Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2011

Transcription

1 Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suites 2011 Release Notes Contents These Release Notes document last minute updates to the Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suite What s New Supported Operating Systems Hardware Minimum Requirements Installing the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite Uninstalling Instructions Upgrading to a Suite License Online Registration and Activation Known Issues and Limitations 3ds Max Release Notes MotionBuilder Release Notes Mudbox Release Notes Page 1

2 What s New The following describes the new features and enhancements in the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite The Release Note information for each of the products in this Suite 3ds Max, MotionBuilder and Mudbox are also included immediately after. Autodesk Installation and Licensing This release supports the standard Autodesk Installation and Licensing scheme to align Suites with other Autodesk software products and to improve user experience. Support of Autodesk FBX All products shipping in the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 integrate the same version of FBX. Configurable Keyboard and Navigation Mechanisms Mudbox 2011 and MotionBuilder 2011 provide the ability to customize their keyboard layout and navigation mechanisms. IPv6 Support This release supports the Internet Protocol version 6 (the successor of IPv4). IPv6 supports the use of a 128-bit address whereas IPv4 only supports a 32-bit address. Windows 7 Support This release is supported on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional on 64-bit operating systems. Supported Operating Systems The 32 bit version of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 software is supported by the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 The 64 bit version of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 software is supported by the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Service Pack 1 Microsoft Windows Vista Business Service Pack 1 Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition Service Pack 2 Page 2

3 Hardware Minimum Requirements Note: The system requirements below are for users running several of the following products on the same system: Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 software Autodesk Maya 2011 software Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 software Autodesk Mudbox 2011 software Autodesk Softimage 2011 software Be aware that the systems requirements for individual products may differ from those in this document. At a minimum, the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 software requires a system with the following hardware: Minimum processor o Intel Core two Quad 64-bit processor o Dual-Core Intel Xeon 64-bit processor o Dual-Core AMD Opteron 64-bit processor Recommended processor o Intel Core i7 64-bit processor o Dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon 64-bit processor o Quad-Core AMD Opteron 64-bit processor 2 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB RAM recommended for the 32-bit version 4 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB RAM recommended for the 64-bit version 6 GB free hard drive space is required to install all commercial applications on the same system o The Education Suite for Entertainment Creation will require a minimum of 10 GB free disk space 512 MB hardware-accelerated OpenGL 2.0 (and higher) professional graphics cards with recommended driver from Autodesk hardware certification pages. Three-button mouse with mouse driver software. o DirectX 9.0c application programming interface or higher Three-button mouse with mouse driver software or certified Wacom tablet DVD-ROM drive Ethernet adapter or wireless internet card 1280 x 1024 screen resolution Page 3

4 Installing the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite Load your DVD or navigate to the folder where you downloaded the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 executable file and double click on the file. Note: During the Suite 2011 installation process, you are requested to enter the software serial number and product key. Make sure you have the suite serial number and product key handy. Important: You will need the serial number to activate your software. Install and activate your products by following the on-screen installation instructions. Note for Autodesk Backburner 2011 Users: Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2011 includes Autodesk Backburner Note that Backburner 2011 cannot be run on a machine with older versions of Backburner. It also cannot be used with releases of 3ds Max prior to Uninstalling Instructions Windows XP 1. Open the Add/Remove Programs dialog in Start > Settings > Control Panel. 2. Select the program to remove. 3. Click on the Remove button. 4. Click Yes to confirm the Uninstall. Windows Vista and Windows 7 1. Open Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features. 2. Select the program to remove: 3. Click Uninstall. Upgrading to a Suite License If you have a standalone license for a product included in a Suite, you can upgrade to a Suite license to take advantage of the additional product offerings. To convert the license, you will have to uninstall the product, and then reinstall it using the Suite license information (serial number and product key). Before you uninstall the product, we recommend you transfer your standalone license to another user or system using the License Transfer Utility, accessible through: Start Menu>Programs>Autodesk<your product>license Transfer Utility. This exports the license to the Autodesk server so that another system can import it. Note: when a product is activated and registered on a computer system, the product is bound to that license. If you want to use a different license, you will have to reinstall the product and enter the new license information (serial number & product key). Page 4

5 Online Registration and Activation You must register and activate your license for the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Suite you have purchased. You can do this either by clicking on Activate from the Activation dialog when launching a software product or from the product s Help menu. Once you have activated one product in the Suite, you do not need to repeat this process for the others. Note: If you do not enter the license serial number and product key during the initial installation process, you will have to register each product separately. To create a new user account and activate your license, perform the following: 1. Launch one of the products you just installed. 2. In the Product Activation dialog, select Activate or select Help > About and click the Product License Information button. From there you can click Activate. 3. Enter the serial number and product key located on the back of the DVD case. 4. On the Register Today page, select Get an Activation Code and click Next. 5. From the Log In page, click the Create a User ID Now link. 6. Fill out the Create User ID form and click Next. 7. Fill out the Account Information form and click Next. 8. On the Choose Account page, select your user account and click Next. You are notified of your registration and activation status on the Registration Activation Confirmation page. 9. Click Finish. You will receive an confirmation. Keep this for your records. If you already have a user account on autodesk.com, you can use it to activate your new license as follows: 1. Launch one of the products included in your suite. 2. In the Product Activation dialog box, select Activate and click Next. 3. On the Register Today page, select Get an Activation Code and click Next. Page 5

