MayaMan Installation

MayaMan can be more complex than other programs to install and get running correctly, because of its task of making two separate programs interface with each other. This page outlines how to get MayaMan correctly installed, what the installation program does when it is run, and how to manually setup MayaMan if necessary.

Setting up your RenderMan Renderers

You should ensure that your RenderMan renders are installed correctly before running the MayaMan installer. For more guidance on this see the page on verifying your RenderMan setup.

Installing MayaMan for Windows

After downloading the latest MayaMan release from the Animal Logic Web Site you should unzip it and run the installation program. This installer will copy all the necessary MayaMan files to the location you specify, and configure Maya to look for the plugin. You will be asked for the location of various programs during the installation process. The installer will also set some environment settings, so that the MayaMan plugin will know where to find its shaders and other support files.

In case you run into problems or otherwise need to install MayaMan manually, the installer performs the following functions:

Copies all MayaMan files to the selected installation destination (known as MAYAMANROOT).
Adds the MAYAMANROOT location to the MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH environment variable.
Adds the MAYAMANROOT/mel location to the MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH/XBMLANGPATH environment variables.
If PRMan is installed, modifies rendermn.ini (after making a backup copy to rendermn.ini.bak) so that it contains the following line:
- /display/dsopath ${MAYAMANROOT}/dspy/nt
This modification is neccessary for PRMan to find the "soft" display driver.
Sets up the MayaMan registry entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Animal Logic/MayaMan (or HKEY_CURRENT_USER if not installed using an Administrator account). These registry settings can be used instead of environment variables for specifying the location of various applications, and can be modified from the MayaMan Globals dialog. These values are:
- MAYAMANROOT - MayaMan Location
- RMANTREE - PRMan Location
- ENTROPYHOME - Entropy Location
- BMRTHOME - BMRT Location
- AIRHOME - Air Location
- RDCROOT - RenderDotC Location

Installing MayaMan for IRIX/Linux

To get MayaMan running under Unix, you need to download and unzip the MayaMan archive, then set the following environment variables correctly before running Maya:

ANIMALL_LICENSE_FILE or LM_LICENSE_FILE - tells MayaMan where to find its license (e.g. /usr/local/flexlm/licenses/AnimalL.dat or 5055@licenseserver)
MAYAMANROOT - tells the MayaMan plugin where it can find its support files (shaders, help, etc)
MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH - tells Maya where it can find MayaMan's mel scripts
XBMLANGPATH - tells Maya where to find the MayaMan icons
MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH - tells Maya where it can find the MayaMan plugin, so that it shows up in the plugin manager
LD_LIBRARYN32_PATH - if you want the MayaMan plugin to be auto-loading, its location needs to be added to this env var

When you unzip the MayaMan archive, you will find a mayaman.env file, which you can modify with the correct paths, and source this file before running Maya (for convenience, have it sourced as part of your normal shell environment).

Also, if you are using Pixar's PRMan, and find that it fails to find the 'soft' display driver (used by MayaMan by default) you will need to update $RMANTREE/etc/rendermn.ini to contain the following line:

/display/dsopath ${MAYAMANROOT}/dspy/unix

There is a bug in at least some versions of PRMan that prevents it from finding the display driver based on the search paths that MayaMan puts in the RIB files.

MayaMan Licensing

MayaMan uses the FLEXlm licensing system, and you will need to obtain a license from the Animal Logic Web Site before using it. Once you have received your license, follow the steps here to get it working.

Finished

The MayaMan installation is now complete, so you should be able to load Maya and render with RenderMan. We suggest that you start out with the Quick Start Tutorial to make sure everything is working correctly.

MayaMan Help Contents