I've found that XSI doesn't really like imported files (especially COLLADA), and tend to crash a lot while calculating it. Opening one of its projects works as expected and it doesn't really seems to be bothered by the ~6.5 million triangles object.
Anyway, it's not The Order: 1886, but considering how small it is (even if it's not meant to be used in a real time environment), you can expect to exceed very easily the 100K polygons limitations of Maya LT.
You can have over 100k objects INSIDE Maya LT. You just can't export them all as one file via FBX or any other file format. HOWEVER using the direct to engine plugins your export is unlimited.
One has to ask the question why are you trying to export an entire level using ONE file? Even engines that have a fully integrated pipeline from maya proper like the RAD engine, Suckerpunch Engine, Guerrilla engine etc handle those meshes - like in your scene for example - as individual files.
Radiant : the way I personally see it is that it is not so much about specific workflows needing or not needing that kind of export budget, but more about the original, outside the box workflows and uses that we *cannot* predict and might require it. Baking a subdivided model created inside of LT in Xnormal is one of them, but there could be many others scenarios too. Who knows !
Probably it's a little bit of an exaggeration to pretend to be able to export your whole scene in one go, but I'm sure there are situations where you'll end up with something that can't be separated into different structures, like you can do with a level with its various props.
I wouldn't mind knowing how many acually use these intergrated HP modelling tools like say in modo (and now maya) etc..
Sure, they work. Can sometimes save you abit of hassle, but for the most part youre gonna be doing the main bulk in zbrush as its simply far better. I can understand cost factor in, but with its low pricepoint and pixologics absolutly ridiculous (awesome) upgrade policy, buying zbrush is just a nobrainer.
And how are we suppose to bake these models in maya? Its own baker is unbelievable slow and doesnt support cages. Turtle support cages but its broken and havent been fixed so far. Really only leaves you with xnormal which you cant export to due to export restrictions.
Copy/Paste seems to be broken on Mac. Gets this error:
Error: file: /Applications/Autodesk/mayaLT2016/Maya.app/Contents/scripts/startup/cutCopyPaste.mel line 49: The "system" command is not supported by Maya LT. //
About the 100K limit. The one thing I find myself doing is exporting huge high poly files (over 100k) for baking with xNormal and Faogen.
I don't understand why it exists. I'm sure there is some financial/marketing reason but it makes it almost unusable.
I guess a workaround would be to export the mid poly model with edge supports into like blender and then export the subdivided high poly for baking but that seems a bit roundabout and annoying.
About the 100K limit. The one thing I find myself doing is exporting huge high poly files (over 100k) for baking with xNormal and Faogen.
I don't understand why it exists. I'm sure there is some financial/marketing reason but it makes it almost unusable.
I guess a workaround would be to export the mid poly model with edge supports into like blender and then export the subdivided high poly for baking but that seems a bit roundabout and annoying.
Is it worth repeating that the send to unreal function just spits out an un-capped FBX file?
The 'Send To Unreal' feature works the same as the Unity one, its unlimited. Same for Send To Mudbox as well.
Taken from the Maya LT 2016 docs....
When exporting FBX and OBJ files, you can export a maximum of 100,000 polygons per file.
However, with the Unreal game engine and Maya LT on the same system, you can export scenes directly to your Unreal project with no polygon count restriction.
Since there are some autodesk reps in here, maybe you guys can answer a UV mapping question for me. When I'm in Maya LT I really miss Andy Swann's awesome Roadkill Pro. At my request he added a kickass quad-mapper that he called Roadkill straighten, and it would instantly unwrap all-quad poly selections into perfectly straight UV islands that were proportionally correct. It was a thing of beauty. It could perfectly unwrap a helix or torus with a single button press. For almost everything, using Roadkill Pro meant I pretty much never had to manually correct UVs. Quad-mapping a torus shape in Maya LT is a real challenge. Can one of you autodesk guys post a quick video of how you would quickly unwrap a torus or helix shape in LT? Like in less than 10 steps?
