Forest Pack 6.0.0

After 2 years of hard work, we are proud to announce Forest Pack 6. The result is a new version that includes a wealth of features and fixes to add new workflows, extend the plugin and make it easier than ever for you to use... at the end of the day, isn't that what it's all about?

Highlights include the ability to simplify the user interface; new and improved distribution modes including the ability to use PFlow; a new way to download and manage presets and libraries; an overhauled Effects feature to allow users to extend and create their own new features; plus several new presets and a free starter tree library.

New Features​

• Support for 3ds Max 2019

• Added support for Arnold 5.1 and MaxToA 2.0 in Max 2018 and 2019

  • Added support for "Physical Material" and Arnold "Standard Surface" in Material Optimiser. (The tool cannot convert to those materials, just can apply Forest Color/Edge and the optimisations)
  note

  Forest Color and Forest Edge are supported by turning on "Legacy 3ds Max Map support" in Render Settings->System

• Support for V-Ray Next

• New memory management system. Scattering performance is increased up to 150% with large distributions.

• UI

  • Added General->Settings icon. This button lets you to configure global settings for all FP objects, including:
    • Visible Rollups. Lets to hide Forest rollups from the Modify panel.
    • Disable Popups (moved from the General rollup).
  • Group Boxes are collapsible. State is global and saved between Max sessions.
  • Resizeable lists (as Geometry List). State is local to each Forest object and saved with the scene.
  • Added new Icon mode to Creation panel that lets you to create an empty Forest object, and edit it later from the Modify panel.
  • Added item tooltip to the listboxes. Put cursor over an row to see the full item name.
  • Added "Select all Forest dependencies" to the quad menu to select the Forest object together with all its dependencies (e.g. geometries, areas, surfaces, etc).
  • The main configuration of the plugin can be defined using environment variables. See the documentation for more information.

• Added new Distribution modes (available from the Distribution rollup)

  Distribution modes

  • Image, the default mode in previous versions.
  • Using Reference objects, by Pivot point or Mesh faces.
  • Along a path.
  • From a Particle Flow.
  • Distributions from Particle Flow can be filtered by Event.

• Added the ability to Force open splines to use closed splines areas as though they were open using the Thickness parameter.

  note

  Reference and Path modes replaces Tree Editor->Creation Tools, which have been removed.

• Effects

  • Added attributes for Particle Flow distribution: particleAge, particleSpeed, particleFlowEventID, particleRotation and particleScale.
  • Added a generic property to the items in Tree Editor: User ID.
    • This value can be edited by the user and readed in Forest Effects, for any use.
    • Also it's used for some special purposes. For example, in Distribution->Path mode it stores the item counter along the path.
  • Added new transform attributes:
    • "fpItem.xrotaxis", "fpItem.yrotaxis", "fpItem.zrotaxis": rotation of Forest Item expressed as a system of 3 vectors.
  • New Parameter types: Texture maps and Curves.
  • Multiple effects per Forest object.
  • Added new Effect attributes for new paths mode:
    • distPathPos: Normalized position of item on path (Distribution by Path only).
    • distPathTangent: Tangent vector of path on item position (Distribution by Path only).

• iToo Software Update Manager

  Update Manager

  • Universal manager for downloading, installing and managing Forest Pack and RailClone content.
  • Separates the library content from the application.
  • Download new libraries, presets and effects at any time.
  • Install from a network location for multi-user offices. Avoiding the need to download content multiple times.

• Libraries and Presets. Added Arnold materials for all built-in libraries and presets

  Library presets

  • Surface parameters are now imported from Library presets.

  • New tree starter library - 30 new trees in 10 species.

  • New grass presets designed to work in layers. 26 variations.

    Library Grass

  • New vertical walls presets

    Library walls presets

  • 13 new distribution maps.

  • Added mechanism to search automatically the texture maps, and add them to "Customize->Configure User Paths->External Files".

    • The first time Forest Pack is used, it collects all folders with name "maps" in the Library paths (defined at Library Browser→Options).
    • These paths are added to the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Itoo Software\Forest Pack Pro\TexturePaths.
    • In a second phase, all paths defined in "TexturePaths" are added to External Files (this works in the same way that previous versions).
    • The process is executed silenty in render nodes, and can be disabled setting collectTexturePaths = 0 and checkTexturePaths = 0 in forestpack.ini.

Fixes​

• Support for V-Ray 3.1 and 3.2 has been removed

• Forest Tools now disables FP objects using Display->Build->"Disable Object", instead setting Custom Objects to "Disabled", as before. This method is more suitable for the Forest Lister.

