Last Updated:July 14, 2005


Qualification of Maya 6.5 on Supported Windows Operating Systems
Products Version Software Date
Maya Complete / Unlimited 6.5 200501140008


File Compatibility :
Maya: Maya 6.5 can read Maya 6.5, 6.0, 5.0, 4.x, 3.x, Maya 2.x, and Maya 1.x format files.
Others:
 Maya 6.5 imports Adobe Illustrator, EPS (level 2), OBJ, DXF, DWG (AutoCAD 1 to 2000), IGES, Alias Wire (win32/linux/irix), AIFF (win32/mac), RIB (win32), OpenFlight (win32/irix/linux)
VRML2 files can be read via a standalone translator.
Maya 6.5 exports OBJ, DXF, DWG, IGES, Alias Wire (win32/linux/irix), MOV, VRML2, RTG and GE2, OpenFlight (win32/irix/linux).
Note:
 Not all file formats are supported on all platforms.


Qualified Operating Systems
Maya 6.5 is qualified on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 (SP1), on Intel Pentium III, Pentium 4, Xeon, and AMD Athlon, Opteron processors in the following systems with any of the graphics cards listed in the graphics card table using the specified driver.

Maya 6.5 is qualified on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (SP2) with the same configurations listed above. However, after installation of Service Pack 2, Maya or its component programs may not launch successfully. If this occurs, you may either Unblock the program via the Windows Firewall Security Alert dialogue, or add it as an Exception in the Exceptions Tab in the Windows Firewall dialogue box. For more information, please see the Microsoft Update at:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842242&product=windowsxpsp2

Maya 6.5 is presently Untested on Windows 2000 Professional (SP4).

Maya 6.5 is NOT qualified to run on Windows NT 4.0 or the Windows NT Terminal Server.

mentalRay for Maya is qualified for the same platforms as Maya. We are unable to qualify all graphics cards on all operating systems.


Intel and AMD 64-bit Compatibility
Maya 6.5 is a 32 bit application. It is currently Qualified on the following 64-bit systems:
Opteron: Windows XP Professional (SP1, SP2)
EM64T: Windows XP Professional (SP1, SP2)
   
Maya 6.5 is currently Untested on the following 64-bit systems:
Athlon 64: Windows XP Professional
Athlon 64: Windows XP x64 Edition
Opteron: Windows XP x64 Edition
   
Maya 6.5 is currently Unsupported on the following 64-bit systems:
Itanium: Windows XP x64 Edition


Compiler Requirements
The Maya API requires a specific compiler and linker, on each of the platforms Alias supports. The Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 compiler is what Alias uses to build Maya. Using this compiler will guarantee binary compatibility when building plug-ins.


Workstations
Company Model Web
Boxx 3DBOXX R1 www.boxxtech.com
Boxx 3DBOXX Workstation 7106, 7108, 7112 www.boxxtech.com
Compaq Professional Workstation 6300 www.compaq.com
Compaq Professional Workstation AP 400, 500, 550 www.compaq.com
Compaq Professional Workstation SP700 www.compaq.com
Compaq Professional Workstation 6000 www.compaq.com
Compaq Professional Workstation EVO 6000, 8000 www.compaq.com
Compaq EVO Notebook N800 www.compaq.com
Dell1 Precision Workstation 210, 410, 610 www.dell.com
Dell1 Precision Workstation 220, 420, 620 www.dell.com
Dell1 Precision Workstation 330, 530 www.dell.com
Dell1 Precision Workstation 340, 360 www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation 350, 450, 650 www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation 370, 670 www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation m20 w/ATI FireGLV3100 www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation m50 w/Nvidia Quadro4 Go www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation m60 w/Nvidia Quadro FX 700Go www.dell.com
Dell Precision Workstation m70 w/Nvidia Quadro FX 1400Go www.dell.com
Fujitsu-Siemens Celsius Workstation M420 www.fujitsu-siemens.com
HP HP Workstation X1000, X1100, X2000, X2100, X4000 www.hp.com
HP HP Workstation xw5000, xw6000, xw8000, xw4100 www.hp.com
HP HP Workstation xw4200, xw6200, xw8200 www.hp.com
HP2 HP Workstation xw4300, xw9300 www.hp.com
HP HP Mobile Workstation nw8000 with ATI FireGL T2 www.hp.com
IBM Intellistation M Pro 6850, 6225, 6229, 6219, 6230
 www.ibm.com
IBM Intellistation A Pro 6224 www.ibm.com
IBM Intellistation Z Pro 6221, 6223 www.ibm.com
IBM Thinkpad A31p (ATI FireGL 7800 mobile) www.ibm.com
IBM Thinkpad T40p (ATI Mobility FireGL 9000) www.ibm.com
IBM Thinkpad T42p, R50p (ATI FireGL T2) www.ibm.com
Intergraph TDZ 2000 Graphics Workstation www.intergraph.com
[1] Please see below for workaround required for some Dell systems.
[2] These machines have not been tested in SLI configuration.


