What's New in Modo 16.0

Modo 16.0 provides a range of features and enhancements that provide the tools that are necessary to create smarter. From the flexible and powerful new Wrap Effector, to the efficient auto-baking capabilities of Texture Cache, Modo enables intelligent workflows to quickly achieve the results you need.

Animation and Rigging

Wrap Effector: Faster, More Controllable Deformations

Lattice and Wrap deformers are an essential rigging and modeling capability. Modo’s new Wrap Effector intelligently satisfies the needs of both types of deformation in one easy to use tool. Artists can easily tune how precisely a cage mesh deforms a target mesh, ensuring the desired result. The cage mesh can also exist inside or outside of the target mesh. Along with many performance refinements, the new Wrap Effector is a valuable and flexible addition to Modo 16.0.

See Improve Mesh Interaction Speeds with the Wrap Effector for more information.

Create Multiple Animation Actions Easily Using the Action Exporter

Modo has a novel method of containing multiple animations for assets via the actor/action system. With Modo 16.0, actions can now be easily exported in bulk instead of having to export each action individually.

Modeling

Improved Primitive Slice and Slice Effector Interaction

Primitive Slice

Slice Effector

Primitive Slice and the Slice Effector tools enable rapid creation and iteration of Boolean modeling from curves and profiles which is an essential part of modern modeling workflows. In 16.0 We’ve added an array of enhancements to extend the capabilities and interactivity of these tools to expand the freedom of design exploration that Modo’s modeling toolset is already renowned for.

See Creating Geometry on a Mesh Using Preset Shapes and Slice Effector for more information.

Conditional Loop Selection Improvements and Seam Marker

Selection in general has always been central to Modo’s potent modeling workflows. The Conditional Loop Tool builds on these powerful capabilities by allowing artists to define and control how loops are selected. Create how you want, and quickly add conditions that define whether you want to allow loops to cross each other or specify an angle where you want loop selection to end.

Variable Strip Widths in MeshFusion

MeshFusion makes it astonishingly easy to produce detailed, hard surface meshes. where previously, it was easy to put MeshFusion in a state where the mesh can't be drawn, the new Automated Variable Strip Widths adjusts the start or end values of a strip automatically to ensure that a mesh can be generated and visually notifies users where automatic adjustments have been made.

Bridge Tool MeshOp

Modo’s procedural modeling toolset continues to grow in power with every release. The addition of the Bridge Tool MeshOp introduces an assortment of impressive modeling capabilities that are certain to give artists and designers greater flexibility when leveraging Modo’s exciting procedural modeling system.

See Join Meshes Procedurally Using the Bridge MeshOp for more information.

Edge Subdivide MeshOp

Edge Subdivide, which inserts a vertex onto an edge, has been added to Modo’s procedural modeling system. This also integrates seamlessly with Modo’s schematic workflows, allowing for precise placement of any desired number of vertices along an edge.

See Adding Additional Vertices to an Edge for more information.

Create a Blank UV Map When New Mesh Items are Created

Modo 16.0 includes a new option to make a blank UV map whenever a new mesh item is added by default.

Rendering and Shading

Optimize Your Viewport Performance Using the Texture Cache

Accurate materials require layers and layers of images and procedural textures that are often blended together. Texture Cache will automatically bake these textures down to a simplified stack, improving viewport performance, allowing for viewport display of procedural textures and dramatically simplifying the process of baking final textures. And all of this happens in the background while you are working, enabling you to focus on creating.

See Optimize Your Textures Using the Texture Cache for more information.

Improved Shader Tree Blend Modes, Opacity, and Group Mask Items

Blend Modes and Opacity

Group Mask Items

Modo’s Shader Tree offers a powerful and familiar stack-based approach to shading that can be leveraged in many unique ways. It has now been enhanced to offer visualization of blend modes and opacity. Groups now display a graphic to specifically describe how a group is masking its contents. The contents of a group can also now be automatically reorganized by effects. With all of these enhancements, the shader tree is now easier to interpret than ever before.

See Adding and Modifying Shader Tree Item Layers for more information.

Work Faster without Sacrificing Quality with the Intel Denoiser Update

Render denoising allows artists to spend less time waiting for renders to complete. Modo’s legacy renderer and the new path tracer mPath both produce images very quickly but the vast majority of render time without denoising is spent refining those last bits of noise. With the latest updates to Intel Open Image Denoise, renders can be completed faster while preserving quality.

See Render Output Properties for more information.

Save Time with Auto-Set Layer Effects

Materials are often a collection of many images and each image affects a specific material attribute. For instance, an image that defines the color of a surface or an image that defines how transparent a surface is. These images often include the effect as part of the name of the texture. Auto Set Layer Effects will look at the name of an image when it’s imported to automatically determine the effect it should be set to, eliminating the need for artists to set these effects manually.

UI and Workflow Enhancements

Perform Repetitive Tasks Quickly with Conditional Commands

As an artist develops a workflow, the same set of actions are often repeated. Conditional commands in Modo 16.0 lets users define a condition that then automatically fires a command. For instance, maybe an artist notices that every time they go into vertex mode, they only ever use the vertex bevel tool. They could then use conditional commands to tell Modo “Every time I click on vertex mode, activate the vertex bevel tool for me.” This further streamlines the user customization that has always been central to Modo.

Measure Distances Accurately in Procedural Scenes

Reliable measurement tools are an important part of asset creation and also for creation of visualizations. The Ruler/Grid MeshOp makes this easy for artists to set up as part of Modo’s procedural modeling system.

See Measure Scene Distances with the Ruler Array for more information.

Rhino 7 Import and Export Workflows

Modo has supported native import and export of Rhino 5 .3DM files for many years. Rhino 7 contains many new capabilities that we are now supporting direct mapping for, including subdivision surfaces with creasing, curves, points/point clouds, and meshes in general.

Enable and Disable Snapping Modes more Easily

Modo’s snapping system is diverse and robust. Users can leverage snapping simultaneously to many different types of components and items. However, many times you just want to snap to one type of item and that requires turning off many items. Now you can use Alt-click to select a single type of component to snap to and any other types will automatically be disabled.

See Applying Snapping for more information.