Max To Arnold plugin updated to support version 5.1

Solid Angle has released the updated MaxToA plugin with support for the Arnold 5.1 core. In case you missed them, the new features of Arnold 5.1 include:

• A non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) solution is provided as the combination of the contour filter and toon shader. 
• Arnold now has the capability of adapting the sampling rate of each pixel when the enable_adaptive_sampling option is enabled, allowing it to dedicate a greater number of camera samples (and thus also a greater amount of render time) to the pixels that show a greater variation in their sample values. 
• A stand-alone, post-process denoiser executable called noice.exe is now bundled with Arnold. It takes into account multiple frames and multiple light AOVs.
• Nvidia OptiX AI denoiser is now available. 
• A procedural node called alembic which is capable of reading Alembic .abc files has been added.
• A new node type called operators that perform per-object (node) parameter assignments and overrides, including late-bindings and deferred overrides on procedurally generated nodes. Operators can also create nodes and carry out general scene inspection and modifications. 
• The performance of certain types of texture lookups, including opacity masks, skydome_lights, and certain kinds of specular and diffuse rays has been optimized.
• Shader matte has gained an opacity parameter, so it can honor transparency the same way the built-in matte object parameter does.
• The shader shadow_matte has a new aov_group parameter that when enabled makes the shader sensitive only to lights with a matching aov setting.
• The ambient_occlusion shader now supports the trace_set parameter to specify which objects are included or excluded.
• The standard_hair shader now supports the extra_samples parameter to use additional GI samples on a per-shader basis.
• The standard_surface and standard_hair shaders now support ID AOVs. These are useful for creating mattes.
• A new face_mode option that enables color to be randomized per quadrangle as well as triangle.
• An aov_write_rgba shader has been added which complements the existing rgb, float and int variations of this shader.
• The newly added layer_float and layer_shader shaders can be used to mix float values and closures respectively. layer_rgba allows to composite textures.
• Trace_set shader is now exposed.

Though it’s not documented in the release notes, version 5.1 of Arnold also enables the use of Forest Pack’s edge mode and Forest Colour map. To use these features in Arnold you will need to use the current beta of Forest Pack 6 (the stable release is expected in the next few weeks) and enable Legacy 3ds Max Map support.  Find out more about Arnold 5.1 and download the plugin from Solid Angle’s website.