6 4. Enter your User ID and Password and then click Log In. 5. On the Choose Account form, select your user account and click Next. You are notified of registration and activation status on the Registration Activation Confirmation page. 6. Click Finish. You will receive an confirmation. Keep this for your records. Known Issues and Limitations Network licensing: o Suites licenses that are installed on the network can only be checked out by one system at a time (refer to the Network Licensing section above). For another user to be able to run any of the products on another machine using the same Suite license, all products must be closed on the first system. Page 6

7 3ds Max 2011 Release Notes Contents Prerequisites Release Version with Beta Customer Involvement Program (CIP) Customer Error Reports (CERs) Feature Limitations and Notes This readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software. It is strongly recommended that you read this entire document before installing the software. For reference, you should save this readme to your hard drive. For complete installation and networking instructions refer to the Autodesk 3ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design 2011 Installation Guide (which includes information about regular installation and network deployment). Access this guide in the Documentation menu of the installer. Find new feature information in the "What's New" section of the 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design Help. Find learning resources at: or Find support resources at: or Find the Readme (Release Notes) for 3ds Max Composite at: Page 1

8 Prerequisites The following are a few points related to installing and licensing of Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011: Before an end-user with restricted Windows operating system privileges can use Autodesk 3ds Max 2011/Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011, an administrator, with full privileges, must install and start the software one time in order to generate the Windows operating system registry information needed to complete the installation. Before installing any third-party plug-ins for Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011, an administrator, with full privileges, must install and start 3ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design 2011 at least one time to generate the necessary folders for these third-party plug-ins. (Windows 7 operating system) When installing 3ds Max 2011 or 3ds Max Design 2011 with 3ds Max 2010 or 3ds Max Design 2010, you must install the 3ds Max 2010 Hot Fix 7 ( ). To download this Hot Fix go to: Release Version with Beta If you previously installed any beta version (including Release Candidate (RC) versions) of Autodesk 3ds Max 2011/Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011, you must uninstall and delete all system folders pertaining to these prerelease versions before you can install the commercial version. Instructions on how to uninstall the software are posted on the beta portal in the Beta and RC Readme files. Customer Involvement Program (CIP) The first time you start 3ds Max/3ds Max Design, the Customer Involvement Program dialog opens. If you choose to participate in the Customer Involvement Program, 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design will automatically send Autodesk information about system configuration, what features you use most, any problems that you encounter, and other information helpful to the future direction of the product. For further information, see To enable CIP: 1. Start 3ds Max/3ds Max Design. 2. If the Customer Involvement Program dialog box is not displayed automatically, then in the Help menu, click Customer Involvement Program. 3. In the Customer Involvement Program dialog box, select "Participate - with contact information." Enter a valid address and company name. Click OK Page 2

9 Customer Error Reports (CERs) We are able to improve the stability of Autodesk 3ds Max/Autodesk 3ds Max Design largely because of the Customer Error Reports (CERs) that end-users submit. We thank you for taking the time to fill out these reports and ask you to include as much information as possible about what actions you were performing at the time the error occurred. These details raise the value of the report immensely and are very much appreciated by the Autodesk 3ds Max Quality Engineering team. For further information about CERs refer to Feature Limitations and Notes The following are the known feature limitations and notes for RC1: Feature 3ds Max Composite Limitations and Notes Issues related to 3ds Max Composite are tracked in a separate release note. See Also see the Installation Issues related to 3ds Max Composite. Autodesk Backburner Autodesk Backburner is the default version of Backburner installed with 3ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design There are two other versions of Backburner shipped on the DVD: 2011, and (ipv6). For information about the various versions of Autodesk Backburner available with 3ds Max/3ds Max Design 2011, refer to the Autodesk 3ds Max 2011/Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 Installation Guide. Click Documentation in the Installer. Important: Autodesk Backburner 2011 is not compatible with any version of 3ds Max/3ds Max Design before Autodesk FBX For the best interoperability and smoothest Autodesk FBX workflows it is recommended that you work with Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 / Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 and Autodesk Revit ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design 2011 is required to import any Autodesk Revit 2011 FBX files and retain materials, environments, RPCs, and lights. 3ds Max 2010/2009 or 3ds Max Design 2010/2009 can import Revit FBX 2011 files; however, only geometry and cameras will import (losing materials, lights and environments). Revit 2010/2009 FBX files will import without issue into 3ds Max 2011/2010/2009 or 3ds Max Design 2011/2010/2009. Filelink for FBX: Scaling issues occur when importing Autodesk Revit 2011 FBX files into 3ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design 2011, when the system units for 3ds Max/3ds Max Design are set to anything other than feet. If a Revit FBX file is imported into 3ds Max/3ds Max Design, while system units are set to inches, the photometric light emitter shapes will not be scaled correctly. The length and width will be 12 times smaller than they should Page 3

