Unofficial Maya LiveLink update for custom attributes and 2015 support

Denny · June 17, 2019, 5:00pm

The current release of the LiveLink plugin for Maya does not have support for custom curves. It also does not support Maya 2015.

I have created a patch that adds support for Maya 2015 and user defined attributes on the root joint. Compiled binaries are included in the repo for 2015. For 2016 and above you have to compile the plugin yourself.

https://github.com/DennyLindberg/May…stomAttributes
Pull-request created on Github here.

Supports 4.22 and 4.23. The 4.22 plugin is deprecated for 4.23, so it is not recommended to use that combination as Epic replaced how curves are replicated.

TODO:

Maybe add support for blend shape curves. You can still replicate curves by adding them as attributes on the root joint. Drive the root joint attribute with the blend shape value.

Denny · July 12, 2019, 4:20pm

I have created an update for the plugin. Custom attributes are now supported without needing connections or keyframes. I have also added custom curves support for 4.23 based on the Preview 1 release.

Denny · July 12, 2019, 10:34pm

I have now created a pull-request to the official repository, which can be seen here.

MostHost_LA · July 13, 2019, 5:22am

Nice. I literally just finished repackaging the same thing for Blender - had no idea Maya was without this too!

Denny · July 13, 2019, 8:58am

Did you do it for Bone Breaker or something separate?

MostHost_LA · July 13, 2019, 10:38am

To be able to publish on unreal marketplace I had to separate the 2 plugins. The FBX handler is published under GPL so there would have been issues trying to publish a modified version of it…

Denny · July 14, 2019, 8:12am

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but how does FBX relate to Live Link? Do you mean that your Live Link-stream was added in the non-FBX plugin?

MostHost_LA · July 14, 2019, 11:18am

No it isn’t related at all, except for the curve managment part being a missing piece for blender.
Idk though, maybe I should look into a similar solution. Especially now that Python scripting is extended within the engine maybe the possibility is finally there…

The_Distiller · September 7, 2019, 2:29pm

Does the latest version of the official plugin support curves now? The live link curve debugger documentation mentions Maya but I can’t get it to work.

Denny · September 12, 2019, 5:36pm

I have seen nothing in the patch-notes regarding custom curves and my pull request has been completely ignored since July. I might do a new pass on the latest code for 4.23 and make a new pull request.

Edit*
It seems they have moved some of the plugins out of the main repo. If I found the correct path, this is the new place. I will see if I can do an update here after I tested it with 4.23.

Denny · September 12, 2019, 8:45pm

I tested the latest version of the plugin and it does not support curves. I have however created a new pull request with the necessary changes, see link below.

github.com/ue4plugins/MayaLiveLink

Add support for Maya 2015, PropertyNames on root joint, and reference namespace removal

ue4plugins:master ← DennyLindberg:master

opened 08:37PM - 12 Sep 19 UTC

DennyLindberg

+240 -5

The changes below have been compiled with the latest 4.23 source. The features h…as been tested with Maya 2015 with the launcher version of 4.23. A full character with custom attributes are streaming as intended. The curve debugger displays the curve values and an animation blueprint is successfully driving a pose asset using the curve names. **Maya 2015 support** 6ee2e07 Added Build.cs and Target.cs for 2015. Updated BuildMayaPlugin.xml to include 2015 target. Added ```#ifndef #def``` in MayaLiveLinkPlugin.cpp as the missing type BananaFritters caused compilation to fail for 2015. Removed ```adjustableColumn=2``` for ```cmds.rowColumnLayout("SubjectLayout",...)``` in MayaLiveLinkUI.py as the attribute does not exist in Maya 2015. **Stream custom attributes on root joint as PropertyName curves** 51c6d8d I have replicated the FBX-export behavior that exports custom curves for user defined attributes on the root bone. (Full Hierarchy only) Any user defined attribute that is visible, and not locked, will be streamed. (with or without keyframes) This allows for driven behaviors or manual sliding. If _exclude-attribute-when-locked_ happens to be a poor design choice, it can simply be changed in one if-statement. Adding UI support for which attributes to stream should be a small change if needed. The subject will be rebuilt if the user adds, removes, locks or unlocks the attributes on the root joint. Most of the heavy lifting is done in a new ```FStreamedUserDefinedAttributes``` class. A private member instance ```StreamedAttributes``` is added to ```FLiveLinkStreamedJointHierarchySubject``` to keep track of the attributes. RebuildSubjectData() and OnStream() triggers StreamedAttributes to update AnimationData. ***Remove reference namespace for joint names*** 753dea2 If a subject is part of a referenced scene in Maya it will get a reference prefix like so: ```Filename:Subject``` or potentially ```File1:File2:...:Subject```. This fix removes the namespace so that only the transform name is streamed. Namespaces are automatically removed from the skeletal mesh when importing an FBX in the editor. I see no reason why the default behavior of the LiveLink plugin should behave differently. Especially when we have the ability to stream multiple subjects with unique identifiers.

The_Distiller · September 12, 2019, 9:29pm

Thanks. I hope Epic accepts your pull request soon. Baffling that curves from Maya aren’t officially supported yet!

The_Distiller · January 17, 2020, 5:36pm

Just saw your pull request got merged. Too bad the custom attributes feature (what I was waiting for) didn’t make it. Darn!

Denny · January 23, 2020, 11:21am

Yeah, it was a slight bummer. I do understand that they want custom curves to work for all streamed subjects before merging the feature. If you really need the feature, it is probably faster if you attempt to build it yourself for now.