Maya PLE

[Sinkywinky]

I had no problems registering and the download started first time.
(Only..uh..14 hours to go..)

[xzevlin]

It downloaded for me in under 10 minutes on my cable line (200kb/second transfer!) I must've just started downloading before everyone on earth headed over to get it.

[Sinkywinky]

200k per second. You lucky basta...person
But anyway, im not sure i want it anymore after seeing the watermark..
http://www.cgchannel.com/features/2002_2/mayaple/mac_os_x.jpg

I may get an unnoffically free version from somewhere else. Mabey.

[pluMmet]

Yea I got it now too!!!



SEE YAAAA!



'sTiLl tRyinG to pluMmet to ThE COre.'

[grendizer]

Hi all, could some user of Maya PLE post a screenshot of a Maya PLE render? I want to check out how does the watermark behaves and if it's possible to create a good demo reel with this edition. Thanks a lot. :D

[Jhonus]

I can only see that watermark encouraging the use of unofficially free versions.


I'm sure someone will create some hack/patch to remove the watermarks... probably causing an increase in the amount of pirate versions of Maya. And don't say its impossible.... people that say that get proved wrong time and time again :)

[Chappo]

Well.....the Maya PLE is up for grabs, so please feel free to test it yourself and Post some of YOUR renderings in here ;)

actually i'm kinda interested also....
i've seen those screenshots of the watermark....

my god......

those Alias people are scared or something..
Watermarking EVEN the viewports !!!!

Actually i'm kinda dissapointed....i thought it would have a watermark just like Brazil or something...

[sigma]

Nasty

http://www.cgchannel.com/feature.php?article_id=25

http://www.cgchannel.com/features/2002_2/mayaple/maya_render.jpg

[goodson_cd]

That is feckin crazy, you cant see a damn thing you are doing for that water mark. I started one tut and about 10 min in I quit and went to max.

I dont mind having it in a render, but in the view ports sheeshshshs.

[Mike RB]

Hahaha, where do I send my banner, I want to advertise inside maya too...

Mike

[Jonathan]

Well I am downloading it now. Should be done in about 20 minutes. 576K adsl baby! Anyway I am a Lightwave nut, have been using Lightwave since 1996. Tried Max, interface was way too klunky. Lightwave has a great modeller and a great renderer. Although it falls short in animation, Project messiah more than makes up for that short coming. Anyway I want to see what all of the huplah about Maya is about.

[sigma]

Having the watermark in viewports at all times prevents ppl from takin desktop shots...but seriously, that looks extremely annoying. :rolleyes:

[Lyr]

It also prevents rendering your images with polyGeoSampler to bypass the water mark. Granted it's not as good as a software render, but it can still look quite good.

[rendermonkey23]

HAHA... No joke :)

What watermarks?

[Lonewolf]

Got mine at 500kbps with DAP. Unfortunately i haven't upgraded to XP yet.

[AnimBot]

Have you guys read the review of Maya's learning Edition on CG channel. At first I thought man this is really cool I applauded Alias/Wavefront for taking this step but after seeing screenshots of the interface... Holy Water Marks Batman!!! it's even in the viewports. Well still it is a first step. I just want someone to take a bigger step with 3d applications the average artist could afford. I don't care if it's not free, personally I would be willing to pay a few hundred dollars for my program of choice, but I can't spend the price of a car for a program I just want to use for fun in my spare time. I hope this learning edition becomes more popular with other programs and perhaps made more freindly the next time around. Or maybe even if some programs went the animation master route ($300) and offered a reasonable discount for non commercial use. How do you guys feel about this?

[takkun]

I have some questions for all you smart people. The topic is: Why did Alias Wavefront decide to make PLE?

Is it so that students who can't afford Maya have the opportunity to learn? Then why don't they just have an educational version at a greatly reduced price, maybe with a limited resolution output and proprietary format?

Did they make PLE so people could try it out and then buy the full version? Then they should have just called it Maya DEMO instead, because I can't see how anyone could use PLE for too long without their eyes falling out. It's like trying to watch the Playboy channel when you only have basic cable.

Did they make PLE in an attempt to curb illegal use? The fact is that not too soon from now there is going to be a hack available to get rid of the watermarks. There are many groups of highly skilled reverse engineers that are always looking for a good challenge and what could be more rewarding than hacking one of the most expensive programs on the market.

