Autodesk have just released their annual update to Maya, Maya 2020. Detailed release notes are currently unavailable so all we have to go off right now is the press release features:
Maya 2020 highlights include:
— Over 60 animation features and updates to the graph editor and time slider.
— Cached Playback: Experience faster animation playback and more predictable results with new preview modes, layered dynamics caching, and more efficient caching of image planes.
— Animation bookmarks: Mark, organize, and navigate through specific events in time and frame playback ranges.
— Arnold GPU: Access Arnold 6 for production rendering on the CPU and GPU.
— Bifrost for Maya: Significant performance improvements, Cached Playback support, and new MPM cloth constraints bring even more power to the visual programming environment.
— Viewport improvements: Interact with and select dense geometry or a large number of smaller meshes faster in the viewport and UV editors.
— Modeling enhancements: Spend more time modeling and less time cleaning up your models, with new Remesh and Retopologize features.
— Rigging improvements: Simplify rig and character TD work with matrix-driven workflows, nodes for precisely tracking positions on deforming geometry, and a new GPU-accelerated wrap deformer.
While not currently updated, you will eventually be able to download a 30 day trial of Maya 2020 here. Additionally Autodesk have released a short 4min feature video for Maya 2020 available here. You can learn more about this release in the video below.