Maya Station

Exporting Hair Geometry

If you are writing an exporter plug-in and want to add support for exporting hair geometry data (much like the mayatomr functionality). At first glance there does not seem to be any API functionality for hair other than collision solving via MHairSystem, which does not give access to the hair data. To access the hair geometry scalar data (per-hair and per-vertex data) use MFnPfxGeometry::getLineData() and then use MRenderLineArray and MRenderLine to get at the per-vertex data. For other data, you’ll have to access the attrs on hairSystem or pfxHair node directly.

To elaborate the actual hair geometry is represented in the pfxHair node (which is connected to the hairSystem node when paint effects output is used). This derives from the base class pfxGeometry which is also used for stroke and pfxToon nodes.  To get the hair geometry one can use the call  MFnPfxGeomtry::getLineData for the pfxHair node. (Note that if one used curve output instead of pfx output on the hair system, then one could simply access the set of output nurbs curves on the hair system, but as this is rather obvious I’m assuming they want the pfxHair data)

One thing worth noting is that your exporter would also potentially work (to some degree) for paint effects strokes and Maya toon lines, in addition to hair, because they all share the same base class.

~Kristine

Autodesk Maya 2012 Service Pack 2 & Subscription Advantage Pack Service Pack 1

Please be aware that Service Pack 2 for Autodesk® Maya® 2012 is now available to all Maya 2012 customers. The Service Pack 2 for Autodesk Maya 2012 addresses certain stability and performance issues identified by Maya 2012 customers. Click here to learn more about, and download the Service Pack 2 for Autodesk Maya 2012.  We also released Service Pack 1 for Autodesk® Maya® 2012 Subscription Advantage Pack customers and this is available to all subscription customers with valid Maya 2012 Subscription Advantage Pack entitlement. Please visit the Subscription Center to learn more about, and download the Service Pack 1 for Autodesk Maya 2012 Subscription Advantage Pack.

The two packages contain the same fixes and the only difference is that the Adantage Pack contains the extra features which where made available back in September 2011.

Much work went into release in an effort get better performance from the application.  Here is a list of all the fixes.

MAYA‐100 Add editable location field in the File Browser
MAYA‐101 Maya doesn't always switch between single/multi pane views
MAYA‐188/7273 Merge vertices pops users out of translate mode
MAYA‐206/7797 Graph Editor updating while hidden
MAYA‐548 Dope Sheet Editor memory usage
MAYA‐874 Split Polygon Tool and Interactive Split Tool for grouped polygon object issues
MAYA‐1287 Inconsistent hotbox ‐displayCenterOnly behavior
MAYA‐1618/8988 Hotbox menus appear in inconsistent positions with multi‐monitor setups
MAYA‐1633 mental ray: light map baking issue with normal maps
MAYA‐1673 GUI/QT/Attribute Editor slowing down workflow
MAYA‐1799 Import window creates namespace except when file is dropped into viewport
MAYA‐1801/7660 Channel Box mirroring Attribute Editor width
MAYA‐1944 Outliner scroll bar is the wrong color and is very hard to see
MAYA‐2155 Improve performance of window –ex query
MAYA‐2350 Performance issue in importing large mesh
MAYA‐2657 Import Objects from Multi‐level Reference causes crash
MAYA‐2909 Referenced MEL commands lost after Import
MAYA‐3109 Some icons in UV Texture Editor are not able to open up option windows
MAYA‐3169 Interactive split doesn't let you add a single vertex to an edge
MAYA‐4427 Hypershade performance issue
MAYA‐4444 MFnMesh::setFaceVertexNormals() performance issue with mesh data
MAYA‐4476 Issue with Copy and Paste from Script Editor into Thunderbird
MAYA‐4481/7615 Move tool (and others) hang mid‐move, then can’t undo
MAYA‐4503 Collapsed marking menus with ATI Radeon 5870 graphics card
MAYA‐4515 Qt include files not included in the runTime/include directory tree
MAYA‐6101/8519 Marking menus don't work in tear off panels
MAYA‐6137/8000 Reinstate workflow using CTRL to activate window
MAYA‐6138/7512 Editing keys in Graph Editor destroys undo queue
MAYA‐6331 MItMeshPolygon::getUVArea() returns last calculated value on mesh with tweaks
MAYA‐6443 Issue with sub‐frame caching for negative frames
MAYA‐6560 Python API: MDGMessage.addPreConnectionCallback() causes crash
MAYA‐6753 Turtle not rendering in command line
MAYA‐6772 Referencing in an object causes crash
MAYA‐6776/7720 TskinPercentCmd problems
MAYA‐7549/7930 Lag when switching between panes
MAYA‐7583/7918 Pop‐up menu crashes in Shelf Editor icon previews
MAYA‐7585/8209 Maya crashes if a Paint > Sculpt operation is flooded (on poly edges)
MAYA‐7625 Removing a reference causes crash
MAYA‐7661 Tool settings: blank state issue
MAYA‐7666/7718 Ghosting an animation layer causes crash
MAYA‐7701 Correct timeline performance issue
MAYA‐7702 Windows sometimes lose saved settings and open at 0,0
MAYA‐7748 OGS: Improve object manipulation performance
MAYA‐7814/7929 Selecting and translate/rotate/scale on vertices quickly results in crash
MAYA‐7817 Change selection priority of GPU Cache objects
MAYA‐7917 Poly tool doesn't block or handle undoing operations correctly
MAYA‐7920 Interactive split should reset after completing an operation
MAYA‐8013 Improve how interactive split handles bad data
MAYA‐8164/9151 Grouping with multiple input NURBS curves in attachCurve and file referencingcauses crash
MAYA‐8244 Poly separate is slow to make results active
MAYA‐8296/8505 Quick move tool marking menus freezes then causes crash
MAYA‐8423/9130 Opening a file after Graph Editor pinning causes crash
MAYA‐8552/9173 Unloading tool context plug‐in after deleting tool context by deleteUI causes crash
MAYA‐8726 artUserPaintCtx no longer respects vertex selection
MAYA‐8769/8979 The Shift key is taking focus and removing UI when trying to type in Hypershade
MAYA‐8834 Render View not showing updates during renders (appears blank until renderfinishes)
MAYA‐9568 nParticle expression using opacity causing nCache crash
MAYA‐9582 mental ray: Output Shader fix for Camera (Shave/Haircut)