Personally, I think they should embrace illegal use like Discreet and Adobe. Just look how popular their software has become.

Deep down inside, you know I'm right.

[dtek8]

i just checked out the review,,, its great that aw are offering there softwear to learn on but, it so over protected tyhat it just seems useless,

ok some features r ok to protect it but the veiwport watermark is enough to put anyone off, like the review says its like moddeling through a icy window, why not keep it subtle, the people who really,really want to use it commercially will probably be able to figure out how to get through the security of the real version anyway.....

getting into 3d is hard enough, but without the reward of producing something cool,, i think it would put me off,,

i suppose its a small step in the right direction...

d

[dtek8]

i agree,

but why reverse engerneer the ple, when the real thing is already rev engeneered,,,,,,

i agree about illigal use, also, with adobe and discreet, it brings new talent to the industry, and still the people making money have to pay,,

d

[chrom]

good idea but this big watermak, uh
it's coming with bonus book from aliaswavefront:

"How to crash your eyes with MPLE" :)

[(...)]

Pffft. A bit of colour-correction will get rid of that easily.

[Jhonus]

If "they" could provide a hack for PLE then that beats anything out there hands down.

Its a question of ease of use. AW provides a nice fast stable server which is easily accesible.... the only work the end user has to do is find and download the crack.

Although I'm not sure if it could be done with just a crack? I'm not very knowledgable about these technical things.

Anyway i think this watermark defeats any purpose of such a release.... AW seems like over-protective parents.

[takkun]

Originally posted by dtek8
getting into 3d is hard enough, but without the reward of producing something cool,, i think it would put me off,,

i suppose its a small step in the right direction...

I like to think of it as a 'one step forward, two steps back' situation.

[Ibanezhead]

I use MAX 4 at work and LW 6.5b at home, and using Maya PLE today is really the first time I have had a chance to view the program in depth. I do have that 30 day demo, but never really did anything in it. They have done a great job with the tutorials, and I can clearly see how the other programs have been aiming to be like Maya, especially MAX. In fact MAX has copied it so much it feels like I am just learning a new interface.

I had no problem with the watermark. At first I thought I would, but during the first tutorial I never even really noticed. So far I am very impressed with Maya.


Vic

[ReD_MeRkIn]

ok, the idea of PLE Maya is to get new users to try out Maya. Having that great big watermark in the view windows makes it completly unusable.

Surely a different file format, and a watermark in one corner would allow people to use Maya for to learn Maya, and create a demo reel.

It's like going to test drive a car, with crap stuck over the windscreen, so you can't see where you're going. You're not going to get the most out of the test drive, and you're not going to buy the car, you're going to go somewhere else instead.

Wake up Alias, if you want new customers you have to treat them with respect, and give them a fair chance at getting to grips with your software, otherwise people are simply going to crack your liscence, and use the full version of Maya without ever paying for it.

My opinion is that Maya PLE is a complete waste of time, i'm very dissapointed in Alias, and i would not recomend this trial software to anyone.

Red.

[xynaria]

What has always pissed me off about all software is that it is sold as a product like any other when in fact you are leasing it which is very different. You buy a car/tool/ house/etc etc and can't afford to keep running it, you sell it, probably loose money ok .. but not all you paid for it. You buy software and the more 'high end' the software the less the right to sell it on exists. Would anyone buy any other kind of tool at a comparitive price if they couldn't sell it on at a later date? Would you hire a car if you had to hire it for life???????.
I thought A|W was making a great step forward with the PLE, especially given that nearly every second job is now asking for up to 3 years experience with Maya (in itself an 'interesting' concept really) but having seen the screenshots was that leap forward a stumble instead. :)

[Jonathan]

Upgraded to XP!!! I'm still using good 'ol reliable WinNT 4 wkstn :)

[dtek8]

Ibanezhead,

Good to hear views from someone who is using it, I might give it a go, especially as I use max too,,

Krugar,

that’s true about the stable server,

but in the uk there are places you can go and buy these things on cd, for about £10, with all the relevant security information and security related soft wear already on the cd,,

Guess most of the uk still has 56K modems hehe!!

[dtek8]

hehe!! yup!! a definite stumble/1 step forward 2 back,

such a shame,,

a/w at least could have produced a stylish watermark that got the legal stuff accross without, spoiling it, a nice semitransparent stamp type effect thingy, would have done the job just as well, after all its supposed to be used by artists,,

doh!!



d

[Lyr]

There is a mel command called polyGeoSampler. It's a really neat command, it lets you perform rendering functions in hardware that normally have been reserved for software only. Hell you can even render shadows with it. Now the results of polyGeoSampler are not as good as a software render, but they can still look quite nice, especially if you take the time to layer vertex colors and textures.

