Autodesk makes Golaem crowd integration plugins for Houdini, Unreal Engine, and USD open source under Apache 2.0, alongside the release of Golaem 9.3.2 for Maya.
On 3 August 2026, Autodesk officially open sourced its Golaem integration add-ons for Houdini, Unreal Engine, and Universal Scene Description (USD) applications. Published on the GitHub repository under an Apache 2.0 open source licence, these plugins enable digital content creation (DCC) pipelines to load and render Golaem crowd simulation caches procedurally.
The workflow allows artists to ingest character data authored in Maya without baking out heavy geometry files, natively handling geometry and shading variations alongside Golaem Layout edits within host software.
The release is primarily aimed at visual effects and production studios running newer or unsupported host software versions, allowing internal teams to compile and build updated add-ons directly. The open source extensions maintain backward compatibility with simulation caches created in Golaem for Maya version 7.2.3 or higher.
Alongside the open source announcement, Autodesk rolled out Golaem 9.3.2 for Maya. This maintenance release introduces a Shader Attribute Override node within the Character Maker geometry tab. It requires Maya 2024 or higher running on Windows 10+ or enterprise Linux distributions. Golaem remains available exclusively as part of Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment Collection subscription bundle priced at USD$345/month or USD$2,790/year, following Autodesk’s acquisition of the software in 2024.
