Yeti 5.0 released by Peregrine Labs

Peregrine Labs has released Yeti 5.0, its Maya toolset for creating fur, feathers, and procedural geometry. Among the most notable updates is the introduction of a new Viewport 2.0 shader for Maya, designed to closely match production hair shading techniques widely used in the industry. This update also includes additional shader controls for Melanin, IOR, and other properties, allowing for more nuanced and realistic hair and fur simulations.

The groom node within Yeti 5.0 has undergone a comprehensive UI overhaul, aimed at providing clearer feedback to users. It also introduces enhanced customization options, including the ability to adjust the size and transparency of hair strands. 

Integration with Maya has been significantly improved in Yeti 5.0. Users can now import XGen Interactive Grooms directly into the Yeti graph, expanding the range of potential workflows and use cases. This feature facilitates a seamless transition between using XGen for initial grooming and Yeti for rendering grooms with added details.

The graph and node evaluation framework in Yeti 5.0 has seen various optimizations to enhance execution time and reduce memory usage. A new Groom Sampler has been added, allowing for greater control over node parameters using a Groom’s paintable attributes and length. These changes are part of Peregrine Labs’ commitment to ensuring compatibility across versions, with assets from recent 4.x releases being easily portable to Yeti 5.0 with minimal adjustments required.

Yeti 5.0 is available for Maya 2023 and 2024 on Windows and Linux platforms.

To find out more, please visit Peregrine Labs’ website.