Since there are some autodesk reps in here, maybe you guys can answer a UV mapping question for me. When I'm in Maya LT I really miss Andy Swann's awesome Roadkill Pro. At my request he added a kickass quad-mapper that he called Roadkill straighten, and it would instantly unwrap all-quad poly selections into perfectly straight UV islands that were proportionally correct. It was a thing of beauty. It could perfectly unwrap a helix or torus with a single button press. For almost everything, using Roadkill Pro meant I pretty much never had to manually correct UVs. Quad-mapping a torus shape in Maya LT is a real challenge. Can one of you autodesk guys post a quick video of how you would quickly unwrap a torus or helix shape in LT? Like in less than 10 steps?
Hey, it's Jason Miller from the Modo forum.
The most straightforward way I can think of is:
select all the faces
go to UV>Unitize. This makes every single face fit in the 0,1 UV space.
then select the border edges you want, invert that selection, Select>Invert
Finally do a move and sew operation, now you have perfectly straight quads all connected how you wish.
You'll just have to scale some bits to make them less warped and fit in the UV space. I don't know of a better procedure.
I know it's probably not the right place to ask for this, but is there any plans for 3DSMax LT in the future?
It was asked elsewhere on Polycount and I figured out, since some Autodesk guys are here you might be able to answer
This comes up alot, and I can't really give you a definitive answer or comment on possible future developments, but things are always being reviewed.
I know that's dodging the issue, but it's all I can really comment on.
Maya was chosen as the platform for the product because it has Windows and Mac support and this provides the best flexibility for users.
Is Maya 2016 going to be subscription based only? It says that Autodesk is going full subscription based in (year?) 2016. But wouldn't that mean the full subscription based is going to take effect for Maya 2017 (released in year 2016) and not Maya 2016 (released in year 2015)?
Is Maya 2016 going to be subscription based only? It says that Autodesk is going full subscription based in (year?) 2016. But wouldn't that mean the full subscription based is going to take effect for Maya 2017 (released in year 2016) and not Maya 2016 (released in year 2015)?
You will still be able to buy perpetual licenses until Jan 31st, 2016. After then new seats of individual desktop software products (except design and creation suites) will generally be available as desktop subscription only.
So if you want a perpetual license of a latest version of Maya and/or Max, you have until Jan 31st 2016 to buy one.
Since there are some autodesk reps in here, maybe you guys can answer a UV mapping question for me. When I'm in Maya LT I really miss Andy Swann's awesome Roadkill Pro. At my request he added a kickass quad-mapper that he called Roadkill straighten, and it would instantly unwrap all-quad poly selections into perfectly straight UV islands that were proportionally correct. It was a thing of beauty. It could perfectly unwrap a helix or torus with a single button press. For almost everything, using Roadkill Pro meant I pretty much never had to manually correct UVs. Quad-mapping a torus shape in Maya LT is a real challenge. Can one of you autodesk guys post a quick video of how you would quickly unwrap a torus or helix shape in LT? Like in less than 10 steps?
Since RoadKill is originally a code borrowing from Blender you could do/use the same things in Blender directly . What you asking for is called "follow active quad" there.
Since RoadKill is originally a code borrowing from Blender you could do/use the same things in Blender directly . What you asking for is called "follow active quad" there.
Well then I might as well just use Blender, right?
Why not, if it does exactly what you want it to do and doesn't cost you any money and the pipeline for UV layouts is plenty robust? There's still lots of room for improvement in the Blender UV editor but it's really quite competent.
Why not, if it does exactly what you want it to do and doesn't cost you any money and the pipeline for UV layouts is plenty robust? There's still lots of room for improvement in the Blender UV editor but it's really quite competent.
Jed, I've used blender quite a bit, so I am not a potential convert, as I am already a fan of blender foundation... so, sorry to let you down.
But every Maya LT thread is doomed to turn into a Maya LT vs blender thread, so it's all good.
As an ex Maya user who now uses Modo and blender, I have say that it's obvious that a lot of work has gone into Maya 2016. It has been cleaned up, and tightened up a lot. I'm actually considering going back to full Maya based on my brief experience with LT 2016. The main reason for that, is that using exotic tools has mostly been more trouble than it's worth when most game studios are built around Maya. Even when studios are flexible enough to allow you to use other tools, in production, and especially during crunch, it is rarely worth the trouble to round-trip an asset out of Maya just for slightly better modeling tools. So for that reason, I am glad that Maya is finally looking good again. Because I've invested lots of time and money in other programs that just haven't been worth it for me personally. But everyone is different, so I am not giving advice to anyone else here. Use what works for you.