10 be. Workaround: Set 3ds Max/3ds Max Design to use Feet System Units before performing the FBX import or File Link. Autodesk Material Library: FBX AutoCAD embedded or referenced textures are not being imported. When exporting you must select "Copy textures to a single location". The texture assets will come through labeled as GUID and will not be located in the location specified in AutoCAD; instead they will exist in a temp folder. Autodesk Inventor Import Autodesk Material Library Variable Radius Fillets are not supported when added as Body Objects. Springs do not import correctly as Body Objects. Files created from imported IGES files in old versions of Autodesk Inventor will not import as Body Objects. When imported as Body objects, materials of weldment objects in an Inventor assembly are not supported. When imported as Body objects with an assembly that has body overrides, materials of the corresponding bodies are not supported. WIRE files import with transparent material. Transparency can be changed to fully opaque in the Material Editor if required or the Assembly file can be imported with "Import Inventor Materials" set to off. WIRE files imported as Body Objects cannot be converted to NURBS to be exported as IGES files for use in Autodesk Alias Studio. WIRE imports do not import surface names. Older Inventor files can give incorrect error messages on import. Some objects can import with missing or misplaced geometry. If this occurs you can try exporting as SAT and reading it in. Also, changing the SAT version can give you different results as surfaces are represented differently for different versions. Advanced parameters for Autodesk Materials (ambient occlusion, rounded corners, and performance tuning) are not yet supported. Libraries must be uninstalled in reverse order: 1. First uninstall Autodesk Material Library 2011 Medium Image Library. 2. Next uninstall Autodesk Material Library 2011 Base Image Library. AutoCAD files using the Metal Cutout presets will not import correctly. The Water Reflecting Pool material can render a different color than blue when loaded, and might need to be adjusted. Scene files can load more slowly if they use Autodesk Materials, compared to other 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design materials. Instancing large numbers of Autodesk Material via MAXScript can cause an eventual program error. Autodesk Material bitmaps do not support the 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design Bitmap Proxies feature. Warning: Uninstalling the Autodesk Material Library can adversely affect Page 4

11 Autodesk Network License Manager other Autodesk products such as AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit, and Autodesk Inventor. See Licensing Issues. Caddy Spinners might cut off text when showing US Standard units. CAT Clicking the color swatch on the Motion panel > Layer Manager rollout for a CAT rig with the (Available) item highlighted and then clicking in the Color Selector dialog can cause a crash. Workaround: To avoid this, change the color only for a highlighted animation layer. Compact Material Editor The Put Material To Scene button no longer works in the Compact Material Editor. Container When Remove is used, any selected inherited content will not be removed from the container. It is only possible to remove locally added objects from containers. An inherited container proxy list does not update when new proxies are added to the source. Containers nested inside other inherited containers will fail to load their content if their definition was originally specified using a local path. To resolve this, either repath the container definition to the network drive with the asset tracker, or add this path to the External Files panel of the User Paths dialog. Local changes to the hierarchy of inherited content will be lost on update. Source hierarchy is restored. When adding a complex rig or hierarchy to a container, it is recommended that either the container be at 0,0,0 or all contents have a common parent at 0,0,0. CAT and Biped rigs do not behave properly when in containers. For example, they do not move when containers are moved, and they do not update when inherited. If you edit materials on inherited content, you need to give them a new name. Materials on inherited content will update even if they are locked, if the local material name is the same as the source material name. When a container is saved and open, using Shift+Move on the container and its content at the same time can create unwanted duplicates. Merge Source Definition or Make All Content Unique will create duplicates of content in inherited containers whose source rule allows either Only Add New Objects or Anything Unlocked. Workaround: Unload the container before using Merge Source Definition or Make All Content Unique. Graphite Modeling When using Object Paint to paint on a surface or grid that is perpendicular to the viewing plane, the resulting number of objects and their placement Page 5

