Maya 5

[vaniljus]

Maya5 ?

[stunndman]

Alias/Wavefront Announces Maya 5

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, Apr 6, 2003 (CCNMatthews via COMTEX) -- Latest Version of Award-Winning Software Delivers Unique Image Creation Possibilities, Increases Productivity and Builds on Existing Innovation

Alias/Wavefront(TM), an SGI (NYSE:SGI) company, announced today Maya(R) 5 -- the latest version of its Oscar(R) award-winning 3D software. With the eighth release of its flagship software, Alias/Wavefront delivers a host of innovative new ways to create digital content along with numerous customer suggested productivity enhancements. Improvements added to both Maya Complete(TM) and Maya Unlimited(TM) software will energize artist and programmer workflows in such creative industries as game development, broadcast graphics, web content creation, design visualization and film production.

"Our team has beta tested the new features in Maya, including the new fur clumping capabilities and the new wakes and ponds features in Maya Fluid Effects," said Jami Levesque at Meteor Studios. "Maya 5 is definitely going to be integrated into our current pipeline and will be used extensively in our future projects. The ease of use improvements in this release will simplify our artists' workflow and the unified rendering options will allow us to choose which renderer is best for the effects we're looking to achieve."

"We took feedback from our extensive community and built a new version of Maya that simplifies workflow, boosts productivity and puts more creative possibilities into their hands," said Bob Bennett, General Manager, Product Development, Alias/Wavefront. "We've also 'future-proofed' Maya by working closely with leading Hardware companies and expanded Maya's ability to work with other applications such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Flash and programs that read or write AutoCAD DWG files."

Unique Image Creation Possibilities

Maya 5 now boasts four distinctive options for rendering -- the Maya software renderer, mental ray(R) for Maya(TM), a new Vector Renderer and a breakthrough Hardware Renderer -- allowing users to choose the image creation method according to the task at hand: whether it be a photo-realistic design visualization or a toon-shaded Macromedia(R) Flash(R) Vector graphic for the web. As of Maya 5, all rendering options are unified through a consistent rendering user interface and workflow.

With Maya 5 Hardware rendering, customers can produce broadcast quality images up to 20 times faster than ever before possible. The new Vector Renderer allows Maya artists to create content in popular graphics formats such as Macromedia Flash (SWF), Encapsulated PostScript(R) (EPS), Adobe(R) Illustrator(R) (AI) and Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG(TM)). As a result, Maya is suddenly more applicable to 2D artists, web developers and even technical illustrators. Furthermore, mental ray is now a standard part of Maya, and Maya 5 brings the 3D industry its first introduction to the mental ray renderer, version 3.2.

Maya 5 Pumps Up Productivity

The Maya software's industry-leading modeling, animation and effects features have been fine-tuned using customer input to make production workflows more efficient. For example, extensive enhancements to animation constraints, one of the most widely used tools in everyday character animation, will save valuable time while providing improved flexibility when working with characters. Maya 5 introduces a highly visual form of FK/IK blending, plus new ghosting and channel muting options that speed up animation tasks.

In the realm of modeling, an expanded range of tools includes an innovative new polygon reduction facility, new UV editing and extrusion tools, including a graph-based profile curve for taper control. In Maya 5, artists can now use the Maya Artisan(TM) brush feature to paint Face Vertices for more precise placement of and even paint weighting values for polygon reduction, to intuitively keep detail in a chosen area.

Performance in Maya 5 has also been improved in the area of dynamics computation while speed on the Windows(R) operating system has been improved by up to 90%.

Programmers and Technical Directors will see numerous enhancements to the Maya API, including a node/attribute callback mechanism, more detailed exposure of light data and high-level polygon operations. There is also a new Maya Embedded Language(TM) (MEL) "renderer" command that simplifies the hook-up of third party renderers.