I don't work for AW so I am not entirely sure why they put a watermark over the openGL view ports but I am betting it has something to do with them not wanting people to use polyGeoSampler to produce good looking images with no watermark.

Also, Softimage taught the industry what happens when you release educational software with a watermark in one corner. People render their images a little larger than the required size and then crop it out in post.

[Lyr]

You can do things in hardware with maya that other packages cannot. There is a neat little command called polyGeoSampler, it lets you do all sorts of neat rendering in hardware, including depth map shadows, alpha channels and displacement. And since polyGeoSampler is a mel command it can be expanded upon and setup in a manner to work with your time node and perform sampling at every frame. My guess is that AW didn't want people creating their own hardware render buffer using the persp and camera openGL windows and bypassing the watermark.

[rremzie]

i don't get the watermarks, because if people want to use maya for commercial then they download the illegal version from the net and not the learnign edition, because of it's limitation in plugins and rendering format's etc.

Maya Learning edition could have been good, but aw blew it :(

What a shame.

[Jacobo]

These A|W people have proven themselves to be truly inconsiderate, pretentious and hypocrite nincompoops!! :)

I teach Maya academically and my students have been looking forward to the release of PLE and their hopes have ended up in vain thanx to A|W's malicious act of watermarking the work area.

WHY IS WATERMARKING THE VIEW PORTS SO BAD?

The answer is quite simple... The view port is a window to a virtual environment inside the software that constantly changes through user input by standard 3D navigation and object manipulation. Now, when you go ahead and senselessly put a static image on top of that which covers it almost entirely and almost 50 percent opaque, you are sure to make the vast majority of users of PLE close to sea sick in no more than an hour of visual concentration.

How many of you people would manage to drive your cars with something painted with a semi-opaque material on the windshields??? Let alone attention distraction, you would become dizzy...

And they shamelessly tell the users to put their 'ARTWORK' on the gallery section.... Hahahaaaa.... Hey, hardly anyone here has a problem with watermarks on the render window but check out the "Alias|Wavefront" scripture that goes all over it!! It is 100% opaque for cryin' out loud!!! Imagine tiles of watermarks on their crummy PLE page standing out more than the imagery below them!! Jeeezes!! That crummy gallery page of theirs should be protested by not posting a single image on the damn thing... But hey, on a second thought, maybe people should go for it, post the PLE images and exhibit to A|W how hideously inconsiderate their "Corporate-Protection" policy actually is...

I'm at total AWE!!... This beats everything for sure!! A|W deserves all the piracy it can get imho!! Mark my words!! This action not only marginalizes PLE enthusiasts, but it does the greatest injustice to Maya itself, the top application of it's genre!!

[underdog]

Hey its free what did you expect? The whole viewport thing sucks, I agree with that. It would be better to make it small and just disable the hardware render, playblast completely. In the renderer though, you really can't complain. I mean it sucks its so ugly but still...its not a huge surprise..

And for the ones that are complaining its no good for making demo reels, educational etc.....thats the whole idea.

Its here to let the individual take maya for a spin, see what all the hype is about. Not to be default modeler to replace your current ones.

[Jacobo]

Underdog;

Close to a million dolar investment on a "spin tour"??? Man, I doubt that... The type of release you're referring to would be a demo version, that's for sure!! Demo versions are made for that purpose and mind you, they already have a demo version program available, PLE is not a substitute for that... PLE's main purpose is to draw users of other packages to Maya of all levels (novice to expert), although it should have also been geared towards the immediate, 'non-commercial use' of students, academic staff and etc... There are students busting their brains out in academic environments just to master Maya, and they need it more than 'sunday afternoon' animator wanna-bees that you've mentioned...

[underdog]

There are quite a few people that would argue that PLE is nothing more than a glorified demo. I don't really agree with that. Like you said its to draw people to use maya, or at least be familiar with it. It isn't however, meant to be used as an application where you can make all your projects, demo reel, educational use etc. Its to learn the ins and outs of Maya for people who can't afford the high price.

For people in an academic environment, they already have(in most cases)24/7 access to computer labs with computers dedicated to this program. AW has educational license for students.

