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"Autodesk is very interested in making media and entertainment artists’ work as seamless as possible, and the workflow between 3D art tools and engines is a big part of that effort. 3ds Max and Maya users often utilize Unity technology, so we want to provide the best possible connection between these tools."

Marc Stevens, VP, DCP-Design and Creation Products at Autodesk

 Unity Technologies, creator of the flexible, high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich interactive 2D, 3D, VR and AR experiences, today announced a collaboration with Autodesk, the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, that will create a greater link with several Autodesk media & entertainment tools. This collaboration will allow Unity to be the first creation engine that has source code access to the Autodesk FBX SDK, delivering a streamlined process for asset sharing and in-game iteration that greatly improves the capabilities of artists working in Unity, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya. The first look at this improved interaction occurred at the recent Unite Austin 2017 Conference early this month.

Unity 2017 is the start of a new cycle that evolves the world’s most popular game engine into an ever-expanding creation engine for gaming and real-time entertainment. The release of Unity 2017.2, which launches in October and further empowers Artists & Designers with an improved workflow and faster roundtripping, will be the first time creators can take advantage of the official Unity and Autodesk collaboration. The release includes new and improved FBX import/export capabilities, including support for the Autodesk interactive physically based shader, and custom properties. Unity 2017.2 also includes updates to the powerful art and design tools Timeline and Cinemachine, which allow artists to create cinematic content and gameplay sequences without the need for coding, and optimized support for ARCore, ARKit, Vuforia, and Microsoft Mixed Reality.

"Unity developers turn to Autodesk for the deepest 3D modeling and animation toolsets available," said André Gauthier, Studio Lead at Unity. "Together we are improving FBX interoperability to increase productivity and give creators a better workflow in their asset pipelines so they can unleash their creativity."

Unity exists to democratize development, solve hard problems and enable success -- three core values that are the driving forces of Unity’s adoption by millions of creators. Unity powers more than 50% of all new mobile games and 2/3rds of all VR/AR experiences. Interactive content made with Unity reaches nearly 3 billion devices worldwide.

UNITY 2017.2 - LAUNCHING IN OCTOBER

(Excerpted from a Unity Technologies press release dated October 4, 2017. View source version.)