Most popular / used plugins for 3D Studio Max

FumeFX from Sitni Sati

FumeFX is a groundbreaking solution for incredibly realistic and breathtaking effects with fire, smoke and explosions. This unique plug-in is a powerful gaseous fluid dynamics simulator created by industry leaders at Sitni Sati for seamless integration with Autodesk Media & Entertainment’s 3ds Max.

rtre from Cubicspace
Cut your pre-viz times with powerful technology! rtre™ real time rendering allows you to instantly explore or present any 3D model; from quick interactive studies to full multimedia presentations of major structures. Better convey your design intent with richer, superior quality images that are generated in the blink of an eye.

DreamScape 2.5 from Sitni Sati
Build impressive environments to eliminate confusion! DreamScape 2.5 provides users with cutting edge tools for creating realistic landscapes, seascapes, skies, outdoor lighting and more. This incredible plug-in technology is actually a tightly integrated suite of tools that will give you total control over your virtual worlds.

Particle Flow Tools™
Particle Flow Tools™: Box 1 is a set of Particle Flow operators designed to extend PFlow’s normal capabilities. Written by the same developer who created PFlow, this set of tools shows how open 3ds Max’s built-in event-based particle system is.

AfterBurn 3.2 from Sitni Sati
AfterBurn 3.2 is the de facto standard when it comes to creating volumetric particle effects for 3ds Max and will unleash your imagination in ways you never imagined. AfterBurn”s pedigree is unquestionable: it has been production-proven in many amazing cinematic events such as Armageddon, Dracula 2000, Coronado and various IMAX films.

Texture Layers 2 from Mankua
Texture Layers 2, by Mankua, is the latest incarnation of the production-proven advanced mapping and texturing suite. With Texture Layer 2, you can create and animate all your mapping channels within a single modifier, and it includes its own sub-object face/patch selection.

Flight Studio from Bluerock Technologies
Flight Studio lets users import, edit and export OpenFlight scene graphs and databases from within 3ds Max 6 or later, all while retaining scene graph structure and attributes. This provides OpenFlight artists unparalleled access to the scene graph, enabling new capabilities not currently available in any other tool

Absolute Character Tools from Snoswell design
Absolute Character Tools 1.6 Pro (or “ACT” for short) is a sophisticated musculature system for 3ds Max that helps you add extra realism and believability to characters that you create and animate. ACT gives you several new object classes for modeling muscles and skins and also has a whole skin deformation technology that does both sub-skin deformation and in-skin deformation.

clothfx from Size8 Software
clothfx (formerly known as “Stitch”) is a production-proven cloth simulation system for 3ds Max that provides users with a multitude of advanced tools necessary to create realistic fabrics and tailor-made clothing for their characters and creatures.