Building on Existing Innovation

Enhancements to the Maya software's, artist-friendly, brush-based toolsets amount to a new paradigm in organic modeling. As of Maya 5, Maya Paint Effects(TM) can now be drawn as, or converted to, polygons. This latest advance enables Maya Paint Effects to be edited with regular polygon tools and output to other renderers, including mental ray. In addition, a new Thin Line brush mode in Maya Paint Effects brings multi-streaked realistic hair within reach. Well over a hundred new preset brushes lend further artistic possibilities to the user and demonstrate the new mesh based features; everything from buildings, to crystals to infinitely detailed flowers and trees, are included.

Maya Unlimited delivers exciting new features in Maya Fluid Effects(TM), which have been enhanced so that previously unobtainable effects, including true dynamic computation of wakes and the accurate simulation of ponds and lakes, are now easily achieved. A new, Make Motion Field feature, lets users more accurately simulate the effect of objects moving through a fluid, such as a character emerging from a smoke cloud or a helicopter hovering above rippling water. Among the enhancements to Maya Fur(TM) is the addition of a new fur clumping feature that supports a range of hairy looks such as wet, matted or dirty fur. This new feature together with support for animated file textures enables artists to achieve time-based effects such as fur spreading out over a surface.

Another first is the inclusion of a free Maya Learning Tool(TM) DVD in every box of Maya software.

Enhanced Data Exchange

Maya 5 also offers enhanced and new data exchanges with leading technology applications which allows customers to interface with their choice of today's most popular data formats including; Macromedia Flash, DWG, DXF, Adobe Illustrator, Encapsulated PostScript, Scalable Vector Graphics, IGES, OpenFlight(R), StudioTools(R) and OBJ.

"The new version of Maya 5 is going to open up your mind and more," commented Dave Taylor, Creative Director at Taylor Imaging. "There's an entirely new level of possibilities added. From an architect's standpoint, we now have a DWG import and export on the Mac and for the industrial designer - IGES import and export to machineable parts. Now, take those two things and combine them with mental ray built in on the Mac for unsurpassed realism using HDRI textures. Now that's a screaming package! Users will be more than simply satisfied with this upgrade."

Pricing and Availability

Maya Complete for the Windows, IRIX(R), Linux(R) and Mac OS X operating systems, is priced at $1,999* and includes modeling, rendering, animation, dynamics, Maya Artisan, Maya Paint Effects, mental ray for Maya and Maya Embedded Language (MEL), an open interface for programming and scripting. Maya Unlimited for the Windows, IRIX and Linux operating systems, is priced at $6,999* and includes all features in Maya Complete along with Maya Fluid Effects, Maya Fur, Maya Cloth(TM) and Maya Live(TM). Maya will be available to purchase in May 2003 through the Alias/Wavefront network of authorized resellers or online at: http://www.aliaswavefront.com.

Version upgrades for Maya Complete are priced at $899* and for Maya Unlimited at $1,249*.

* Prices are list prices for node-locked licenses; floating licenses for Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited are available at an additional fee. All prices quoted are in U.S. dollars. International pricing may vary.


__________________

[onlooker]

If I bought Maya 4.5 less than 60 day's ago do you think I get a free update?:wavey:

[Mylenium]

If you contracted (and paid) for maintenance, the update will be free.

Mylenium

[Pour Mylène, ange sur terre]

[alexx]

in earlier days you had an uprgade contract of 1/2 year after buying maya.. think this is still the same today (hope so!!)

cheers

alexx

[onlooker]

So f I had no maintanance and I purchased it less two months ago im ineligible?
What a drag. So I guess I could have bought it the day before the 6th, and I still would be ineligible. If that's true that's a shitty policy.

[Kabab]

I think you miss-understood what alexx said;

If you are on maintance you will get upgrades as long as your on it..

What alexx was saying is if you just buy maya and get no maintance and they release a new version within 6 months of your purchase they will give you the upgrade for free.

Call up your reseller they should be able to sort you out.

[HADES]

l hope they fix the smooth uv in maya on polygon big nasty bug

[Goggle]

Anyone have tested the Hardware renderer ?