Those are perfectly good reasons and I'm happy that you have good reasons for working the way you do. I'm sad that I don't to get to do any serious Blender evangelism, though.
upgraded to 2016, and so far I have to say I'm appreciating the updates. I haven't used it too much yet so I will have to save full reactions for later, however one thing that's just killing me is there's a bug where hotkeys will just refuse to work until I zoom the camera in. I'm using a tablet pen for modeling so I'm not sure if that's related somehow. It was never a problem on Maya 2012 but on 2015 /LT15/LT16 it's a pretty annoying issue.
hotkeys work> model a little, do zooming & camera work > try hotkey, nothing happens> zoom in or out a smidge > hotkeys work again > repeat > shoot me
Jed, I've used blender quite a bit, so I am not a potential convert, as I am already a fan of blender foundation... so, sorry to let you down.
But every Maya LT thread is doomed to turn into a Maya LT vs blender thread, so it's all good.
As an ex Maya user who now uses Modo and blender, I have say that it's obvious that a lot of work has gone into Maya 2016. It has been cleaned up, and tightened up a lot. I'm actually considering going back to full Maya based on my brief experience with LT 2016. The main reason for that, is that using exotic tools has mostly been more trouble than it's worth when most game studios are built around Maya. Even when studios are flexible enough to allow you to use other tools, in production, and especially during crunch, it is rarely worth the trouble to round-trip an asset out of Maya just for slightly better modeling tools. So for that reason, I am glad that Maya is finally looking good again. Because I've invested lots of time and money in other programs that just haven't been worth it for me personally. But everyone is different, so I am not giving advice to anyone else here. Use what works for you.
I meant mostly export in Blender , unwrap and go back.
Last time I tried Road kill it had a taste of somehow outdated Blender version.
BTW 3d coat can do so too. (straight quads unwrap) Not free but imo a best texture painting soft currently.
Have a suspicion they also borrowed something from Blender. Not much similar but stiil very capable. Does many things pretty clever by default so often true one click solution.
I am doing all the unwrap there rather than in Blender now.
Maya has a huge edge over Blender with its Turtle texture baker. Never understood why Blender can't do anti-aliazing while baking
For some reason i have nothing but bad experiences with blender exporting to maya or mudbox.
It seems to be connected to using the mirror modifier and maybe editing UV's? But I get tons of glitches crashes whenever I use a blender exported model in mudbox.
I meant mostly export in Blender , unwrap and go back.
Last time I tried Road kill it had a taste of somehow outdated Blender version.
BTW 3d coat can do so too. (straight quads unwrap) Not free but imo a best texture painting soft currently.
Have a suspicion they also borrowed something from Blender. Not much similar but stiil very capable. Does many things pretty clever by default so often true one click solution.
I am doing all the unwrap there rather than in Blender now.
Maya has a huge edge over Blender with its Turtle texture baker. Never understood why Blender can't do anti-aliazing while baking
I'm a big fan of 3D-coat, and I didn't even know there is a straight quads unwrap feature in there. I'll check it out. But 3D-coat has it's own UV mapping limitations.
I'm a big fan of 3D-coat, and I didn't even know there is a straight quads unwrap feature in there. I'll check it out. But 3D-coat has it's own UV mapping limitations.
Well, it's not one click there but almost: in edge mode select a single edge > edge loop> edge ring>vertical or horizontal. I have 3 neighboring keys appointed so it's like 1,2,3
[...]
As an ex Maya user who now uses Modo and blender[...] I'm actually considering going back to full Maya based on my brief experience with LT 2016.[...]
As a recent MODO converter myself, what are you using Blender for? Where is MODO lacking, in your experience?
upgraded to 2016, and so far I have to say I'm appreciating the updates. I haven't used it too much yet so I will have to save full reactions for later, however one thing that's just killing me is there's a bug where hotkeys will just refuse to work until I zoom the camera in. I'm using a tablet pen for modeling so I'm not sure if that's related somehow. It was never a problem on Maya 2012 but on 2015 /LT15/LT16 it's a pretty annoying issue.
hotkeys work> model a little, do zooming & camera work > try hotkey, nothing happens> zoom in or out a smidge > hotkeys work again > repeat > shoot me
hmm...does rotating/panning also restore hotkeys? is the viewport somehow just losing focus?
