it would be cool if i could make it so they can plug-in their fractal work into my program. is there something like this already for 3dsmax? if so can i make my program compatible with those same fractal plug-ins that people write for 3dsmax?

of course 3dsmax has procedural textures. There is even a specific camoflage procedural texture.
The problem will be to have a program that runs them.
although 3dsmax has its own SDK, i don't expect it to be very simple to use those plugins...but then again, i don't know much about programming either.

The company that made the most freeware procedurals is called "Blur" and their stuff can be found at http://www.blur.com/blurbeta/.
I hope they still include their source code...