Maya 2008 Impressions!

# 1 13-09-2007 , 08:48 AM

Jr.Who

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Hey guys,

I just got Maya 2008, and I must say, it’s amazing! There are many more new features than I thought there were, and it runs much smoother than 8.5! I’ll still be using 8.5 for a while, because I wanted to learn how to use some plug-ins soon, and not very many support 2008, right now. user added image

Anyway, here’s my benchmark results on my computer (I hope that I can get a new one soon… user added image

):

…………………………………………8. 5……………2008…………Difference
Initializing Window……………32s……………14s……� �……18s
Fully Launched……………………1m7s………55s� �…………12s
Scene render (software)………1m27s……1m16s………11s
Scene render (mental ray)……2m26s……2m16s………10s
Note: On both of the scene renders, Maya 2008 used both of my CPUs, unlike 8.5. Although, it seemed like it didn’t use my CPUs to their full extent. I’m sure that people with quad-cores (like a Mac Pro user added image

), or even 8-cores, would have much better results than this.

Smooth sphere (4 div.)……………4.5s…………1.5s………� ��3s
Note: When trying to move the camera around, Maya 2008 handled the smoothed sphere (with 99840 faces) much smoother than 8.5.

The thing I’m probably most mad about, is the lack of support for 64-bit Macs.

I’ll be posting some of my impressions of the new features (with pics) etc., later today.

Anyone that has 2008, please, post your impressions!

-Jr.Who
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# 2 13-09-2007 , 09:51 AM

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Well it seems a lot faster, especially when doing a cloth sims using Ncloth, and animating a smoothed poly character with ncloth attached, which I think is down to the multi threading/core enabeling of maya as in simulations using 8.5 only used one core, other than that Ive not really played around with it that much (as ive got to do my uni work on it more than having a play)

I really like the viewport cube to quickly get form one ortho to another using the persp view, thats probably going to save me a few spacebar and mouse clicks when modeling and selecting.

as you've seen its faster, although I dont really see much difference in the boot up, to fully launched as it only takes about 30 seconds to fully load on my PC and I wasnt really looking for it.

As for the render times did you have use all processors enabled on 8.5 as it used both of mine to 100%, although ive not really compared the two.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 3 13-09-2007 , 05:04 PM

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so far so good - I`m still using 8.5 at the mo as none of the pluggins I use have caught up yet but overall I`m very happy with it.

Its faster, ncloth has more stable results, great new rigging tools (although only tried simple test so far) and so far less buggy.

That qube thing is too big - anyone found a way of turning back to the way it used to be ??? a silly feature that is not really needed

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# 4 13-09-2007 , 05:12 PM

Jr.Who

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Originally posted by gster123
As for the render times did you have use all processors enabled on 8.5 as it used both of mine to 100%, although ive not really compared the two.

Originally Posted by

What are you talking about? Where’s that option?

Originally posted by tweetytunes
That qube thing is too big - anyone found a way of turning back to the way it used to be ??? a silly feature that is not really needed

Originally Posted by

You can adjust it’s size, position, transparency, along with some other options under Prefs>ViewCube.

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# 5 13-09-2007 , 05:17 PM

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but does it change back to classic ???? thats what I really want

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# 6 13-09-2007 , 05:23 PM

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Originally posted by Jr.Who
What are you talking about? Where’s that option?

Originally Posted by

I'm talking about making maya use all the available processors on the system when rendering, what did you think I was on about???

Its in the render menu under batch render option box, which does make it use all processors even if rendering a single frame.

Have a look in the help files.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 7 13-09-2007 , 05:24 PM

Jr.Who

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Originally posted by tweetytunes
but does it change back to classic ???? thats what I really want

Originally Posted by

……No, not that I know of. I don’t see why you really would want to. The ViewCube has many more options, and just looks better.

I’ll be posting some of my impressions soon.
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# 8 13-09-2007 , 05:29 PM

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Originally posted by gster123
I'm talking about making maya use all the available processors on the system when rendering, what did you think I was on about???

Its in the render menu under batch render option box, which does make it use all processors even if rendering a single frame.

Have a look in the help files.

Originally Posted by

I knew what you were talking about, but it says in Maya 2008 that the support of multi-processors is new, so I didn’t know you could do that. Anyway, thanks for telling me that.

I tried it out, and it seems like it works, but 2008 uses my 2nd CPU better.

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# 9 13-09-2007 , 05:32 PM

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If you knew what I was on about why did you ask what I was talking about? Seemed a bit rude.

Its a how maya used to render before multicore processors when you would have dual processor PC's (like the 2 x quads or on a network) and since a dual core processor "looks" to the software like 2 processors it uses both.

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 10 13-09-2007 , 05:36 PM

Jr.Who

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Originally posted by gster123
If you knew what I was on about why did you ask what I was talking about? Seemed a bit rude.

Its a how maya used to render before multicore processors when you would have dual processor PC's (like the 2 x quads or on a network) and since a dual core processor "looks" to the software like 2 processors it uses both.

Originally Posted by

I said what, because I thought that it was a new feature in 2008.

Anyway, I have a question, before I post my impressions. How do I merge, say, 2 photos into 1, so I don’t have to post several times? user added image

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# 11 13-09-2007 , 06:34 PM

Jr.Who

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Nevermind, I sort of figured it out by myself. OK, here’s some of my impressions.

The first thing you’ll notice is the new initializing window (pic 1). It looks much better than 8.5’s, and it matches Maya more.

What’s New in General:

ViewCube aids 3D scene navigation:
I LOVE the new ViewCube. It looks a lot better than the compass, and it has a ton more options. When your mouse isn’t over it, it goes into a transparent mode (pic 2). When you put your mouse over it, you’ll notice a couple of things. There’s a little house that pops up, and when you click on it, it goes back to the standard Maya view (pic 3). On top of doing the regular orthographic views (front, top, back, etc.), it can do a corner, or even an edge! When you go into the orthographic view, you notice that you can even rotate it (pic 4). You can drag on it, and it rotates the scene, and even snaps if you get close to an edge.

Also, it has preferences. Lots of preferences (considering that the compass didn’t have any). You can adjust the position (top left, bottom right, etc.), the size (small, normal, large), the inactive transparency (when the mouse isn’t over it), and more (pic 5).

Moving a parented object and not the child object:
I‘ve tested this out, and it’s just too cool.

Make Live works in shaded mode:
I don’t really use Make Live that much, but this seems like it’s a great new feature.

X-ray active components shading mode:
I don’t really know about this one. It seems to get in the way, and the regular X-ray just seems better.

New Replace Objects feature:
I’ve yet to test it out, but it sounds great.

Convert instances to objects:
It looks cool, but is it really that necessary?

Delete unknown nodes:
Anything added to the OSS is good.

BTW, I’m not going to post my impressions on all of the new features, because I don’t know what some are, or I don’t use them.

Still lots more impressions to come……

-Jr.Who
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# 12 13-09-2007 , 08:41 PM

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yeah, but ncloth still crashes maya with vista

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# 13 14-09-2007 , 03:25 AM

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then thats your set up as it works fine for me - has done since the service pack for 8.5

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# 14 14-09-2007 , 05:21 AM

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Has anybody tried the new mental ray feature which can render particles only the hardware renderer could do i'm curious about that user added image

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# 15 14-09-2007 , 05:51 AM

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Converting instances to objects is a good feature, if youve ever used instances than you'll know how hard it is to mix them with other objects when running a simulation

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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