MAX Plugins.de News Archive

Archived Plugin News  –  June 2019
 

New Plugin: Objects

This is a super fast blobmesh replacement with lots of cool features currently in development. The feature list at the moment includes a 5-10x speed improvement over BlobMesh, smoother meshes, improved normals, an integrated Relax and Push function, TyFlow support and more nifty stuff planned.


New Plugin: Modelling

Autohedge is a fast, easy way to make hedges that suit your landscaping. It consists of a plugin for V-Ray (3.x or Next) that instantly fills any mesh with a realistic hedge. Tall or short, fat or thin. Make hedges, bushes, shrubberies, or whatever you need. Edit the shape at any time. No more searching through catalogs of pre-made models to find the perfect hedge. There is no limit to the shapes you can make, it automatically populates branches and leaves during rendering using detailed materials made from real photographs. You can change the species, density, messiness, and more at the click of a button. It includes a library of common shapes to get you started quickly and comes with 18 common hedge species.

Autohedge is available for Max 2016 to 2020 and costs $149. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Updates: Plugin recompiles for Max 2020 from Grant Adam

Grant Adam has recompiled all of his freeware and commercial plugins for Max 2020. A list of what is available can be found here.


Plugin Update: Texturing

Changes for v2.4 are:
- Adds the ability to vary by the color of the control texture map
- Adds the ability to vary by the name of the objects
- Adds the ability to vary in the individual deirections of tiles - UVW
- Adds the ability to transform the texture map relative to tiles
- Adds the ability to transform the texture map without variation
- Adds the ability to turn off the color variation preview in the material editor window
- Fixes minor bugs

Ky_Color Variator is available for Max 9 to 2020 and costs €43. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v2.7.0.0 are:
- Adds support for Max 2020
- Updates the license engine
- Updates the installer to support multiple Max versions on a single run
- Rearranges some menu items and fixes a problem with menu registration
- Adds a Replicator option to replace the current selection
- Fixes a Replicator error when replicating groups
- Adds an Eyedropper option to work with the current selection (bucket mode)
- Improves Pattern Array algorithm speed
- Small Pattern Array UI redesign
- Fixes a crash bug in Pattern Array when adding patterns
- Splits the MultiMap tool functionality into individual dialogs to improve speed
- Improves the speed of the pivot tool
- Fixes the Ribbon tab sometimes not showing in Max 2020
- Adds a 'Check for updates' feature
- Adds an extra tool: Incremental Isolation

DesignToolBox is available for Max 2016 to 2020 and costs $22.99. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v1.0 are:
- Fixes a minor bug

The link above is for the Max 2020 version of the plugin, these are the links for Max 2019, Max2018 and Max2017.


New Plugin: Utilities

P_Scripts is a Script and ShortCut management tool which pops up a list of buttons based on the selected object's type, state, and modifier. It speeds up Max operations a lot, is easy to manage and requires only one Max Shortcut registration, as the shortcuts registered with P_Scripts are independent of Max.

P_Scripts is available for Max 2015 to 2020 and costs $9. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.96.00 are:
- Simplifies the method of adding a new material library
- Adds the ability to render previews using Corona Frame Buffer
- Minor interface changes
- 'Save Selected' now saves the nodes without materials only if 'Clear Unused Assets' is checked
- Hidden categories now remain hidden when merging models with hidden categories
- Fixes a potential issue with interactive rendering preview for 3D files
- Fixes some minor issues with the API
- Fixes an issue with merging models

Project Manager is available for Max 2013 to 2020 and costs $75. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v3.5.01 are:
- Adds support for Max 2020

Polyline Pro is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs €25.


Plugin Update: Particles

Changes for v0.16030 beta:
- Adds tabs at the top of the tyFlow UI that allow you to easily switch between flow editors
- Adds a Camera Cull operator for culling occluded particles from display/render
- All single-node pickbuttons now have a dropdown menu for selecting or removing the picked node
- tyActors now support mesh deformations on non-skinned input meshes
- The tyCache exporter now includes particle render instance material overrides in tyCache files
- Fixes interpolation of tyActor mesh deformations when slowing simulations down with the retimer
- Fixes a crash that could occur when rendering particles using VRay instancing
- 'Update in render only' for animated shapes in the Shape operator now works for static flows
- Fixes particle interface bugs that caused it to return velocities of improper scale


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v4.0 include:
- Adds fast reflective and refractive caustics
- The DOF focus point can now be set in the rendered image, both in VFB and docked viewport IR
- Adds a Fisheye mode for cameras
- Adds the Intel AI Denoiser, which works on any CPU (not just Intel)
- You can now use multiple Suns and Environments in LightMix
- The rest LightSelect layer in LightMix can now be denoised and saved like any other LightSelect
- Improvements to overlapping volumetric media, so overlapping clouds will now look as expected
- New image filtering makes noise less noticeable to the eye
- The Adaptive Light Solver is now fully functional in all cases
- And much more... a full list of changes can be found here

