Maya - Version history

Version 3.2.12 - April 5, 2016

• Increased the range of the Parallax Distance camera parameter.
• Set the default value for the stereo separation camera parameter to 6.5.
• When creating a stereo camera rig, the center camera also shows the Maxwell Render rollup in the attribute editor.
• Updated the plug-in API to allow other plug-ins to export Maxwell hair.
• Fixed: wrong output image name when using the <Scene> macro and running an interactive batch render.
• Fixed: the RF BIN mesh loader object did not update in the viewport when changing the current time.
• Fixed: the output image format was reset to PNG when saving a scene that was using EXR.
• Fixed: slow voxelization in FIRE.
• Fixed: adding a new customa alpha channel and selecting "no" when prompted to add the selection to it assigned all the objects in the scene to that channel.
• Fixed: environment preview did not work in Viewport 2.0.
• Fixed: objects with semitransparent Maxwell materials did not appear correctly or at all in Viewport 2.0.
• Fixed: area lights did not appear in the "Block Emitter" dialog.

Version 3.1.12 - June 10, 2015

• fixed: FIRE was still running in the background after closing its window
• fixed: the render resolution for FIRE was capped at 720 pixels horizontally the first time it was started during a Maya session due to misbehaving licensing code

Version 3.1.11 - June 8, 2015

• added support for Maya 2016
• fixed: MEL error about setParent when loading the plug-in
• added the *.prt extension mask to the Maxwell Particles file dialogs
• converted materials use the name of the original material, but with an added "Conv" suffix
• fixed: layered materials converted automatically from legacy materials did not show up in Hypershade
• fixed: the plug-in was not able to obtain a license on Linux if Shave&Haircut; was also installed (or any other plug-in which uses RLM)
• added the *.exr file mask in the browser dialog for RFRK mesher displacement files
• the volumetric object no longer adds a frame number in the exported particle file path if one isn't present in the file selected by the user. Also improved the detection of the frame padding in case a frame number has to be inserted.
• fixed: "no layer selected" error when clicking the Blocked Emitters button in the AE for a mesh
• fixed: wrong viewport preview for the sea object when Maya was in z-up mode
• fixed: wrong positions for exported particles when Maya was set in z-up mode
• fixed: native lights were not included in the list of blockable emitters
• fixed: no VDB file mask in the volumetric object file open dialog
• fixed the translation from legacy materials to layered was broken
• added support for mapping magnitudes to UV channels in the RFRK mesher
• fixed: instances produced by the MASH plug-in (and other 3rd party instancers) were not rendered
• added support for UDIM textures
• added settings for extra sampling in the render options dialog
• fixed: volumetric objects did not work
• fixed: crash when changing the state of the color management setting (Maya 2015 Extension 1)
• added support for a new hair primitive: curves
• added support for per-material alpha channels
• added back support for custom light geometry (MXS references)
• fixed: volumetric objects could not be exported on Windows 8
• fixed: wrong rotation for spot lights in FIRE
• fixed: floating shadows and reflections were not visible when rendering in Draft mode
• fixed: when launching Maxwell on Linux, an intermediary process was created, instead of parenting Maxwell directly under the main Maya process

Version 3.0.15 - October 14, 2014

• fixed: minor licensing issue

• non-absolute MXS and MXI paths are considered relative to the project path
• fixed: wrong viewport preview for boolean objects when Maya is in Z up mode
• fixed: region rendering only worked when using the camera set as renderable in the scene settings

• removed obsolete parameters from the UI of the scatter node
• fixed: possible crash when displaying a scatter node in the viewport
• fixed: MXS references were not inheriting render flags and were ignoring custom alpha assignments
• fixed: exporting a MXS during pack'n'go ignored render settings

Version 3.0.12 - April 29th 2014

Changes

• added support for Maya 2015
• creating a new custom alpha channel adds the currently selected objects to the channel
• added a shelf button which allows custom alpha channel mappings to be edited on several objects at once
• added missing Maxwell scatter parameters
• when a custom alpha channel is renamed, its name is updated in all the scene nodes which were using it
• pack'n'go now copies texture files used by referenced MXM materials, files used by RFRK nodes and file sequences used by animated textures and MXS references

Fixes

• Maxwell scatter density, scale and rotation maps weren't exported
• wrong defaults and ranges for scatter variation and rotation parameters
• correlated color emitters were exported as XYZ and vice-versa
• the time input of the sea node was replaced with the default value when loading a scene
• wrong unit for the time of the sea node (frames were passed as seconds)
• incorrect scale and density range exported for Maya fluids
• incorrect displacement presets for RealFlow and Modo
• the plug-in was incorrectly adding the frame number to ABC files used by the RFRK particle node
• realflow BIN meshes were displayed incorrectly in the viewport
• bogus values in the displacement-related dropdowns in the material attribute editor
• incorrect camera target (and therefore DOF) if the linear unit was set to something other than centimeters when the camera was created
• incorrect lighting and normal mapping for objects with Maxwell materials in Viewport 2.0
• MXM import ignored emitter projection textures

