USD for 3ds Max 0.7 Release Notes
Release Highlights
Import animations - blend shapes
With this update, you can now import USD blend shapes as Morphers into 3ds Max.
Import animations - camera and light
In addition to blend shapes, you can also import USD animations of camera and light attributes into 3ds Max.
Ability to select and move USD prims
This update introduces the ability to select and move USD prims in the viewport while in the prim sub-object mode.
Support for multi/sub-object materials in USD exporter
We have extended the functionality of the Material Switcher to accommodate the use of multi/sub-object materials when exporting a USD file.
What's Fixed
|
| Corrected defect in the orientation of bones during USDSkel export. |
| Improved USD Explorer visibility state to refresh accurately. |
| Resolved issues while importing certain USDSkel prims into Max. |
| Optimized USD Exporter to fit small screen resolutions. |
| Fixed undo crash in USD Explorer post-toggling a prim's instanceable setting. |
| Rectified issues where USD Skel exports showed inconsistent deformation results compared to source animation. |
| Resolved the issue where alterations in Morpher limits impacted the Morpher's animation weight. |
| Fixed the issue with getClassName() not accurately returning the class name for the USDStageObject class. |
| Fixed a defect in bone orientation during USDSkel exports. |
| Added a new option to the USD Exporter settings. This option, UIOption.UseLastResortUSDPreviewSurfaceWriter = true|false, allows users to enable or disable the use of a fallback USD Preview Surface material when the original material is unknown and the USD Preview Surface material target is being used. |
| Constrained the export process to ensure that the material layer settings are included in the same file as the main USD file during a material layer export. |
| Corrected the scaling of Guide Arrows in the USD Explorer tree view to maintain proportions across different DPI scalings. |
| Resolved the display issue where the stage did not correctly show the TimeCode per second. |
| Improved memory usage in USD Stage consolidation. |
| Fixed an issue in the USD Explorer where the horizontal scroll position shifted back and forth during row selection. |
| Stabilized support for geometry variants in a USD Stage. |
Known Issues and Current Limitations
| USD Exporter and USD Importer Limitations |
| Texture graphs are not supported, only direct bitmap inputs are supported in the USD Exporter. |
| Motion Blur data is unsupported. |
| When skins are exported, modifiers that modify the topoly are unsupported. |
| Normals may not match the source normals when re-importing USD Skel animations. |
When importing a USD file containing Normal Map data into 3ds Max 2024, the object's surface may look facetted/ the UV seams become apparent.
Workaround: Ensure that gamma correction is enabled. Open the bitmaptexture node in slate, click the file browse button and explicitly set the gamma to 1.0. |
| USD Blend Shapes Limitations |
| Progressive morphers cannot be exported as USD blendShapes. |
| Blend shapes Inbetweens cannot be imported as progressive morphers on channels above the 100th channel in the Morpher modifier. |
Morph targets exported without Skin may not display properly in the USDView or USD Stage when using 3ds Max 2023 or below. This happens because currently USD requires bones to support blendShapes.
Workaround: Set the Windows Environment variable to: USDSKELIMAGING_FORCE_CPU_COMPUTE=1, or run this command in the interpreter: UsdSkel.BakeSkinning(usdviewApi.stage.Traverse()), or use USDView 2024 or above. |
| USD cannot resolve the modifier stack when modifiers that change mesh topology are applied. Any modifier like morpher or turbo smooth is expected to be below the Skin modifier when they both are present in a 3ds Max node. A warning presents when this hierarchy is incorrect. |
| USD Stage Object Limitations |
| The USD Stage Object will not display lights, cameras or shapes in the viewport. |
| Most modifiers will have no effect on a USD Stage Object. |
| Rendering support for the stage is dependent on each renderer. See the rendering section for more information. |
| Display of baked bitmaps can cause blurriness of scenes even in high quality mode in the Viewport. Baked bitmaps (ie. with Uberbitmap) are unsupported even in high quality mode in the viewport. |
| A 2024 OpenGL Import error is reported relating to the Numpy module. This warning is expected but won't affect the usage of USDView with 3ds Max 2024. |
| USD Skel does not support faceVarying Normals. This extends to Morpher, as well. This is a USD limitation, and not specific to USD for 3ds Max tools. |
| MaterialX Limitations |
| 3ds Max 2022: MaterialX materials on a USD Stage reference cannot be displayed in Nitrous (Viewport) nor using Arnold as a renderer. |
| For USDView bundled with 3ds Max 2022 and 2023: when exporting or viewing an existing .usd file with MaterialX data present, the viewport in USDView will be black and unusable. |
| Loss of parameters when exporting MaterialX material. In maps, for example: subsurface_scale value is lost. |
| USDZ format cannot export MaterialX data as part of the USDZ framework. See USDZ specifications. |
| Lighting Limitations |
| Some Lighting property values in 3ds Max, primarily drop-down menus and on/off toggles, are not retained when Exported to USD. |
| Camera Limitations |
| Some camera property values in 3ds Max, primarily drop-down menus and on/off toggles, are not retained when exported to USD. |
| USD Instancing Limitations |
| Editing descendants of an instance is not supported in USD. |