Corona Renderer is available for Max 2013 to 2020 and costs €24.99 per month. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v10.0.26.07 are:
- Improves the error messaging when a Deadline Client application can't connect to the database
- Adds a right-click option to the log streaming viewers to save the log to a file
- Adds a sanity check when setting Limits for jobs via the Monitor or API
- Fixes a bug when running housecleaning operations as a separate process
- The Proxy Server application is no longer included in the Deadline Client installation
- The AWSPortalAssets job property is no longer populated when AWS Portal isn't being used
- Multiple instances of Pulse or Balancer can no longer run on the same machine
- Multiple instances of Web Service or License Forwarder can no longer run on the same machine
- Fixes an issue affecting jobs with a post-job task
- Improves installation path validation on Windows
- Windows instances now use a per-instance AWS Portal Asset Transfer Client
- Texture Baking on AWS instances using Max is now supported
- The BYOL configuration for the Thinkbox license server now defaults to the correct ports
- The Asset Server now outputs an improved error when it can't access a file system root path
- CloudWatch logging is now enabled on Windows AWS instances
- Redshift AMIs have been updated to version 2.6.39
- When creating a Spot Fleet, Asset Server communication errors now display the correct port
- Adds some stability improvements to the Launcher Service on Windows
- Fixes the Launcher from starting up because it thinks another Launcher is running
- The 'Find Render Candidate' feature now includes any Limits assigned to the job's plugin
- Adds a job right-click script that copies the names of the selected jobs to the clipboard
- Fixes a Monitor crash if a job's environment variable contains a '.' or '$'
- Fixes some display issues in the User Settings page in the Monitor Options
- Improves the error messaging in the Monitor when the Cloud panel fails to load a Cloud plugin
- Improves path mapping performance on the contents of files stored on a network share
- Fixes a bug that stopped Slaves from mapping drives on Windows configured for 'All' regions
- Slaves now check for pre or post-job tasks before acquiring any Limits that the job requires
- Fixes some License Forwarder issues that stopped Web Forwarding from working properly
- When verbose logging is enabled, the RCS no longer logs every incoming request to the console
- RCS now respects the timeout settings in the Repository Options when housecleaning
- Fixes a Max bug that prevented Texture Baking from working when using AWS Portal
- Octane region rendering is now supported in Cinema 4D
- Adds Mac OS X executable paths to the default Fusion plugin configuration
- Adds support for Houdini 17.5
- Renders will now fail properly if Houdini is unable to load the Redshift plugin
- Fixes some issues with the Help text in the integrated Houdini submitter
- The V-Ray DBR submitter in Maya no longer depends on the main Maya submitter being installed
- The render now fails properly if Redshift in Maya encounters a fatal error
- The output file frame padding is now set properly for Redshift 2.6.37 and later in Maya
- Fixes some exporting and naming issues in Maya when exporting Layers to Arnold
- Adds support for Octane 4
- The Octane plugin now uses the -no-gui flag
- You can now render all targets defined in an Octane ORBX scene file
- Fixes a bug in the Octane GPU error handling that caused it to fail when reporting an error
- Fixes a bug in the Octane 'GPUs per Task' workflow that set false values on the command line
- Fixes a bug in the Octane submitter that prevented the use of the 'Select GPUs' workflow
- The Python plugin now supports Python 3.7
- Minimum and maximum values for some Spot configuration settings are now enforced
- Improves the reliability of shutting down Spot instances when they are no longer needed
- Makes improvements to Spot UserAgent headers to help with debugging
- Adds an additional verbose log entry when cleaning up Slave instances

For some reason there is still no official support for Max 2020 in Deadline, but on the Thinkbox forum you can download the files necessary to get Max 2020 running in Deadline.