Graphics Cards and Driver Versions
Maya is qualified for the following graphics cards using the specified driver, with the the listed Operating Systems, and any of the workstations listed in the Workstations table. Please see the Detailed Driver Notes and Settings for applicable settings and potential Limitations specific to your graphics card.

Important: Graphics drivers are usually different for different Windows operating sytems. Alias has tested only drivers listed under each OS. While it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier or later drivers, Alias cannot guarantee their performance or behaviour. If you encounter problems with a driver, we strongly suggest that you contact the graphic card vendor to report your problem.
Company Graphics Card Driver version on Windows XP Professional Driver version on Windows 2000 Pro
3DLabs Wildcat Realizm 100/200 4.03-0162  
3DLabs Wildcat Realizm 800 4.03-0162  
ATI1 FireGL X1/Z1 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL X2 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL X3 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL T2 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL V3100 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL V3100 8.063 (in Dell Precision m20 )  
ATI1 FireGL V3200 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL V5000 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL V5100 8.083  
ATI1 FireGL V7100 8.083  
Nvidia Quadro FX330 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 500/1000/2000 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 540 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 1100 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 1300 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 1400Go 67.71 (in Dell Precision m70 )  
Nvidia Quadro FX 3000 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 3400 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 4000 71.80  
Nvidia Quadro FX 4400 71.80  
Nvidia GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 (ANY GeForce) NOT QUALIFIED
(see note) 		NOT QUALIFIED
(see note)
[1] We anticipate re-qualifying ATI cards for Maya 6.5 Windows with a future ATI driver, to address the listed Hardware Render Buffer Limitation affecting ATI cards.


Video Cards without Hardware Overlay Planes
Using video cards without Hardware Overlay planes (or Hardware Overlay planes turned off) can result in poor performance for certain operations within Maya including (but not restricted to) use of tools based on Artisan or Paint Textures technology. There will also be visual differences compared with Hardware overlays that may result in difficulty seeing or manipulating aspects of the scene or Maya interface.


General Configuration
  • A three button mouse is required.
  • An ethernet network card, or hardware dongle is required for product licensing.
  • At least 512 MB of RAM or more is recommended to run Maya for Windows.
  • Customers intending to license their Alias software based on an external network card should be aware that Alias does not support the use of these devices and cannot guarantee that software will operate correctly when licensed in this way.
  • It may be possible to successfully use Maya with a non-qualified or partially qualified configuration, but support and maintenance programs will be subject to the Alias Support services guidelines.
  • The configurations shown are subject to change, and additional qualified configurations may be added after qualification testing has been carried out.
  • Where Graphics Controllers are configurable, you must have at least 32MB of texture memory (TRAM). Due to the differences in the manner in which hardware vendors approach display memory, we suggest that you consult your hardware vendor to ensure that your configuration will support your required resolution.
  • The graphics drivers specified in this table are the drivers that were used for the qualification process. While it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier or later drivers, Alias cannot guarantee their performance or behaviour.
  • We do not recommend saving data directly from Maya to NFS or Novell Netware or other remote mounted file systems. We have received several reports of data corruption when saving in this method although we have been unable to reproduce this. We strongly recommend that you save the files locally and then copy the data to the mounted storage system.
  • When texture images are stored on systems remote from the rendering process; depending on network speed, specifications and load it is possible that the renderer may be unable to access a texture file on demand and may 'drop' individual textures on a frame by frame basis. To reduce this occurrence store textures on a system local to the rendering process.
  • Windows Compiler Requirement: To build Maya plug-ins, your Windows system must have the Microsoft .net 2003 Visual C++ Compiler installed.
  • Alias recommends the use of "Span Mode" for Dual Monitor configurations using Nvidia cards.


