Autodesk Maya 2016 Service Pack 1 Release Notes

Hardware selection features

If you are writing your own custom shader for use with the dx11Shader or glslShader plug-in in Viewport 2.0, the following semantics have been added that allow your DX11 or GLSL shader to perform hardware selection; for example, semantics that allow you to specify whether selection is to be done at the object level or vertex level. Annotations have also been added that allow you to draw non-material items such as the wireframe and selected edges/vertices components.

Hardware selection is enabled when you run Maya in OpenGL Core Profile mode. Alternatively, you can also set the environment variable MAYA_USE_HARDWARE_SELECTION = 1.

The Maya Developer Kit has been updated to include new versions of the dx11Shader and glslShader plug-in examples. These examples have been updated to illustrate hardware selection. In addition, the glslShader example also supports shadow pass, transparency and advanced transparency passes. Varying inputs are selectable (choice of color or UV sets), and performance is improved.

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

string overridesNonMaterialItems = "true";

pass pNonMaterialItemsFatLine
<
// This pass will be used to render non material items as fat lines
string drawContext = "nonMaterialItemsPass";
string primitiveFilter = "fatLine";
>

New C++ API methods added

MUIDrawManager::beginDrawInXray() and MUIDrawManager::endDrawInXray() methods have been added so that primitives drawn between calls to these two methods will display on top of other geometries in the scene. These methods can be used to draw objects such as locators.

The squaresNode_noDepthTest example in the Maya Developer Kit has been updated to illustrate the use of these methods. This example draws meshes without performing depth testing. MUIDrawManager is used to draw two squares and some text, and these two squares and text display on the top of other geometries in the scene.

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

The method descriptions are as follows:

void MHWRender::MUIDrawManager::beginDrawInXray ( )  	

void MHWRender::MUIDrawManager::endDrawInXray ( )  	

The drawables between calls to beginDrawInXray() and endDrawInXray() will display on top of other geometries in the scene, as the depth test is disabled for these drawables.

These methods can be used to draw objects such as locators.

Limitations:

• Only drawables that meet the following conditions will be affected by beginDrawInXray() and endDrawInXray().
  • Created by the method MUIDrawManager::mesh()
  • The first input parameter (primitive type) for MUIDrawManager::mesh() is one of kTriangles, kLines and kPoints.

Any other drawables between calls to beginDrawInXray() and endDrawInXray() will display as normal.

painter.beginDrawInXray();
painter.mesh(MHWRender::MUIDrawManager::kTriangles, ...); // assume this is geometry A
painter.mesh(MHWRender::MUIDrawManager::kLines, ...);     // assume this is geometry B
painter.mesh(MHWRender::MUIDrawManager::kPoints, ...);    // assume this is geometry C
painter.endDrawInXray();   
painter.text(...);                                        // assume this is text D

If several meshes are drawn between these two APIs, then their draw order is the reverse of the mesh() function call order. For example, in the sample code above: C will be drawn on top of B; B on top of A. If text calls are made after these two APIs, the text will be drawn on top. In sample code above, text D will be drawn on top of C.

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Customer Involvement Program

The first time you start Maya, the Customer Involvement Program (CIP) dialog box appears. If you choose to participate in the CIP, Maya automatically sends Autodesk information about your system configuration, what features you use most, any problems that you encounter, and other information helpful to the future direction of the product. For further information, see http://www.autodesk.com/cip.

Customer Error Reports

We are able to improve the stability of Maya largely because of the Customer Error Reports (CER) submitted by users of our products. We thank you for taking the time to fill out these reports and ask that you include as much information as possible about what actions you were performing at the time the error occurred. These details raise the value of the report immensely and are very much appreciated by the Autodesk Maya Engineering team.

For further information about CERs, see http://www.autodesk.com/cer.