Russian cg technology company Exlevel, makers of the Autodesk 3ds Max plug-in GrowFX, has released a new version.  The product allows you to build plants and other objects that grow in various directions. You can find out more about the product by visiting the company’s website at http://exlevel.com/.

News features in this version release include:

• Newdirection modifier: Spline direction. The modifier allows the userto set the direction of a path along a spline. Moreover, this algorithmcan be used to make smooth interpolation between splines. For example, lowbranches may have one shape while upper ones have another;
• New parameters for Instancedgeometry:
• Current time - Setstime for animated objects, which is different from the current time of theanimation. Users can influence and animate this parameter on their own.The parameter can be used in animation, as well as in creation of staticmodels;
• Deform along Path -Deforms an object along path directions. The parameter allows the user tocreate custom geometric shapes by specifying the required direction forthem;
• Use hierarchy - Allowsusing all objects from the hierarchy of a selected object;
• Generate MultiMaterial - Collects all information on object materials, creates a multimaterialand assigns it to itself;
• Display as bounding box - If Combine meshes is not used, objects in Viewport aredisplayed as boxes;
• One BBox for hierarchy - Displays the entire hierarchy as a single box; For example, you can create an animated flower from several associatedobjects, assign different materials to them. Then, the flower grows onbranches / stems at different times. A GrowFX object automatically assignsto itself a new multimaterial where all materials of source objects arecollected;
• Improved interface:
• There is an opportunity toresize all lists by moving their bottom border;
• When the user clicks theright mouse button on the Graphics, Affects, Chaos Mat ID buttons, a context menu appears where one can find more control options;
• New option on the main panelcalled Show x-points on the paths. To make work with graphicparameters more visual, this option enables the mode that displays knotpoints of a graph as x-points on lines in Viewport;
• Some minor bugs are fixed.