This fork of the original GhostTrails repo uses a modified visualstudio project structure and includes the following changes
- compatibility fixes for 3ds Max 2025+ SDKs
- usage of Visual Studio propertysheets
- detection of 3ds Max Sdk locations by referencing the environment variables created during 3ds Max Sdk install ( eg. ADSK_3DSMAX_SDK_2025 )
- usage of 3ds Max Sdk MAX_RELEASE_xx #define macros for conditional build parameters
Those changes should make future adaptions to new Max Sdk releases easier ( essentially adding the new build target configuration should be enough )
Original text:
This repository contains the source code for the venerable GhostTrails 3dsmax plugin that can be found on https://www.ghosttrails.net.
The GhostTrails plugin was a closed-source, paid piece of software from ~2000 up until Feb 2024, at which point it became free and Open Source.
- You will need to have, and be at least a little familar with the 3dsmax SDK and Microsoft Visual C++.
- In particular, you will need to install the correct version of Microsoft Visual C++ for the version of 3dsmax you're targeting (eg 3dsmax 2024 required VC++ 19).
- Open the "GhostTrails_max2013" project in MSVC++.
- Update the header and library paths to the 3dsmax SDK.
- Build the release configuration.
- If it builds, great! You'll get a .dlm file that you can copy to 3dsmax's plugin directory.
- If there are build errors it means that Autodesk have made non-backwards-compatible changes to their SDK. The "What's new" section of the SDK docs usually explains what needs to change.