FrequentyAskedQuestions
Common questions from people considering Alembic.
Featured FAQWhat is included in Alembic?Alembic is the core library that distills complex, animated scenes into a non-procedural, application-independent set of baked geometric results. The Alembic distribution also includes several reference implementations and demos that provide working examples of how to use Alembic with popular commercial 3d animation packages. Do you provide support for the core Alembic library?Our developers monitor the mailing list and try to comment and answer questions as they can. We do our best to support developers who are interested in adding Alembic support to their application (whether it's a commercial or an in-house application). We also encourage the Alembic developer community to support each other in the same way. What are the reference implementations?In the Alembic repository, you will notice we have provided sample Maya, Houdini, Arnold and Prman plugins. These plugin implementations are "reference" implementations only. They provide expert example implementations of Alembic but provide fairly naive host software interfaces. They are intended to demonstrate the correct way to use Alembic in production--but are not intended to present the final interface to the user. Are the reference implementation supported?No. The reference implementations for Maya, Houdini, Arnold and prman are just example code for developers to use as a starting point to make great Alembic plugins for their software. If you are a developer and you need help understanding Alembic, this is a great place to start. You can imagine how difficult it would be to keep these reference plugins up-to-date with every new version of every application while providing user-support. That's why we are happy to have the support of great application vendors like Autodesk, Foundry, Luxology, Side Effects Software, Pixar's Renderman, Nvidia and others already announced who are planning support for Alembic in their applications. Can I use the reference implementations?Sure, they are provided under the same licensing terms as the core Alembic library and you can use them as you see fit. However, the Alembic team does not have the resources to provide user support for the reference-implementations. If you desire Alembic support in your favorite 3d app, you have a couple of options. If you have the development ability, you can add it yourself with the library we provide. If not, we suggest you contact your 3d application vendor to ask them to add Alembic support. We will be happy to work with developers to answer their questions about the library and its intended usage. How can I contact the developers of Alembic regarding library questions?The core library is supported directly by the Alembic team via the development mailing list. |