Forest Pack Lite

Win64, English

ITOOSOFT

Forest Pack is the ultimate environment creation toolkit for Autodesk® 3ds Max®

Version History

General Usage Instructions

Landscaping

ForestPack can be used to scatter vegetation and other assets to create nearly any type of environment, from architectural visualizations, games worlds, or expansive cinematic worlds.

Scattering

ForestPack is an advanced scattering plugin that uses powerful instancing features to help you create vast, complex environments with ease.

ForestIvy Generator (only included in the PRO version)

ForestIvy Generator is an easy-to-use tool designed to create realistic ivy and climbing plants. With real-time feedback and many presets to get you started, ForestIvy Generator makes it a breeze to add lifelike vegetation in any scene.

Asset management

ForestPack's Library Browser is a time-saving tool for managing assets in 3ds Max and comes complete with a comprehensive library of plants, trees, bushes, ground cover and more.

Scene management

ForestPack includes invaluable scene management features, including the Forest Lister for organizing and adjusting objects, and Forest Tools for converting objects to native 3ds Max instances.

Trees

ForestPack offers a high-quality tree library and seamless integration with other assets. It enables fast optimized scattering, advanced randomization, and precise control over tree placement and customization when needed.

Grass and ground cover

ForestPack provides everything you need for amazing ground cover including presets, clustering, color maps, features for natural boundary transitions, density adjustments that respond to the terrain, and much more.

Screenshots

Commands

Installation/Uninstallation

Forest Pack Lite setup program
Read the license agreement and click I agree to continue.
Select Workstation. (If you are installing RailClone on a render node, please select Render Mode)
From the next screen select the Standalone license type and click Next.
The installer will automatically detect the versions of 3ds Max installed on the system.
Next, an update manager will be launched allowing you to install additional content like libraries and Macros. Click Install.
Click Finish to complete the installation.

You can find full installation info here.

Additional Information

Forest Pack includes native geometric shaders for the most used renderers in the market, making it possible to render scenes with millions of high poly trees, meshes and proxies.

Known Issues

Contact

Company Name: ITOOSOFT

Company URL: https://www.itoosoft.com

Support Contact: helpdesk@itoosoft.com

Author/Company Information

ITOOSOFT

Support Information

Forest Pack is easy to use, and most users don’t need much help. But if you do, we're committed to providing a full and expanding set of resources to guide you. Lite users can ask questions in our community forum, watch our many tutorials, join regular livestreams, and read the full documentation. Here are a few links to get you started

