Independent developer Josef “Spacefrog” Wienerroither has released updated builds of the full Thinkbox plugin suite for Autodesk 3ds Max for free. The package includes Krakatoa MX, Stoke MX, Frost MX (with V-Ray support), XMesh MX Loader, and XMesh MX Saver. These builds are compatible with 3ds Max versions from 2018 through 2026.
The updated plugins were reconstructed from source code made publicly available by AWS Thinkbox on GitHub. According to the developer, the build process required replicating Thinkbox’s Conan-based pipeline and implementing numerous compatibility fixes to ensure the plugins function with newer 3ds Max SDKs.
The Thinkbox plugin suite was originally developed by Thinkbox Software, a company known for high-performance tools used in visual effects workflows. These tools were widely adopted in production environments, particularly Krakatoa for particle rendering and XMesh for efficient geometry caching. AWS acquired Thinkbox in 2017, primarily to object Deadlone, and later released EOLed the other plugins and released the source code to enable developers to maintain and build upon them independently
For more information or to download the plugins, visit the developer’s website at frogsinspace.at and reward his hard work by donating on buymeacoffee.com
That is pretty cool. Easily widens the gaps of Max over Maya.
When it comes to simulations and fx and rendering and scene assembly there is no gap between max and maya. Max easily comes on top.
Maya has some character animation and skinning advantages and a muscle simulation plugin and for those who care renderman support. That’s about it. Everything else Max + plugins take upper hand hands down.
Big kudos to Joserf for these ports.
no, that is not the case, it only means you never used latest versions of maya or don’t know all of its capabilities
FX wise there’s no comparison. BiFrost is not stable, hardly anyone uses that. But for scene assembly Maya can be really powerful. And rendering in Maya is also really good.
This is great! Very good job! – Btw. the guy is named “Josef” without a “r” .
Fantastic news! The updated Thinkbox plugin suite for the latest 3ds Max versions is a big win for the community. Tools like Krakatoa and Frost are incredibly valuable, not just in VFX, but also in high-end 3D architectural visualization workflows where detail and realism matter. Great to see continued support—looking forward to seeing how these tools evolve further!