12 Tools can be unpredictable. The PolyDraw > Topology tool supports only User and Perspective viewports. Ink n' Paint The placement of ink lines for the Ink 'n Paint material in mental ray differs from previous versions of 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design. Installation Issues Licensing Issues (Windows XP operating system only) When installing a silent deployment, the system will reboot at the end of the installation without any notification. This is normally because the PC does not have MSI 4.5. The yc command to switch licensing only works for 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design. It does not work for other software such as 3ds Max Composite, Autodesk MatchMover and so on. 3ds Max Composite / MatchMover must have 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design installed to work. 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design needs to be run at least once before running partners and plug ins, including 3ds Max Composite. For 3ds Max Composite this ensures that if you are using a network license, it will work properly. (Windows 7 operating system only) When installing 3ds Max 2011 or 3ds Max Design 2011 with 3ds Max 2010 or 3ds Max Design 2010, you must install the 3ds Max 2010 Hot Fix 7 ( ). To download this Hot Fix go to: (Windows Vista and Mac Boot Camp operating systems only) A valid license cannot be obtained by the network client when the client and server are on the same machine (IPv4). Workaround: To workaround this issue, do the following: 1. Obtain the IP address of the machine. (You can obtain it using the ipconfig command or with the System setting of LMTOOLS.) 2. Open the hosts file which is located on C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc folder. 3. Add the IP address and hostname to the hosts file, such as ACRDLICENSEQA1 4. Save the hosts file. You can now obtain a valid license. Registration Activation Error ( ) displays on page when you install a 2011 product and then install a 2010 product, side by side. This happens during offline (manual) activation only. (ipv6 network only) Autodesk Network License Manager: If you are using a license server in an ipv6 network, you need to install a patch to the Autodesk Network License Manager, otherwise the license server will not work. Page 6

13 To install the patch: 5. Shut down your license server. 6. Back up the contents of..\program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager files. By default these files are in (C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager) 7. Download the patch at: windows 8. Unzip the patch and paste the new files over the old ones in..\program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager. (Four files will be overwritten.) 9. Restart your license server. Your license server should now work as expected. Localization Multi byte file names can display incorrectly in the Bitmap Parameters rollout. The right click context menu for caddy is not localized. MAXScript range_check and MXS_range_check can return error messages on integer values and give corrupted error messages. mental mill mental mill is not shipped with 3ds Max 2011/3ds Max Design Download it from the web at: mental ray mental ray does not always release memory when a render is complete. Workaround: Restart 3ds Max/3ds Max Design. In certain situations, when you load an XMSL file in a DirectX Material, while using the mental ray renderer, the software might stop working. Workaround: Use the Scanline or Quicksilver renderers in 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design. MetaSL Autodesk Metal material: Custom relief maps do not work. When using mental ray, the illumination phong MetaSL node needs to have a Normals make Normal node wired to the normal input. Slate is recommended when working with MetaSL nodes. Geometry disappears when using an Opacity map when Show Hardware Map in Viewport is not enabled and checked. Particles If particles are oriented to a Daylight system with a Shape Facing operator, adjusting the sun position or orientation causes the particles to disappear temporarily from viewports. Quicksilver Video memory resources are consumed quickly if you have many lights with shadows in your scene. The system might render slowly or reset video cards. High antialiasing settings could lead to a black render. Waves map does not render correctly in Quicksilver or in the viewport Page 7

14 renderer. Very large shadow maps (i.e x 4096) can cause render errors. Using smaller sizes (i.e. 512 x 512) will correct this error. GTS 8800 cards can cause some objects to flicker. Rendering of scenes that contain large number of textures could potentially cause image artifacts when rendering a sequence of frames. Under certain conditions, usually compiling very complex material trees, the video card can be forced to reset on the Vista operating system and the Windows 7 operating system. The Windows XP 32 bit operating system may become unstable. Quicksilver can render black frames under certain sampling settings depending on how much memory the video card has. Typically this is when memory is close to 512MB. Object properties are not supported in particular Rendering Control visibility. Exclude/Include for lights is not supported. Groups cannot have reflection they need to be exploded. Vertex colors are not supported in Quicksilver. Only one layer of transparency is supported. When several transparent objects overlap, only the first will be drawn. The thumbnail background of the material editor is not supported. Gamma is not applied under command line rendering. The following are unsupported maps in Quicksilver: o Combustion o Cellular o Flat Mirror o Particle Age o Particle MBlur o Thin Wall Refraction o Vertex Color The following are not fully supported maps in Quicksilver: o Falloff: Only perpendicular / parallel with viewing direction supported. o Gradient Ramp: Normal Gradient Type not supported. o Noise: Only Regular Noise Type supported. o Normal Bump: Additional Bump not supported. o Raytrace: Certain adjustable parameters under Raytrace map are o not supported. Reflect/Refract: Certain adjustable parameters under Reflect/Refract map are not supported. Quicksilver does not support Refraction. Quicksilver does not support certain output parameters. This issue impacts all map types. Ribbon The following problems may result if the font size is changed in the Ribbon: o Sometimes the Customize dialog will stop working. Selecting new trees does not update in the Preview window. Page 8