It just seems everyone wants the program for free, with no restrictions. A/W has proven they can sell Maya for $12,000+ a license without breaking a sweat, why should they just give it away?

And besides all that this is the first release of PLE, I think there will be many improvements, depending on response. Most likely starting with the viewport mess.....

Small steps....be patient

[Lyr]

If you are a student, maya unlimited costs 1k a year, not 10k. Although that lower price does not seem to attract to many student customers.

[Apoclypse]

I think you guys should head over to softimage.com and try their softimage|xsi experience cd. From waht i saw of the demo version of xsi 1.5 it looks like it will be good. If their is one thing that you can say about softimage is the they aren't shady and the demo has abou the same amount od stuff as mayas ( in 1.5 the renders were the only thing changed the were segemented not watermarked). Only drawback is that it can't be downloaded you have to order the cd (takes 4 to 6 weeks). Here is to corparate shadiness (what do you expect from a|w for god sakes they charge about 7000 for their software Which I still think is unreasonable but i seem to be the only one ah well.)

[Ibanezhead]

I teach Maya academically and my students have been looking forward to the release of PLE and their hopes have ended up in vain thanx to A|W's malicious act of watermarking the work area.

Malicious Act? You guys act like it is your right to use Maya. A/W is being very generous letting us download this version of Maya and use it to teach ourselves. They have rights to the software and want to protect their investment. It is only logical for them to do whatever is necessary to do just that. Sure the watermarks are a little loud at first, but you get use to it. Plus, this is not Free Maya for the home user. It is a version of Maya that you can learn on. The company has no obligations to provide the CG community with a free copy of Maya that we all can make demos on, cause we can't afford the real version... We ought to stop complaining and be thankful that these companies are coming out with things like this.

Vic

[CGDreamerX]

I don't know, I actually find 3dsmax a much better deal than Maya, just spend a few thousand on some plugins, and you will STILL get a better deal than Maya Unlimited's $15,000 price tag, ouch.

I use Maya 4 at work and I really don't like it, it takes longer to do simple stuff than Max or Lightwave.

It seems great that 3D companies are fighting against piracy by offering their software for free, such as GMax, Maya PLE, and now Softimage Experience...but of all the bunch, I think Maya PLE has gone the wrong way, a simple corner watermark would do, but not the whole freaking viewport with a nasty looking mark that looks like something made with MSWord.

Just my 2 cents...

[SatoriGFX]

Originally posted by Apoclypse
Only drawback is that it can't be downloaded you have to order the cd (takes 4 to 6 weeks).

I guess you could look at it that way if you don't consider the fact that you can't "save" your projects as a drawback. You heard me right, the article I read said no saving allowed.

Another useless glorified demo.

Adam.

[Jean Eric]

I think the training material that comes with the SoftImage Experience CD Will be even more valuable to a lot of people that the actual software.

[dr_bob]

Hi

Does anyone know if there is a mirror site available for downloading Maya PLE?

The main sight appears extremely sluggish (at least on my machine). In fact the last time I managed to get through they weren't even allowing downloads...

Thanks

dB

[underdog]

very true^

[Lonewolf]

You can't save in Softimage Experience so there's not much point in using it.

[underdog]

As far as I read on the SoftImage sight the saving is the only thing disabled...just like any demo. And I think we all know how fast those get cracked.

I believe softy may become very popular on the warez scene soon, of course that may be there intention...

[SatoriGFX]

Originally posted by underdog
I believe softy may become very popular on the warez scene soon, of course that may be there intention...

It already is. That's why I don't get all of these people all excited about how there will eventually be cracks to remove the PLE watermark or the XSI demo saving limitation. If you want to do the "illegal" thing, go ahead and do it now. What are you waiting for? You can already download every major 3d application from usenet, ftp sites, Morpheus etc... That's why I just don't get why Alias and Avid are being so anal about their "learning editions". The pirates couldn't care any less about these "limited" versions. They already have the real thing sitting right on their hard drives.

If, like me, you would rather use legal software only, you can only hope that Alias and Avid get with the program. Each of their offerings over the last few days "sounds" very generous at first. Once you see what you are really getting, things don't look so hot anymore. Granted, they owe us nothing. But there is no use in offering a "learning edition" that nobody is going to want to learn on whether because of a huge on screen watermark or because you can't "save" your work (how dumb is that? don't know about you but I usually spend "many" sessions working on a project). What we have is two glorified demos. That's it.

