What's New in API

For more information regarding the following features, see the Maya Developer Help.

API compatibility

Maya 2016 Extension 2 is not binary compatible with Maya 2016. To obtain the Maya 2016 and Maya 2016 Extension 1 API Guide, see http://www.autodesk.com/me-sdk-docs.

C++ plug-ins that were compiled against Maya 2016 or Maya 2016 Extension 1, including Maya 2016 service pack releases, must be re-compiled against Maya 2016 Extension 2 in order to be recognized by this version of Maya.

In addition, plug-ins compiled against Maya 2016 Extension 2 will either not load or exhibit unpredictable behavior if loaded in Maya 2016, Maya 2016 Extension 1, or any Maya 2016 service pack release.

Maya 2016 Developer Kit now available online

The Maya 2016 Developer Kit is now available online at Autodesk Exchange at https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Home/Index.

Python API 2.0

In Maya 2016, over 160 new classes have been added to the Python API 2.0, including MPxNode, MPxData and much of the Rendering API. Developer Kit examples are also available and the Python Learning Path documentation has also been updated to include Python API 2.0 examples.

Rendering

The following new features have been added to the rendering area of the API:

• A large number of Legacy Default Viewport interfaces have been marked as obsolete as they cannot be used when running Viewport 2.0 in OpenGL Core Profile mode.
• For shared data handling of large amounts of data, client side Viewport 2.0 hardware buffers are now supported in DirectX 11 mode. Previously, they were only supported in OpenGL mode.
• New notification interfaces allow you to obtain custom Viewport 2.0 image captures at arbitrary output sizes.
• Utilities have been added for color managing textures in Viewport 2.0.
• Enhanced font/text and icon drawing for Viewport 2.0.
• Resource sharing between Viewport 2.0 and custom Qt widgets is now possible.
• New class MPxRenderer added that allows plug-ins to implement a 3rd party renderer for rendering in the Material Viewer in the Hypershade.
• New MRenderUtilities::renderMaterialViewerGeometry() added to allow access to Material Viewer rendering options for swatch rendering of hardware shaders in Viewport 2.0.
• Semantics and annotation parsing utilities have been improved and provided for MShaderInstance.
• GLSL is now natively supported for Viewport 2.0 shader fragments and fragment graphs.
• Enhanced access to viewport options to remove dependency on M3dView interface.
• New classes and methods (such as MSelectionContext and MSelectionInfo) to support Viewport 2.0 hardware selection when enabled.
• Many developer kit examples have been added that illustrate the newly added and updated features.
• Documentation updates to provide information on Viewport 2.0 interfaces.

Animation

New classes and methods such as MEvaluationManager and MPxNode::preEvaluation()/postEvaluation() have been added to support new threaded evaluation modes. New classes such as MOpenCLInfo and MAutoCLEvent have been added to support creation of GPU accelerated deformers. A new class MPxMotionPathNode has been added with methods that allow you to create your own motion path. In addition, MPxSkinCluster has been added to make it easier to create custom skin cluster nodes deformers.

Modeling

New classes and methods such as MPxTexContext and MPxPolyTweakUVInteractiveCommand have been added to extend the function of the UV Texture Editor and to edit UV's.