15 o o o Sometimes, after changing the font size, the Ribbon loses all text except tab and panel names. The text reappears in floating panels but not in the main Ribbon. Changing the font size with the Ribbon minimized and then selecting a tab such as the Graphite Modeling Tools tab may cause the system to stop working. Sometimes unselected geometries keep selection and transfer gizmos as though they were still selected. Tab Export and conditional UI elements are not supported in third party extensions. ToolClips, the movies in some ribbon tooltips, do not work on the Windows XP 64 bit operating system. ToolClips might not play in certain dual monitor setups. RPC Plug- Ins from ArchVision, Inc. Save As Previous (ipv6 network only) RPC Plug-In: The RPC Plug in does not fully support IPV6. On first launch of the RPC Plug in, when you configure the plug in in the content manager configuration section, the network card is not detected. Workaround: Enable the ipv4 stack and click Rescan. Now your network card will be detected so you can configure the content manager, including setting the path where your RPC files are located. Note: This is not an issue for ipv4 only networks or for ipv6 dual stack networks. However, similar problems may arise if you are bound to an ipv6 network. Certain issues arise if you use the Save As Previous feature in 3ds Max 2011 on a file that contains: o Containers that specify proxies. o Base objects on nodes that are locked. (These items will not be maintained if you open the files in 3ds Max 2010.) When saving a scene with RGB image file as render output to previous version, the program fails to load the saved RGB output settings. SDK For SDK release information see "What's New: 3ds Max 2011" in the SDK Programmer's Guide. You can find this guide in: <maxsdk_install_root>\help\3dsmaxsdkfull.chm. Slate Material Editor There are two problems when you drag and drop layers in a Composite map: (1) dragging to make a layer the first layer is off by one; (2) if maps are applied to the layer you drag and drop, extra copies of these maps appear in the active View, but the copies are not wired to the layer: You can safely delete them. When you minimize the Slate Material Editor, the dialog will keep focus. This gives the impression that the 3ds Max keyboard shortcuts are not functioning. It is recommended that you close the Slate Material Editor when you are not using it. Page 9

16 MetaSL support: Additional state parameters displayed in mental mill are not yet supported in 3ds Max (namely Normal and Position). The Morpher material is not fully compatible with the Slate Material Editor. Workaround: The Choose Morph Object button does not work. Instead, use the Compact Material Editor for Morpher Material workflows. The Morpher material displays 50 material slots in its node by default and this number cannot be reduced. When you use a controller node to set parameter values, in some cases the interface allows you to set the value outside the parameter s range. Most of the time, the value is reset to an appropriate value. In the Material/Map Browser, the Windows Theme CUI color setting can make the selection hard to see in 3ds Max Design. The scrollbar does not appear when setting the material display type to Icon only. Pressing the Delete key while dragging an Input Wire can cause a program error. UVW Unwrap Viewport Canvas Windows 7 operating system The selection is lost when adding UVW Unwrap. Workaround: Use a custom button or hot key for Uv_SelectionFromBase. When creating a new texture in Viewport Canvas, do not exceed the maximum bitmap size provided under Preset Sizes: Width/Height=2048. Exceeding this size can lead to error messages and eventually Viewport Canvas may exit. Viewport Canvas layers: Browsing through blending options in the Layers dialog list does not support the up and down cursor keys. Viewport Canvas does not display the tiling parameters in the map, only the UVs. Performance can be affected by attempting to paint on an object with small bitmap tiles. For this reason, it is recommended that you paint with UVs that have been applied with no or very limited tiling and with Real World Map Size turned off. Viewport Canvas does not support history for texture paths. The Fill tool can sometimes cause a MAXScript error. By default in the Windows 7 operating system, Snap To is enabled. You can disable it if you choose. While this feature can be convenient, when it is enabled you can easily confirm dialogs without reading what your confirmation will do. 1. In Windows 7 open the Mouse Properties dialog box. 2. Select the Pointer Options tab. 3. Under Snap To, un-check the box that says Enabling the Windows 7 "Snap To" feature to move the mouse pointer to the default button of dialog boxes. 4. Click OK to close the Mouse Properties dialog box. 5. For security reasons and to prevent accidental clicks, enabling this feature will not move the mouse pointer whenever a User Access Page 10

17 Control dialog box appears. When installing 3ds Max 2011 or 3ds Max Design 2011 with 3ds Max 2010 or 3ds Max Design 2010, you must install the 3ds Max 2010 Hot Fix 7 ( ). To download this Hot Fix go to: XMSL files In certain situations, when you load an XMSL file in a DirectX Material, while using the mental ray renderer, the software might stop working. Workaround: Use the Scanline or Quicksilver renderers in 3ds Max / 3ds Max Design. If you use Materials > Export To XSML File, parameters saved in the shader tree are lost. Exported XMSL files do not contain the correct parameter values. Page 11

18 MotionBuilder 2011 Release Notes Contents New features and enhancements in this Release Additional Changes in this Release Resolved Issues Unresolved Issues and Limitations Documentation Updates These Release Notes document last minute updates to the Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 software product/documentation. The Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 software for Microsoft Windows is now available for purchase through Autodesk resellers. Go to and click the Buy link at the top right of the page. For current MotionBuilder Subscription customers, the Autodesk MotionBuilder 2011 software can be downloaded through the Autodesk Subscription Center (Subscription with Gold Support) at: For information about the MotionBuilder software, or for any downloads, go to: support. For updates to the MotionBuilder 2011 documentation, go to: documentation. Whether you are new to MotionBuilder, somewhat familiar with MotionBuilder, or an advanced MotionBuilder user/software developer, we invite you to consult the following Autodesk web pages. learningpath area.com hardware For information about the Autodesk Entertainment and Creation Suites, go to: For information about the Autodesk featured software trials, go to: Page 1