Version 2.7.18 - June 3rd, 2013

Changes

• added a setting to control if FIRE takes isolation mode into account
• upgraded Shave SDK to version 7
• the plug-in displays an error when exporting a material or rendering if a layered material has displacement, but no layers
• the plug-in detects when multiple projected textures with identical parameters are assigned to the same material and creates a single UV set
• increased maximum number of projection channels per material to 16

Fixes

• changes to the isolation list didn't always reflect in FIRE
• crash when trying to read preview images for materials with very long names
• particle instancers didn't render
• FIRE could not be started if an object was parented to the active camera

Version 2.7.15 - April 25th, 2013

Changes

• added support for Maya 2014
• added a Match Render Resolution command in the Viewport menu of the FIRE window
• merged the start and stop FIRE menu commands into a single toggle item
• materials for PaintFX can be specified at the brush level. If a material is also specified on the stroke, the stroke material takes precedence.
• added a menu command in the FIRE window to send the image to the render view
• added focus to and start/stop buttons in the FIRE window
• added exposure controls at the top of the FIRE window
• the object ID color is taken from the deepest level of the hierarchy where it is set, so that shapes can override the colors set in the transforms
• added an image preview window
• when importing MXS files, objects and triangles without materials use the default Maya material
• added sl, width, height, shutter, iso and fstop keywords to the render view overlay text
• hair vertex colors are converted to linear space
• improved export times in scenes with deeply nested hierarchies

Fixes

• numeric render options were not working in the render view overlay text
• objects with a single material which was assigned to each face, instead of at object level, were imported without a material from MXS
• the material ID color wasn't imported from MXM files
• the IES point cloud was not oriented correctly when Maya was set in Z up mode
• incorrect UV coordinates when a material with projected textures is assigned per face
• adding a new layer to a material re-enabled all the disabled layers
• full reexport in FIRE when a single object is changed
• Maya instances were exported multiple times
• the color correction attributes were not imported from MXM files in Maya 2012 and up

Version 2.7.12 - March 11th, 2013

• improved export times when there are many hidden objects
• added the option to disable camera movement export for motion blur
• FIRE supports isolation mode
• added settings for drawing MXS references and Maxwell instances as meshes instead of point clouds
• added a "solo" setting for material layers
• added a Maxwell category in the create new material dialog
• the HUD (resolution gate, film gate etc.) can be turned off in the FIRE window
• fixed: pack'n'go didn't work when used from the File/Export menu
• fixed: crash in Maya 2013.5 when emitters were used
• fixed: when multiple Maxwell objects were selected, only the first one was highlighted in the viewport
• fixed: wrong framing in FIRE when the aspect ratio of the FIRE window didn't match the render aspect ratio
• fixed: wrong framing in some cases when vertical film offset was used
• fixed: Python API: SetAttribute() for material components didn't work if the attribute was a color

Version 2.7.11 - December 17th, 2012

• added support for Maya 2013.5
• added the -l flag for command line rendering which selects the active render layer
• pack'n'go can export the scene to MXS
• added the ability to control the viewport display color for all the Maxwell objects (MXS reference, instancer, RFRK objects etc.)
• fixed: the viewport did not update after removing a sequence from a RFRK mesher
• fixed: pack'n'go no longer overwrites the current scene if "Save Maya Scene" is enabled
• fixed: the OSX installer did not contain the MXI image format plug-in
• fixed: the OSX installer copied all files, for all Maya versions, regardless of which versions are actually installed
• fixed: the Maya 2013 build did not work on some Linux distributions

Version 2.7.8 - October 16th, 2012

• the Maxwell-specific attributes are always present in Maya 2012 and above, so they can be manipulated directly with setAttr and they show up in the spreadsheet editor
• the UI controls for the Maxwell-specific attributes behave just like the controls for the built-in attributes in Maya 2013 and above, so there's no need to use the Extra Attributes rollup anymore
• render flags can be set on transform nodes, overriding the settings for all the children of the transform
• FBX import and export supports Maxwell materials
• geometry and materials can be imported from MXS files
• fixed: the hide to secondary rays, GI and z-clip flags were not working on MXS references
• fixed: a Maxwell viewport was created every time the settings window was closed

