Golaem releases Golaem 7.3.7, the latest version of its crowd simulation and character layout software. The 7 release brings a new Character Layout Tool, including a DCC agnostic nodal editor and more capabilities, as well as a live link to Unreal Engine.

Improvements
- Added support of Houdini 18.5.351
- Added support of Houdini 18.0.566
- Added viewport check in the Golaem Scene Checker Tool
- Improved multithreading performances in Cache Replay
- Multiple sensors can now be enabled in the ActivateSensor Behavior
- Added option to disable Perception in the EntityType Node
- Default Navigation Sensor can be customized in the Perception Locator

Bug fixes
- Fixed closest curve picking in the Goto Behavior
- Fixed Entities not showing out of initial simulation time range in the USD Proc plugin
- Fixed Vector Field raycast on sloppy terrains within the SetShaderAttribute Layer
- Fixed a crash when rendering FBX geometry Characters with invalid blendshapes
- Fixed Automatic Frame Step mode in the Geometry Animation Behavior
- Fixed -cameraName flag requirement in the glmSimulationCacheTool command

Refactoring
- Removed support of Houdini 17.5
- Removed support of Houdini 18.0.348
- 3d Adaptation Mode is enabled when a Terrain Node is created from a MayaMesh NavMesh
- Changed default curve following sampling mode

API
- Added -openedFiles, -currentFile and -nodeTab flags in the glmCharacterMaker command
- Added getShadingGroupNames and getShaderAssetNames functions in the Python API

Supported DCCs
- Autodesk Maya 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 (on demand)
- Autodesk 3ds Max 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
- Foundry Katana 3.X
- Unreal Engine 4.25 (4.24 on demand)
- SideFx Houdini 18.0.566, 18.5.351

Supported Rendering Engines
- Arnold - Mtoa 4.0.X, 4.1.X / KtoA 3.0
- V-Ray - For Maya 4.0X, 4.1X, 4.3X / For 3ds Max 4.30
- Renderman - For Maya 23.0 / For Katana 23.0
- Redshift - For Maya 3.0.22-26
- USD - Standalone 0.19.11 and 0.20.02 / For Houdini 18 and 18.5 / For Katana 3.5
- 3Delight - For Katana 2.3.2 (through USD)
- Mental Ray - For Maya 3.14
- Guerilla Render 2.1, 2.2

Also supported (but must be manually installed):
- Arnold - Mtoa 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 / KtoA 2.X
- V-Ray - For Maya 5.0.22
- Renderman - For Maya 22.4, 22.5 / For Katana 22.4, 22.5
- Redshift - For Maya 2.6.49, 2.6.5X / For Katana 2.6.55

Golaem releases Golaem 7, the latest version of its crowd simulation and character layout software. It brings a new Character Layout Tool, including a DCC agnostic nodal editor and more capabilities, as well as a live link to Unreal Engine.

A new Character Layout Tool
Born as a retake tool for Golaem simulations, Golaem Layout is now evolving as an independent tool for procedural character layout, enabling artists to easily populate shots by using Population Vignettes they can place in their scene and quickly edit them to fit with the shot direction.

A Population Vignette is similar to a proxy for characters and their animations which can be edited thanks to directable layers such as automatic feet adaptation to the ground, look at, duplicate, controllable geometry and shading variations, animation retiming, IK autorig to retake animation...
Artists can then adapt the scene very easily to frequent changes in directorial intentions or environment changes. For example, taking into account a new ground geometry can be done in one click.

Population Vignettes edits are non destructive, and performed using a new nodal editor which makes it easy to copy edits to others characters, rearrange modifications, test different stacks of modifications and so on. The new Layout architecture also makes it possible to drive edit with locators, or to keyframe their values using the standard Maya tools.

Population Vignettes can be layouted manually or scattered in the scene thanks to the Golaem Population Tool. Thousands of them can be animated in real time without slowing down Maya or making the scene file longer to open.

Golaem Layout has been unanimously acclaimed as a huge time and money saver by all its customers.

Round trip link with Unreal Engine
Golaem introduces a new plugin for Unreal Engine which enables loading Population Vignettes and layout them.

Unreal scenes can be refreshed instantly to take modifications done in Maya, and the Layout modifications can be edited directly in Unreal, and reloaded in Maya.
By avoiding things such as baking alembic caches and loading them in Unreal Engine, which wastes time and is always a pain to keep things in sync, this new workflow really facilitates the work of the team. It has already been used efficiently in production by Waterproof Studios and IGG Inc. for their in-game cinematics.

This new plugin takes advantage of Golaem C++/Python APIs which allows to quickly load Golaem simulation caches and layout in any platform (one of Golaem customers has implemented an Isotropix Clarisse integration in a few weeks). It also embeds the new Golaem Layout editor, which is independent from Maya, making it possible to use in any platform which supports Python.

The Unreal plugin source code is now available to customers so that they can compile their own Unreal Engine version with it, and contribute their developments.

Golaem develops artist-friendly tools to animate digital characters. Integrated in Autodesk Maya, Golaem makes it fast and affordable to populate worlds with directable digital characters, from a few to thousands. Artists from all over the globe use Golaem to bring life to commercials, episodic productions, feature films and games.

Product: Golaem Crowd
Version: 7.3.7 with Character Pack *
Supported Architectures: x64
Website Home Page : http://golaem.com/
Language: english
System Requirements: **
Software Prerequisites: **
Size: 1.3 Gb

* The Character Pack is a set of ready-to-use characters and motions enabling faster crowd shots creation.
NB: the Character Pack HD only contains the HD casual and busines man, for other characters and sample scenes, install the GolaemCharacterPack

Platforms
- Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 or 8.1, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

Graphics
- OpenGL 3.3 (2010) or above

Supported DCCs
- Autodesk Maya 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
- Autodesk 3ds Max 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
- Foundry Katana 3.X
- Unreal Engine 4.25 (4.24 on demand)
- SideFx Houdini 18.0.566, 18.5.351

Supported Rendering Engines
- Arnold - Mtoa 4.0.X, 4.1.X / KtoA 3.0
- V-Ray - For Maya 4.0X, 4.1X, 4.3X / For 3ds Max 4.30
- Renderman - For Maya 23.0 / For Katana 23.0
- Redshift - For Maya 3.0.22-26
- USD - Standalone 0.19.11 and 0.20.02 / For Houdini 18 and 18.5 / For Katana 3.5
- 3Delight - For Katana 2.3.2 (through USD)
- Mental Ray For Maya 3.14
- Guerilla Render 2.1, 2.2

Also supported (but must be manually installed):
- Arnold - Mtoa 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 / KtoA 2.X
- V-Ray For Maya 5.0.22
- Renderman - For Maya 22.4, 22.5 / For Katana 22.4, 22.5
- Redshift For Maya 2.6.49, 2.6.5X / For Katana 2.6.55