Get Multiverse

With Multiverse | USD you have a future-proof 100% native USD solution for Maya that covers all the production steps from modeling, animation, layout, lookdev, scene assembly, mo-cap, crowds, to final shots lighting & rendering, both interactive & offline.

• Its non-destructive editing workflow featuring assets, compositions and overrides, simplifies data exchange within your work group, with external partners and between different applications that support USD.
• It works out-of-the-box and delivers utmost performance when writing, reading, playing-back and rendering large production data sets.
• It works with any Maya version: currently supporting 2018, 2019, 2020, on all platforms.
• It talks _directly_ to USD, without any intermediate abstraction layer such as UFE, thus minimizing any potential overhead and memory usage.
• It does not use any virtual nodes, this way you can always set attributes, overrides, and setup animation keys on overrides.
• It supports all major rendering engines, at multiple versions: Arnold, 3Delight^NSI, Redshift, Renderman and VRay.
• It’s incredibly easy to use, with intuitive tools that can be used by any artist, no matter their technical knowledge.
• With its straightforward Python API you can automate your workflow without the need to dig into the vastness of the USD APIs.
• It works as the perfect companion of Solaris in a Maya ⇆ Houdini pipeline.
• It can read animated USD skeletons from Vicon Shogun and link them to static USD meshes with skeleton thus effectively transferring the animation.
• It offers very frequent software updates with bug fixes, new features and improvements.
• Last but not least, it is also available as a fully featured and completely free version.

Multiverse | USD is built around the “once in USD, always in USD” philosophy, promoting a workflow where USD data always flows in a forward direction, minimizing the need to convert USD assets back into Maya data. Nevertheless, for those times where it is actually needed to import Maya data, Multiverse offers the means to do so in a easy and artist friendly way.

In addition, Multiverse radically minimizes the number of nodes in Maya (and in memory): this keeps all operations very fast and efficient.

Thanks to Multiverse procedural rendering nature, all you need for offline rendering on your farm (whether local or on cloud) is the standalone renderer itself: .nsi, .ass, .rib and .vrscene will be compact since all data is stored in USD. Having said that, rendering Maya scenes through Maya batch is fully supported.

Multiverse is easy to understand, requires no special knowledge and fits into your existing Maya workflow, preserving Maya’s own philosophy: it uses USD to improve on existing functionalities to overcome Maya intrinsic limitations.

MUSE is the "Multiverse Usd Standalone Editor", a brand new software application that allows users to open and interactively visualize any USD assets and compositions without the need for a DCC application. The aim of MUSE is to provide a fast and non-destructive multi-editing of attributes in a USD file, adding references to other USD files, write USD overrides and write USD compositions with overrides. MUSE is currently in Alpha. To know more read the MUSE FAQ.

The Free Version requires online access to the internet. A license is sent to a unique, valid, e-mail address. If you are planning to use the Free Version of Multiverse on more than one computer concurrently, you must register with a valid and unique e-mail address for each additional computer.

The Pro Version works offline: floating licenses are distributed by a local license server over a network. If you are planning to use Multiverse on more than one computer concurrently, you need to purchase as many floating licenses as the number of computers you wish to use concurrently.

For the Free Version you can rely on community support on our public Slack support channel. You can also report issues via our GitLab public issue tracker. Access to software updates is limited to only the latest selected release, and we provide sporadic updates. Users may also also need to update to the latest version from time to time, depending on the nature of the updates as we want free users to always run the latest free version available.

For the Pro Version you are entitled of production-grade technical support assistance by e-mail, private Slack channels, private GitLab issue tracker, and access to all software updates for a period of one year from the purchase date: this includes private releases, patch releases (with frequent updates), minor releases (about monthly), as well as major releases (about yearly) during the license validity period.

We can offer a site license to large organizations and strategic partners. Site licenses are an ideal solution for organizations that elastically scale without the need to worry for strict number of licenses. Site license deals may also cover potential outsource partners to which we could provide temporary licenses. For further information please contact J Cube sales or our Resellers.

An interactive license is checked out within the context of the host application (e.g. Maya or Maya batch). A Render license is checked out exclusively when rendering, either from the host application (e.g. Maya / Maya batch) or from a standalone rendering command (e.g. 3Delight^NSI renderdl, Arnold kick, Renderman prman), VRay vray.bin). Finally, if a Render license is requested but is not available, then an interactive license will be used instead (if available). Note that Multiverse licenses are per-host: this means you can launch as many instances of the DCC App (e.g. Maya) or the renderer (e.g Arnold) from the same machine, and still use 1 single license. For more information on installing floating licenses, check out our setup documentation.

