Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections |
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| Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact | |
| Full name | Maya Binary Scene File Format |
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| Description |
Maya Binary files define the geometry, lighting, animation, rendering, and other properties of a 3D project scene. They are created using the Autodesk Maya software application. MB files are short for Maya Binary. These Maya scene files can be stored in ASCII as Maya ASCII files or in binary as Maya Binary files. Maya Binary files contain commands that specify information about the virtual scene encoded in binary. See Maya ASCII for technical characteristics and capabilities of Maya Binary files. Comments welcome. |
| Production phase | Generally used for final-state, end-user delivery. |
| Relationship to other formats | |
| Affinity to | MA, Maya ASCII. Maya ASCII and Maya Binary files have the same technical construction but are saved to disk as either a text-based or binary-based file. |
| Affinity to | Maya IFF. From PRONOM: "Maya IFF files are raster images used for images and textures within Maya." Not described separately at this time. |
| LC experience or existing holdings | The Library of Congress has a small number of Maya Binary files in its collections as of May 2024. |
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| LC preference | See the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement for format preferences for Design and 3D formats. |
| Disclosure |
Poor disclosure from Autodesk, Inc. Maya Binary files are mentioned in passing, e.g. "Managing files for file referencing", but the format structure is not disclosed. Comments welcome. |
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| Documentation |
None. Documentation exists for Maya Binary's text-based sibling format, Maya ASCII. See Maya ASCII. |
| Adoption |
Used in Autodesk Maya, a software used to develop modeling and animating 3D assets and used in modeling, animation, lighting, and VFX. This software requires a subscription to use. According to Autodesk Maya, Maya ASCII and Maya Binary are the only formats that preserve all the information contained within a Maya scene. |
| Licensing and patents | None specified. Comments welcome. |
| Transparency | Requires Autodesk software to read and write. See also: Maya ASCII. |
| Self-documentation | See Maya ASCII. Comments welcome. |
| External dependencies | There are no specific external dependencies for this format, but it is designed to be used with Autodesk Maya software. |
| Technical protection considerations | None. |
| Other | |
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| 3D Model Geometry | Maya Binary files store geometry as nodes, and these nodes can be grouped together to form transformations. Attributes include size, position, translation, scaling, and rotation. |
| 3D Model Appearance | Maya Binary files can store colors, textures, material types, and shading. |
| 3D Model Scene | Maya Binary files can store lighting and other scene properties. |
| 3D Model Animation | Maya Binary files can store animation and rendering. |
| Tag | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Filename extension | mb |
As declared by Autodesk, Inc. |
| Magic numbers | 464F5234{4}(4D617961|4D415941)464F5234 |
32 Bit values, from PRONOM. |
| Magic numbers | 464F5238{12}(4D617961|4D415941)464F5238 |
64 Bit values, from PRONOM. |
| Pronom PUID | fmt/861 |
Maya Binary File Format 32 Bit. See https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/861. |
| Pronom PUID | fmt/862 |
Maya Binary File Format 64 Bit. See https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/fmt/862. |
| Wikidata Title ID | Q59653785 |
Maya Binary File Format, 32 bit. See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q59653785. |
| Wikidata Title ID | Q59653819 |
Maya Binary File Format, 64 bit. See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q59653819. |
| Wikidata Title ID | Q28771305 |
Maya scene. See https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28771305. |
| General | |
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| History |
From Maya Books (link via Internet Archive), "Maya is the culmination of three 3D software lines: Wavefront's The Advanced Visualizer (in California), Thomson Digital Image (TDI) Explore (in France) and Alias' Power Animator (in Canada). In 1993 Wavefront purchased TDI, and in 1995 Silicon Graphics Incorporated (SGI) purchased both Alias and Wavefront (due to pressure from Microsoft's purchase of Softimage earlier that year) and combined them into one working company, producing a single package from their collective source code. The combined company was referred to as Alias|Wavefront." According to Wikipedia, the initial release of the software was February 1, 1998. In 2003, Alias|Wavefront was awarded an Oscar for its development of Maya software. AAlias|Wavefront was acquired by Autodesk, Inc. for $182 million in October 2005. |
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