19 New features and enhancements in this Release The following describes the new features and enhancements in the MotionBuilder 2011 software product release. File I/O Support This release uses the FBX SDK 7.0 as the mechanism to handle file I/O, thus allowing optimum compatibility with other Autodesk 3D software products such as Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max. The following summarizes the changes to the file I/O. You can now open in MotionBuilder 2011.fbx files created in earlier versions of MotionBuilder, however, all files saved in MotionBuilder 2011are saved by default in the new FBX file format (version 7.0). You can save (export).fbx files created in MotionBuilder 2011 to an earlier version of FBX by choosing from the main menu Python Tools > FBX Export > FBX Saving MotionBuilder 2011 to FBX version 2010 ensures compatibility with Autodesk version 2010 applications. See File I/O limitation. You can now choose File > Open to open or import any.fbx file. As a result, the File menu options FBX Plug in Import and Import have been removed. You can now choose File > Merge to merge any.fbx file. As a result, the File menu option FBX Plug in Merge has been removed. You now import motion capture files via File > Motion File Import. As a result, the File menu option Import has been remove. You now export motion capture files via File > Motion File Export. As a result, the File menu option Export has been removed. See File I/O limitation. Page 2

20 Animation Layers Enhancements The new Animation Layer editor replaces the Layer pane in the FCurves window. The Animation Layer editor lets you create, select, and merge layers of animation. The Animation Layer editor lets you manage layer order, and parent, mute, solo, and lock layers. It also lets you select various layer blending modes, such as Additive and Override, and layer accumulation modes. Each layer has a Weight value that can be changed and animated to determine how much of its animation plays in the result animation. The shades of green used to indicate selected layers in the Animation Layer editor and the current layer have been modified to improve visibility. In addition, Animation layer functionality is exposed through the new FBAnimationLayer class. Animation Layers Naming Convention The default layer naming convention for layers in the Animation Layer editor has been updated to ensure proper interoperability between the MotionBuilder and Maya software. As a result, the Base Layer is now named BaseAnimation, the Layer 1 is now named AnimLayer1, and layers you create are now named AnimLayer2 and so on. The same is true when layers are duplicated. Note: If you open a file containing older animation layers, the layers are not renamed. For example, you may still see a layer called "Layer 1". When you import to the Maya software, Layer 1 is renamed Layer_1 and when you import back to MotionBuilder, the layer name Layer_1 is retained. Materials and Textures Enhancements Various enhancements have been made to the materials and textures. The following summarizes the main improvements. The material, texture, and shader assets are now grouped under the new Asset browser's Shading Elements directory. The Shading Elements folder contains the Material asset, as well as a Texture asset and a Layered Texture asset meant for use with materials. The Global Lighting Texture folder under the Shading Elements directory contains various texture and Layered texture assets meant for use with shaders. The Shaders folder under the same directory contains all the shaders, including any custom shaders you may have on your system. Page 3

21 Materials The Material settings include new properties and settings. The new properties are Displacement, Bump Map, and Normal Map. The new settings include the Intensity (or Factor) settings and the Texture list and button. The Intensity settings let you adjust and animate each property's influence on the material result. The Texture list and button let you attach and detach textures to each property. Note: To see the results of textures attached to material properties other than Diffuse, Bump Map, and Normal Map, use custom shaders (created using the Open Reality SDK). The Material settings can be sorted into two categories: basic and advanced settings. The advanced settings require a corresponding shader to display the result in the Viewer. For example, to see the result of a texture attached to the Bump Map property, a Bump Map or Dynamic Lighting shader needs to be applied to the model. Some advanced settings, such as Specularity textures or Reflectivity RGB, need custom shaders created using the Open Reality SDK to display the result in the Viewer. You can use the Advanced Mode option to disable or activate the advanced settings. When a model has more than one material (such as a Multi/Sub Object material) applied to it when you import it from a 3D modeling software, such as Autodesk 3ds Max, these materials are now listed in the Scene browser and are attached to the model. MotionBuilder includes all the materials imported with the model, and assumes that material has a corresponding polygon region (also called material IDs) on the model. You can modify, replace, or delete materials applied to regions. However these regions are set in the 3D modeling software and cannot be altered using MotionBuilder. Textures The material, texture, and shader assets are now organized differently in the Asset browser. In addition, textures are now sorted under two categories: textures to be used with materials, and Global Lighting textures. In previous versions of MotionBuilder, the Texture asset was attached directly to the model. Now, textures, meant to add color and detail to a model's appearance, are attached to a material property, such as the Diffuse and Bump Map properties. To create textures to be used with materials, drag the asset from the Shading Elements folder in the Asset browser. Either drop the texture onto a model in the Viewer, or drop it onto a material in the Scene browser. A menu appears to let you select the material property to which you want to attach the texture. Note: To see the results of textures attached to material properties other than Diffuse, Bump Map, and Normal Map, use custom shaders created using the Open Reality SDK. Global Lighting textures are applied directly to the model and are generated by or interact with various shaders, such as Shadow Map, Lighted, and Reflection shaders. To create Global Lighting textures, expand the Shading Elements folder and drag the asset from the Global Lighting Texture folder. Page 4