[beaker]

It's usually 45 or 90 days, definatly not 6 months.

[Ibanezhead]

I bought Maya 4 right after 4.5 was announced. 4.5 wasn't for sale for another month or so, and I got 4 immediately, then 4.5 when it was released, and I didn't have maintenance...

Vic

[Blackarts]

Any news on sub-d speed improvements? I couldnt care less about extruding along a curve - actually being able to use sub-d's to model something high-res is my number one priority.

[tropistic]

Originally posted by beaker
It's usually 45 or 90 days, definatly not 6 months.

Not even that long this time, just got this back from A|W:

"Any purchases made after April 07, 2003 will qualify for this new release..."

Jay

[alexx]

damn.. they changed a lot since the price drop.. especially the output of high version numbers at low innovation with high bug count :(

[onlooker]

no comment

[Maya Ayanami]

why is everyone saying that the poly bevel sucks lie sh#% I never even knew that there was such a thing. well can someone tell me why it sucks so bad. and doesnt this thread belong in the general discusion forum.
can u upgrade a 4.5 complete to 5.0 unlimited.
prabably not. that sucks.

[SheepFactory]

No it doesnt belong in the general discussions forum. It belongs here since its maya related.

Play with the bevel to understand what it does , the maya bevel triangulates edges and is unintiutive to use. Read the manual if you are not familiar with it.


And you can upgrade from complete to unlimited just fine.

[apol]

hi all

[Maya Ayanami]

then if u can upgrade from complete to unlimited just fine then can you buy complete then upgrade to 5 unlimited for the normal upgrade price.

[SheepFactory]

no you cant , the upgrade price is of course higher :rolleyes:

[Maya Ayanami]

have u noticed those crap videos that come up when first starting maya 4.5 I mean come on. if we are to buy maya then we are going to know how to make a cube and how to move rotate and scale it, and it doesn't matter if it is your fisrt time in maya. if you even spent 1 hour in a 3d app. then u shouldnt have any prob figuring these types of things out. hell, a newb could figure this out in less than 10 minutes.

I am quite excited about the vecter render. and I can even render to flash. how damm cool is that.
but maya's cel shaded render is most likely not near the quality that brazil can do.

[SheepFactory]

Those "crap" videos you mention are actually quite helpful for the new user to get familiar with maya's shortcuts and workflow.

Two posts above me you mentioned you dont know what a bevel is , so before acting all expert learn to use your tools , your argument and the tone of your language strike out as childish.

[Maya Ayanami]

but those vids(the last i heard) dont talk about a oly bevel. the only thing to me that would make sence is a vid that tells u about the alt+click to move around your scene since that basic function is not on the serface. but the other stuff like create primatives and the object translation controls are right there.

but I am sorry I guess that I was acting somewhat like a child. sorry

please forgive me sheep factory and everyone else as well

[DreGGs]

Lets see if we are going for another version of Maya without HDRI (native)...

[robin]

Sheep, this guy is from the Moon, everything is reversed there

he's obviously saying that the startup vids are the coolest thing since colour TV

;)

[Maya Ayanami]

what but chickens dont eat chease when flying to las vegas in on fridays.

[playmesumch00ns]

Originally posted by DreGGs
Lets see if we are going for another version of Maya without HDRI (native)...

mentalray is now a native maya renderer (ok ok, almost) doesn't that do HDRI?

[SheepFactory]

Does anyone know if Maya 5 has Normal Mapping?

[alexx]

emm.. maya has normal mapping basically since 1.0.. or do you mean a click an go solution like the ramp shader?

cheers

alexx

[X-Tender]

about which videos did you talk? .. the tutorials on aw.com ? .. :shrug:

[antweiler]

maya can do normal mapping, but its not easy to achieve. look at http://www.drone.org/tutorials/normal_maps.html

and theres a commercial plugin here:
http://crytek.com/downloads/index.php?sx=polybump

anti

[onlooker]

Originally posted by Sheep Factory
Those "crap" videos you mention are actually quite helpful for the new user to get familiar with maya's shortcuts and workflow.

