Release Notes

Improvements

• Crowd Rigid Body shapes are configured automatically based on the connected object properties
• ObjectID pass can be configured in the VRay Proxy (one color per mesh, entity, crowdField, all)
• Heading / Attitude / Bank offsets in the AdaptOrientation Behavior
• Visibility, Object ID, Motion Blur attributes are now stored at the Object / VRay Properties level in 3ds Max plugin
• VRayGolaem 3ds Max plugin transform is now taken into account when rendering Crowd Characters in 3ds Max
• Render Checker now checks if the required PPAttributes have been exported to the Simulation Cache
• Edit Physics Properties window selection now selects the corresponding bone in the viewport
• Unphysicalized bones are not displayed by default in the Edit Physics Properties window
• Added a button to remap auxiliary and extensors bones to extensor only (and vice versa) in the Character Maker
• More precise visual feedback of updated or ended behaviors in the Behavior Editor (using gradients)
• DirectX11 compatibility tool

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Locomotion Channel in MotionClip nodes
• Fixed Geometry Behavior evaluation when Time Warp is used in a scene
• Fixed the Alternative Operator interface when changing condition order
• Fixed Alembic export with blendshape animation
• Fixed bad orientation of Geometry Behaviors in the Render Previz display mode
• Fixed geodesic skinning support in the Render Previz display mode
• Fixed vertex cache display of Geometry Behaviors in the Render Previz display mode when not every submesh has a cache

Refactoring

• Refactoring of all rendering plugins to use the glm_crowd_io API (see below)
• Motion Blur attributes have been removed from the VRay Proxy and are now read in VRay Camera attributes
• Fixed the save of the position of the VisualFeedback window
• Fixed the save of the position of the MotionClipPreview window
• NavMesh Creator can now process any polygon (doesn't have to be quads or triangles)
• Creation of several Crowd Rigid Bodies when several objects are selected

API

• Geometry Generation API (glm_crowd_io.h) to generate Character geometries from Simulation Cache files
• glmSimulationCacheTool command to query Simulation Cache attributes
• glmCharacterFileTools has been renamed to glmCharacterFileTool

Supported Rendering Engines

• Mtoa 1.0.X / Arnold Core 4.1.X
• V-Ray For Maya 2.4
• Renderman Studio 19.0

Improvements

• No more launch script. Golaem Crowd module file can be installed in the Maya user files or defined via MAYA_MODULE_PATH
• Collision triggers now uses the real shapes of rigid bodies instead of the AABB (may be less performant)
• Visual feedback of updated or ended behaviors in the Behavior Editor
• Moving objects can be synchronized in the SyncMotion Behavior
• Repartition control between Reach and Wander modes in the Steer Behavior
• Obstacle choice frequency control in the Flock Locator
• Improved visual feedback for flocking Entities in the viewport
• Interactive playback shelp icon
• Customizable default shader for Arnold, VRay and Mental Ray
• Visual feedback on nodes in the Character Maker (red nodes will not be saved in the Character File / orange nodes will be saved but requires some attention)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash when autocomputing the Skeleton Mapping on some kinds of morphologies in the Character Maker
• Fixed a crash when mapping wrong bones in the Character Maker
• Fixed a crash when deleting the CrowdField during the simulation having cloths
• Fixed the duplication of cloth colliders if not present in the assets repartition
• Fixed the Flock behaviors when using a custom Crowd Unit
• Fix displacement in the VRay Render Proxy

API

• glmCharacterFileTools command can now also query the shader attributes of a Character File (.gch / .gcha) 

Character Pack & Samples

• Added a Crowd Woman character
• Added a Roman Soldier Character
• Added some battle walk motions
• Added a test scene to render all Character Pack characters
• Added a choice between light (same as previous samples) and complete (character pack) diversity in all samples using CrowdMan

Supported Rendering Engines

• Mtoa 1.0.X / Arnold Core 4.1.X
• V-Ray For Maya 2.4
• Renderman Studio 19.0

Improvements

• Flee target mode in GoTo Behavior
• Expressions can now also be used in the SetBone Behavior
• Vector Channels now support [x/y/z] (this.position[x])
• Ramp controls can now be used in an Expression in the Attribute & SetBone Behaviors
• Roll bones can now be out of the Limb bone chain in the Character Maker
• Added a second curve in the Loop indicator to improve precision in the Character Maker
• Added a #tid# keyword for Mel/Python callbacks / scripts (will be replaced with the EntityType id)
• VRayGolaem 3ds Max plugin checks if the Golaem VRay plugin is correctly installed before render starts

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash when Character Files were not found in the Simulation Cache Proxy
• Fixed a crash when the Character fbx and the Golaem Character have different number of bones
• Fixed a crash when using a MEL expression in the Attribute Editor
• Fix Physics Collision Entity Type trigger
• Fixed Attitude computation in the AdaptOrientation Behavior
• Fixed a bad blending computation between motions when an Motion Behavior is started and stopped during the same frame
• Fixed scaled skeleton import when using the Joint Orient Detection in the Character Maker

Refactoring

• Using bone names instead of bone ids in IK, LookAt & Constraint Behaviors
• The #noise# tag in the SetBone Behavior is replaced by Ramp Controls
• Render plugins now log an info line when rendering starts

API

• glmCharacterFileTools command to query / set attributes of a Character File (.gch / .gcha)
• glmCheckShaders, glmCheckBoundingBoxes, glmGetRenderingTypes are now replaced with glmCharacterFileTools
• Environment variable GLMCROWD_DIRMAP_ENABLE to disable Golaem Crowd dirmap mechanism

Supported Rendering Engines

• Mtoa 1.0.X / Arnold Core 4.1.X
• V-Ray For Maya 2.4
• Renderman Studio 19.0

Improvements

• AdaptPosition Behavior allows to add Character relative position offset
• Link after the Alternative / Random Operator can now be enabled / disabled in the Behavior Editor
• Mental Ray Proxy supports ObjectID pass for Mental Ray
• Detach behavior can now also re-attach bones
• Character Maker allows to export Character Files for previous Golaem Crowd versions
• Added a warning when trying to import non-baked animations in the Character Maker
• Added a warning when trying to import skeletons with Segment Scale Compensate option is activated

Bug Fixes

• Fixed computing motion blur for cloths
• Fixed a crash when renaming a Shader in the Character Maker
• Fixed a crash when painting meshes with a huge number of normals
• Fixed a crash when Entity Types materials had cyclic nodes
• Fixed motion import that set wrong Squash and Stretch values (shrunken bones at render time)
• Fixed roll bones orientation (was using the IK Normal Plane instead of the Bone orientation)
• Fixed FBX export for Maya 2016
• Fixed Cloth Locator scene reload
• Fixed Shader appearing twice in a Shading Group in the Character Maker
• Fixed Force and Steer Behaviors viewport 2.0 display
• Fixed [operand1 + <<operand2>>] operation in the Attribute Behavior

Refactoring

• Golaem Crowd switches back in Simulation Mode when the last Cache Proxy node is deleted
• Simulation Export is disabled when in Cache Proxy Mode
• Physicalize behavior can not set gravity anymore. Gravity can only be set in the Physics Locator

Character Pack & Samples

• The Golaem Crowd Character Pack is now available to everyone

• Mtoa 1.0.X / Arnold Core 4.1.X
• V-Ray For Maya 2.4
• Renderman Studio 18.0