Anyone know if this version is good with Cryengine's maya export tools??
Usually the export tools need to be recompiled for each version of Maya iirc. They'll get a release for Maya 2016 once it's out (but it might be a couple of months before they're released.)
Anyone get issues where the Target Weld tool refuses to work on a simple mesh?
Hotkeys not working, 'f' is the main issue here, Im suddenly unable to focus on my mesh at all.
Are there any ways to properly bake vertex color AO? this is critical to my pipeline but currently i cannot get anything to bake.
I'll check with our modelling team on the target weld issue.
Is it random with the hotkeys? Does a session restart fix the issue or do you need to delete prefs? New prefs on install or carried over from old version?
Have you tried setting Turtle to bake to vertices and baking the AO into the vertices that way?
Hi, thanks for the reply.
So the weld issue seems to be only happening on objects that I have recently beveled, Although I have not tested much with that issue.
Deleting the prefs worked, Not sure how they got messed up in the first place as this was a fresh install of Maya lt
Even when set to bake and bake to vertex, turtle still spits out a render window of baked vertex colors, but never actually applies it to the mesh.
Are any freelancers successfully using Maya LT? I'm paying over $250/month CDN for a Max Sub, but all I'm using Max for is modeling/UVing. I would have to learn Maya tools, but my biggest hesitation is the poly limit. My workflow usually consists of hardsurface in Max, Organic/detailing in Zbrush and I use Max to setup cages for xNormal baking. Could I effectively sub in Maya LT for max?
Replies
Anyway, it's not The Order: 1886, but considering how small it is (even if it's not meant to be used in a real time environment), you can expect to exceed very easily the 100K polygons limitations of Maya LT.
One has to ask the question why are you trying to export an entire level using ONE file? Even engines that have a fully integrated pipeline from maya proper like the RAD engine, Suckerpunch Engine, Guerrilla engine etc handle those meshes - like in your scene for example - as individual files.
Sure, they work. Can sometimes save you abit of hassle, but for the most part youre gonna be doing the main bulk in zbrush as its simply far better. I can understand cost factor in, but with its low pricepoint and pixologics absolutly ridiculous (awesome) upgrade policy, buying zbrush is just a nobrainer.
And how are we suppose to bake these models in maya? Its own baker is unbelievable slow and doesnt support cages. Turtle support cages but its broken and havent been fixed so far. Really only leaves you with xnormal which you cant export to due to export restrictions.
Well, atleast it will finally get a move brush...
https://youtu.be/CxZHbO1_Fiw
lol
EDIT: Ok first issue in modeling tools the multi-cut tool doesn't seem to work with symmetry any more?
Multicut occurs on both sides for you or just one side?
Maybe this has something to do with me importing settings.
Error: file: /Applications/Autodesk/mayaLT2016/Maya.app/Contents/scripts/startup/cutCopyPaste.mel line 49: The "system" command is not supported by Maya LT. //
I don't understand why it exists. I'm sure there is some financial/marketing reason but it makes it almost unusable.
I guess a workaround would be to export the mid poly model with edge supports into like blender and then export the subdivided high poly for baking but that seems a bit roundabout and annoying.
I saw you mentioned that but not the file part. That's interesting.
Taken from the Maya LT 2016 docs....
When exporting FBX and OBJ files, you can export a maximum of 100,000 polygons per file.
However, with the Unreal game engine and Maya LT on the same system, you can export scenes directly to your Unreal project with no polygon count restriction.
It seems you need to set the model to "topographic" symmetry instead of world or object symmetry.
Also i don't know if maya lt 2015 had dof but it looks really nice in this.
http://www.autodesk.com/education/free-software/all
Personally I don't see why that would even change.
It was asked elsewhere on Polycount and I figured out, since some Autodesk guys are here you might be able to answer
Hey, it's Jason Miller from the Modo forum.