Two posts above me you mentioned you don't know what a bevel is , so before acting all expert learn to use your tools , your argument and the tone of your language strike out as childish.

I agree about those intro videos, accept I found that the earlier version For Mac 3.5, and probably the same as Win 4.0 "Learning Tools: Getting Started With Maya" was much better, and informative than the "Learning Maya: Beginners Guide" version that was offered after 4.5 was introduced. The latter version had the camera spend way too much time on the narrator, and not on the screen, and with the app. The first version was more of a lecture while doing, rather than sit and talk about it to you, and show you little of what they were saying. "Learning Maya: Modeling For Animation" was the same way. A waste of DVD space IMO. "Maya Techniques: Modeling A Human Head" was in my opinion an ideal layout for an instructional video.

That's my 2¢:)

[beaker]

Originally posted by Maya Ayanami
and it doesn't matter if it is your fisrt time in maya. if you even spent 1 hour in a 3d app. then u shouldnt have any prob figuring these types of things out. hell, a newb could figure this out in less than 10 minutes.
Not everyone that gets into 3d learns that fast. It sounds like you had a computer since you were a kid so you have an advantage that not everyone else has. Some people are still trying to grasp the basics of just using a computer while trying to figure out 3d. I have seen many people struggle to create the basics in 3d. If you have looked at any demo reels this should be painfully obvious since 80% of them are crap.

[Maya Ayanami]

one time my mother took a computer class. she was 3 times smarter then the other 23 students because she knew where the power button was and OH MY GOD she even knew how to turn it on. im glad i have such an itelegent mother.

I havent watched the vids on the A|W site. just the ones that came with Maya from the start. and I dont think all of them are useless maybe 1 or 2 are helpfull

[Maya Ayanami]

do you know how may 4.5's fluid effects dont "fill" up a container.

well since 5 has a ripple effect does that mean that 5 also allows you to fill up a container. i hope so

[trevlb]

-----------------------

Motion Capture with Dense Data Editing and Re-sampling
Easily manipulate and utilize motion capture data inside Maya; dense data reduction and processing of motion curves.

------------------------

this was on alias' site concerning maya 5. does anyone know if this means that you can actually import some kind of motion capture format natively in maya 5? to my knowledge you can't in 4.5.

[Maya Ayanami]

ha. I think I remember. is the poly bevel that thing where it rounds the edges. is that the tool i was even talking about above anyways. well if it is then I dont see any probles except the corners only have 1 face and makes your model look really weird their.

[Maya Ayanami]

I also think that they need to fix the poly reduce. you know so that you can go from a somewhat highres model to a lower one that doesn't take to much away. wouldn't that be cool to covert to a low polly model that looks good that can be used in games from a medium res model.

[kamil_w]

There is a new polyReduce tool.

From the press release:

"...In the realm of modeling, an expanded range of tools includes an innovative new polygon reduction facility, new UV editing and extrusion..."

[Maya Ayanami]

but isn't there already a "poly reduce" tool in 4.5 I remember using it. and I also remember not liking it

[kamil_w]

AW has rewritten this tool for Maya 5.0.

It seems to be much, much better.

You can even paint areas you want to preserve.

[Maya Ayanami]

sweet.

I am even more excited about the release.

too bad I am dead broke:mad:

[SheepFactory]

I wonder if they fixed the UV smoothing problem :\

[kamil_w]

I have "strange" feeling that they fixed it.

I heared about better UVs handling in Maya 5.0 so this could be it.

[HADES]

yep smooth uv is fixed in maya 5 thats called flat geometry thats do the same thing of drone plugin......

[SheepFactory]

Thats great news. Cant wait for it to get released :D

[Maya Ayanami]

Hey Ali, is your mouth cg or is it all photo.

oolps the cats mouth:p

[SheepFactory]

Its all photo

[strick9]

yep smooth uv is fixed in maya 5 thats called flat geometry thats do the same thing of drone plugin......

