Forest Pack 4 Pro & Lite Released
iToo Software released both Pro and Lite versions of Forest Pack 4, their latest installment of the plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max, and 3ds Max Design, designed to give a complete solution for creation of vast surfaces of trees and plants. Version 4 brings many improvements and additions to the current user base adding VRay RT support, but most noticeably, welcomes on board users of Maxwell Render, Thea Render, Octane Render and Arion!
Release Notes
Render
- Added native support for more render engines: VRayRT, Maxwell, Arion, Octane and Thea Render.
- Forest Color and other tint modes are not supported on the new engines.
- Be sure your render software is upgraded to the latest version.
- Support for these engines is experimental, please report any problem that you find.
Library Browser
- Added 3D models of grass, flowers and stones.
- Added Ready-to-use Presets. Some of them include two versions: detail (for small areas), and large (using clumps, optimized for large areas).
- Added support for models organized in separate meshes or groups. Forest attach all elements in a single mesh when importing.
- Commonly used options have been moved to the main window: Material handling, Merge/XRef, etc.
- Added render engine selector for libraries that support multiple materials.
- Classic 2D Library is not installed by default. It is available from the installer as “Legacy Library”.
Geometry List
- Support for groups in Custom Objects.
- This mode is useful to scatter groups of plants, preserving their composition. For example, sets of flowers or grass.
- It works nicely used together Distribution->Diversity->Clusters.
- Elements of a group are handled as individual items once scattered, both for the boundary checking and surface placement. This also has a great impact on the number of items generated, be care when scattering groups with many objects.
- Don’t use groups for objects that must be handled an unique object (for example a tree). In this case, use a single mesh as before.
- Groups must be assigned using the name selector. Max doesn’t support “pick” groups from the scene.
- Added compatibility with Laubwerk Plants.
- Added multi-select support. Now it is possible to edit or delete multiple items at once.
- Added lock aspect ratio button to Geometry->Width/Height.
- Geometry->Material is not longer a required parameter. If not defined, the material of the Custom Object is used.
- Forest automaterials are generated using random names, to avoid duplicates.
- Optimize Material works on the custom object material if Geometry List->Material is not defined.
