New: iToo Software Forest Pack 7 – Now Available

March 8, 2021

iToo Software Forest Pack 7 is loaded with lots of new features and updates for significantly expanded versatility, including the ability to scatter lights.

Forest Pack

The Scattering tool for 3ds Max

Forest Pack is the world’s most popular scattering plugin for 3ds Max®. Capable of rendering nearly limitless geometry, 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 randomisation tools, or fine-tune your scatters with granular control over every aspect of the plugin.

Create without restrictions using Froest Pack and take your renders to the next level.

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What’s new in Forest Pack 7?

For this release, iToo Software significantly expanded Forest Pack 7’s versatility. This means you can now scatter lights; there’s support real-time engines including Unreal, Chaos Vantage and a new beta importer plugin for Unity; Corona users can now use animation modes; thelibrary browser has been completely rewritten to make creating your own libraries a whole lot easier, it’s even possible to colour correct entire scatters; and there are two new high-quality asset collections!

The new release also adds real-time support with a new beta exporter for Unity alongside support for Chaos Vantage and Unreal Engine via Datasmith. We’ve striven to improve feature parity between the existing supported renderers, and now Corona users can benefit from Forest Pack’s invaluable animation modes. Our API has been updated too, so expect other renderers to follow suit in the future.

A completely rewritten library browser makes using finding and using assets a pleasure. A highlight of the update is the new one-click add object option for adding the selected assets in a scene to a collection.

Talking of assets, colour correcting materials when they come from different sources just got much easier thanks to new tools that allow you to quickly tweak the hue, saturation and value of entire scatters, and even limit the affected colours based on their hue.

Other new features include an improved distribution reference mode that allows you to scatter multiple items per face, support for gbuffer render passes in V-Ray, improvements to make it easier to add scatter objects to the items list, Solo mode in the modifier panel that keeps only one rollout open at a time, items now align with the z position of a spline plus much more.

In addition to new features, Forest Pack 7 also adds new content. Two completely new libraries are included, bringing the total number to 15 collections, comprising over 430 individual presets and assets. As always, these libraries are included free of charge, in fact. buying the libraries separately would almost certainly cost several times the price of the plugin!

Despite the name, now more than ever, Forest Pack is about far more than just scattering trees and plants. Check out the video above for an illuminating overview of what’s new, or read on for 10 good reasons to download Forest Pack 7.

Scatter Lights

Scatter hundreds or thousands of lights and other non-geometric objects. Corona users can even use Forest Colour to randomise light tint and use Corona’s lightmix features to edit colour and intensity in post-production.

New beta Unity plugin

Export Forest Pack objects to Unity using a new early-access plugin that takes advantage of Unity’s Hybrid Rendering technology for efficient real-time instancing.

Supported by Unreal and Chaos Vantage

Make the jump to real-time and export scatters to Unreal Engine or Chaos Vantage in just a few clicks.

Completely Rewritten Library Browser

The library browser has been rewritten from the ground up. Add 100s of objects selected from a scene and automatically build matlibs and generate thumbnails.

Colour Correct Entire Scatters

Gone are the days of fiddling with complex multi sub object materials, now you can colour correct entire scatters from a single simplified interface.

Randomise Animation Samples in Corona

Scatter animated objects in Corona including the ability to sample and randomise animated geometry or control playback using maps.

New Tree Stumps Library

Bring your renders to life with 40 high-quality photoscanned tree stumps plus optimised presets for quickly populating large areas.

New Hedges Library

Add hedges using a new library of 89 assets. 10 species are included in five heights ranging from 0.5m to 2.5m, plus bonus topiary presets for hedges of any shape.