Oh hell yeah!! :buttrock:

[Maya Ayanami]

lol. just luv it.


I got to use wings3d yesterday. my favorite part is that you can change how you move the camera. you know if you are used to different sofware. like MAYA. but it is kinda weird that one of the primatives has 4,000 polys to start. but I like the wider selection of primitaves than that of maya.

uh this wasn't very maya 5 related huh.

[beaker]

Don't you know that the only thing you will ever need is a box :) But really, why do you need a bunch of other primitives? There are scripts on highend that create different types and there are a bunch in your maya directory that create decahedrons, octahedron, etc...

[SheepFactory]

I thinki you messed up some settings cause wings doesnt have a 4000 poly primitive.

But as Beaker said , all you need is a box\cylinder\sphere.

[AnimBot]

I noticed A/W didn't say much about Mental Ray aside from 3.2 was included Has anyone heard much about improved connectivity between the two.

[Maya Ayanami]

well with that primative with the 4,000 poly count had no other options for it. it is one of the weird toruses. you know the ones that are useless.

what I wasn't aware of there being those other types of primaives how do I get them. but I agree that the box is really the most important one. hey what about planes those can be helpfull too. I just recently built a head starting with a plane.


and with the Mray thing.
I am sure that A|W made it so that Mental could handle maya's post proccessing effects. if not then that sucks because you cant use pfx unless you convert to polys

[SheepFactory]

Yes you have to convert pfx to poly to render with Mray , which is better because it gives you more control than rendering it as a post effect.

[Maya Ayanami]

I just recently heard that in maya 5 Mray can handle maya's post fx. is this ture.
anyways I think for pfx going to polys and maybe even to sub-d's since you have a lot more control over the texturing and the general shape. unless of course if you have an entire forest. but who would render a whole forest all at once anyways ehh.


have you ever did a close up of a pfx tree. all I can say is well. dont do it. they are very low res. but with the new convert to polys this is all going to change. and you can actually see the model in your view instead of a stick fig.

[AnimBot]

Holy crap Sheep Factory I just realized that was you. Nice avatar change.

[AmateurOne]

Been waiting for this release. Ordered Maya Complete 5 yesterday--actually 4.5 to get 5. So I guess I'm now a real Mayan (or not). At least I won't have to look at the A|W logo on my renders anymore.:beer:

[Maya Ayanami]

what do you mean you got 4.5 to get 5

[SheepFactory]

he'll get maya 4.5 now and will get an upgrade to maya 5 when its released. Since as you know maya 5 is not released yet.

[mental]

a question for those in the know about Maya 5:

it's been requested so many times (and we've waiting for it for so long) that i sometimes forget about this feature:Mirror Modeling.

does Maya 5 now have real mirror modeling built in like Max and Mirai?

thanks
-mental

[Ckerr812]

Originally posted by mental
a question for those in the know about Maya 5:

i'm not sure of the proper name but...

does version 5.0 have the ability to mirror model? similar to Max and Mirai where you can work on one side of a model and the other half will update at the same time.

-mental

umm..I think maya 1.0 had that, so I am pretty sure maya 5.0 will.

Just model half the side...duplicate on -1 a instance, and they will both update when you model...when your done just merge the vertices together.

[mental]

i'm aware of that trick but that's what you would call a workaround not a feature.

... and a bootleg one at that.

[edit]: if i understand Max and Mirai's mirror modeling tool correctly (i might be wrong), you're not bound by construction history like the trick above. meaning that you can turn the tool off, work on one side a bit and then turn it back on.

[Kabab]

Why would you want to do that ? I think the current method works fine, there are also some other mirror options under the poly's menus.

[ngrava]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking for a few months now and though I'd chime in on this one...

The mirror command in Max is the same as the one in Maya... Well, I mean the "Duplicate with a -1 scale on the X" thing. It's just one command in Max. You can choose to have it be an instance which is where you get to see the other side updating with the one your working on. It's exactly the same as Maya. You even have to combine the two models before you sew them together just like in Maya.

