For those who don’t know the tool: Thinkbox MX is a legacy 3ds Max plugin set from AWS Thinkbox, covering Krakatoa, Frost, XMesh and Stoke for particles, meshing, caching and simulation in Max-based VFX pipelines.
2027 builds, with one caveat
Josef “spacefrog” Wienerroither has posted new 3ds Max community builds for Krakatoa MX, Frost MX, XMesh MX Loader and XMesh MX Saver. The builds list support from 3ds Max 2018 to 2027 and now use installer packages. The version numbers are Krakatoa MX 2.20.0_DC20260607, Frost MX 2.6.0_DC20260607, XMesh MX Loader 1.9.5_DC20260607 and XMesh MX Saver 1.9.5_DC20260607. Frost also lists support for V-Ray geometry instancing.
Stoke MX is the exception. The current Stoke MX community build remains at version 2.8.0_DC20250407 and lists support from 3ds Max 2018 to 2026. The 2027 build was postponed after a last-minute bug. Useful drama, at least, has excellent version numbers.
Source code, binaries and caveats
The AWS Thinkbox plugins for Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max were released under the Apache 2.0 open source license in 2022. The 3ds Max repositories cover Krakatoa MX, XMesh MX, Frost MX and Stoke MX. The community builds use that published source code. The rebuild required a local recreation of the Conan-based build pipeline and compatibility fixes for newer 3ds Max SDKs.
The official GitHub repositories for Krakatoa MX, Frost MX, XMesh MX and Stoke MX list source code, Apache-2.0 licensing and no published binary releases. That makes these installers rather more practical than asking artists to compile old C++ and MAXScript before breakfast.
Krakatoa MX
Krakatoa MX is the particle and volumetric renderer in the set. It processes large particle counts for effects such as dust, smoke and ocean foam, with support for multiple per-particle data channels and light-scattering controls for look development inside 3ds Max.
Frost MX
Frost MX turns particles and points into renderable meshes. It can build a single mesh from multiple sources using isosurface and geometry-cloning methods, and the current community build adds V-Ray geometry instancing support for 3ds Max workflows.
XMesh MX
XMesh MX handles animated geometry caching. It is designed for large or slow animated mesh assets, stores consistent channel data across frames and reduces duplicate data over time. In the 3ds Max community builds, it is split into separate Saver and Loader plugins.
Stoke MX
Stoke MX is the simulation and field tool in the suite. It creates high-volume particle clouds, supports sources such as PRT, RealFlow BIN, FumeFX, Particle Flow, thinkingParticles and Force Space Warps, and connects with Krakatoa components including PRT objects, Magma and the Particle Data Viewer.
The downloads are free under the Free Download Terms and Consent, with an optional donation link. The same terms state that the content is provided as is, without guarantees or warranties.
Install with caution
The build page tells users to remove previous versions before installing the new packages. It also warns that the builds are not heavily tested and that fixes may be released silently, so checking version strings is part of the maintenance chore. Test these plugins on duplicate scenes, cached data and render nodes before using them in production. Old plugin chains can be useful.
https://www.frogsinspace.at/?p=3926
https://www.frogsinspace.at/?page_id=3870
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/media/aws-thinkbox-open-sources-krakatoa-my-and-xmesh-my/