22 The new Layered Texture assets let you blend multiple textures and then adjust the result as if it were a single texture. The Layered Texture settings consist of the Texture Settings pane (which contain the usual settings), and the Layer Settings pane, where you add, manage, and blend multiple textures. In Texture settings, there is a new UV Set field that lets you select different UV sets (also known as Map Channels) when a model has more than one. Also, the Rotation settings have additional functionality. Note: The Use Material option has been removed, and the Texture Type menu remains only to indicate which type of texture you created. Materials and Textures Handling The handling of materials and textures has been updated to support the FBX geometry model and provide better interoperability with Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max, and to improve shader performance. The texture / material model now allows transport of currently dropped channels, and all materials now contain mapping channels where you can apply textures to different components of the material. This change impacts the SDK as follows: FBFastTessellator has been removed. Python Tools Menu You can now access the Python tools via the Python Tools menu. The Python tools now include a batch tool script and an FBX Export option to save MotionBuilder 2011 files to FBX Note: The FBX 2010 files are not MotionBuilder files. Therefore, anything specific to MotionBuilder (such as Story information, devices, etc.) is discarded when using Python Tools > FBX Export or when using the FBX Converter. Page 5

23 Joint Physical Property Enhancements Two options have been added to the Joints solver: Disable collision and Creation type. Disable Collision The Disable collision option gives you the ability to deactivate the collision effect during a solve, letting you control whether the Rigid body objects strike or pass through each other. When you activate the Disable collision option, the Rigid body objects affected by the solve collide and react with each other. When you disable the Disable Collision option, the Rigid Body object reaction to the Joint solve is not affected if it collides with another Rigid body object. This ability to disable the collision behavior of the solve is useful when you want joint behavior from Rigid Body objects but do not want them to collide. Creation Type The Creation type menu has been added to the Joints solver to let you choose between the default Joint solve behavior or the ability to activate the Joint behavior only upon setting the solve to live. In previous versions of MotionBuilder, joint behavior was created only at the moment when the solver is set to Online. Because of this, you must position the affected rigid body objects correctly at the moment of solver initialization. To use this behavior, select At Solver Initialization from the Joint > Setup > Creation type menu. If you want to activate the joint solve at a specific time other than the start of the simulation, select At enable from the Joints > Setup > Creation type menu. This new Joint option lets you lets you activate the joint at a point in the simulation other than the start, for example when you want a character to catch something. This behavior is similar to being able to key and animate the joint behavior, much the same way you can turn a constraint on after a certain time has elapsed. Dynamic Lighting Shader Two settings have been added to the Dynamic Lighting shader: Transparency Factor slider and the Affecting Lights field. Transparency Factor slider The Transparency Factor slider lets you manipulate or animate the Transparency value for the Dynamic Lighting shader. The default setting is A material's Transparency settings can also interact with the Dynamic Lighting shader's Transparency values and affect the result. Page 6

24 Affecting Lights field The Affecting Lights field lets you specify which lights illuminate the object to which the Dynamic Lighting shader is applied. Since there is a maximum of eight lights available in any given MotionBuilder scene due to OpenGL limitations, you can use the Affecting Lights field to add lights to the scene. Alt drag any light in your scene into the Affecting Lights field. You can also click the Affecting Lights button next to the field to display the Asset list, where you can choose from the lights in your scene. Note: The Affecting Lights field has the same function as the Selective Lighting shader. Do not use the Selective Lighting shader with the Dynamic Lighting shader; this may cause problems. Use the Dynamic Lighting shader's Affecting Lights field instead. Time independent Keyframes Changes have been made to preserve the Bezier Auto and Bezier Clamp key types when transferring animation in a Maya MotionBuilder Maya workflow. Bezier Auto and Bezier Clamp keyframe types have a new "time independent" mode. When exported to Maya, the new "time independent" key types are not converted to "Fixed" (User) keys. They preserve instead the exact same key type (Maya exact equivalent). So when "time independent", Bezier Auto keys are Spline in Maya, and Clamp keys are Clamp keys in Maya. The behavior of the Bezier Auto and Bezier Clamp keyframes created in previous versions of MotionBuilder is supported in this release. When exported to Maya, these keyframes are still converted to a "Fixed" (User) key type. Note: Changing the interpolation of any keyframe "resets" the key and the key uses the new "time independent" mode from then on. Camera Back/Front Plate Image and video files are no longer directly attached to a camera's Back Plate or Front Plate. To apply an image or video clip to a camera's Back or Front Plate, drag a texture onto the camera or into the Background Texture field in the Camera settings. Page 7

