Today we’re announcing that the core Babylon.js dev team is stopping active development on the Maya & Max .gltf Exporters (GitHub - BabylonJS/Exporters: Exporters for Babylon.js and gltf file formats) While these tools will continue to work for existing and previous version of Maya/Max (2023 and previous versions) we cannot guarantee that they will continue to work with future versions.
There are 2 main reasons for us stopping active development on these exporters:
Autodesk is now actively building export support for .gltf objects directly in Maya and Max. While at this moment, the features that Autodesk supports in their own exporters is not as rich as the Babylon exporters, we believe this will change with time as they bring new features online in the future.
As with all development teams, we are committed to bringing the most value possible to our wonderful community. At this time we believe that there are more important features and enhancements to Babylon.js itself that our team needs to focus on to maximize the value we’re bringing to you.
It is our sincere hope that you understand the reasons behind this decision. The code for the exporters will continue to be Open Source and if any of you are interested in taking over ownership of development of these tools moving forward, please reach out to @PirateJC or @bghgary directly.
I just bought Maya b/c of all the problems i was having with Blender. BUT then, i discovered two Blender plugins which have totally changed the game.
To fix all of the insanity on asset import:
To fix all of the insanity on attaching rig/anim to mesh:
Prior to that i was going to install a VM to get the Maya BABYLON JS plugin to work on my Mac. All to say, no worries - and hope those two plugins help any of you who are turning to Maya in desperation when your Blender import/exports go haywire.
I’m being completely blunt: my professional and corporate experience with Autodesk puts zero faith in them maintaining a fulfilled & compliant GLTF format in their software. All of the features and good work that the Babylonjs team have put in the exporters, won’t compare to Autodesk’s future offerings. I hope I’m wrong but I think it’s important to highlight this, as the 3ds Max exporter was a massive draw to using the Babylonjs engine and pipeline. The best thing Autodesk could have done is pledge to contribute towards the existing open-source plugins, since they work really well.
Autodesk released their first 3ds exporter implementation in 3ds version 2023 (2022 dev). As far as I know, there is one change in release notes up-to 3ds 2025:
Fixed the crash produced when converting a Physical material to glTF using the Scene Converter>PhysiclaToGLTF preset. MAXX-75840
I completely understand why the core team have to move away from this and agree efforts are best spent elsewhere. Thanks to all for your hard work! Hopefully others will be kind enough to contribute to updating the plugins.
I myself had to contribute towards a SketchUp GLTF exporter, but we only have so much time on our hands. If the likes of Khronos, Nvidia, Microsoft are listening - please invest correctly in these little things that go a long way
As I thought, TWO years after this post, Autodesk doesn’t have any plans for a glTF exporter and we are all f*cked. I pray for someone kind enough to take the source code of MAYA’s exporter and port it to newer versions, though.
Wishful thinking. Why would they? And what are you talking about? A norm, a group, an alliance? Honestly, this could take just another decade or will never happen. And what would be the interest for business? If I had to place a bet, it would be on Microsoft. Playing its legacy role of ruler/leader for entreprise and private users. I don’t see why Nvidia would want to spent efforts into this and the Khronos group, well, they’re developing a middle-ware. They don’t have the power nor the resources to act on both ends of the pipeline.
…and apple is relunctant to conform to the rules of webGL/webGPU. So (in my opinion) this is just where it needs acting/forcing (at the source). We need enough voices to denounce this and force/push Autodesk to make the move (same with Apple/iOS). I already said I would want to ban Safari until they commit. I would do the same with Autodesk. If you are unhappy with the current situation, post it, rally others, make it a buzz. I don’t see any other way that will hold over time. Making your own little business surfing on this ‘gap’ is risky enough. It would be some sort of ‘commitment’. BJS had this ‘commitment’ for a while (a long while). At some point, if it just doesn’t make it through, one needs to make the right decision. I’m totally inline with the decision taken for the framework. This isn’t the job of the engine to push and maintain - it requires way too many efforts without ever getting control of it.
I’m basically f*cked, because I’m not a coding or technical guy, and I assume taking the las release source code and compiling it for latest versions of MAYA is NOT easy at all and completely unattainable goal for a guy like me.
And we all are… I guess what I wanted to say with my long reply is something very simple: It’s not our job as users (dev, designers nor even eng) to fix (via add-ons or plugins…and then, maintain) exports/integration tools that are (should be) part of the ecosystem of the companies providing a service/solution. We are living in times where everything tends to be just pushed back to the consumer/client. I cannot agree with this dynamic. This isn’t just about the digital. It’s a general tendancy that affects nearly all types of products and services and I absolutely hate it.