Both the Free and Pro version of Multiverse will always check for their respective licenses in the following cases:

• When loading the Maya plug-in
• Free Version: handled by online cloud licensing.
• Pro Version: an offline interactive floating license is checked.
• When writing USD assets/compositions/overrides
  • Free Version: handled by online cloud licensing.
  • Pro Version: an offline interactive floating license is checked.
• When rendering (within Maya context or standalone rendering context)
• Free Version: handled by online cloud licensing.
• Pro Version: an offline render floating license is checked (if no render license is available, then an offline interactive floating license will be checked, if available).

Multiverse fully supports the Arnold, 3Delight^NSI, Redshift, Renderman and VRay renderers, and includes support for the revolutionary 3Delight^NSI Cloud service.

We are committed to support as many production render engines as possible: support for other renderers that are not listed here can be also added depending on the renderer SDK availability and actual capabilities. Adding support for other renderers, including proprietary ones, can be also done under a custom engineering consulting contract. Contact Sales for more information.

Educational sites can use the Free Version on any number of machines (see the next FAQ: Multiple Concurrent Users). If the educational site requires offline access, floating licenses or dedicated support services, a special site license with reduced pricing can still be purchased. Contact us to discuss terms.

With the Free Version you can have as many concurrent users as you wish, however you must activate each license with a unique e-mail address to receive a free license for each and you must be online.

With the Pro Version you can have as many concurrent users as the number of licenses you have purchased and these users can be offline. The Pro Version does not communicate in any form with our servers.

Worldwide — J CUBE Inc. Contact Sales. If Japanese clients purchase directly through J CUBE, support will be provided in English.

Japan — Crescent Inc and Born Digital.

Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand — Jadason Technology.

Depending on the purchase, a license includes software updates for one year or one month from the purchase date. If a license is expired please Contact Sales to renew it.

The Free Version allows for commercial use and is not time limited: it is automatically renewed every year.

We provide a Free Version to anyone. This version is fully functional, completely free and commercially usable: it can be therefore also used as a mean to evaluate the product. Therefore, we do not offer refunds on the Pro Version.

We accept credit & debit cards payments with Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Apple Pay, AliPay and WeChat Pay, all through secure Stripe checkout. We also accept bank wire transfer to our bank in Japan (Mizuho Bank). Our resellers may offer additional payment methods. When purchasing from the website where we offer pre-made bundles of licenses there are no additional service charges for credit card. For custom order via credit card there is an additional 3.6% credit card fee. Credit card payments are confirmed within 1 work day, while bank wire transfers may take up to 3 work days to confirm (but you may be eligible to receive a temporary license key in the interim).

International customers (customers outside of Japan) are not required to pay any additional tax such as sales tax or VAT.

The license keys, along with the software download information, are sent by e-mail when payment is confirmed. To obtain your floating license keys, you shall provide to us your license server Host ID by providing it via e-mail at sales@j-cube.jp. Please refer to the Setup Guide for more information on how to install your license, if in doubt about what is your HostID please feel free to contact us. Licenses are covered by the End User License Agreement (EULA). Licenses are issued by J Cube Inc. Yokohama, Japan.

We do not offer permanent licenses for the Pro Version, but we do offer multi-year contracts (minimum 3 years) with further discounts on a case by case basis. Contact us to discuss terms.

On macOS we support the Metal graphics API (instead of OpenGL). This work is done in collaboration with Apple.

Multiverse | USD v6 uses native USD v20.08. This means it naturally writes and reads native USD files. It is a perfect companion with Houdini Solaris with which it can seamlessly interchange USD data back and forth. Note that Alembic files are read through the USD API: this means that in memory they become real USD data at all effects.

Multiverse originates from a proprietary code-base which was built over 5 major releases in 5 years by J Cube Inc. Leveraging this experience, Multiverse | USD v6 was re-written from the ground up around USD, with a new architecture that is end-to-end multi-threaded, from scene construction to final rendering, thus resulting into a completely new software.

Compared to other tools, Multiverse | USD stands out because is designed with a emphasis on delivering an easy and logical workflow while providing the utmost performance and efficiency (I/O, memory, speed, rendering, time to first pixel). It is made for real-world artists, indies, professional users and companies that require a USD solution built with engineering grade. Its UI and UX are well thought, pleasant and ready for deployment in production environments of any scale.

Multiverse is compiled, cross platform (Windows, Linux, macOS), cross Maya versions (2018, 2019, 2020) and supports all major render engines. Multiverse also offers an easy to use Python API that is straightforward to use & integrate, abstracting the complexity of the USD APIs.

We are committed to continuously support Multiverse, both in its Free and Pro versions, and to further expand its reach in the market for the years to come.

Please read the "Why Multiverse" and "Philosophy" sections on this page for more information.

The Free Version license is exclusively tied to a running session, and not to your machine hardware. This means you can run Multiverse on any machine simply by having the license file in the Multiverse installation folder: however you cannot use the same license on multiple machines simultaneously. If you want multiple free licenses to be in use concurrently, you must register using a different valid e-mail address for each additional user: you will then receive an activation e-mail and license for each.