Version 2.7.6 - July 4th, 2012

• no new features in this version.
• fixed: the extensions (grass, hair etc.) were broken in the previous plug-in build (2.7.5)

Version 2.7.5 - June 28th, 2012

• added support for image sequences in the image-based environment
• the Maxwell root directory can be specified through the MAXWELL2_ROOT environment variable and maxwell2Root option var on all platforms
• fixed: the library and gallery browsers didn't work
• fixed: revoxelization in FIRE after any kind of scene change
• fixed: wrong maximum value for grass bend angle
• fixed: wrong face-shader mappings for subdivided meshes under certain circumstances
• fixed: the "focus to" shelf button didn't work if the object was part of a group
• fixed: FIRE didn't refresh when a camera parameter was changed through an expression

Version 2.7.4 - June 18th, 2012

• Maya 2013 is supported
• added Maxwell grass
• updated the command line render flags for pre- and post- MEL scripts to match the built-in renderer
• projecting UVs works when no placement object is present
• added support for cubic and spherical texture projections
• increased maximum f/stop value to match Studio
• added anamorphic bokeh settings in the Maxwell camera attributes panel
• added render flags for the MXS reference objects
• bump maps are exported as disabled when bump mapping is off, instead of being completely ignored
• PaintFX hair can generate root UVs
• added a new entry in the list of displacement types: "3D RealFlow"
• particle mass, age, color and UV are exported to the MaxwellParticles extension when present
• PXY files can be used with the MaxwellParticles extension
• added back the region rendering controls on the camera attribute editor; the Maya region settings take precedence when using region rendering
• the rendered region is applied on top of the existing Render View image
• smoothed meshes with per-face material assignments are supported
• fixed: FIRE was not refreshed when moving a MXS reference object

Version 2.6.27 - April 2nd, 2012

• added "off" to the display mode list of the BIN mesh loader, which prevents the BIN files from being accessed for viewport preview
• setting the LOD to 0 in the particle objects and MXS reference prevents the plug-in from reading anything from disk
• added shelf buttons for creating and assigning Maxwell materials
• added help and about buttons on the shelf
• added an API which can be used to customize the export process
• the transparency of the native materials is used as layer weight instead of transmittance color in the Maxwell approximation
• the IOR parameter of Blinn and Phong shaders is taken into account by the translator
• fixed: crash when trying to run Maya with non-accelerated OpenGL drivers (e.g. under Remote Desktop in Windows, or with Mesa on Linux
• fixed: errors on Mac OS and Linux when the RealFlow plug-in was also loaded
• fixed: some AE controls did not work correctly on Mac when a material had multiple layersadded Maxwell render flags for hair nodes, particle systems and instancers

Version 2.6.23 - January 30th, 2012

• added a motion blur factor control for particle systems
• added Maxwell render flags for hair nodes, particle systems and instancers
• the format and depth of the extra render channels are forced to the same values as the color channel when embedding is on
• added an attenuation unit control for the BSDF
• added support for multi-step camera motion blur
• the referenced material supports viewport 2.0
• added support for silent installs on Windows (pass /S on the installer command line)
• the FIRE scene state can be frozen using the Viewport menu in the popup panel
• added the -restartFire and -freezeFireState flags to the maxwell command which apply to all running FIRE instances
• Maxwell is started with -node when running a batch render, so that it uses a node license, not a GUI license
• the search paths configured in the plug-in preferences are saved in the exported MXS files
• integrated region rendering with Maya's render view and removed the Maxwell-specific region attributes from the camera
• removed the "Default to High Quality" plug-in preference
• added a render option which disables the export of built-in Maya lights
• fixed: slow export for particle instancers
• fixed: native light intensities were not read back correctly from ML if the intensity multiplier was left at its default value
• fixed: possible crash when loading the plug-in
• fixed: the Maxwell material didn't respect the viewport backface culling setting (culling was always on)
• fixed: render layer overrides could not be applied on material checkboxes
• fixed: wrong state for the save image, start and stop menu items in the FIRE panel
• fixed: global displacement scale shouldn't be applied to relative displacement heights
• fixed: the global displacement scale wasn't applied to 3D displacement height
• fixed: the "merge materials" window didn't have a title
• fixed: a "0" was displayed in the override temp directory control when the value was not set
• fixed: bad text alignment in the preferences window
• fixed: if a Maya or Shave hair object fails to produce lines, the export is no longer canceled
• fixed: texture UV channel indexes were not imported from MXM files
• fixed: exporting with "Will use sequence rendering" enabled resulted in an error about invalid file extension
• fixed: the meaning of the "embed in MXS" flag on the referenced material was reversed