Setup At First Launch
Loading Golaem Crowd in Maya
Once Maya has been launched via the launch script, you need to load the Golaem Crowd plugin in Maya. Open the Plugin Manager by selecting Window / Settings / Preferences / Plug-in Manager.
Maya Plug-in Manager
If the script has been correctly configured, you should have a glmCrowd.mll and glmCrowdRender.mll lines in the list.
Check the Loaded box to load the plugins: if the "I" letter next to the check boxes turns green, it means that the plugin has been correctly loaded and that you are now ready to play with crowds.
The Golaem Crowd plugins correctly loaded
Configuring Golaem Crowd
The plugin settings can be accessed through:
- Crowd Menu: Settings item
- MEL command: editCrowdSettings;
Log Levels
The log levels of each Golaem component embedded in the plugin (see Introduction) can be changed at any time. This can be useful for debug purposes when experiencing inconsistency behaviors in a simulation. To change the log level of a component, select it in the Golaem Component scroll list, select the wanted level and click on the Set Level button.
Notice that a low log level can be time consuming, especially when dealing with a large amount of entities.
By default, log messages are displayed in the Script Editor. They can also be flushed in a file (glmCrowd.log located at the specified directory) or in the Output Window. Finally be aware that logging in the Output Window is memory consuming as long as it cannot be cleared.
Simulation Random Seed
In order to add some random pattern and diversity, the Golaem Crowd plugin uses a random number generator. The seed of this generator can be accessed through the CrowdManager
It is important to notice that, even though some parameters are generated randomly, the plugin is completely predictive. Two simulations launched with the same parameters and the same seed will produce EXACTLY the same results.
Simulation Scaling
In order to keep the maximum compatibility with all Maya objects in the Golaem Crowd plugin, it is highly recommended to set the "Linear Working Units" to centimeter and modeling with the convention that 1 Maya unit (1 cm) equal 1 meter. The reason is that for some values, Maya convert values from any unit to centimeter (e.g. particle positions, fields forces …), losing precision when dealing with big values.
However, the Golaem Crowd plugin allow using a different convention than 1 Maya unit equal 1 meter (always with the "Linear Working Units" set to centimeter).
If the characters are already rigged in a different scale, it is possible to use the Crowd Field in order to scale Entities. For example, if characters were modeled with a 1 centimeter equal 1 centimeter convention, they will be 100 times too big. The “Scale Random Min” / “Scale Random Max” values need to be divided by 100.
If the environment and characters are in a different scale than the recommended one, it is possible to use a different scale ratio by selecting the relative Crowd Unit in the Crowd Manager. For example an environment design with the convention 1 decimeter equal 1 meter, the user will choose the decimeter value in the Crowd Unit attribute of the Crowd Manager.
CONFIGURING MAYA
Check Maya Settings
To work properly, Golaem Crowd requires that some of the global Maya settings have a specific value (Time unit, distance unit…). To check a current Maya configuration, it is possible to use the Golaem Crowd "Check Maya Settings" tool. In the Crowd Menu bar, select "Check Maya Settings":
Golaem Crowd settings test window
You may consider editing your Maya settings if one of the lines of the tool ends with "NO".
Play Every Frame
As the plugin relies on Maya particle system and due to the complexity of crowd scenes, it is highly advised to activate the "Play every frame" option in the Playback speed. Thus, while the animation is played in the Maya panels, Maya will make sure that all the frames in the animation are displayed irrespective of the animation speed, even though the animation speed gets really sluggish.
Open the Maya Preferences by selecting Window / Settings / Preferences / Preferences / Time Slider Category.
That will open a window that looks like this:
Maya Preferences
Finally, it can be convenient to set the maximum playback speed of the simulation at "Real-time [24 fps]".
This parameter can be modified in the Max Playback Speed option of the same configuration window.
Both parameters can also be set by right-clicking on the play button of the timeline, and choosing "Play every frame, Max Real-time" in the "Playback Speed" context menu.
Playback speed menu
Recommendations
This part lists some usual recommendations for improving your experience.
Do Not
- Change the Maya working units during a simulation;
- Change the Maya world coordinate system;
If those recommendations are not followed, the simulation may look awkward or even make Maya crash.