3ds Max - Version history

Version 3.1.19 - June 8th 2015

• added support for Max 2016
• if the time output mode is set to single, Export MXS writes a single frame even if animation is requested
• pack'n'go resolves missing file paths in the same way the renderer does, before attempting to copy the files
• the exporter looks for missing IOR files and MXM files in the same way it does for textures
• fixed: pack'n'go crashed with some types of materials
• fixed: the hue adjustment parameter was inverted in the bitmap preview window
• fixed: crash on export when the Maxwell extensions cannot be loaded
• fixed: the animation setting in the export MXS dialog and maxwellExportMXS command was not taken into account
• renamed the "appendFrameNrToImg" flag for the maxwellExportMXS command to "appendFrameNr", because it also affects the output MXS file name, not just the image files
• added support for extra sampling
• updated the range of the devignetting parameter to match Studio
• added MAXScript functions for manipulating visibility flags: maxwellGetObjectFlag and maxwellSetObjectFlag
• added support for UDIM (tiled textures)
• the MXS extension is always appended to the name of the output scene files, even when they already contain a dot in their names
• added a frame offset parameter for the volumetric object
• fixed: clicking the "hide to camera in shadow pass" checkbox could set it to an indeterminate state (checked but grayed out)
• the environment intensity multiplier is exported to Maxwell so that the value correctly appears in the multilight panel
• renamed default item in the FIRE window camera menu to make its purpose clearer
• the material displacement component is exported even when it is disabled, so that it does not disappear when editing a material with MXED
• fixed: the density parameter for the scatter modifier did not allow decimals
• fixed: wrong file names for custom alpha channels
• fixed: crash in Max 2012 when changing a viewport to ActiveShade
• fixed: crash in some cases when closing the object properties dialog when Maxwell is not the active renderer
• fixed: viewport slowdown when using many MxLights set to correlated color emission
• fixed: the range of the emitter correlated color and coating thickness parameters did not match Studio
• added support for multiple selection in the light linking UI
• added support for per-material custom alphas
• decreased the time needed to open the object properties dialog on scenes with many referenced materials
• fixed: the "use global settings" texture parameter was not set correctly when importing a MXM file
• fixed: constant density volumetric objects were not exported correctly
• fixed: floating reflections/shadows were not working when rendering in draft mode
• fixed: visibility flags were not exported correctly for Max instances
• fixed: incorrect names exported for Max instances, causing blocked emitters to break if they were instanced (among other things)
• added support for OpenVDB
• added support for the "hidden to camera in shadow pass" flag
• added support for the ACES color space
• added support for floating reflections and shadows in FIRE
• native materials are translated as simple lamberts
• fixed: wrong minimum value for the "override number of motion steps" field

Version 3.0.35 - October 14th 2014

• added the maxwellGetCorrelatedColor() MAXScript function
• fixed: maxwell MAXScript functions didn't work anymore

• assistant materials retaui their name when converted to layered materials
• added the Hair appearance for the material assistant
• the plug-in no longer reserves a license when Max starts. The license is acquired when exporting or rendering for the first time.
• fixed: wrong UVs when importing a mesh with multiple UV sets from a MXS file
• fixed: the flip flags on the global normal map of the Maxwell material were not exported correctly
• fixed: wrong Nd for the the ghost BSDF component created for MxLights
• fixed: the Maxwell object properties rollup for MxLight objects was truncated
• fixed: area light rectangles created by MxLight objects were twice as big as they should have been
• fixed: emitter textures (HDR and projected image) were not copied by Pack'n'Go

• Pack'n'go now exports asset files introduced with the new v3 features
• fixed: Maxscript error when calling MaxwellRenderer()
• fixed: assitant materials couldn't be cloned
• fixed: maxwell material import and export functions couldn't be called from Maxscript

• fixed: axis conversion wasn't applied to scatter values
• fixed: converting assistant materials into layered materials removed top level multi materials

• fixed: No viewport display for maxwell nodes
• fixed: Crash in mxlight
• fixed: Displacement was always exported as on
• fixed: Location settings were disabled when the sun was turned off
• fixed: Maxscript error when cameras contain newline characters

Version 3.0.30 - April 29th 2014

Changes

• added support for Max 2015
• re-added support for Max 2011
• Max double-sided materials are exported as front/back face materials
• added pre- and post-animation behaviors to referenced MXS nodes
• added controls for selecting the padding and format of MXS sequences
• added region rendering controls to cameras
• added support for hue adjustment to MxBitmap
• MultiScatter instances use the render flags from the original object
• added focus camera button to FIRE window and toolbar
• added the name of the material to the backface material button
• added rotation parameter in MxBitmap
• negative values can be used in the offset attribute of MXS reference nodes
• double clicking a material in the MXS material overrides window selects the material for that override
• added a way to set the MXS reference material overrides from MAXScript
• exposed gsChannelDeep and gsUseGlobalMaterial to the maxwell renderer MAXScript interface
• added global settings for textures
• added use global, mirror X and mirror Y flags to MxBitmap
• increased the limit for the depth channel max depth
• added back the MXS sequence rendering flag