and everything else that came before it.  More details are in the above link in PDF format.

Getting BackBurner rendering on Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously

Every now and then we do get asked if BackBurner does cross platform rendering.  The simply answer is yes but there is indeed some setup involved to make sure things work.  

In this video I explain two key components to get this up and running.  The first is setting the correct path to Maya's render command so both Windows and Mac OS can use the same command when submitting the job.  The second task here is to mount a samba drive on Mac OS.   In the video I show a simple method of gettng this done but you will loose the mount at reboot.  To keep the mount through reboot I suggest you lookingto launchctl command and how to use it.

Hope this helps!

 

Creating simple fog in Maya with mental ray

A very short video showing users how to create a simple fog effect with a spolight. Using the mental ray transmat and parti volume nodes are the building blocks needed to get you on your way to creating volumetric fog effect.

Hope you enjoy.

 

Create a rolling fog effect using Maya

Here is a quick video showing Maya users how to create a simple rolling fog effcet using Maya Fluids.

 

file -loadReferenceDepth ; a couple of tips for defering references

First post of the new year, and I bring you a couple of tips about how to defer loading references.

Maya 2012 SAP: The CPU is maxed out if Maya is idle for more than 15 minutes

With the release of Maya 2012 Subscription Advatage Pack and Service Pack 1, a new licensing feature was introduced that affects how the license server distributes license tokens. If a Maya session goes idle for 15 minutes this feature kicks in and returns that idle license back to the license server.  When the user activates the session again Maya will go back and get the license from the server. If no licenses are available, Maya will keep trying for up to 2 hours.  At that point if no license is avalable the application will save yourt work and shutdown. While this is a great feature for companies using server based licenses.  There is a small problem that was spotted and Autodesk is working to correct this.

The main issue you will notice is that when this idling feature kicks is on the artists box one of your cores will be pegged at 100% or very close to it.  This occurs on all operating systems.  Currently the only workaround we have in place is to disable this feature entirely until further notice.  The following variable can be used to do this.

MAYA_DISABLE_IDLE_LICENSE=1

We also noticed some other issues for users using the OS Native browser on Windows.  When the idling feature kicks in and you try to either load or save a file through the OS browser in Maya the browser itself will fail to refresh until the cursor is moved away from the window.  Using the above variable will address this as well.

Cheers!

Nelson

 

 

 

Virtual Memory: a performance issue often forgotten

Are you working with large scenes or with big textures? Are you experiencing software crashes?

Possible scenario: You are working on a computer with Windows 7 and 6GB of RAM. When you load the scene, the memory usage is somewhere around 5GB. If you try to start a batch-render process Maya may crash.

Socket error creating command port

We see this come through support once in awhile and I wanted to use this blog post to try and explain what can be happening to cause this issue.

First, some quick background. Even though Maya is rendering locally it still depends on these sockets for communication. Maya will simply use this communication channel like a two radio communication between the batch render application and Maya. So what happens in a network environment is that Maya will actually routes itself through the network back to your machine.

This is why you must to make sure that the firewall settings are allowing the mayabatch process through regardless of being on a network or not. The firewall is the most simplest solution but we do run into atleast another two scenarios in support.

1. You may also have two Maya session loaded, maybe a background render that has not completed and is locking the port. To fix this either wait till the process is completed for submitting another bacth or check your tasks and kill off the rogue mayabatch.

2. The other is a DNS issue, we find this generally on the Mac side of things. We have seen this after a system has picked up a new IP from the server but the DNS has not refreshed itself and is now pointing to another machine. Since the machine is loaded on the network it has a difficult time finding itself. Generally this issues fixes itself after a few hours.

If that does not happen to work out, you can try flushing the DNS cache on your local machine manually.

In a Mac OS terminal simply run the following. You may need to reboot afterwards.

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

Retrieve polygon components in the order they are selected

Maya 2012 provides a feature that allows a selection of polygon components to be retrieved in the order they were selected. This is in addition to the sorted selection that you may be more familiar with. 

In order to perform a selection-order query on your polygon components, you will need to first enable the "Track selection order" setting in Settings/Preferences > Selection.

 

Then you can use the flag -orderedSelection in your query to list the components in the order they were selected:

ls -orderedSelection;

Note that if the option "Track selection order" is disabled this command will return a sorted list, and the result will be the same as if you were using ls -selection;

Thanks to Tim Fowler for pointing this out, as I'd completely missed this feature when Maya 2012 was released.

Owen