Friday, August 24th, 2018 Posted by Jim Thacker

Basefount ships Miarmy 6.5


Basefount has released Miarmy 6.5, the latest update to its crowd-simulation system for Maya.

The release adds a number of features designed to increase the size of simulations for a minimal increase in calculation time, including layered caches for rigid body dynamics and a ‘self clone’ system for flocking sims.

New features in Miarmy 6.5
Key changes in Miarmy 6.5 include a new layered cache system for rigid body dynamics simulations.

Crowd agents can continue to interact with the cache, making it possible to increase the size of sims without greatly increasing processing time: the video above shows the system in action with 10,000 agents.

Other new features include a self clone system which instances agents in flocking sims, making it possible to run a guide simulation with a small number of hero agents, then clone them to increase the density.

In addition, flocking sims have been made easier to control in both 2D and 3D views, and dynamic bone chains can now be locked to geometry and deformed via cloth simulation.

The release also introduces a new OpenGL 3.3-based viewport, intended to improve display performance for complex scenes. The viewport is currently still in beta, with a stable release scheduled for Miarmy 7.0.

Pricing and availability
Miarmy 6.5 is available for Maya 2014+ on Windows XP+, Linux and Mac OS X 10.6+. A single node-locked licence costs $2,550; a site licence costs $5,250; and there are a range of rental options.

Read a full list of new features in Miarmy 6.5 on Basefount’s website