Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
183 lines (134 loc) · 8.6 KB

build.md

File metadata and controls

183 lines (134 loc) · 8.6 KB
Raw

Building

Getting and Building the Code

1. Tools and System Prerequisites

Before building the project, consult the following table to ensure you use the recommended version of compiler, operating system, etc.

Required
Operating System Windows 10 CentOS 7/8
Compiler Requirement VS 2017/2019/2022 clang 11.0.1
Supported Maya Version 2020, 2022, 2023 2020, 2022, 2023
Optional
Qt Maya 2020 = 5.12.5
Maya 2022 = 5.15.2
Maya 2023 = 5.15.2		 Maya 2020 = 5.12.5
Maya 2022 = 5.15.2
Maya 2023 = 5.15.2

2. Unreal Engine

You need to build Unreal Engine from the source code before building the plugin.
The source code is located at https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine.
You need special access rights to clone the repository.
For additional information on building Unreal Engine, follow the instructions in their own README.md.


3. Install third party libraries

Maya SDK

Download SDK

You need to download and unzip the Maya SDK for your version of Maya at a location of your choice.

The SDKs can be found here.

Setting up the environment variable

To build the plugin, you will need to tell to where to find the Maya SDK you just downloaded. We are using an environment variable to know its location. The location should be set on the devkitBase folder.

  • Windows: Create an environment variable called MAYA_WIN_DIR_xxxx where xxxx is replaced by the Maya year date of the SDK, e.g. 2020, 2022, 2023 etc.

  • Linux: Create an environment variable called MAYA_LNX_DIR_xxxx where xxxx is replaced by the Maya year date of the SDK, e.g. 2020, 2022, 2023 etc.

For example, if you extracted the Maya 2022 SDK on Windows to c:\MayaDevKits\2022, the environment variable would be:

MAYA_WIN_DIR_2022=c:\MayaDevKits\2022\devkitBase

4. Download the plugin source code

Create a folder structure under the "Engine" folder that looks like this: Restricted/NotForLicensees. Navigate to the "NotForLicensees" folder in a command shell and the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Autodesk/LiveLink.git .

Repository Layout

Under the "Engine/Restricted/NotForLicensees" folder, you will see the folder layout.

Location Description
resource The resource folder
Source The Autodesk Maya plugin
Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin The MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin module and plugin
Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin/icons The icons folder
Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin/scripts The Python UI classes
Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin/Subjects The Subjects classes
Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin/UnrealInitializer The Unreal initializer and stream manager module
test The Python unit tests

5. How to build the plugin

You can build the plugins using different methods:

  1. Go to the "Source/Programs/MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin" folder.
    • Windows: Use the "BuildMayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin.bat" batch file.
    • Linux: Use the "BuildMayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin.sh" shell script.
  2. Go to the "Plugins/Runtime/MayaLiveLink" folder.
    • Windows: Use the "BuildUnrealPlugin.bat" batch file.
    • Linux: Use the "BuildUnrealPlugin.sh" shell script.
  3. Windows only: Open the Unreal Engine .sln file and build the Engine using the "Development Editor" configuration.
  4. VSCode/CMake: Set the environment variables MAYA_LOCATION and MAYA_DEVKIT_LOCATION to the proper location before launching VSCode. Build with RelWithDebInfo to compile plugin. After opening a python file the Test Explorer will detect all the python unittests. UE version, MayaVersion and Platform will be detected automatically.

Arguments method (1)

There are two arguments that must be passed to the "BuildMayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin" script:

Argument Description
MayaVersion Maya yearly version to build for.
Platform Use either Win64 or Linux 
Linux:
➜ BuildMayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin.sh 2022 Linux

Windows:
➜ MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin.bat 2022 Win64

There are two arguments that must be passed to the "BuildUnrealPlugin" script:

Argument Description
Package Folder The folder where to package the plugin.
Host Platform Host platforms to compile for.
Win64+Linux, Win64 or Linux 
Linux:
➜ BuildUnrealPlugin.sh UnrealPackage Linux

Windows:
➜ BuildUnrealPlugin.bat UnrealPackage Win64

Build location

The binaries will be located under "Engine\Restricted\NotForLicensees\Source\Binaries" folder.

  • Windows: Plugins for different Maya versions will be located under "Win64\Maya"
  • Linux: Plugins for different Maya versions will be located under "Linux\Maya"

6. How To Run Unit Tests

Unit tests can be found in the "Engine/Restricted/NotForLicensees/test" folder.

As an example, here is how to run the tests using the Maya 2023 Unreal Engine plugin:

Linux:
➜ /usr/autodesk/maya2023/bin/mayapy runTests.py 

Windows:
➜ "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2023\bin\mayapy.exe" runTests.py

Qt WebEngine seems to be initialized from a plugin. Please set Qt::AA_ShareOpenGLContexts using QCoreApplication::setAttribute before constructing QGuiApplication.
MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin initialized
LiveLinkUI Init:
        Registering Command 'MayaLiveLinkNotifyAndQuit'
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkInitialized'        
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkOnSceneOpen'        
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkOnScenePreSave'     
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkRefreshConnectionUI'
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkRefreshUI'
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkUI'
        Registering Command 'MayaUnrealLiveLinkUpdateLinkProgress' 
test_blendShapeStreaming.test_blendShapeStreamMultipleFrames : INFO : Started
LiveLinkAddSubjectCommand joint1
test_blendShapeStreaming.test_blendShapeStreamMultipleFrames : INFO : Completed

...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 25 tests in 3.900s

OK

How to Load Plug-ins in Maya

You need to edit the Maya.env for the Maya version you're using to add the plugin path. Note that there are 2 paths to set, one for the .mll/.so files and one for the UI .py script.

Example for Maya on Windows:

MAYA_MODULE_PATH=C:\UnrealEngine\Engine\Restricted\NotForLicensees\Binaries\Win64\Maya

MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH=C:\UnrealEngine\Engine\Restricted\NotForLicensees\Source\Programs\MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin

MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH=C:\UnrealEngine\Engine\Restricted\NotForLicensees\Source\Programs\MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin

Once this is set, run Maya, go to File -> Unreal Live Link to start the UI and select which Unreal version of the plugin if want to use.

Alternatively, you can to Windows -> Setting/Preferences -> Plug-in Manager, type Live to filter the plugins and make sure MayaUnrealLiveLinkPluginUI.py and MayaUnrealLiveLinkPlugin_5_1 are Loaded and set to Auto load.