Guillermo Leal is working on a new Ivy Generator plugin for 3DS Max.
The tool will let Max users replace the original Ivy Grow plugin by Guruware. The new plugin is said to be a port of Thomas Luft’s open-source Ivy Generator tool.
"I started to modify the algorithm where I could and try to add a few optimizations to speed it up but it still was too slow. I knew then I had to make it a plugin if I wanted to get the same speed as the original software but while I knew c++ I have never written a max plugin before so I decided that this was a good opportunity to learn how to write one," wrote the developer.
It is being developed as a GUP plug-in (some of the parts are written in C++ and used through Maxscript). The prototype you see in the video is using C++ to grow the ivy and the branches and leaves are generated using Maxscript.
You can learn more here.