25 New Default Layouts The default layouts have been revisited and updated. In addition, new default layouts have been added to support screen resolutions of 1920 x The updates to the default layouts include the following: The Dynamic Editor window is replaced by the Animation Layer editor. The Navigator window in the Editing layout no longer includes the Motion Blend tab. You can however access the Motion Blend window via the MotionBuilder Window menu. The Creation, Animation, Editing, Preview, and Story default layouts now include a default layout configuration for monitors with a display resolution of 1920 x The default layouts reside in the MotionBuilder root directory under \bin\config\layouts\base. These default layouts are also added under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\MB2011\config\Layouts\Base after first launching the application. The custom layouts are saved under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\MB2011\config\Layouts on a Vista and Windows 7 OS, and in the MotionBuilder root directory under \bin\config\layouts on a Windows XP OS. Note: If you installed MotionBuilder 2011 on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system, make sure to delete your MB2011 user data saved under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Autodesk before first launching MotionBuilder Otherwise, the new default layouts will not overwrite the old default layouts saved in the user data. Motion Capture on Bones Motion capture sensor data can now be associated directly in the motion capture hardware with a character's skeleton nodes. This mechanism is demonstrated by the new sample Skeleton mocap: deviceskeleton. Python Batch Tool Script There is a new Python UI based batch tool script. The Python code (BatchTool.py) can be found in the MotionBuilder root directory under the bin\config\pythonstartup\ folder. The Python Batch Tool is accessible via the MotionBuilder Python Tools menu and via the Python Editor Tool Manager button. New FBFCurve Functions With FBFCurve::KeyDelete you can delete keys within an index range, which is much faster than multiple uses of FBFCurve::KeyRemove. Page 8

26 Embedding.cgfx Shader Files When saving a file, enabling the Embed Medias option in the Save File dialog box now embeds CgFX shader media files in the.fbx file. When you reopen the file with the embedded media, the media files are extracted to an.fbm folder and the path in the CgFX shader settings is updated to point to this.fbm folder. New Shape Editing Interface The shape editing interface is now exposed to ORSDK & Python. For usage, see ShapeCreation.py. New function FBComponent::HardSelect() In the Viewer or Navigator this both selects and item and shows it in the right pane, ready for the user to edit. New Sample Code FBKeyingGroupLocal.py: shows how to create a cube and add translation, rotation and scaling properties of the cube into a custom keying group. Autodesk Installation and Licensing This release supports the standard Autodesk Installation and licensing scheme to align MotionBuilder with the other Autodesk software products and to improve the userexperience. Additional Changes in this Release The following describes additional changes to this release of the MotionBuilder software product. Story Tool Optimization The work on Story tool optimization to improve the overall stability and performance is ongoing. The Story tool evaluation is now part of the MotionBuilder engine. Updated Qt Support This release of MotionBuilder supports Qt version Page 9

27 Updated Python Support The MotionBuilder libraries are upgraded to Python version (released in October 2009) the same version used in the latest Autodesk Maya product. This release (as the previous release) of the MotionBuilder software includes the entire Python Package a benefit to users who no longer need to download the entire package from to make use of specific functions that ship with the standard Python install. NVIDIA PhysX Support This release support the NVIDIA PhysX solver plug in. Note: You need the NVIDIA PhysX driver to be able to use this plug in. Perforce Support This release supports Perforce. Customer Involvement Program Support This release enables you to preview your CIP data. To preview your CIP data, go to the MotionBuilder Help menu and choose the Customer Involvement Program menu, then click the Preview MY CIP Data at the bottom right corner of the Autodesk Customer Involvement Program window. Windows 7 Support This release of MotionBuilder is supported on the Microsoft Windows 7 Professional on 64 bit Operating Systems (OS). IPv6 Support This release supports the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6, the successor of IPv4). IPv6 supports the use of a 128 bit address whereas IPv4 supports only the use of a 32 bit address. Note: IPv6 is on by default. See the IPv6 Network limitations. Page 10

28 Resolved Issues The following describes the issues addressed in the MotionBuilder 2011 software product release. Plotting to a New Clip When you use Process Tracks/Subtrack To New Clip, the processed clip now contains all the animation from the selected clips. Story Custom TimeWarp Curve When you edit a Story clips' TimeWarp curve, the TimeWarp curve is now drawn correctly and matches the modified Clip In and Mark In settings. MotionBuilder differentiates between the length of a clip and the original animation data it contains. When you modify a clip, such as shortening or looping, the original length of the animation data is not lost. Now, short vertical lines on the TimeWarp curve, shown in the following figure (B), indicate the Clip In and Clip Out. Cutting Multiple Clips In the Story window, clicking the Razor button can now slice multiple clips at the same time. To razor multiple clips, place the Timeline indicator over the selected clips, then click the Razor button. Clips that are not selected are not sliced. Blend Properties in Story Blend properties in the Story are now saved correctly. Previously, edited blend properties were discarded. C3D File Import C3D files with animation on negative frames no longer cause MotionBuilder to become unstable. CgFX Shader Parameters Page 11