Can't Install On MacOS Big Sur

[stevetalkowski]

Hello!

I got the following error when attempting to install the plugin on MacOS Big Sur V 11.0.1 (I just recently updated).

Is there a way to manually install this? I enjoy the convenience of the .dmg file, but am willing to do it manually if it's easy enough. I've successfully installed in on my Windows machine.

Also, will this plug-in allow exporting skeletal animation? I'm primarily interested in getting some textured, animated robot characters out from Maya and over to Apple's Reality Composer.

Thx!

-Steve

[dgovil]

If you right click and hit open, it should give you the ability to bypass the quarantine check

It's an issue caused by the dylibs not being notarized, and because you downloaded them, they are quarantined for protection.

[stevetalkowski]

Thx. I'll try reaching out to a few of my Maya contacts at Autodesk and let you know once I get it to work. 👍

[kxl-adsk]

You don't need to look for contacts...here is the right place to ask. I don't have an answer at hand, but we will get back to you.

[stevetalkowski]

You don't need to look for contacts...here is the right place to ask. I don't have an answer at hand, but we will get back to you.

Ah, thanks Krystian! Appreciate it. :)

[santosg87]

I can reproduce this internally as well.

although, i noticed that no partition is selected on that page.

continuing the installation without selecting anything will place the files on the expected locations. :)

we will dig a bit deeper.

Cheers!

[stevetalkowski]

although, i noticed that no partition is selected on that page.

I didn't know which one to select, since MacintoshHD wasn't available.

continuing the installation without selecting anything will place the files on the expected locations. :)

I did try to continue without selecting anything, and it failed on my end. I've attached additional screenshots.

we will dig a bit deeper.

Thx!

[dgovil]

So i went spelunking out of curiosity...
If you launch the app you get a different installer than if you do the following:

• Right click on the installer app and select "Show Package Contents"
• Navigate to Contents/Packages/MayaUSD_core_2020_2020.pkg and run it.

It gives an installer that doesn't hit the issues above, and looks like it installed correctly for me?
It looks like the Installer App is using Qt to install, so it may be an issue with the Qt installer...

Anyway, worth a try.

[dgovil]

Reality Composer only supports usdz files.

Differences between usd and usdz

.usd files default to being .usdc or can be .usda if specified. However they can't be .usdz afaik.

.usdz is basically a specially zipped version of USD files and their dependencies. Sort of like if your entire usd+dependencies was a folder and then zipped to be a single file.

Note you cannot zip up a usd to make a usdz, there is some special sauce to it (alignment, ordering, no compression etc) but you can use usdzip, usdzconverter or Reality Converter to create one from usd files or other compatible formats.

Creating a usdz from Maya

If you specify the .usdz extension when writing out a file from Maya, it'll create a proper usdz file for you.
Alternatively, you can use Reality Converter to convert it for you.

[santosg87]

to export usdz, you should be able to by simply adding the file format manually on maya when typing in the file name.
(i.e. "yourCube.usdz"instead of just yourCube.),

maya would then take care of the rest when exporting. :)

[stevetalkowski]

Hey Dhruv, thanks, that works. Seems a bit counter-intuitive to have to remember appending the Z though. Shouldn't that be a check mark in the export dialogue window perhaps?

I've been busy, but just tried another example. A simple elongated, segmented and textured cube that is bound to a two joint skeleton with animation. I selected the skeleton and geometry and exported with the .USDZ extension and check marked the animation option. When I double click that file, it opens up Xcode. The associated texture is missing, and there is no animation. I then tried selecting the two joints that have simple rotation and baked those keys (48 frame sequence) and tried re-exporting. Still no textures or animation. Do you have any guidance on the preferred method to get this to work out from Maya?

[dgovil]

AFAIK there was a bug in one of the earlier commits that caused textures to not be embedded in the usdz. I don't think the fix landed in time for the 0.5 release (#865 (comment))

For the skeleton, the Export Skeleton option of the usd exporter is off by default and I don't believe the option is exposed in the UI right now. You can export via MEL/Python calls to mayaUSDExport to get the skeleton in.

I have a PR we're preparing to add Blendshape export that should also add back the skeleton export options if accepted. Note: Blendshapes themselves aren't supported in RealityKit yet but skeletons are.

cmds.mayaUSDExport(file=usdFile, exportSkels='auto')

---

Unfortunately, for the textures issue you'll likely need to build this repo yourself or wait till a 0.6 release is cut.
For the skeleton, you'll need to use the python export command to do it at the moment, till the skeleton options are exposed in the UI.

[stevetalkowski]

sigh Ok. I'm just looking for a quick, down N dirty pipeline to get a textured and animated character out from Maya and into a useable format for Reality Composer. Seems like it's not "Ready for Prime Time" at the moment.

When you suggest solution like "export via MEL/Python calls" and "build the repo yourself", my non-programmer artist brain starts to glaze over! ;)

I'm on the PR, but haven't been active that much with it. When I get some more time, i'll take a look at getting it up and running on both the Mac and PC.

[kxl-adsk]

Update
We haven't addressed the reported issue in the 0.6.0 installer, but the work is in progress and should be ready for the next drop.