• Raised Distribution->Max.Density default value (from 20 to 40 mill.)

• Added Maxscript function: getSelected(). Returns indexes of items selected on Custom Edit mode (array of integers).

• Material->Forest Shader parameters are removed from the interface. These are used only for billboards in Mental Ray and if needed, you can modify them from Maxscript as: fastopac, tracedepth, opaclevel, selfillum, irradiance.

• Appended source name to Library objects imported in the "forest_templates" layer (i.e. "_forest_library_H4AXKAQ_birch_01").

• "Tree Editor" is renamed to "Items Editor". Replaced other references from "trees" to "items"

• Added Display->Point-cloud Style: Small or Large Dot. Value is global to all Max scenes.

• "Camera->Limit to Visibility" and "Look-at->On" are off by default.

• Improved stability with V-Ray IPR.

• Improved viewport performance with Camera features.(When camera changes, Forest is updated only is some Camera feature is used).

• Main Forest folder is moved from C:\Program Files (x86)\Itoo Software\Forest Pack Pro to C:\Program Files\Itoo Software\Forest Pack Pro

• Fixed: items dissapear when using Undo/Redo in Custom Edit mode

• Fixed: Items are not visible on viewport while using Interactive Render (both V-Ray and Corona).

• 32 bit versions and legacy plugins (Forest Pro 2.x) are removed.

• Fixed freezing bug when a nested FP object is used in more than one Forest.

• Fixed: "Geometry->Consolidate Materials" is always on, regardless of the checkbox.

• Fixed: surfaces are cleared when importing a preset from library.

• The "XRef Unit's mistmach" popup (shown when loading from library) can be disabled setting disableXRefPopups=1 in forestpack.ini, or from "General->Configuration->Disable Popups".

  • "General->Configuration->Disable Popups" will disable ALL Forest popus, not only this one.
  • Before turning off the popup, double check that "Rescale the XRef Objects" is on, as default option. If not, libraries will be not loaded correctly.

• Initial computing of Point-cloud now is multi-thread. That should improve a bit the load of heavy models.

• Effects.

  • When fpItem.geomID is greater than maximum ID, result is the remainder, not the maximum value as before.
  • Fixed "controller returns invalid type" warning when a Controller Parameter is linked to a rotation control.
  • Fixed: Error reading constant values in expressions with regional settings which not use "." as decimal point.
  • Fixed: Z value of fpItem.areaIncNearest and fpItem.areaExcNearest now matches with item's Z position.
  • Fixed: Parameter->Default range is limited to 0-100 for real and integer types.

• Fixed: "XRef Material->Override" option is ignored when building the Forest automaterial.

• Fixed: Changes in the Geometry List don't modify existing items in Custom Edit mode.

• Fixed updating issue with Color Swatch controls in PBStore.

• Fixed behaviour of Forest Lister when rollups order is changed.

• Fixed several issues of General->Presets. Now Areas, Surfaces and Effects are not saved with the preset.

• Fixed: Geometry->Color ID doesn't support Copy/Paste.

• Fixed crash loading nested library objects.

• Fixed: Items with high values of random Translation are placed outside of its area.

• Fixed: Effects Editor cannot load JPG thumbnails.

• Fixed: Both Point-cloud and mesh are drawn on viewport when Display->Render->Mode is set to "Meshes".

• Fixed: Tree Editor->Add inserts multiple items for LOD objects.

• Fixed: User toolbars using Forest actions are reset when Max is loaded.

• Fixed crash loading scenes with LOD linked to a XRef.

• Fixed: Camera in Deadline render jobs is not updated, when using "Camera->Auto assign to active view".

  note

  To make it work, be sure to select a Camera as current view, when render job is submitted to Deadline. It WILL FAIL if current view is a not a camera (as perspective, top view, etc.)

• Fixed issue with missing references when a library item is used both in the main and a XRef scene.

• Fixed crashing bug in V-Ray RT when Geometry items have not valid object assigned..

• Fixed missing User Paths in Library Browser->Options.

• Fixed crash rendering nested FP object without any material assigned.

• Fixed potential crash with animation maps returning negative values.

• Fixed freezing issue with nested objects and V-Ray IPR.

• Fixed bug in Effects expressions with functions returning vectors.

• Fixed freezing issue with V-Ray RT on IPR mode.

• Fixed: excluding areas from FP objects are not updated correctly in some renderers.

• Fixed: some parameters are not updated in the interface when are animated using Autokey.

• Fixed rare crash when Forest object is created.