Massive crowd simulation software gets free edition
Massive Software has released Massive 101, a free version of its Academy- and Emmy Award-winning crowd simulation software, intended for non-commercial use.
The new version means that the “crowd system created for The Lord Of The Rings is now available for free”, making it possible for a much wider set of artists to try the software.
Massive 101 actually seems to have been available for a while now, but we suspect that most CG Channel readers won’t have been aware of it: we first spotted it ourselves when Massive Software founder Stephen Regelous posted about it on LinkedIn this week.
The original commercial crowd simulation tool for movie and broadcast VFX
On its release in the 2000s, Massive became the first major commercial crowd simulation tool.
The software was originally developed for use on the Lord of the Rings movies by Wētā FX, then still known as Weta Digital, enabling the studio to create the ground-breaking battle sequences in the final movie in the trilogy, The Return of the King.
Over the next two decades, Massive became a staple of VFX and animation pipelines for heavyweight movie and broadcast projects, scaling to very large simulations.
Recent films it has been used on include the Avatar sequels, A Minecraft Movie and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
A heavyweight tool for authoring AI behaviors for crowd characters
Massive makes it possible to create AI behaviors for crowd agents – both characters and creatures – by wiring together reusable ‘brain parts’ using Massive’s node-based interface.
The software also has integrated hair, cloth and rigid body dynamics solvers, making it possible to give crowd characters realistic clothing and props.
While the pace of updates has slowed in recent years, the software has supported modern USD-based workflows since 2021, when Massive 9, the last major version, was released.
Although Massive has been available in a number of editions over the years, it is currently available as standalone version Massive Prime, and integrated Maya edition Massive for Maya.
Massive 101: a new free, export-limited edition for non-commercial use
To that, we can now add Massive 101, a new free, non-commercial edition that makes it possible for a much wider audience to try the software for the first time.
It’s “almost completely fully functional”: it includes the full simulation toolset, and there are no limits on the number or complexity of crowd agents that it can create.
However, motion, cloth and hair simulation files are saved in Massive 101’s own file format, so they can’t be used in Massive Prime, and USD and geometry export are disabled.
Massive 101 supports the Arnold and Velocity renderers – the commercial editions also support RenderMan and V-Ray – and renders are watermarked.
As well as the application itself, Massive comes with demo and tutorial files to help you get started, plus the manual for Massive 9.3, the current commercial release, on which it is based.
Price and system requirements
Massive 101 is compatible with Windows 10 and Linux. It is free for non-commercial use.
A perpetual floating license of Massive Prime costs $3,495, and includes Massive for Maya. Rental costs $2,495/year. Massive Software also sells a range of readymade crowd agents.
Read more about Massive 101 on the Massive Software website
Download Massive 101 from the Massive Software forum
(Requires registering for a free account)
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