Hi, since someone need to ask for it soon or late, i will do it… 
Does Frost for max 2021 with Vray instance support will come soon?
2020 version work in 2021, just we do not have Vray next instancing support.
Best Regards.
Marc A.
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Since it’s related, if we use Frost Vray instances with Vray 5 beta, there is a bug, wich make GI to compute infinitly…
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I too am hoping to get a fully functional version of Frost for Max 2021. It’s been a while now. Thinkbox used to be one of the fastest developers to get plugins out. They were very responsive. Let’s keep it that way.
Believe it or not there are other products besides Deadline and selling render time.
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Thinobox… Do you even read the forums? How about a reply to the users PAYING annual maintenance asking for updates for a now months old version of Max?
There are other products besides Deadline and AWS rendering time. I get Papa Jeff doesn’t think so, but some of us have been with you since before then. What about Bobo and friends, and instant builds to fix bugs? Come on! This is what Thinkbox was built on. Now we don’t even get the courtesy of a reply on the official forum? I miss the Frantic days…
Forums aren’t as active as our ticket system these days.
I’m going to raise this up for you along with this one:
Thank you for the reply, eamsler.
I see the forums are indeed not that active. This issue of VRay Instances not working is worthy of a ticket.
The general request for improvements to Krakatoa probably is not. Just wanted you guys to know that many users would like to see more efforts applied to some of the other products.
For instance for Forst:
Non-uniform scaling up instances aligned to velocity vector (stretch in the direction of movement).
Ability to mesh less than 100% of particles for Rendering (it is there for Viewport, but why not rendering?) This is useful when particle sources are other than PRTLoader where perhaps you cannot easily adjust the amount, or you want to use the same high count loader with a few different tools and adjust the amount of particles used per tool so there is only one load from disk.
Timely updates when new versions of Max or VRay come out.
Thanks.
Aside from what is mentioned above it would be very nice when using Custom Geometry instanced to each particles to be able to adjust the percentages of each cloned object. Right now we can’t even add the same object twice. So we have to duplicated or clone the objects and add these duplicates to get the ratios correct. Forest Pack has a method to adjust percentages of each object. It works very well.
Thanks.
@joelaff This actually be controlled via datachannel named “ShapeIndex”
MarcoA,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, that is true, and I had considered it, but I wasn’t envisioning as easy way to configure percentages of various shapes Indices.
In a Magma Modifier I could use a Mux and wire up the same constant multiple times to get the weights of the different options. This is very tedious.
I could use Magma and map it through a Gradient Ramp texture somehow-- Like break the ramp into 256 U positions. Take the particle ID and use it as a selector for a MUX with 256 inputs, where each input takes the next value in the ramp at it corresponding Mux index. Like 256 discreet steps in U (horizontal). That normalized texture value could then be multiplied by the number of shape Index choices (max shapes) and assigned to the ShapeIndex. You have an exposed MaxShapes value, and you edit the gradient ramp to make the distribution. – Might work!?!
Did you have any thought on how to get a weighted distribution of a number of objects, ideally with exposed weights.
Thanks.
I use tP, so inside tP I just create rule to set X% this shape index, Y% this one etc…then, all of these not having already a shape ID got the last one
Same thing is possible in magma flow, you just need to set the % based on particleID, and here we go…
and you could exposed the value to rollout 
.
Thanks for the reply.
Here is an implementation of Weighted Shape Index values in MagmaFlow.
WeightedShpaeIndexes.zip (2.9 KB)
Unzip and Load this into the MagmaModifier flow window. It lets you set weights for ten (0-9) Shape Indexes.
Easy enough to modify to add more indexes. Since I am doing this with nodes I was just to lazy to wire more of them up.
Note that with all weights set to zero it sets the index to 0. I was going to set it to something like 1000 or -1, but it seems Frost ignores shape indexes that are out of bounds and uses shape 0 anyway. Would be more useful if it did not instance anything in that case. Then the weights could be used to deleted instances of a certain shape index. You could of course modify the flow to select those particles and then use a Delete Op.
Anyway, hope someone finds this useful.
any ETA on frost MX update for 2021 (with vray next instancing support and Vray 5 instancing support)?
4 month after post, 5 month 3dsMAX 2021 is up, still no news…Please thinkbox give news .
-> no max 2021 support with vray next
-> no vray 5 support
-> no max 2021 official support
5 month max 2021 is released…please justify the fact we pay year subscription! (ok that one was easy, but come one, not even a answer from thinkbox to keep us in touch)
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Thinkbox? When can we expect this update? It has been ages since 2021 came out. We really need VRay Instancing support that works!
Open suport ticket #101281 about the subject, 5 months is too long…
Hey all, this sort of integration takes some effort. I’ll raise your concerns up to the right folks on our side. Thanks for chasing on it.
thanks edwin for some feedback (finally), worst than no update, is no news…finally got some
Well at least for Vray next support in 2021 it should have been fast (that’s one dll to edit (2 digits) and name, ok it take more time for Vray 5 integration, but it’s really anoying on user side when only thinkbox tool are missing on new max .)
Seriously, It has been over a year since there was an update. So what did I pay you the maintenance fee for? How about a FREE credit for the next year STARTING at the date you actually release an update for the software?
Yes, I just got an INVOICE for MORE maintenance, for what?? NOTHING. I got NOTHING for my maintenance last year. Do you even have developers working on ANYTHING other than Deadline?
Seriously, is FROST Abandonware? In fact, is Thinkbox even permitted by AWS to work on any software other than Deadline?
Guys, this really is sad.
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Ok it take some time, but if it take more than a year for supporting VRay next on 2021, we will probably have Vray 5 support when 3dsMAX 2058 will came out…
Come on, tell me WHY we pay maintenance this past years, since NO support ZERO , nada, …
Give us frost with support for vray 5 before 3dsMAX 2022 will came out…now it’s time (it’s already too late, or tell us that AWS thinkbox is EOL on all max pluggins), no excuse…it take time but not one full year…(max 2021 still have no official support, not even for vray next!!!)
And i really hope AWS thinkbox is ready for the release of MAX 2022 on all existing products…
I remember a time not so long ago where thinkbox was the first one to release tools for new 3dsMAX…
Because thinkbox does not support Frost anymore, and people are still paying for it, not sure why…
Check out AQmesher… same thing basically, but better, from Japan…