Basefount ships Miarmy 2.0
Basefount Technology has released Miarmy 2.0, the latest update to its crowd-simulation system for Maya.
The software, which provides fuzzy logic-driven AI and PhysX-based physics simulation, is in use at a growing number of Asian studios, and well-known US facilities like Gradient Effects and Luma Pictures.
Better layers and blending, rewritten UI and engine
The promotional material for Miarmy 2.0 focuses mainly on performance: the website features an array of charts showing increases in speed of up to ten times and improvements in memory usage for physics simulation.
There are also changes to the software’s action layers and blend engine, for more precise control over the way animation clips are blended on an individual AI agent; and an updated UI.
And finally, the Mesh Drive geometry export system has been updated so that Miarmy’s output can be sent to a “render farm directly without commands, just like a normal Maya file”.
The software recently added Arnold to its list of supported renderers, alongside RenderMan, 3delight, mental ray and V-Ray.
Miarmy 2.0 is available now for Maya 2011 and above on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The Professional edition costs $960, including free upgrades until version 2.7; the Express edition is free.