Forest Pack

Overview Forest Pack  is the world's most popular scattering plugin for 3ds Max. It provides a complete solution for creating vast areas of objects, from trees and plants to buildings, crowds, aggregates, ground-cover, rocks and more. If you can model it, Forest Pack can scatter it. Countless studios rely on Forest Pack's production-tested algorithms and native shaders to render scenes with virtually unlimited numbers of objects and polygons, all without putting a strain on computer resources. Simulate natural distribution patterns and get the most out of your assets using advanced mapping and randomization tools, or fine-tune your scatters with granular control over every aspect of the plugin. With its power, unrivaled features list, ease-of-use, and premium support Forest Pack will change the way you render.

 

What's New

Forest Sets plugin Create a container of objects to use for areas, scatter items, surface, or references using a new helper plugin. It can even update automatically using the contents of a layer.	Linked areas Reference areas found in another Forest Pack object to link together multiple scatters. Combine Forest Sets and linked areas to create huge flexible interlinked ecosystems.	Use areas in surface UV mode Use Spline, Object, and other areas can now be used in combination with UV surfaces by projecting them along one of 3 axes using a new Axis parameter.
Forest Effects improvements Create advanced scattering rules using the Forest Effects system which is now more powerful than ever with support for spline objects and material IDs.	New Forest Effect presets Take advantage of the new Forest Effects features without writing a single expression using a new collection of built-in presets.	Filter Forest Effects Filter Forest Effects so that they only apply to a subset of the geometry list to limit the results to individual types of plants manipulated using the powerful effects system.
Autumn Leaves library Render amazing autumnal images with a new library of high quality photo-scanned leaves. The presets are logically organized by color and supplied as individual leaves and patches.	Randomize position in path mode Shuffle the position of objects while still following the spline when using path distribution mode - great for more believable distribution of hanging plants or other objects.	Scatter linked hierarchies Scatter linked objects, maintaining their hierarchy. Hierarchical objects can be animated, and Forest Pack can even randomize and control playback just like a normal mesh!
Easier error identification Save precious time by identifying issues at a glance. Forest Pack's icon now changes color depending on three different error states.	User properties retained in V-Ray V-Ray CPU users can take advantage of user properties. These are now retained from the source objects making it possible to use advanced texturing workflows.	Vertex colours supported in Arnold Arnold users can now take advantage if vertex color in their materials and be confident that Forest Pack will retain the final look.

Benefits

ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION Forest Pack offers unprecedented power, speed, and flexibility to create landscapes that look great and render fast. Create scenes that can be viewed from any angle and minimize the need for time-consuming post-production.	VISUAL EFFECTS Forest Pack has unrivalled animation features. Use animated meshes and proxies then randomize their time offset, or drive playback using maps to provide even more ways to create jaw-dropping VFX for film, animation, TV, and motion graphics projects.	AEC Forest Pack fits perfectly into interactive design processes. Scatters are fully parametric so making changes is fast and easy - which means less time spent updating scenes, and more time spent designing.

• SCATTERING PERFECTED - Forest Pack is fully multi-threaded and highly optimized for speed and efficiency. A typical scene can effortlessly use over 100.000 objects each with 1 million polys, and render in just a few minutes.
• INTERACTIVE - Points-Cloud display mode faithfully previews scattered objects in the viewports as they will appear in the render. Amazingly fast, this mode allows you to move and edit items in real-time, while maintaining an accurate preview of your scenes.
• PARAMETRIC AREAS - From the moment you pick a scatter area Forest Pack is fully parametric. With no destructive editing you make design decisions at any time, and see the results in the viewport instantly.
• NATURAL - Recreate the limitless variation found in nature with the ability to randomise distribution, objects, transforms, animation, bitmaps and tints. Mimic natural growth patterns using the innovative Clusters feature.
• PRECISE - Maps Control when you need it. Drive parameters using maps and expressions or use Tree Editor mode to scatter along splines, on markers or even edit and place individual objects.
• READY TO USE - Use Forest Pack's built-in Library Browser to select and assign plants with a single click. Over 100 models are included in Forest Pack Pro, or you can create your own presets and share them effortlessly with colleagues.
• FREE LIBRARY OF OVER 430 ASSETS - Hundreds of ready-to-use high-quality models and presets including trees, shrubs, grass, green walls, mulch, gravel, flowers, rocks, leaves, hedges, stumps and much more!
  
  

Features

• SUPPORTED AREAS - Forest Pack fits into existing pipelines with the widest support of any plugin for defining a scatter area, including splines, surfaces, PFlow objects, markers, objects, and paint areas. You can even even exclude objects using another Forest Pack area to create sophisticated and layered interdependencies.
• DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS - Use one of the 35+ built in distribution patterns of create your own custom patterns using procedural maps or images. Group together plants into naturalistic growth patterns automatically, or use a custom color maps. Use fast collision detection to prevent objects from overlapping and see the results in real time.
• ITEM EDITOR MODE - Refine compositions using the manual editor mode by modifying individual scattered items without any loss of rendering efficiency. Select or create single or groups of objects, swap models, rotate or translate to get the perfect render. Convert scatters to native instances to make the scene easier to share or for export to other applications.
• ANIMATION - Scatter animated objects while retaining significant memory efficiency. Sync animations or use one of 3 powerful modes to randomize animation and control the offset or set the current frame using maps. If these options don't suit your needs you can even create your own custom animation modes using Forest Effects!
• RENDER WITHOUT LIMITS - Forget about polygon counts and running out of memory. Forest Pack's intelligent instancing technology enables nearly limitless geometry with minimal overhead. Viewport previews are fast and interactive thanks to the point-cloud.display mode.
• SUPPORTED ITEMS - If you can create it you can scatter it. Forest Pack can use nearly any object including geometry, lights, splines, groups, proxies, parametric tools like RailClone and GrowFX, animated geometry and much more.
• LIBRARY AND PRESETS - Set up scatters in an instant by importing geometry using Forest Pack's built-in library browser. Import individual models and build your own scatter or import entire pre-built presets. You can even use many libraries from popular 3rd party vendors.
• LICENSING - Gain you access to the full range of features, a comprehensive library, and free unlimited render nodes. For the duration of your maintenance plan you are also entitled to premium technical support and upgrades.

Latest Forest Pack Webinars from Novedge

See The Light With Forest Pack 7