Fixes

• MAXScript error when loading some scenes with corrupted cameras
• incorrect export of particle flow motion data
• particle flow systems with a dynamic material node were exported with a default material
• crash in the MXS reference object when no material overrides are set
• MXS references didn't display in the Nitrous viewport
• wrong bounding box for Almebic reference objects
• emitters beneath an IES emitter in the material tree got assigned the same IES file on export
• UV scale wasn't exported when tiling was off
• material overrides weren't saved with the proxy object
• crash when previewing some materials
• crash with vray cameras
• IES files were ignored when importing materials from MXM
• Alembic and MXS material overrides disappeared when the mesh was reloaded
• Alembic material overrides were exported improperly
• wrong normals for Alembic objects imported with CRATE
• objects with no name or that only contained numbers in their name were exported incorrectly
• the plugin reserved a license in node mode when the active renderer wasn't Maxwell
• wrong camera position in FIRE in some cases
• Alembic crash when the abc file had material references
• the enable sequence checkbox in MxBitmap gets disabled when turning off viewport preview
• xref scenes that are hidden in the viewport were still exported
• MXS references updated their geometry even when show in viewport was off
• MxBitmap previews appeared darker when using show in viewport
• Maxwell material viewport preview ignored the hue shift parameter
• 3dsmax 2012 used a seat license even in node mode
• MAXScript error when loading scenes made with older versions of the plugin
• custom bokeh was not exported
• the offset parameter of the MXS reference object wasn't working correctly
• wrong output paths in some cases
• render error when materials contain empty bitmaps
• the viewport preview of MXS references still showed the old object after trying to load a new file or sequence which contains errors
• crash when displaying Maxwell materials in the slate editor
• the textured material wizard created materials with empty bitmaps
• garbage text in the log window when material translation failed in FIRE
• IES file names weren't saved
• crash when converting wizard materials to layered materials inside the slate editor
• crash when the wizard material was loaded as part of a multi-material
• memory leak in the material UI
• wrong size for the viewport preview of the volumetric object
• missing frame number in channel file names when rendering sequences

Version 2.7.30 - July 8th, 2013

Changes

• added support for ornatrix v2 and removed support for ornatrix v1
• hair vertex colors are gamma-corrected
• the plugin no longer checks the save file flag, only the existence of the file name

Fixes

• the V texture coordinate was flipped when importing MXS files

• the viewport texture display used the wrong UVW channel for referenced materials when the display driver was Direct3D

• improper mesh import when it has a single material assigned per face instead of being assigned on the whole mesh

• the proxy and RFRK objects crashed when used with some modifiers

• crash when using multiscatter with MXS references and proxies

• wrong transformation matrix for Max instances of Maxwell proxy objects

• objects imported from MXS were invisible when the viewport was set to wireframe mode

• objects imported from MXS became corrupted when converted to editable poly

Version 2.7.27 - April 25th, 2013

Changes

• added support for Max 2014
• added support for Multiscatter
• camera manipulation in FIRE uses an orbit camera model now

Fixes

• the UI of the Maxwell material isn’t shown if you select sub-components in the material navigator
• gamma was applied twice in the Max render image view if the alpha channel was enabled
• the draft quality setting in the render options panel wasn’t working
• wrong position for Max Hair objects with non-identity pivots

Version 2.7.24 - March 11th, 2013

• added support for moving camera in FIRE
• the link camera FIRE option is accessible directly from the ActiveShade window menu
• added support for solo layers
• a warning is issued when PFlow instances cannot be exported due to duplicated group names
• fixed: the API methods MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetIntArray() and MaxwellMaxExtensionParams::SetDoubleArray() did not work correctly
• fixed: Chinese characters in exported IES paths
• fixed: wrong camera used by send job to network
• fixed: crash when rendering a RFRKMesher without any files
• fixed: not all PFlow particles were exported when a system contained empty groups
• fixed: the "extra particles" parameter of the MxParticles object was not exported
• fixed: send job to network didn't start when the output file didn't already exist

