Autodesk Releases Maya LT For Indie Game Developers ..BAM!

Scripting is used to expand the functionality of the host application and automate processes - it's especially useful (I'd say crucial) for pipeline integration as it lets you communicate with other applications and the outside world.

Many of Maya's (and Max's) more useful tools, especially poly modelling toolsets, originated as community built scripts, which Autodesk eventually integrated natively. If you cut out scripting, especially in a rigging environment, you're pretty much cutting off the ability to grow the way you work. Also makes life kinda boring. Push button, repeat.

 

Can Bellsey or gpcastle from Autodesk comment on this? I was considering Maya LT for pc/mac/linux game development but it sounds like many of the features needed for game development are unnecessarily removed. Why limit animation capability?

Why is Substance support also removed if it is supported in Unity and Maya LT is targeted for use with Unity?

Thanks for your time.

 

I downloaded the trial version yesterday to see if my rigging tutorials would work on LT and was amazed at the lack of IK. It seems you can load a file with ik made in maya, but you can't create it in LT itself. I can understand removing mel, even if mel is the feature that makes maya so damn good, but removing IK from a package that is suppose to handle animation was not a good idea.

While I think a light version of maya is great for smaller teams, as it stands right now it's not really usable for much.

 

How are people supposed to animate without IK? this is insane!

 

well,..u can, but as mentioned , it sounds like you Have to use the human IK default rig in Maya.

Which i gave a go and got working, but it takes some pre planning. Sounds like quadrapeds are a bit trickier. i guess u 'can' modify the human IK rig but ,..uggg.

anyways,..i am so far behind,..i still would want to rig it myself and use old school anim clips,...hehee but i am waiting to delve into unity's mechanim in earnest.

 

Not sure I can really provide any definitive information here, other than some possible reasoning.

As I said in a previous post, Maya LT is aimed at a specific type of development and developer. We've tried to keep the features clean and simple. Character rigging is a complex task and discipline, even for the most experienced TD's and complex projects. HumanIK (HIK for short)can simply that process for people who perhaps lack the rigging skills, or maybe don't have the time. HumanIK is actually a very good and powerful IK solver. It's the same technology inside Motionbuilder and also a middleware solution used in the games such as Assassins Greed.

HIK inside Maya and MayaLT, provides the user with a full body FK and IK rig to animate with. All the controls for pinning/constraining the rig are also there in Maya LT. You can define whatever Biped skeleton rig you like for HIK, as long as it has the minimum amount of joints for the HIK solver to work. This should be listed in the documentation.

In Motionbuilder, you can actually rig quadrupeds in HIK and I've done this many times, but you know thinking about it now, I don't think I've tried this in Maya or Maya LT, so I'll look into that.

Regarding Sustance support, this is something I've spoken with many people about. I don't know why it was left out of MayaLT, but I know many that want it, so I did push this request up the chain based on the feedback I'd received.

When we launched MayaLT, we never professed to it being the perfect one stop solution. We went through a Beta cycle and I think we've made a good start with the product, but we're always willing to listen to feedback from people about how we can perhaps improved things going forward. And with the recent Extension releases, we did make some improvements, some of which had been requested by the community. I'm confident in Frank and his team (many of whom (like me) have worked in games themselves) will look at the feedback and if they feel some points are warranted, then they might see if any changes are possible.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to reply. After having seen this and many posts of yours in various forums, I'm getting a better understanding of Autodesk's philosophy behind the features for Maya LT (although I may not necessarily agree with it).

I've been trying to find a modeling program to settle on for my next project. I've spent some time trying to learn Blender and testing out Modo and some others. Blender, while having a ton of features, still seems like it would take a large investment of time to get familiar with, and the hotkeys and way of doing things seem a little non-intuitive and unfriendly to me (it may well be intuitive to others). Modo, Cinema4D, Lightwave, 3DS Max, Maya etc. are nice but the prices too high for the amount of work I'll be doing with them. When I saw the release of Maya LT, even though the price was still a tad higher than I'd like, I had high hopes for it as I heard great things about rigging and animating in Maya (and the new modeling tools), but when the feature set was revealed, Maya LT seemed too crippled in trying not to take away the user base from Maya.