Deadline is available for Max 2010 to 2019 and costs $48 per node per year. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v4.20.00 include:
- Adds indirect light select modes support to V-Ray Cloud
- Adds support for Substance 2 maps to V-Ray GPU and V-Ray Cloud
- Adds V-Ray GPU support for the VRayCurvature texture
- Adds V-Ray GPU support for VRayDistanceTex
- Adds VRayALSurfaceMtl shader support to V-Ray GPU
- You can now overlay progress notifications in the Viewport IPR
- Adds Debug Shading with various modes during IPR to V-Ray and V-Ray GPU
- Adds hash map based light cache to V-Ray and V-Ray GPU
- Adds native rendering of Corona scatter instances to V-Ray and V-Ray GPU
- Adds V-Ray memory tracking support
- Adds baking elements support for opacity maps when doing projection baking in V-Ray
- Implements barycentric mode in the VRaySamplerInfoTex
- Adds the ability to do test renders at lower resolution in the VFB
- Adds VFB keyboard shortcuts for mouse actions in IPR
- VRayOSL now supports the 3ds Max OSL shading graph
- Adds V-Ray's Cel shader implementation support to VRayToonMtl
- Adds VRayVolumeGrid support for V-Ray GPU render elements
- Modulate / replace the VRayVolumeGrid Fire Opacity with a texture in 'Use Own Opacity' mode
- Disables Max UI updates during .vrscene export to avoid slowdowns with animation export
- Adds Nozon PresenZ plugin parameters export to .vrscenes
- Optimizes .vrscene export time with particle systems
- Adds .vrscene exporter support for pixel aspect ratio
- V-Ray Bitmap to VRayHDRI converter should now be usable through MAXScript
- V-Ray Bitmap to VRayHDRI converter now uses maketx instead of img2tiledexr by default
- Adds a warning to V-Ray Cloud when using VRayAmbientLight and Adaptive Lights
- Adds a UI to V-Ray GPU for resumable rendering with GPU bucket sampler
- Adds a V-Ray GPU option to save color corrections for the raw image output
- Adds V-Ray GPU support for VRayExtraTex exclude/include lists
- Improves Light Linker memory efficiency in V-Ray GPU
- Removes the OpenCL engine from the V-Ray GPU UI
- Adds V-Ray GPU support for multiple map channels for bitmaps in VRayGLSL
- Adds 'Submit to Chaos Cloud rendering' as a separate button to the V-Ray Toolbar
- Adds a V-Ray warning if render elements have filtering off and progressive sampler on
- Adds a V-Ray check for version compatibility between the DR servers and client
- Displacement/subdivision tessellation outside the camera frustum in V-Ray is now coarser
- Adds a V-Ray warning when using Auto Exposure/White Balance with Region Render or Render Mask
- V-Ray production IPR is now faster with complex scenes
- Improves V-Ray loading time for scenes with many V-Ray lights
- Improves sampling for scenes with many light sources in V-Ray
- Makes Windows freezing less severe while rendering in V-Ray
- Moves the Authorization and About rollouts to the Settings tab
- Optimizes memory usage for scenes with many disc lights in V-Ray
- A warning is now printed if the VRayLog.txt file is written to C: or unaccessible path
- A warning is now printed when using the irradiance map with full light select elements in V-Ray
- Removes writing of V-Ray shade maps
- Updates to Alembic 1.7.10
- V-Ray uses a lower resolution on HiDPI displays with Viewport IPR
- V-RayMtl now has a better shadow terminator with strong bump maps
- Removes the highlight glossiness slots from the V-RayMtl UI in Slate Material Editor
- The V-RayMtl now uses the Oren-Nayar model for diffuse roughness
- The VFB asks to save the current modified scene if you use the Open Scene command from History
- Increases the number of VRayGLSL texture channels to 16
- Speeds up compilation of shaders in VRayGLSL
- Adds support for 'Position along strand absolute' mode to VRayHairMtl
- VRayLight dome lights should now be adaptive by default
- Implements an output selector for OSL in VRayMDL, VRayGLSL and VRayOSL
- Improves initial rollout states in VRayMDL, VRayGLSL and VRayOSL
- VRayMDL now uses GGX as a fallback for unsupported microfacet BRDFs
- Adds VRayOSL support for shaders using the trace() OSL function in the 3ds Max OSLMap texture
- Extends VRaySmaplerInfoRE with tangent and bitangent in UV space
- VRayShadowMap has been deprecated for future use
- VRayVolumeGrid now shows the mesh preview and voxel preview together when both are enabled
- Speeds up VRayVolumeGrid preview of AUR cache files by reading their data min-max range
- Adds VRayVolumeGrid support for OpenVDB 5
- And much more... a full list of modifications and fixes can be found here

V-Ray Next is available for Max 2013 to 2020 and costs $850. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for Beta 2.06 are:
- Increases the framebuffer update rate for ActiveShade renders
- All texmap slots can now be copied from Cycles Environment
- Backplates now render correctly in region renders
- Backplates now respect the 'Process Background and Environment Maps' exposure control option
- Render passes now work in single-eye stereoscopy modes


