Autodesk unveils Maya LT 2016 Extension 2

Autodesk has unveiled Maya LT 2016 Extension 2, the latest subscriber-only update to its cut-down version of Maya aimed at indie games artists, extending the software’s level of detail and weight mapping functionality.

There doesn’t seem to have been an official announcement about the update on Autodesk’s AREA community site, but videos of the new features have been posted on the company’s YouTube channel.

New LOD, baking and weight mapping functionality
New functionality in the update includes the option to define the percentage reductions in poly count for each level of detail mesh generated by the software manually, as shown in the video above.

Turtle, the map baking system integrated with Maya LT has also been updated. The demo video doesn’t go into much detail, but Autodesk says that the presets have been tweaked to give better results in game engines.

In addition, the software now enables artists to import or export skin weight maps, enabling them to reimport maps after changing a character’s topology, rather than having to repaint weights by hand, as shown above.

Users can also browse or buy content on Creative Market, the online digital asset store Autodesk acquired last year, directly from within Maya LT.

Pricing and availability
Extension releases are available only to Maya users on subscription contracts. New licences of Maya LT 2016 cost $795 for a perpetual licence or from $30/month via a pay-as-you-go subscription.

See videos of all the new features in Maya LT 2016 Extension 2 on Autodesk’s YouTube channel