Forest Pack 7.3.0

There's no better way to start a new year than with a crisp new version of Forest Pack. Hot on the heels of our major RailClone release in December, we're now pleased to announce this very handy update for Forest Pack.

New features include completely rewritten group support, the ability to match geometry to markers by name, support for scattering VRayVolumeGrid objects and much more. Check out our blog to learn more about what's new and watch a video explaining how to get the most from the new features.

Forest Pack 7.3.0

New Features​

• Added Distribution->Reference->"Match Geometry by Name".

  • Assigns a specific item, matching the name of the referenced object with the names of the Geometry list.
  • For example, object "box001" will be matched with Geometry "Box". Uppercase and Lowercase are equivalent (case insensitive rule).
  • If there are multiple matches, a random Geometry from the matching items is assigned.
  • If none matches, the first Geometry in the list is assigned. To check matches easily, we suggest setting the first items in the geometry list as a 'Disabled' item with a recognizable name (i.e. 'none').

• Support for 3DS Max groups is rewritten from scratch. Now groups can be used in a more standard way, by checking the new Geometry->"Keep Group Hierarchy" parameter:

  • When disabled, items are scattered together (as before) each with its own transformation. I.e. Random Rotation rotates the item using its pivot, not the group pivot. Same when the item is placed over a surface. Also, items are excluded individually for camera clipping, exclude areas, etc.
  • Instead, when "Keep Group Hierarchy" is enabled, a group is handled as a single unique entity (similar to the Max group behaviour).
  • By default "Keep Group Hierarchy" is disabled for existing scenes, but enabled when a new group is added to Geometry.
  • Now the group's Pivot is taken into account to place the item. If your existing scenes using groups are misaligned, please align the group pivot properly (usually moving Z to its base).

• Added support for VRayVolumeGrid objects.

• Added support for native light instancing in V-Ray.

  • Requires V-Ray 5.2 or greater
  • Lights can now be randomised using FP Colour or V-Ray multi-subtex maps

• Billboard templates are removed from the "forest_templates" layer. Now they are stored internally.

  • Billboards are now limited to simple planes (one to four faces). Other models are removed. If templates already exist in the layer (i.e created by previous Forest versions), they are removed when the scene is saved.

• Added compatibility with Arnold 7.

  • When Forest is not compatible with the current Arnold version, a warning message will be displayed.

    note

    Previous Arnold versions are no longer supported. You can upgrade to the latest release from here (Arnold for 3DS Max)

• Restored the Camera parameter. It lets you assign manually a Camera for Limit to Visibility and Distance Falloff.

  • When empty, the Camera is taken automatically from render view, as before.

• Distribution by Path uses path direction for Random Translation, instead of translating the item on XY plane.

• Display Proxy mode is set to "Pyramid" by default, instead of "Plane".

• When adding complex models, Forest suggests setting Display mode to 'Proxy', instead of Point-cloud as before. This is more efficient in recent Max releases.

• The default size for Distribution X/Y is increased from 10m to 100m., which is more suitable for a trees distribution.

• Added support for non-geometric objects to Library Browser. Fixed issues with scaled Custom Objects.

Fixes​

• Fixed load of Library Presets using repeated objects in Geometry List.
• Fixed column width of list boxes (Geometry, Areas, etc) on HiDPI screens (requires Windows 10 or above).
• Fixed: VRayCryptomatte renders Forest objects in black colour.
• Fixed: colours generated by Forest Color are not consistent when scattering lights.
• Fixed error loading Library presets with Disabled/Template items.
• Fixed: Forest Lite doesn't support splines at different heights.
• Fixed Maxscript security error when closing Optimize Material dialog.
• Fixed: Areas->Force Open Spline doesn't work with Exclude areas.
• Fixed: Camera->Limit to Visibility and Distance Falloff doesn't work with Arnold renderer.
• Fixed: Render nodes using "3dsmaxbatch.exe" (as Royal Render) cannot run without a license.
• Fixed rare crash cleaning the Forest template layer, when the scene is saved.
• Fixed: Library->"Import from 3DS Max files" would assign the wrong Max file, when importing from multiple scenes.