Exciting improvements to viewport performance, CAT and Biped workflows.
"CAT Update" courtesy Kelvin Zelt
This update focuses on enhancing functionality and stability for viewport performance, CAT (Character Animation Toolkit) and Biped. These improvements aim to refine animation workflows and address long-standing issues and customer suggestions.
The following are some of the updates addressed in this release:
Viewport performance enhancements
Viewport interactions are now faster and more responsive, thanks to improved multithreading. Expect a smoother experience when working with complex scenes.
- Faster and more responsive interactions: Thanks to improved multithreading, viewport interactions are now faster and more responsive, providing a smoother experience when working with complex scenes.
- Boosted playback speed: Enjoy a performance increase in viewport responsiveness.
- Optimized multithreading: Core mesh and skin calculations now run more efficiently, enhancing overall workflow.
- Enhanced hardware utilization: Smarter use of processing power improves interactivity across the board.
CAT fixes
CAT now delivers a more seamless and efficient animation experience, with enhancements that streamline rigging and optimize workflow for greater creativity and precision.
- Motion layer cloning overhaul: Cloning a CAT rig with motion layers or copying and pasting a motion layer now includes all subcomponents, ensuring no missing elements or unintended references to the source rig.
- Footprint node stability: Improved handling of motion layer and footprint nodes guarantees that footprints remain valid during cloning, layer copy/paste operations, and undo actions.
- Refactored layer pasting: The pasting process has been reworked to ensure proper link creation, eliminating unintended references to the source rig.
- Trackview cleanup: Selecting various CAT controllers in Trackview no longer displays random, meaningless values.
- Enhanced stability: Numerous crashes related to the Motion Editor UI and operations like cloning or undoing when objects were only partially initialized have been fixed, with specific protections added to prevent these crashes.
- CAT controller callback fix: Improved CAT controller behavior during undo/redo actions by ensuring callbacks are properly listened to.
Biped fixes
Biped now offers greater flexibility with animation management by allowing BIP files to load using exact name matching. This makes it easier to modify rigs without losing animation data.
- More control over extra bones: You can now add and rearrange extra bones, such as wings or tails, while keeping their existing animations intact.
- Seamless workflow: The new name-matching system ensures smooth transitions when updating character rigs.
- Enhanced compatibility: BIP animations remain functional, providing greater adaptability for game and film projects.
- #extraBonesNameMatch option: Added for Maxscript, allowing extra bone animation to be matched by name rather than index, ensuring desired animation results.
These refinements allow you to focus on animating without technical interruptions, optimizing your workflow for greater creativity and precision.
For a full list of improvements, visit the Animation section of the 3ds Max 2026 Update Release Notes.