Basefount announces Miarmy Commander
Basefount Technology has announced Miarmy Commander, an “extension package” for its Miarmy Maya crowd-simulation system focused on traffic and battle simulation.
Miarmy Commander enables Maya users to create traffic simulations by laying out a network of hubs and roads, with traffic flow at junctions controlled by simple fuzzy logic nodes.
Other features include ‘objective-subjective action synchronization’ to enable one AI agent to respond to the behaviour of another, making it possible to build up complex fight sequences automatically.
There is also a new RBD emitter for generating arrows and similar projectiles: something Basefount says will be extended to bullets and missiles in future releases.
New features in Miarmy Professional
Miarmy Professional has also been updated. The fairly lengthy list of new features includes a single character cache, which expands the scene agent cache to include nCloth, fur, hair, muscle and soft bodies.
Agents can now be simulated moving over arbitrary geometry – the demo shows them moving over the surface of a helix – and there is a new automated IK system to prevent agents’ feet penetrating the terrain.
Since we last wrote about Miyarmy, Basefount has also added support for Mac OS X, and for the Arnold renderer: now expanded with the option to generate a .ass file in procedural primitive form.
The software already supports RenderMan, 3delight, mental ray and V-Ray.
Miarmy Professional 1.5.8 is available now for Maya 2011 and above on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It costs $960, including a free upgrade to version 2.0, due out early next year.
Updated: Miarmy Commander has been integrated into Miarmy Pro for beta testing, during which time it may be used for free on commercial projects. Pricing will be announced on its commercial release in around half a year.
Read a full list of features in Miarmy Commander
Read a full list of new features in Miarmy Professional 1.5.8