Version 2.7.20 - December 17th, 2012

• when importing MXM files, the plug-in looks for missing textures in the "textures" subdirectory of the MXM path
• added the "maxwellRestartFire" MAXScript function 
• meshes and materials can be imported from MXS files 
• Max gamma correction no longer affects Maxwell material preview slots
• added support for meshes with specified normals
• added an object setting on legacy particle system which controls if they are exported as meshes or Maxwell procedurals
• the exporter writes all the cameras present in the scene to the MXS file
• added 2048 and 4096 to the list of allowed resolutions for viewport preview
• the viewport preview looks for textures in alternative paths when they cannot be found, just like the exporter
• the send job to network button supports animations
• fixed: MAXScript error when trying to render from the command line 
• fixed: grass modifiers were exported even when they were disabled
• fixed: crash on systems with video cards or drivers that don't support DirectX 9
• fixed: wrong motion blur for PFlow instances when more than 2 motion steps were used
• fixed: FIRE was not restarted after changing IBL settings
• fixed: the material UI was not refreshed after importing a MXM file
• fixed: the renderer was still started in some cases even though the export process failed
• fixed: crash when a MXS reference object was using animation sequences
• fixed: crash when switching to a non-Maxwell material after editing a Maxwell bitmap
• fixed: crash when trying to export HairFarm objects with density textures applied

Version 2.7.12 - October 16th, 2012

• added support for textured material preview in Nitrous
• added support for HairFarm
• removed support for Max 8, 9 and VIZ
• the Max gamma value does not influence the rendered image or material preview swatches
• added plug-in API
• FBX import and export supports Maxwell materials
• set the default for use Max instancing to on
• fixed: proxies and MXS references did not show the preview point cloud in Nitrous
• fixed: crash when creating MXS reference objects with pivot snap enabled
• fixed: the UV Mapping dropdown in the RFRK particle object contained Chinese characters in Max 2013
• fixed: hidden objects referenced by Maxwell proxies were rendered
• fixed: crash when adding a second sequence to a RFRK mesher under some circumstances
• fixed: no viewport texture preview for referenced materials
• fixed: search paths were not used when locating BIN files for the viewport preview of RFRK meshers and particle objects
• fixed: the viewport preview of RFRK meshers was not refreshed after adding a new sequence
• fixed: crash when unchecking and checking back the display in viewport checkbox in a MXS reference object
• fixed: RFRK particles were skewed when rotated
• fixed: the viewport preview of RFRK objects and MXS references were not using the same search paths as the render
• fixed: crash in older versions of Max which sometimes occurred when loading a scene
• fixed: legacy particle systems were not exported from Max 2013
• fixed: extension parameters which were strings (mesher BIN path, mesher realwave path etc.) were not exported correctly in Max 2013
• fixed: saving a sky to a HDR file didn't work in Max 2013

Version 2.7.6 - July 27th, 2012

• added support for custom bokeh camera parameters
• added support for negative offset values in the IBL parameters
• the particle loader can display PXY sequence files in the viewport
• default axis setup for the RFRK mesher set to YZX
• fixed: browsing the material library and gallery did not work
• fixed: render options strings (MXI path, MXS path, default material etc.) were lost after reopening a scene in Max 2013
• fixed: bogus characters in the geographical location dropdown in Max 2013
• fixed: bogus names for the renderer properties in MAXScript in Max 2013
• fixed: the legacy material was not working
• fixed: plug-in preferences (preview scene path, preview quality etc.) were not saved correctly in Max 2013
• fixed: the bitmap viewer didn't work in Max 2013
• fixed: wrong maximum value for grass bend angle, root radius, tip radius and density
• fixed: file -> export didn't work if a perspective viewport was selected
• fixed: FIRE did not work in Max 2013
• fixed: RFRK objects were flipped in the viewport compared to the render
• fixed: the MXI path was not exported correctly in Max 2013
• fixed: BIN mesh loaders without a file assigned printed a non-descriptive warning on render Version 2.7.4 - June 18th, 2012

Version 2.6.18 - January 30th, 2012

• added support for the Reaflow extensions: BIN mesher and BIN particles
• added support for multi-step camera motion blur
• added support for silent installs (pass /S on the installer command line)
• custom Maxwell objects (MXS references, proxies etc.) are compatible with the Nitrous viewport
• fixed: slowdown when exporting many instances
• fixed: under some circumstances, PFlow systems were exported as a single mesh instead of using instances
• fixed: crash when rendering a proxy that has no source object
• fixed: the rendered image was offset by 1 pixel horizontally in the Max framebuffer
• fixed: ActiveShade crashed when used in viewport
• fixed: wrong output image format when exporting from the File menu
• fixed: wrong state management for the IES controls in Maxwell lights
• fixed: once the LOD of a MXS reference was set to 0, it stayed invisible even after the LOD was increased again
• fixed: wrong bounding box for proxies after the objects they reference was removed