Pulldownit 4.5 for 3ds Max released

Thinkinetic has released Pulldownit 4.5 for 3DS Max, the latest version of its shatter and destruction plugin. New features include: 

• An improved Alembic exporter that claims to have several advantages over 3ds Max’s built-in version including: The ability to combine all selected objects as a single cached Alembic mesh, an option to exclude non-animated objects in selection from being exported, an option to skip Jaggy-faces from being exported to get a lighter cache file, and option to auto load the cache file with original materials applied, an option to hide/delete original objects and the ability to replace cache files with original keyframed nodes if needed.
• Hi-poly animated meshes are up to 2x times faster to update in dynamics. Moreover, animated or deforming meshes are now updated faster during simulation when including them as kinematic objects in destruction scenes.
• A new “Increase Selection” option for easier clusters creation.
• An “Only Breaks” fracture option to capture larger cracks and detachments, this feature forces the model to stand while being impacted, its behaviour has been improved so now it can generate larger cracks and detachments that don’t jeopardize the overall structure. The effect is more noticeable when using it in conjunction with Clusterize level.
• The ability to change propagation schemes per frame. Users can now damage an object only locally for a period of time before changing to continuous propagation at a selected frame to create larger cracks.
• The ability to recompute rigid bodies with baked keys in dynamics.
• The Manage PDI World Window is now modeless, allowing the user to interact in the viewport while this window is open.
• A new option to show/hide/select all disabled rigid bodies in scene.

Pulldownit costs €395. Find out more on the Thinkinetic blog and watch a tutorial featuring several of the new features by Esteban Cuesta on YouTube.