Golaem Crowd 7.1.1

Golaem releases Golaem 7.1.1, the latest version of its crowd simulation and character layout software. The 7 release brings a new Character Layout Tool, including a DCC agnostic nodal editor and more capabilities, as well as a live link to Unreal Engine.

Golaem 7.1.1 (2019/10/08) - Release notes:

New features
- Added support of instancing in the Character Geometry file (animated or not)
- Added "Mesh Target" mode on Goto Behavior
Improvements
- Added a Far Clip Distance in the Simulation Cache Proxy
- Enabled multithreading in the Renderman Plugin
- Added curve type parameter when rendering fur with the Renderman Plugin
- Added search field in the Add / Remove Mesh Assets Helper in the Layout Tool
- Added fallback on Goto Behavior when target is outside the navigation mesh
- Added Stop On Target Reached option on Goto Behavior (on by default)
Bug fixes
- Fixed Cryptomatte passe when using multiple Crowd Render Proxies
- Fixed Entity Type detection size not taken into account in Perception
- Fixed Keyframe Locator creation / deletion in the Layout Tool
- Fixed ground adaptation when using multiple Layout Files in the Layout Tool
- Fixed fur rendering when using a specific number of CV per curve
- Fixed rendering of Geometry Behavior when not starting at frame 0
- Fixed rendering of Geometry Behavior when using instancing
- Fixed refresh when changing ground adaptation in the Simulation Cache Proxy Manager
- Fixed "AEreplaceCompound" error message in the Simulation Cache Proxy
- Fixed ChOps connection deletion
- Fixed ChOps error message when connecting in a backward way
- Fixed reinitializing Layout Editor window position when a new layout file is loaded
- Fixed layout files not being added when archiving a scene
- Fixed terrain not being taken into account when using layout in Houdini plugin
- Fixed a crash in Houdini when trying to add shader attributes with invalid names. Invalid names are now encoded
- Fixed uvs in Houdini when rendering with Arnold
- Fixed ground adaptation when legs are attached to a spine with null length
Refactoring
- Updated Render Checker for Renderman 22
- The Simulation Cache Library Tool is now available without a license
- Renamed Entity Type parameter Detection Shape and Detection Shape Offset
Supported Rendering Engines
- Mtoa 3.1, 3.2
- V-Ray For Maya 4.0X
- V-Ray For 3ds Max 4.10
- Renderman For Maya 22.4, 22.5
- Mental Ray 3.13.X
- Redshift 2.6.14-20
- 3Delight Studio Pro 11.0.XX and 12.X
- Guerilla Render 2.1, 2.2
- Katana 2.5, 2.6 and 3.X from KtoA 2.X and RfK 22.4, 22.5
- Unreal Engine 4.20
- Houdini 17.5
Also supported (but must be manually installed):
- Mtoa 3.0, 2.X
- V-Ray For Maya 3.6X
- Redshift 2.5.64-71
- Unreal Engine 4.21-23

Golaem releases Golaem 7, the latest version of its crowd simulation and character layout software. It brings a new Character Layout Tool, including a DCC agnostic nodal editor and more capabilities, as well as a live link to Unreal Engine.


A new Character Layout Tool
Born as a retake tool for Golaem simulations, Golaem Layout is now evolving as an independent tool for procedural character layout, enabling artists to easily populate shots by using Population Vignettes they can place in their scene and quickly edit them to fit with the shot direction.

A Population Vignette is similar to a proxy for characters and their animations which can be edited thanks to directable layers such as automatic feet adaptation to the ground, look at, duplicate, controllable geometry and shading variations, animation retiming, IK autorig to retake animation…
Artists can then adapt the scene very easily to frequent changes in directorial intentions or environment changes. For example, taking into account a new ground geometry can be done in one click.

Population Vignettes edits are non destructive, and performed using a new nodal editor which makes it easy to copy edits to others characters, rearrange modifications, test different stacks of modifications and so on. The new Layout architecture also makes it possible to drive edit with locators, or to keyframe their values using the standard Maya tools.

Population Vignettes can be layouted manually or scattered in the scene thanks to the Golaem Population Tool. Thousands of them can be animated in real time without slowing down Maya or making the scene file longer to open.

Golaem Layout has been unanimously acclaimed as a huge time and money saver by all its customers.


Round trip link with Unreal Engine
Golaem introduces a new plugin for Unreal Engine which enables loading Population Vignettes and layout them.

Unreal scenes can be refreshed instantly to take modifications done in Maya, and the Layout modifications can be edited directly in Unreal, and reloaded in Maya.
By avoiding things such as baking alembic caches and loading them in Unreal Engine, which wastes time and is always a pain to keep things in sync, this new workflow really facilitates the work of the team. It has already been used efficiently in production by Waterproof Studios and IGG Inc. for their in-game cinematics.

This new plugin takes advantage of Golaem C++/Python APIs which allows to quickly load Golaem simulation caches and layout in any platform (one of Golaem customers has implemented an Isotropix Clarisse integration in a few weeks). It also embeds the new Golaem Layout editor, which is independent from Maya, making it possible to use in any platform which supports Python.

The Unreal plugin source code is now available to customers so that they can compile their own Unreal Engine version with it, and contribute their developments.

Golaem develops artist-friendly tools to animate digital characters. Integrated in Autodesk Maya, Golaem makes it fast and affordable to populate worlds with directable digital characters, from a few to thousands. Artists from all over the globe use Golaem to bring life to commercials, episodic productions, feature films and games.

Product: Golaem Crowd
Version: 7.1.1
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page : http://golaem.com/
Language: english
System Requirements: *
Supported Operating Systems: *
Software Prerequisites: *
Size: 92.2 mb