Notes on Operating Systems:
Windows XP
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Under some circumstances, when playblasting an animation, partway through, the playblasting ceases to be updated. Attempting to ESC from the playblast may cause a hang.
Solution RMB->(desktop maya icon)->Properties->Compatibility Tab->(Run in Windows 2000 mode)
Limitation Tear-off pull-down menus don't display properly on XP with UI schemes
Solution Set UI preference to Windows Classic Style. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Windows Classic
Limitation Maya on Windows XP has slightly different window focus interaction than on other OS's. For example, if you render in the Render View window and switch focus to another Maya window or another application and back to the Render View, the Render View may not update, or may turn completely white giving the appearance that it has hung. The window will update when the render completes. (On other OSes it updates when each tile is finished rendering.) You may see similar interactions in other windows.
Solution RMB->(desktop maya icon)->Properties->Compatibility Tab->(Run in Windows 2000 mode)


Notes on Computer Models:
Some Dell Systems
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation On some Dell systems, Maya apparently is missing some or all controls in some or all option boxes or dialogs. Specific sliders are not drawn and option boxes may be sized incorrectly or appear empty.
Solution Change the DPI settings for screen resolution(XP), or default system font size(Windows 2000), restart your system and change it back (and restart again).
On Windows this is in display properties: (right-mouse on desktop -> properties), Settings-> Advanced -> Display DPI Setting(XP), or Display Font size(Windows 2000). )



Detailed Driver Notes and Settings:


3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 100/200
Model Version Driver Settings
3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 100/200 Windows XP Pro:
4.03-0162		 Optimize->Optimize for: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 800
Model Version Driver Settings
3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 800 Windows XP Pro:
4.03-0162		 Optimize->Optimize for: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


ATI FireGL X1/Z1
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL X1/Z1

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGL X2
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL X2

 Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGL X3
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL X3

 Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader
ATI FireGL T2
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL T2

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV3100
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V3100

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV3100 (Dell Precision Workstation m20)
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V3100 (Dell m20)

Windows XP Pro:
8.063 (provided by Dell) 		Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV3200
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V3200

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV5000
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V5000

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV5100
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V5100

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


ATI FireGLV7100
Model Version Driver Settings

ATI FireGL V7100

Windows XP Pro:
8.083		 Configuration->Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Shaders using HardwareTexturing-> TextureFilter-> MipmapNearest, MipmapLinear, MipmapBilinear or MipmapTrilinear, will display incorrectly in the Hardware Render Buffer.
Solution Set TextureFilter to either Nearest(Unfiltered) or Bilinear, per shader


Nvidia Quadro FX 330
Model Version Driver Settings

Nvidia Quadro FX 330

Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation Hardware Rendered shadows cast from particles, may vary in size in comparison with other Nvidia cards.
Solution None


Nvidia Quadro FX 500, FX 1000, FX 2000
Model Version Driver Settings

Nvidia Quadro FX 500,
FX 1000, FX 2000

 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 540
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 540 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 1100
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 1100 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 1300
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 1300 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 1400
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 1400Go (Dell Precision Workstation m70)
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 1400Go Windows XP Pro:
67.71(provided by Dell)		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 3000
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 3000 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 3400
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 3400 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 4000
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 4000 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia Quadro FX 4400
Model Version Driver Settings
Nvidia Quadro FX 4400 Windows XP Pro:
71.80		 OpenGL preset: Maya
Limitations and Solutions
Limitation None


Nvidia GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 series
There are many cards based on GeForce256, GeForce2,  GeForce3 and GeForce4 chipsets. Nvidia and Alias do not recommend these cards for use with Maya as you may experience various refresh, display and stability problems and inadequate performance.
We suggest you choose from Nvidia's workstation cards instead, such as the Quadro families which are much better suited to high-end 3D packages such as Maya.