Here is a little preview of a tool I have been working on the last months in my free time in collaboration with Laurens Corijn.
Just in short : Xoliulshader 2 is a realtime shader for artist to preview there art in 3ds max viewport. This version is focused on usability for artist and extra features.
More information and installer coming soon.
The tool will be free and open source.
Nice! I saw a post on polycount that said you two were working on this a few weeks back. It looks pretty awesome! Keep up the good work. 
Lots of great stuff in here! Seems like this is a new sort of tool – too complex for game use, to simple for movies, but GREAT for modeling concept art, for making illustrations, and more – a little like high-end CAD visualization without requiring a corporate sponsor. A different use case that is very very useful, keep cranking!
Thanks, I really appreciate your kind words. 
I am planning to make the final release version this weekend. I will keep you all updated.
Here is already some more information and an extra video tutorial.
http://www.polycount.com/2011/08/15/xoliul-shader-2-the-second-coming/
Excellent! The original Xoliul has become a standard feature of my workflow now, looking forward to trying out this new one.
It’s Out!
[LEFT]Everything should be pretty clear, as we put a lot of effort into streamlining the release. So go ahead, download and try it out!
However, we do ask the following:
[ul]
[li]Watch the Videos. At the very least the UI 101 video.
[/li] [li]Read The FAQ
[/li] [li]Read The Help
[/li] [/ul]
If, after this, you’re still absolutely sure you can not find an answer to your question or solution for your problem, go ahead and ask us.
Oh and, do show us your awesome stuff created with the shader, we’d love to add it to the gallery or as a header image even!
Oh and if you’d like to follow:
RJ on twitter
RJ on G+
Laurens on G+
[/LEFT]