Autodesk releases Maya LT 3D modeling tool for mobile and indie game makers

Autodesk creates a wide range of products, from consumer-oriented Windows eight apps like Sketchbook Express all the fashion to enterprise-level programs such as Maya 3D. The latter is used by moving-picture show makers, advertisers, and even gaming professionals to create 3D art and animations. Merely equally mobile and indie game evolution has been on the rise, Maya 3D has sometimes proven too costly for smaller developers to utilise.

Enter Autodesk Maya LT 2022. Inspired by Maya 3D only streamlined for the needs of modest game developers, Maya LT should potentially make information technology far easier for Windows viii and Windows Phone viii developers to create 3D assets and scale them across platforms. It's also far more affordable than Maya 3D. Full details and trailer after the interruption!

Features

Like its big brother, Maya LT is used to create 3D models, animation, and environments. The difference with LT is the feature set and UI take been designed specifically for game development. Parts of Maya 3D that game developers would never apply are gone, freeing up the screen of clutter.

Features that game developers use all the time accept been brought to the forefront instead of beingness buried under layers of menus. Plugins and scripting won't exist supported either – everything is meant to be simple only powerful.

Animation: Maya LT includes a bipedal skeleton generator and Autodesk HumanIK, the company's popular animation tool.

Lighting and Textures: Mobile developers will especially benefit from Maya LT'due south texture blistering support. Texture baking precomputes lighting and imitates information technology in textures for the model. This allows developers to just look up a broiled texture rather than recomputing lighting and shading – a big time and resource saver.

Shaders: Maya LT's Shader FX tool allows artists to create shaders without the need to learn a shader language. The shader definition tin can then be exported into cross-platform formats. Other users with the same shader definition will be able to view assets just as they would appear in the game. This eliminates the need to test a shaded asset in the game engine, cutting downwardly on testing time.

Polygon reduction: When developing a multiplatform game, developers often need to create complex 3D models and and so reduce the models' polygons for lower powered platforms like smartphones. Maya LT has built-in polygon reduction, then a model created for a Windows viii game tin easily exist downsized for utilise on Windows RT or Windows Phone 8 with no extra work.

Formats

Maya LT tin can import from various 3D formats, including Maya (MA, MB), MLT, OBJ, FBX, AI, EPS and texture formats (BMP, PNG, DDS, EXR, TGA, TIFF).

It can save and export to two formats. The first is MLT, a proprietary format which contains all of the data and detail associated with a model, much like PhotoShop's PSD format. The second is FBX, the aforementioned type of file that FBX Review for Windows 8 is designed to view.

The FBX format stores 3D data, textures, and animation. Information technology's already supported in several multiplatform engines like Unity and Unreal Engine, so Maya LT users tin can export to those engines with no extra work. Developers using their own proprietary engines can request the SDK to add together FBX back up besides.

Maya LT models exported in the FBX format are capped at 25,000 polygons. That limit is well within the needs of mobile and tablet developers, though information technology could prove small for retail game development. It's still perfect for downloadable Xbox One and XBLA games, nevertheless.

Pricing

Now for the large question: how much does information technology price? Maya 3D's starting license of $3700 would probably be too high for smaller game makers. A perpetual Maya LT license costs quite a chip less at $795.

Rental licenses volition also be launching soon. The rental pricing:

• Monthly: $50 per month
• Quarterly:  $142 per quarter ($42 per calendar month)
• Annual:  $400 ($35 per month)

In game evolution, team sizes fluctuate all the time. The rental option allows studios to pay for Maya LT but as they need it. Rental licenses will still do good from Maya LT's more frequent update cycle and forum access. Autodesk promises direct interaction with the Maya LT development team through the forums, so users tin potentially help prioritize features in time to come updates.

Time to create

Exercise we have whatsoever game developers in the house who'd like to work with Maya LT? If so, get out u.s. a comment and exist sure to visit the Maya LT website for more details.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/autodesk-maya-lt-mobile-developers

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