I can understand that I possibly may not be the targeted type of developer (although I thought I was), but please pass on to the team that not just mobile developers but also indie desktop (PC/Mac/Linux) developers would be interested in using Maya LT, who would like full unrestricted game development capabilities for that price but who don't need the more advanced capabilities of Maya for movies and VFX. It's nice to see though that the team is listening to feedback. Unfortunately, which I also think is a little unreasonable, you have to pay more for the extension releases even if you bought Maya LT in order to get the features which are a result of the community's feedback. I understand it's a business, but it really should be a free update to those who are not renting but purchased Maya LT.

As it is now, I'll probably have to stick with Blender. I know there are a lot of satisfied Blender users here, and rightfully so given that it's free and full-featured, but I'm honestly not looking forward to it, even after having spent a week using it and watching tutorials. Just thought I'd give some feedback from one new developer in the market for a modeling/animating package.

If you read the above, thanks for your time!

 

this was from a tweet by Frank Delise - "MayaLT scripting support in the works!"

 

Autodesk totally screwed this opportunity up.

They released this over priced, underwhelming runt, totally misunderstood what an indie developer actually is, and now that they've gouged the high end indie market, they simply cannot drop the price to a sensible value because that screws everyone who's already made a purchase.

Honestly you guys need to go back to your boardroom and if you really want to get in touch with the indie game developer market you've got to totally rethink your philosophies. Even Unity Indie when it cost was only a few hundred ($200 or $300 or something). Sadly for us all you've gone out and done this already and in doing so have not only excluded like, everyone, but you've done yourselves out of an opportunity to totally dominate the indie landscape forever. Your perpetual greediness is a loss to us all.

Epic fail you guys.

 

Well of course, you are perfectly entitled to your opinion.
However I would like to point out that we did actually speak to a lot of Unity users, folks at casual connect and reached out to some smaller shops in various cities we had team members to speak with mobile developers. There was (and still is) a Beta program for LT, in which many users and developers take part. I recently attended a number of events here in the UK in conjunction with TIGA, where we spoke about Maya LT and the feedback was very positive. There was some negative as well that mirrored many of the online comments, but it's always hard to fully satisfy everyone.

I've read many comments on here and other forums about MayaLT being a handicapped product, and previous initiatives like gmax, or (if you're old enough like me to remember)Maya Builder, XSI Foundation, and ModTool, but these are kinda the past now and alot has changed since these products were launched. (Android and iOS devices weren't even around when gmax appeared!).

I actually disagree that LT is a handicapped product as that would imply that we do not plan on continuing to develop it. I think that the very presence by people such as myself (and others) on this forum places such as polycount (one of the actual product designers is on there), that this is a very serious venture for us and the team are very focused on growing this tool going forwards.

Personally, I see MayaLT has a kinda fresh start and I'm pleased to see Autodesk trying to do something here and also be more flexible for things like licensing. I don't think we'd ever profess to getting things right or having all the answers, but MayaLT has lots of room to grow and evolve and I believe we've already shown signs of that with the recent improvements. Yes, the extensions are only available to customers on Subscription and on Rental, but this is actually consistent with the our other products and structure of Subscription.

 

+1

Somebody must have tipped ADSK..."Hey some nerdy hobbyists are taking a crack at app stores from their bedroom. They call themselves 'indies'. And already spending a fortune at places like Unity Asset Stores. Why not have a piece of these 'Whales'. You just have to throw them something looking like Maya.You just have to make them feel having a good time."

Does Notch belongs to your 'specific type of development and developer' group?

 

There are two groups here which can be called as indie. The independend commercial developers who develops small games for small money. And the hobbyists who will never earn a dime with their games. That`s the much bigger part.

