Maya USD 0.34.5 Released with Asset Resolver

[wallworm]

The USD team is happy to share plugin releases today. You will note that we posted two releases (0.34.0 and 0.34.5). 0.34.0 is what shipped with Maya 2026.3 today. We suggest that you use 0.34.5 to take advantage of Mac support in the new Asset Resolver.

The main new feature is the Asset Resolver that we have been working on to help configure Maya USD to be able to customize search paths as well as understand tokens and environment variables in asset paths. We don't consider the Asset Resolver work finished, but it's now in a state that the average user can take advantage of it.

Another new key feature is View Layer Content. Now you can see actual layer content of a selected layer within the layer editor.

Some other key improvements are around the USD Importer. First you will see a new option to turn on the Euler Filter. This option has been around in the importer for some time to address rotation problems with some assets, but now it's exposed in the UI. We also fixed problems with importing incorrect UVs and Normals with left-handed meshes that come from other DCCs.

The other key update is that we have made the default material target MaterialX instead of USD Preview Surface to align with some of our organizational efforts to improve MaterialX workflows. You can still use USD Preview Surface and set it as the default, but new installations of Maya USD will default to MaterialX from here on out.

There are other improvements noted in the changelog.

We hope you enjoy the update and look forward to feedback.

[jcoelho88]

Can this AR be used with kick?

[wallworm]

Not today, but this is something the Arnold team is actively looking into.

[jcoelho88]

Thanks for the info! In line with that is the AR open source and available to be built against other USD versions etc.

[wallworm]

To clarify, the AR is not open source in the current iteration. It's on the upcoming roadmap to make it open source. We just haven't crossed that bridge yet. I cannot give dates, but it's a high priority.

[jcoelho88]

Thanks for clarifying!