Version History

Version Number	Version Description
9.2.4	ForestPack 9 Lite adds many workflow and performance improvements designed to make scattering in 3ds Max faster and more flexible. While a new ForestIvy plugin for generating climbing plants is exclusive to the Pro version, Lite users still benefit from many core updates that improve the user experience and improve scene assembly and management. Among the key changes is better support for Distribution Maps. ForestPack 9 now allows the use of multiple UV channels, which means you can apply distribution patterns without affecting surface texturing. For spline-based areas, improvements to randomization now let you treat stacked or separate sub-splines as individual areas, resulting in more natural variation across repetitive elements like balconies, furniture, or floor plans. The UI has also been reorganized to reduce scrolling and make commonly used settings more accessible. This is supported by a redesigned toolbar with clearer icons, improving navigation. On the performance side, a new point-cloud mode improves point density across scattered items and only updates the GPU when necessary, which significantly improves responsiveness in the viewport. Lite users also benefit from improvements to the Library Browser, better handling of V-Ray proxies in Edge Mode, and memory management for large animated scenes.
9.1.3	ForestPack 9, which introduces many powerful new features and handy improvements, official support for 3ds Max 2025, and the debut of the highly anticipated ForestIvy plugin (only available in the PRO version), a brand new tool available exclusively in ForestPack Pro to create procedural climbing plants in 3ds Max.
8.2.0	Version 8 cements Forest Pack’s reputation as the most robust and flexible scattering option with the addition of Forest Sets, linked areas, Effects improvements and much more, offering users completely new and efficient workflows to populate scenes. Forest Sets is a brand new helper plugin used to create a multi-purpose container for scene objects. A Forest Set object can be added to a Forest object as a collection of geometry, surfaces, references or areas. Multiple Forest Objects can share a Forest Set, making it simple to add or remove areas, geometry or surfaces and update several scatters from one easy to edit location. Even better, the contents of a layer can be dynamically linked to a Forest Set, making it easy to update scatters using familiar scene organisation tools. To further improve the options for creating interdependent scatters, Forest Pack 8 adds the ability to link to areas referenced in another Forest Pack object. Using this approach you could have a single parent Forest Object that controls all of the areas for several children. Combining Forest Sets and linked areas makes it easier than ever to create huge flexible interlinked ecosystems. Forest Pack 8 also introduces some often-requested features to Surface UV mode - making it much more powerful. In previous versions, to use surface UV mode you’d have to sacrifice the ability to use any other types of areas. In version 8, you can now use Spline, Object, and other area types in combination with UV surfaces by projecting them along one of 3 axes using the new Area->Projection Axis parameter. Edge mode is even supported when using spline areas.
7.1	Whether you're working with offline renderers or real-time engines, Forest Pack 7 remains the gold standard in scattering and scene layout for Autodesk® 3ds Max®. For this release we focused on significantly expanding Forest Pack 7’s versatility, starting with adding the ability to scatter nearly any type of object. For the first time ever, it is now possible to scatter lights using any of Forest Pack’s powerful distribution modes and randomisation tools. 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!
6.3.0	Forest Pack 6.3.0: - Added support for 3ds Max 2021 Forest Pack 6.2.0: - Added compatibility with V-Ray Next Update 1. - Improved stability with V-Ray IPR and added several improvement, including: - Added support for Viewport IPR mode. - Items now can be edited on Custom Edit mode while using V-Ray IPR. - Forest Color's randomise by Element mode now works during IPR mode even when Display mode is set to Proxy. - Fixed a crash that occurred when hiding or isolating objects during a V-Ray IPR render. - When rendering using IPR mode in Corona, Forest Pack objects no longer disappear in the viewports. - Network Licenses are now released on New File and Reset events in Max. - Improved scattering performance and memory usage with small/medium distributions. - Improved performance when loading objects with high material ID values. - "LibraryDir" and "EffectsDir" can now be defined using environment variables. Fixes; - Fixed issues with animated V-Ray proxies. - Fixed crashing bug with Animation modes in V-Ray. - Fixed critical bug in multithreaded scattering process. - Fixed the alignment of the first item on closed splines when using Distribution by Path mode. - Fixed Distribution by Path using spacing zero generates the maximum number of items defined on Display limits. - Fixed an issue where animated Effects parameters were not updating correctly. - Fixed an error that occurred when configuration is defined by environment variables, but the HKCU registry branch doesn't exist. - Fixed performance issue loading objects with high material ID values. - Fixed a crash that occurred when adding items in Custom Edit when Geometry List is empty. - Fixed a bug computing the hierarchy of Elements in Custom Objects (used for Forest Color/Edge Mode). To see a full description and videos of the new features see the Forest Pack 6 “What’s New?” page
6.2.0	Forest Pack 6.2.0: - Added support for 3ds Max 2020 - Added compatibility with V-Ray Next Update 1. - Improved stability with V-Ray IPR and added several improvement, including: - Added support for Viewport IPR mode. - Items now can be edited on Custom Edit mode while using V-Ray IPR. - Forest Color's randomise by Element mode now works during IPR mode even when Display mode is set to Proxy. - Fixed a crash that occurred when hiding or isolating objects during a V-Ray IPR render. - When rendering using IPR mode in Corona, Forest Pack objects no longer disappear in the viewports. - Network Licenses are now released on New File and Reset events in Max. - Improved scattering performance and memory usage with small/medium distributions. - Improved performance when loading objects with high material ID values. - "LibraryDir" and "EffectsDir" can now be defined using environment variables. Fixes; - Fixed issues with animated V-Ray proxies. - Fixed crashing bug with Animation modes in V-Ray. - Fixed critical bug in multithreaded scattering process. - Fixed the alignment of the first item on closed splines when using Distribution by Path mode. - Fixed Distribution by Path using spacing zero generates the maximum number of items defined on Display limits. - Fixed an issue where animated Effects parameters were not updating correctly. - Fixed an error that occurred when configuration is defined by environment variables, but the HKCU registry branch doesn't exist. - Fixed performance issue loading objects with high material ID values. - Fixed a crash that occurred when adding items in Custom Edit when Geometry List is empty. - Fixed a bug computing the hierarchy of Elements in Custom Objects (used for Forest Color/Edge Mode). To see a full description and videos of the new features see the Forest Pack 6 “What’s New?” page
6.1.1	Forest Pack 6.1.1: - Improved compatibility: Now supports 3ds Max 2019, V-Ray Next and Arnold - New Libraries and Presets: New trees, grass and green walls - Configurable UI: show/hide rollouts, collapse groups, resize lists and disable pop-ups - Simplified selection: quad menu option to select all objects used by a Forest Pack object - Interactive Spline Distribution: distribute items along splines parametrically - Link items to reference objects: live link items to reference objects - Scatter using Particles: scatter items on PFlow objects - Overhauled Effects: support for multiple effects, maps and curves - Update Manager: download, manage and update libraries, presets and effects at any time - Enhanced Performance: improved scattering performance by up to 150% improved stability when using V-Ray in IPR mode To see a full description and videos of the new features see the Forest Pack 6 “What’s New?” page
5.4.0	- Added support for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2018 and V-Ray 3.6. - Optimized render performance in V-Ray for opaque materials. * This optimization is not applied when using Areas->Edge mode. - Fixed crash with Corona Interactive Render and Edge mode. - Fixed animation bug with moving FP objects in Custom Edit mode (V-Ray). - Fixed: some libraries and files were not removed from uninstalling. - Windows XP is no longer supported. Note: Mental Ray for Max 2018 is not supported in this build.