Itoo Forest Pack 7 is out now!

Forest pack version 7 is out and it brings some very much-awaited features! Focused on versatility, this update tries to increase its support for real-time render engines by introducing a new beta exporter for Unity, better compatibility for Chaos Vantage and Unreal Engine, this last one via Datasmith.

But this update´s highlight, and one of the most requested features, is the possibility for corona, V-ray, Arnold, and Octane users to scatter nearly any non-geometric object, including helper objects, VDB volumes (Corona), splines, and most important, lights. Even groups containing lights, meaning that entire street lamps can be scattered using Forest Pack’s distribution and randomization tools.

Also aiming at increasing compatibility, they enable Corona to use Forest Pack´s animation modes. So now, users can randomize the animation´s starting point, offset the frames using a map, or control them using a texture, and manipulate playback using Forest Effects.

Also for Corona users, scattered lights can now be added to the light mix feature and be fine-tuned during and after rendering. In V-ray it is necessary to instance the lights using forest tools first. Furthermore, in Corona, Forest color can be used to randomize the tint and intensity of lights simply by binding it with the lights map input. In V-ray, just the geometry light types support this feature for now.

They improved the material library browser. Now, searching and selecting assets is more intuitive due to a windows-like search/select interface. They also implemented a one-click feature to quickly add new assets and presets to the library.

Another welcomed new feature is the possibility to color correct materials by allowing the change of the hue, saturation, and value of entire scatters. Additionally, you can limit the affected colors based on their hue if, for example, you wish to change the colors of leaves and keep the tree trunk untouched. This is very helpful when having assets from different sources where colors sometimes don´t work well together.

Moreover, they added new free content. These new assets are composed of two new libraries: one with 40 photoscanned tree stumps and another with 89 cut edges presets (10 species in 5 heights).

These hedges can also be scattered on closed surfaces, allowing almost endless shape possibilities for your hedges.

All these new assets are compatible with V-ray, Corona, Arnold, F-storm, and Octane.

Improvements were made on the reference mode in the distribution roll-out. Before this update, you could only have a single item placed at the center of a reference polygon. In this new version, the position can be randomized, and you can place any item on any number of selected reference polygons. It is also possible to filter them by material ID.

They implemented a way to scatter objects in fewer steps, just by selecting the objects you wish to scatter, making sure that the “populate from selection” on the Forest creation tap is on, and picking the spline or surface where the objects will be scattered.

Additionally, they made plenty of small changes to the interface, for example, the possibility to close a roll-out automatically when a second one is opened, making the navigation less confusing.

Another often requested implemented feature was the support for object ID render passes in V-ray.

They changed the way Forest distributes objects on the z-axis when using multiple closed spline areas. Now the scattered objects will respect the z position of individual splines and not, like in the previous version, stay at the level of the highest spline.

The camera roll-out was also reorganized and simplified, among other small but helpful changes.

Forest Pack 7 comes full of new features and improvements. It now offers more possibilities due to a wider set of tools and expanded compatibility, making this 3ds Max plug-in an even more essential tool than before.

learn more at https://www.itoosoft.com/forestpack