUDA 3.0 DLL and DX9.0c runtimes from the installer
- Fixes some compatibility problems with OpenGL 3.2 in the Optix renderer
- Fixes a problem in the Default Bucket Renderer that could slow/hang the render
- Fixes a problem loading .DDS files with mipmapping
- Fixes a potential problem computing the tangent space for opposite faces
- Fixes a bug in the OBJ mesh importer that caused more RAM to be used
- Recompiled using the latest libraries