The most straightforward way I can think of is:
select all the faces
go to UV>Unitize. This makes every single face fit in the 0,1 UV space.
then select the border edges you want, invert that selection, Select>Invert
Finally do a move and sew operation, now you have perfectly straight quads all connected how you wish.
You'll just have to scale some bits to make them less warped and fit in the UV space. I don't know of a better procedure.
Yeah, good ol' Unitize. The easiest way I can think of is to use the real Maya with popular scripts/plugins, or MODO.
This comes up alot, and I can't really give you a definitive answer or comment on possible future developments, but things are always being reviewed.
I know that's dodging the issue, but it's all I can really comment on.
Maya was chosen as the platform for the product because it has Windows and Mac support and this provides the best flexibility for users.
You will still be able to buy perpetual licenses until Jan 31st, 2016. After then new seats of individual desktop software products (except design and creation suites) will generally be available as desktop subscription only.
So if you want a perpetual license of a latest version of Maya and/or Max, you have until Jan 31st 2016 to buy one.
Since RoadKill is originally a code borrowing from Blender you could do/use the same things in Blender directly . What you asking for is called "follow active quad" there.
Jed, I've used blender quite a bit, so I am not a potential convert, as I am already a fan of blender foundation... so, sorry to let you down.
But every Maya LT thread is doomed to turn into a Maya LT vs blender thread, so it's all good.
As an ex Maya user who now uses Modo and blender, I have say that it's obvious that a lot of work has gone into Maya 2016. It has been cleaned up, and tightened up a lot. I'm actually considering going back to full Maya based on my brief experience with LT 2016. The main reason for that, is that using exotic tools has mostly been more trouble than it's worth when most game studios are built around Maya. Even when studios are flexible enough to allow you to use other tools, in production, and especially during crunch, it is rarely worth the trouble to round-trip an asset out of Maya just for slightly better modeling tools. So for that reason, I am glad that Maya is finally looking good again. Because I've invested lots of time and money in other programs that just haven't been worth it for me personally. But everyone is different, so I am not giving advice to anyone else here. Use what works for you.
hotkeys work> model a little, do zooming & camera work > try hotkey, nothing happens> zoom in or out a smidge > hotkeys work again > repeat > shoot me
I meant mostly export in Blender , unwrap and go back.
Last time I tried Road kill it had a taste of somehow outdated Blender version.
BTW 3d coat can do so too. (straight quads unwrap) Not free but imo a best texture painting soft currently.
Have a suspicion they also borrowed something from Blender. Not much similar but stiil very capable. Does many things pretty clever by default so often true one click solution.
I am doing all the unwrap there rather than in Blender now.
Maya has a huge edge over Blender with its Turtle texture baker. Never understood why Blender can't do anti-aliazing while baking
It seems to be connected to using the mirror modifier and maybe editing UV's? But I get tons of glitches crashes whenever I use a blender exported model in mudbox.
I'm a big fan of 3D-coat, and I didn't even know there is a straight quads unwrap feature in there. I'll check it out. But 3D-coat has it's own UV mapping limitations.
Ya same here.
WHERE IS IT!?!?
Well, it's not one click there but almost: in edge mode select a single edge > edge loop> edge ring>vertical or horizontal. I have 3 neighboring keys appointed so it's like 1,2,3
As a recent MODO converter myself, what are you using Blender for? Where is MODO lacking, in your experience?
hmm...does rotating/panning also restore hotkeys? is the viewport somehow just losing focus?
Usually the export tools need to be recompiled for each version of Maya iirc. They'll get a release for Maya 2016 once it's out (but it might be a couple of months before they're released.)
Anyone get issues where the Target Weld tool refuses to work on a simple mesh?
Hotkeys not working, 'f' is the main issue here, Im suddenly unable to focus on my mesh at all.
Are there any ways to properly bake vertex color AO? this is critical to my pipeline but currently i cannot get anything to bake.
Hi, thanks for the reply.
So the weld issue seems to be only happening on objects that I have recently beveled, Although I have not tested much with that issue.
Deleting the prefs worked, Not sure how they got messed up in the first place as this was a fresh install of Maya lt
Even when set to bake and bake to vertex, turtle still spits out a render window of baked vertex colors, but never actually applies it to the mesh.