I don't know about Mira. XSI has a nice feature called Symmetry Mapping where you can move points on one side of a model and the corresponding points one the other side move as well. LightWave Modeler has a symmetry mode but it's even simpler to use because you don't need to create the symmetry map before you can use it.

I also wanted to mention that the "What's new in Maya 5" PDF on the A|W site explains every little thing that they've added. And answers all the questions I've see here.

I can tell you that they didn't even touch the Poly Bevel tool. What I'm excited about is Subdivision surfaces and Paint Effects in Mental Ray! Now we're talking!

-=GB=-

[SheepFactory]

Originally posted by mental
[edit]: if i understand Max and Mirai's mirror modeling tool correctly (i might be wrong), you're not bound by construction history like the trick above. meaning that you can turn the tool off, work on one side a bit and then turn it back on.


Well there is nothing stopping you from doing that in maya either , Just delete the instanced part and re-instance when you want to.

One good part of Mirai\Wings virtual mirror is that it welds the vertex's automaticly when you freeze it.

[tropistic]

Originally posted by Sheep Factory
One good part of Mirai\Wings virtual mirror is that it welds the vertex's automaticly when you freeze it.

And, the center verts stay locked on the x axis during the modeling process. The way they slide around in Maya is a real pain :thumbsdow

Jay

[ngrava]

Originally posted by Sheep Factory
Well there is nothing stopping you from doing that in maya either , Just delete the instanced part and re-instance when you want to.

One good part of Mirai\Wings virtual mirror is that it welds the vertex's automaticly when you freeze it.

Heck, you could just hide the instance. :)

-=GB=-

[ngrava]

Originally posted by tropistic
And, the center verts stay locked on the x axis during the modeling process. The way they slide around in Maya is a real pain :thumbsdow

Jay

One thing I always do is select all the verts on the open edge and scale them to 0 on the X axis before merging multiple edges.

-=GB=-

[tropistic]

Yeah, but you should be able to move em around in Y or Z while modeling without them getting getting out of whack on X...

Jay

[mental]

i suppose you guys are right, i haven't worked with mirai but i had the impression from various demos that its virtual mirror was much more flexible than what it actually is.

thanks for the replies :)

[Gremlin]

I know max's symmetry modifier will duplicate the object, and weld the edges together, so you can apply a mesh smooth on top of it.... you dont actually see both sides when you model, cause in the stack, you have to go back down to the editPoly. If maya could somehow dupe the side w/ -1 and weld the edges, and allow you to edt it, and have the symmetry update in realtime (so you were modeling on a whole surface, not just half, but it was still updating the symmetry) I would be happy!

(it would seem that duplicating and making a reference with -1 would do this, but no... cause the edges are welded, and if I were to polysmooth or convert to subD, it would have a seam... and Im trying to SKIP the steps or merging edges, etc...)
Cheers,
:beer:

[ngrava]

Oh Crap! The Symmetry Modifier... I forgot about that. I never use it because of the reason you mentioned about it's placement in the stack. I always just use the Mirror button.

Anyway Gremlin, I see your point about the seam. It's really the issue here. I guess we could just make a Mel button that does all those steps in one swipe. :-)

-=GB=-

:rolleyes:

[secretasianman]

umm grim yes there is the symmetry in max wich is basically mirroring and then welding but while you are in the modifier stack just click on show end result and you can show or unshow the mirrored obj.
makes life easy so you don't have to weld.

here is a list of the things that are in maya 5 beta. i am not sure if this is it for changes since they said it goes of the core engine for maya4.5

Summary of new features in Maya 5.0 (Beta 2)
For details of these and many other new features in Maya 5.0, please see the "What's New" available in the on-line documentation.

We have been hard at work improving Maya 5.0 and you should find Maya 5.0 Beta 2 to be more complete and solid. The following is a brief summary of features newly introduced in Beta 2 and other significant changes that we are interested in getting feedback on. For all other areas, please see "What's New".

