Beamtracer
09-25-2004, 01:25 AM
Probably the most amazing thing about Luxology's products is the underlying Nexus "3D OS", as they call it.
In some ways it reminds me a bit of the Java platform. Java was designed so that a single software application could run on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and just about any other platform out there. Java's motto is "write once, run anywhere". That was the theory, until Microsoft sabotaged it by releasing tainted versions of Java, but that's another story.
Nexus is different. It still seems to be a "write once" situation, where the same application code can basically run on both Mac OS X and Windows. Lux says that Modo is 98% the same code for both OS X and Windows, with about 2% of code specific to each platform. Brad Peebler has described the underlying "3D OS" as Luxology's greatest asset. We've even heard hints that Luxology is considering adding Linux to the platforms that Nexus will eventually run.
I understand that Nexus is the brainchild of Stuart Ferguson, the guy who also did most of the development work on both Lightwave's Modeler, as well as Modo. Nexus seems to be an amazing piece of code. Unlike other software emulators and "virtual machines" that make code run on multiple platforms, Nexus seems to suffer no speed hit. In fact, it seems to run faster than other systems written in native code. How they achieved this I don't know.
This leads me to wonder about what Luxology's future plans will be for Nexus. I'm sure they won't give too much information out here, but we can always speculate. At the very least, I think Nexus will allow speedy development of plug-ins and add-ons for Modo and the future Luxology renderer. But it could go further.
Will Luxology license the Nexus "OS" to other companies? For example, an outside company could develop a compositing application to run on top of the Nexus platform. Or what about non-graphics applications?
Will Luxology license Nexus to other companies who have nothing to do with 3D or graphics content, but who want a fast way to develop a cross-platform application? Such companies could include Nexus inside their own applications. Imagine if they could write one application and have it run on OS X, Windows, and possibly even Linux as well.
Luxology has also stated that their product development will be a lot faster as a result of Nexus. Their software gurus can be busy developing new features, rather than wasting time writing platform specific code that has to be rewritten for every platform. I believe this is what has stopped 3DS Max from going cross-platform.
So, there are some interesting possibilities that could arise from Nexus. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
In some ways it reminds me a bit of the Java platform. Java was designed so that a single software application could run on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and just about any other platform out there. Java's motto is "write once, run anywhere". That was the theory, until Microsoft sabotaged it by releasing tainted versions of Java, but that's another story.
Nexus is different. It still seems to be a "write once" situation, where the same application code can basically run on both Mac OS X and Windows. Lux says that Modo is 98% the same code for both OS X and Windows, with about 2% of code specific to each platform. Brad Peebler has described the underlying "3D OS" as Luxology's greatest asset. We've even heard hints that Luxology is considering adding Linux to the platforms that Nexus will eventually run.
I understand that Nexus is the brainchild of Stuart Ferguson, the guy who also did most of the development work on both Lightwave's Modeler, as well as Modo. Nexus seems to be an amazing piece of code. Unlike other software emulators and "virtual machines" that make code run on multiple platforms, Nexus seems to suffer no speed hit. In fact, it seems to run faster than other systems written in native code. How they achieved this I don't know.
This leads me to wonder about what Luxology's future plans will be for Nexus. I'm sure they won't give too much information out here, but we can always speculate. At the very least, I think Nexus will allow speedy development of plug-ins and add-ons for Modo and the future Luxology renderer. But it could go further.
Will Luxology license the Nexus "OS" to other companies? For example, an outside company could develop a compositing application to run on top of the Nexus platform. Or what about non-graphics applications?
Will Luxology license Nexus to other companies who have nothing to do with 3D or graphics content, but who want a fast way to develop a cross-platform application? Such companies could include Nexus inside their own applications. Imagine if they could write one application and have it run on OS X, Windows, and possibly even Linux as well.
Luxology has also stated that their product development will be a lot faster as a result of Nexus. Their software gurus can be busy developing new features, rather than wasting time writing platform specific code that has to be rewritten for every platform. I believe this is what has stopped 3DS Max from going cross-platform.
So, there are some interesting possibilities that could arise from Nexus. It'll be interesting to see what happens.