The ONLY good thing about these releases is the accompanying learning materials. The pirates will "love" that. :)

Adam.

[bbennett]

Sorry - there is no mirror site. And we are overwhelmed with demand. We have a really big pipe but right now demand is exceeding capacity.

Bob
A|W

[underdog]

True^....though Im not sure xsi2 has been cracked yet, looks like they are gonna make it easy though, and give you training material to boot :)

[meloncully]

yeah, xsi 2 has been cracked. I know some people who have it on other forums.


________
meloncully

[poseidon]

You can get a disc for about a few bucks here.How much is it at your place?

[Jacobo]

snip... "Each of their offerings over the last few days "sounds" very generous at first. Once you see what you are really getting, things don't look so hot anymore. Granted, they owe us nothing. But there is no use in offering a "learning edition" that nobody is going to want to learn on whether because of a huge on screen watermark or because you can't "save" your work (how dumb is that? don't know about you but I usually spend "many" sessions working on a project). What we have is two glorified demos. That's it."...snip

quote from SatoriGFX...

He sums it all up... Yes! I can't agree with you more!

Aj

[meloncully]

well, i have seen it where you can download it for free.


________
meloncully

[Mike RB]

its called the softimage 'expirence' for a reason. They don't claim its a learning edition. They do sell an education version or 'learning edition' already that has every single feature, manuals, and support for a year for 495$ Thats a pretty sweet deal, i think its a little much to ask for them to cut thier price anymore than that.

Mike

[SatoriGFX]

Originally posted by Mike RB
its called the softimage 'expirence' for a reason. They don't claim its a learning edition. They do sell an education version or 'learning edition' already that has every single feature, manuals, and support for a year for 495$ Thats a pretty sweet deal, i think its a little much to ask for them to cut thier price anymore than that.

Mike

Sure they have an educational version. If you happen to be a student (and some companies require that you be a cg student). The educational pricing isn't open to anyone who wants to use it non-commercially. As we all know, there are a ton of people in the cg industry who are self taught and many more who would like access to these tools to learn but can't go to school for various reasons (or don't want to). So, you either pay $10,000 or so for school and benefit from the student pricing, or you pay a ridiculous sum for the 3d program.

Adam.

[Mike RB]

i wouldnt say its rediculous, soft is just protecting thier dev costs by getting their money from either the freelancer who does have the money to purchase, or from both the students and the educational institutions who buy mass licenses..

Mike

[SatoriGFX]

Originally posted by Mike RB
i wouldnt say its rediculous, soft is just protecting thier dev costs by getting their money from either the freelancer who does have the money to purchase, or from both the students and the educational institutions who buy mass licenses..

Mike

And this explains why they choose to ignore another market, that being people who are willing to pay for an educational license but are not in school?

I don't get it. How can making the educational version available to the rest of us "not" be a benefit to these software developers? I don't have thousands to buy XSI right now. But I sure as hell could come up with a few hundred dollars to get my hands on a non-commercial version. That way I might "learn" to use the software and eventually get a job using it or buy it and freelance.

I guess companies like Avid and Alias are too narrow minded or simply don't want my money.

Adam.

[Rick]

It would be really nice if everyone from all these software companies would read this entire Topic. I would think all these opinions should be very valuable to them.

The "illegal" versions look good compared to these offerings (XSI, Maya, and whatever else) BUT I'm in a little dillema here because my connection sucks and I don't want to download the huge files so I guess thats why I would look foward to the cracks.

If someone could buy a complete version with all the documentation for cheap where they live and send it to me I would be happy to send them $20 or so!:)

[poseidon]

contact me
granite17@hotmail.com

[pluMmet]

as far as this talk about companys not allowing people to use their programs Non-commercialy...COME ON!

I used my *cough COUSINS educational 3Ds Max 3.0 *cough..cough, which I was more than happy to loan him the money for *cough...and once I knew if I wanted it or not I saved for a while and ponied up. Mabye it's me but as OLD PEOPLE say 'you don't appreciate something if you don't pay for it.' I would venture to say that out of all the poeple who are impressive 3D artists %90 of them rightfully own thier apps.

I not totaly against warez because i know people who started out with illigal stuff but i'm telling you they got a whole lot better when the bought the apps. Mabye it just took a load off their minds and allowed them to consintrate.


my 3 1/2 cents!

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