Hardware Rendering Maya 5.0
Beta 1 offered a first view of Maya's Hardware Renderer. With Beta 2, we have:

significantly improved overall quality and performance
added support for ATI X1 and Z1 cards
improved support for Linux
Enabled the Hardware Renderer on Macintosh to allow you an initial glimpse of this feature. At this point consider the Hardware Renderer on Macintosh to be a preview; be gentle with it!
The Hardware Renderer continues to be sensitive to Graphics Card and driver and we strongly recommend that this feature only be scrutinized on the specific card and driver combinations indicated in the Release Notes.

Documentation
In Beta 2, the set-up and running of the web server has been refined. You should find the installation to be smoother and the Doc Server launch to be automatic and less intrusive.

mental ray for Maya
In Beta 1 we provided mental ray for Maya 1.5 (the same version as available with Maya 4.5) integrated into Maya 5.0.

In Beta 2 we are including a new version of mental ray (based on the mental ray 3.2 core engine) on Windows, IRIX, Linux and Macintosh. Highlights include:

Improved integration with Maya
mental ray Render Globals are now available in the Unified Render Globals
software-rendering particle types can be rendered using mental ray
support for a single IFF image containing alpha plus Z-depth
File I/O
In Beta 2 on Windows, Maya may now import and export DWG and DXF files from AutoCad 1 to AutoCAD 2000. There is also a New IGES plugin which is approximately 10 times faster than previously.

Fur Clumping
Fur Clumping was present at Beta 1, but was not working to any testable extent. This feature has been completely rewritten using a different mechanism for Beta 2.

Vector Rendering (Flash support)
Beta 2 introduces the Maya Vector Renderer which allows you to render to any of the following formats:

Macromedia Flash (non-interactive) versions 3, 4, 5 (SWF)
Adobe Illustrator version 8 (AI)
Encapsulated Postscript (EPS)
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
This functionality is only available on Windows in Beta 2. On Macintosh an image preview of the Vector Render can be viewed in Render View on the Macintosh, but cannot be written out to any of the vector format files. Vector Rendering is not available on Linux and IRIX.

Linux Version
Maya 5.0 Beta 2 for Linux will run on Red Hat 7.3 and, based on our testing so far, appears to run comparably on Red Hat 8.0. We are using the same compiler as we did for Beta 1 (see the Release Notes for exact details) and we intend to continue to use the GCC 3.2 compiler for the final release.

IRIX Version
There is no change from the qualification chart for Maya 4.5 for IRIX

MAC OS X Version
Maya (any version, including this Beta 2) cannot be run on Mac OS X 10.2.3 on systems with nVidia GeForce 4Ti (GeForce 4 Titanium) or nVidia GeForce 3. Attempting to run Maya on these systems will instantly crash or freeze Maya and may cause your Macintosh to crash.
Maya 5.0 Beta 2 (and the final release) requires Mac OS X 10.2.2 or higher (but not 10.2.3)

Windows Version
This Beta will run on the same systems as Maya 4.5 was qualified on.

i have run the beta a few times and it is pretty much the same.

[beaker]

If you use CPS(Connect Poly Shape) plugin it has built in symetry modeling. Also you guys were asking about mirror with auto welding, that is allready built into maya. Polygon > Mirror Geometry has options for welding the verticies automatically.

[Maya Ayanami]

it would be best if you could do symetry modeling with the cv's allready welded and stay that way.

I usually like modeling in polys by converting to sub-d's and keep the poly poxy object on so I get a better idea of what the model will look like all smoothed out with out having to smooth and de smooth by hand. but that damm crease in the middle pisses me off. so I have to convert back to polys then i have to mirror and weld the cv's then smooth. then after I finally get to see my model in a somewhat finished state I then have to undo all that so I can continue with my work.

that is a real pain in toe to keep doing that just to get rid of a silly crease.

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