Game Development

Autodesk Adds New VR and 3D Animation Functionality for Game Development

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Autodesk has released the latest version of its Autodesk Maya LT 20173D animation and modeling software for indie game developers. The company has also released Autodesk Stingray 1.4, offering updates to the 3D game engine and real-time rendering solution.

Autodesk says that one of the most significant features added to the Maya LT platform is the time editor, a new tool which provides the ability to streamline animation of complex characters. Other new updates include improvements to existing animation tools and a new way to organize tools and the user interface (UI) into customized workspaces.

Other new functionality to the Autodesk Maya LT platform includes:

- An updated graph editor has many new features including a UI/UX refresh that simplifies day-to-day tasks.

- Shape authoring tool improvements in Maya LT provide artists with more control to create, tweak, and correct animations in a very detailed way.

- Viewport 2.0 improvements facilitate faster selection performance for scenes with large numbers of nodes and scenes containing hidden objects.

- Vertex order transfers and corrections make it easier to work between different game creation tools, without losing data as an asset moves through the pipeline.

New Autodesk Stingray 1.4 updates include:

- The Stingray 1.4 release offers improved VR capabilities and enhanced connectivity with Maya LT, facilitating an art-to-engine workflow for game developers.

- Improved support for VR platforms includes compatibility with the Oculus Rift SDK v1.3 and the SteamVR SDK v0.9.19.

- Flow scripting for HTC Vive controllers offers a faster and more efficient way to add interactivity during VR game development, while simplifying the process for designers to create and test their prototypes.

- Support for WebGL2 enables developers to test their projects on WebGL2 supported browsers.

- Level sync, with Maya LT, enables artists to link and export entire scenes directly to Stingray. This creates an easier way to build, iterate, review and change game levels and design scenes, without having to manually reproduce layouts in two tools.

- Easier asset share between different Stingray projects further benefits collaborative work environments.

- NavMesh improvements for better AI behavior.

- Edit UV scale and offset values in materials exported from Maya LT allows users to continue edit UV tiling in Stingray.

Maya LT 2017 is available on a subscription basis. Subscribers of Maya LT receive access to Stingray 1.4 as part of their subscription.