"My question to you, though, regarding exporting the whole scene--as I have not tried this at all yet--is this: does the vegetation come over as well as the atmosphere and if so, does it retain the animation of like the wind blowing?"

MMm never tried - but as I know from exporting obj from Poser; light will not follow.  And I just did a test in Vue - it seams as you cant export a whole scene in other fileformat then vue file.

I know you can export terrain in obj file and also plats when you are in the plant editor.  In in that export tab there is something about animation...but honestly I have used animation once, for just testing wind.

Have you asked in 3dmax forum? Oh and give CP3 a try ; http://www.cornucopia3d.com