The Unreal Live Link plug-in makes it possible to stream animation data from Maya to Unreal in real time. Whether you’re working between the two tools in a virtual production environment or building your next game, you can now work on character assets in Maya and see previews of your work reflected immediately in Unreal, as you make changes. 

Version 2 includes new functionality like the ability to push your animation directly into Unreal Engine through Asset Linking. This means that you no longer have to export a file from Maya to get your data into Unreal.

Version 2.1 now includes features to help you be more efficient and work faster.

Features include:

• Asset Filtering - Easily find Unreal Engine assets and sequences with a new search and filter options.
• Animation Sequence Filtering - Only sequences related to selected skeletons in the Live Link UI are shown to help you make selections faster.
• Link Settings Saved -  Links set up in the Live Link UI are saved with your Maya scene and reloaded when you reopen the file saving you time by not having to redo all your links.
• Addtional Camera Attributes supported - Addtional camera attributes for Unreal Cinecamera Actors and Camera Actors are supported such as Aperture, Focal Length and more.
• Bug fixes.

Version 2.0

Features include:

• Dual installer - The Unreal Live Link for Maya installer installs both the Maya Live Link plugin as well as the Maya Unreal Live Link plugin in one single installer
• New UI Layout - The UI has been updated to include features like Sync Time, Pause Character Animation Streaming and the new Asset Linking functionality
• Asset Linking - Assets in Maya can be linked to assets in Unreal allowing animations to be pushed directly to the engine.
• Bi-Directional Playheads - Timelines in Maya and Unreal are synchronized and the playhead can be manipulated in Maya or Unreal
• Creation of Unreal assets directly in the Maya UI - Blueprint Instances, Lights, Cameras and Level or Animation sequences can be created directly through the Maya UI
• Character Streaming can be paused - Streaming character data can now be paused making it easier when working with long sequences or complex skeletons
• Bug Fixes

This version also includes:

Version 1.1.1

Version 1.1

Features Include:

• Support for Custom Attributes. When live linking a skeleton joint from Maya to Unreal, you can choose to stream any keyframed custom attributes.
• Support for Unreal Engine 5.0. The Unreal Engine version is selected through a new drop-down menu in the UI.
• The source code is available under the MIT license in GitHub here
• Support for Maya Z-up scenes.
• Network endpoints saving
• Support for Linux CentOS 7
• Bug fixes

Version 1.0

Features Include:

• A simplified installation experience allows you to get up-and-running in a matter of minutes.
• The new streamlined interface lets you easily define and manage which Maya assets will be streamed to Unreal.
• Joint hierarchy transforms can be connected, allowing for character-to-character animation streaming.
• BlendShapes are supported, enabling you to make changes to characters such as facial expressions and lip-syncing, and see them in-context in Unreal.
• Camera attributes including transforms, angle of view, focal length, film gate, camera aperture, film aspect ratio, depth of field, focus distance, and fStop are supported.
• Lighting adjustments including color, intensity, cone angle, and penumbra angle are supported.
• Scene timecode is streamed to Unreal as metadata, allowing play head synchronization between Maya and Unreal. 

For customers still on Unreal 4.27, the plugins for v1.1.1 are available at the following links:

Linux: https://apps.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Detail/Index?id=1997561394223886348&appLang=en&os=Linux

Windows:  https://apps.autodesk.com/MAYA/en/Detail/Index?id=1997561394223886348&appLang=en&os=Win64

For more details on how to connect Maya to Unreal, see Connecting Unreal Engine 4 to Maya with Live Link or How to use Unreal® Live Link for Autodesk® Maya® plug-in. To learn more about the plug-in features, see the videos on the Maya Learning channel.