I agree that Autodesk has missed a big chance here. The price already stopped me from even thinking about it. It is too high for both groups.

 

I don't think they blew it, but they should either drop the price a bit, or add IK and maybe Mel. I mean it's a big price drop from full Maya, but I thought they would cut out only irrelevant features... such rendering engines, hair simulation, particle effects, and all those things that you can't bring into a game engine.
But cutting out IK? What went wrong there?

 

Yeah, I think they to compete with Blender $500 max and all the Unity / game relevant features. There is a huge market at the right price/feature set but they're trying not to ruin their big studio sales. There are probably many more that waste $3500 now that would move the Maya LT. Or maybe not, for some it would seem like the difference between a diamond and a cubic zirconium and they'd still go for the $3500 version .

 

Having heard about Maya LT I got so excited, overwhelming happiness!! But after checking under the hood and seeing what have being cut out made me very sad.

This being a solution meant to be targeting game developers ONLY! No corners what so ever should be cut! All possible goodies available to game developers should be a part of it.

I could accept the price if that where too be the case, otherwise I will stay happy with what I have, Blender! All thought I am slowed down by my experience regarding Blender while having had a long and happy Maya user experience as a previous employee.

The current price and feature changes between Maya LT and Maya 2014 could be explained as the following:
Pay 800€ and get "50%" of the tools you need for developing assets for a game developer or pay 3,900€ and get "100%" of the tools you need for developing assets for a game developer and you will also get lots of other features that you will not have any use for as a game developer.

Having said that I have great respect and trust in Autodesk to like usual understand their users and their needs and thus correct their mistakes.

 

So I've been playing with Maya LT for over a week now and I'm actually considering it to switch from Blender.

The only thing that worries me is the missing equivalent of Blender Actions in Maya LT. How would you export an fbx character with run, walk and idle animations from Maya LT, and make them show up in Unity as separate animation clips?

Did Autodesk remove that feature from Maya LT?

Cheers

 

Well, with Maya LT Extension 2, I'm reconsidering and will most likely be getting a license. Will substance support also be included in the future?

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/frank/maya-lt-2014-extension-2-is-here

- MEL Scripting
- OBJ file export
- Animation retargeting
- Skeleton Mirroring
- IK Handles

 

That makes more sense!

 

Indeed. I tip my hat and open my wallet in Autodesk's general direction. I am pretty damn impressed that a company that size with such an overwhelming monopoly in the 3D content creation space is still willing to listen to the community - AND respond to their feedback.

Three cheers. Disparity Games uses Maya LT now.

 

I think it might finally be time to leave max alone, and go for this much more appealing, slim and focussed package, ive been needing an excuse for a long time

I havent used maya for anything significant in over 8 years and ive completely forgotten how it works, but if it has mesh editing skills anything like max and has kept them in for LT with all the stuff ive read about here then i cannot comprehend why people would be using blender over it. MEL scripting - thats pretty special, cause with some strong community contributions it could get really very powerful.

 

Does it have Ik for animating and anything like floor contact detection?

 

Yes that surprised me as well, that Autodesk really did those changes so damn fast.

I'm still not so thrilled that you get those upgrades only with their subscription plan. But ok, Maya LT makes definitely more sense as it is now.

 

If you are on rental you are also entitled to the updates.

 

February 2014 and still no substance support and free updates?
autodesk, I wish you undestood how much money you would make if you went the same way Abode did.
I pay them and I am a happy customer.
I could pay you, if you tried harder.

 

Rentals are the most cost-effective option for Autodesk products, anyway. Perpetual licenses are just for people that don't care about future versions and are content to stick with what they have indefinitely. You'd have to by a new version like once every 3 years for it to work out in your favor.

I personally prefer it as well, since I want all the updates anyway. I wish Unity also worked that way, but their rental plan is the opposite and totally not worth the money.

 

I downloaded Blender ...

Bam!!