The 2013 versions of Autodesk Maya 2013 and Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 3D animation software, part of the company's Entertainment Creation Suites 2013, today received extensions to enable more intense number crunching during complex workflows and give artists a shot at creating more detailed physical simulations. The extensions, available to current users with active subscriptions, were announced today during Siggraph in Los Angeles.

The extensions for 3ds Max will expand on Max's Particle Flow system via a new mParticles module for the MassFX system of simulation solvers and a new Advanced Data Manipulation toolset, the latter of which will let artists customize Particle Flow tools. The extensions also bring two new Cache operators to the 3D programs called Cache Disk and Cache Selective.

Maya 2013 will get speed enhancements through the extension's DX11Shader, a DirectX 11 shading editor.

The updates will be available to subscribers in late September via download.

For more information: Autodesk