Maya offloads the processing of certain deformers to your graphics processing unit (GPU) for increased playback performance.
Note: GPU support is only available with VP 2.0, although, in many cases, the updating of deformers with GPU support has created slight gains in the performance of the legacy CPU deformer versions.
GPU Override is active by default in Maya, however if it is disabled you can turn it on in the Animation (settings) Preferences.
The following deformers have GPU support:
- blendShape
- cluster
- deltaMush
- groupParts
jiggle
- lattice
Morph
- Nonlinear deformers
- Proximity Wrap
- sculpt (see note below)
- solidify
- skinCluster
- softMod
- tension
- tweak
- wire
Note: GPU support is only for Implicit spheres, that is, when the sculpt object geometry is a sphere, Maya includes sculpt deformers in deformation chains that run on the GPU. If your sculpt geometry is anything
other than a sphere, deformations are sent to the CPU.
GPU Support and Selection Sets
The behavior of Tension, Delta mush, and Solidify deformers when using subsets has changed to accommodate GPU support.
In versions of Maya previous to 2021, if you used a subset of the geometry with these deformers, the selection set would be internally expanded by one polygon connection level, and those vertices would be assigned as anchors.
In the new behavior, only vertices within the subset are used by the deformer. If you want to restore the original deformer behavior, use componentTags to expand the selection set.