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v2.7 are:
- Fixes an error when the Angle between faces is updated
- The UI can now be resized

miauu's Live Measure Pro is available for Max 2009 to 2020 and costs €6.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v3.1 are:
- Adds support for Max 2020
- Adds a Missing Cameras property from last submission (vexus.MissingCameras)
- Improves logging features to aid support issues
- Increases significant digits on the V-Ray noise threshold
- Updates/improves the Backburner submission scripts
- Improves the script documentation
- The Render Dialog is now closed/reopened during execution
- Fixes a crash when isolating nodes
- Adds a 'Hide By Category' fix for the Visibility Node
- Fixes Child Layers selection for the 'Light By Layer Name' node
- Fixes the Vexus editor launch when in Demo mode
- Fixes to the Overscan feature when executing instead of submitting the graph
- Fixes missing parameters on Render Elements which include file paths
- General stability improvements

Vexus is available for Max 2015 to 2020 and costs $200. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Particles

Changes for v0.16026 beta are:
- Adds texmap controls to the Modify Bindings operator
- Adds support for fire channel data from FumeFX to the Birth Fluid / Fluid Properties operators
- Adds an option in the Subdivide operator for edge length to be relative to particle scale
- Adds 'remove scene selection' to easily remove specific objects from listboxes
- Adds a Cloth Bind option for cloth vertex particles to inherit the UV's of the originating mesh
- Fixes a crash that could sometimes occur when copying a selected operator
- Fixes an issue where spline knot selections were not being carried over into tyFlow


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for v3.96 are:
- Fixes an issue that sometimes occurred when trying to start the plugin in Max 2016

V-RayMtl Converter is available for Max 2013 to 2020 and costs $24.


Plugin Update: Renderers

Changes for v2.6.42 are:
- Fixes instability and UI glitches in Max when disabling RenderView or switching renderers
- Fixes a Max bug where loading a Render Preset breaks PostFX settings
- Fixes a Max bug where Skip Existing Images was not honored by Redshift File Output
- Fixes keyboard focus issues in Max that broke the Custom Shortcuts dialog in RenderView
- Fixes the appearance of some combo boxes in older versions of Max
- Adds Max support for the Redshift Feedback Display
- RenderView is now styled with a dark theme for all versions of Max
- Cryptomatte AOV in Max now always saves to EXR filetype regardless of the specified extension
- Creating a new Maya scene with RenderView open now resets Post Effects parameters to defaults
- Fixes a Maya issue where nHair objects caused a crash when rendering or didn't render correctly
- Fixes a Maya issue if the camera's frame rate was set to anything other then 24 FPS
- Fixes a Maya issue where XGen IGS wouldn't update correctly
- Fixes a Maya issue where animated instance objects were not rendering at the correct position
- Fixes a Maya issue if a scene was loaded with a Post Effects node and the RenderView was open
- Fixes a Maya issue with the RenderView's Post Effects parameters not updating
- Adds C4D support for suspending the baking of Cinema 4D shaders
- Adds a new C4D option in the RSObject particle section to hide the source custom objects
- Adds C4D support for certain visibility options of the Compositing tag
- Fixes a C4D bug that would lead to increased memory usage under certain conditions
- Fixes a C4D bug in the Matrix object where the effector scale was sometimes not applied
- Fixes a C4D issue where invisible particles would still be rendered under certain conditions
- The C4D default transparency value for the hair shader node from transparent to opaque
- Adds support for H17.5.258 and drops support for H15.5.565
- Adds a transformation handle to the RSLight HDA in Houdini
- Adds a Katana option to export the light groups to individual Multi-Layered EXR files
- Fixes a Katana issue with the default live render resolution
- Adds an environment variable to set the directory RenderView snapshots are saved to
- Fixes a RenderView bug where the Shortcuts dialog was created as a desktop window
- Fixes a potential RenderView crash when clicking in the Snapshot Configuration dialog
- Fixes an assert when 'Reflection End Color' is environment and global volumes are on
- Fixes an ancient bug that caused premature reflection trace-depth termination

Redshift is available for Max 2013 to 2020 and costs $500. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Modelling

Changes for v4.5 are:
- The right-click dialog now has a button to open the help document of the current tool
- CrossRoads can now be created directly as part of the original road object
- SweepEdge: you can now directly pick a spline in the scene as a section
- AdvArray: as in 'SweepEdge', you can now directly pick a spline as a section to sweep
- Adds an 'Extend Flat' option to SMRoad tools to extend the vertices on both sides of the road
- Adds a ClearTinySegs function for optimizing imported splines
- Adds a new MakePlanar(Edge) function

TerrainAxe is available for Max 2012 to 2020 and costs $217. A demo version is available here.


Plugin Update: Utilities

Changes for this version are:
- Autogrids Cutters for Lazercut
- New Lazercut UI
- Fixes Viewport Smooth Groups display mode (for 2018)
- Reduces the amount of messages when a KeyHydra Shortcut Macro ID needs to be re-assigned

KeyHydra is available for Max 2018 to 2020 and costs €29.99 per year. A demo version is available here.