Autodesk Signs Agreement with Avid Technology to Acquire Softimage

#1261

It’s not that big of a deal. I’ve used apps that don’t have this behavior (such as XSI or Modo) and quite frankly I didn’t notice it too much. However, sometimes it may come handy to have a specific viewport selected so that you don’t accidentally invoke some action in a wrong viewport when trying to navigate in menus for examlpe. However, as I said, in Max, this isn’t such a big deal.

#1262

Can i remind everyone this thread is not about viewcubes?

#1263

Well, Autodesk’s 3ds Max 2008 was mostly about the ViewCube, so, what do you expect us to discuss about if not the newest can’t-live-without feature that at 99.9% XSI users can expect to see in the upcoming XSI version. :wink:

#1264

i’ll agree it’s not a big deal, but i get stuck on habits and it’s made a difference to me when falling back on other aps. i have plenty of accidents either way, it’s just a preference for me as it is now in xsi. i’d hate to see that change.

#1265

Discussing isn’t mandatory.

#1266

yeah it’s about xsi being bought at avid’s yard sale by autodesk…
still, there’s a veiwcube arriving on xsi ‘soon’ i’d wager.

an intersting discussion woudl be to chat about what maya and 3dsmax will get from xsi and vs versa…the viewcube is one thing destined to arrive on xsi…what about max and maya from xsi though?

#1267

Now this is much more interesting.

#1268

the way xsi handles subds maybe?
Maybe XSI will get to create geometry on click like maya did after autodesk bought alias.
Maybe max and maya will get xsi´s component selection tools ( they really never got it right )
A proper bevel for maya an max.
Wish we could get on xsi power booleans, but since maya hasnt got any update on the boolean system (reetarded one by the way) i dont see that any close.
Probably they will get something like render region. (they already have somehting, maya with improved ipr, and from what i understand max 2009 has soemthign but neither is close to xsi´s render region)

One thing that i ve been thinking is that i would hate that xsi´s development gets stucked specially regarding for VFX (the new exocortex alliance) if they reorient each package to different parts of the industry (as stands max for ArchViz, Maya for VFX and Films and XSI for games). We might not get our so longed fluid system (voxel type). By theway im aware that there are impelemtations trough ICE and it looks greate so far. But it would suck none the less to get development stoped on that front just to give maya and advantage on film

#1269

Btw: has anyone realized that if Autodesk keeps all the packages “competitive” among each other, they make much more money?

I mean, look at it this way, just a synthetic, theoretical, example:

You’ve landed this uber-job, let’s say 500 VFX shots ranging from raging creatures to hordes of warriors running across hills to water/cloth/fluid sims etc…

Now, you choose Maya as the main VFX app for rigging, setups etc… then you have MotionBuilder for all the animation, then you need particles and such, so you go for 3ds Max, but you also need, let’s say, good modeling apps for the modelers, so you buy XSI seats.

See the point? No matter what you need, all you’ll need to do is to call up Autodesk and they’ll pretty much supply all of it = more money for them = less of a stress for you as all you need to do is sign one single invoice and one single contract. Then you’ll be on their uber-1337-vip subscription for all of the stuff knowing that in a year you’ll get it all upgraded in the price of the subscription = you save money = Autodesk wins.

This on one hand looks very positive and interesting, on the other (from the apps. development point of view) it isn’t as much of a win. But then, honestly, who buys all the crap for you to play with at your company? You? :wink:

#1270

chat about what maya and 3dsmax will get from xsi and vs versa.

i would’nt hold my breath for anything more advanced than the Viewcube finding its way from one of those 3 packages to the other. Okay- maybe some things like softselection, interactive primitive creation etc. will spread through those apps - but ICE no, just like nucleus or PaintFX did’nt and will not find it’s way to Max .

Of course FBX exchange between the 3 will improve. There is a discussion going on right now on Ken’s blog, about Crosswalk - the Softimage counterpart to ADESK’s FBX. Crosswalk has some clever features FBX does not have and seem to outperform FBX in some aspects. This again brings focus to ADESK’s lack of speed and commitment in terms of R&D.
Crosswalk’s dev-progress seem to be superior or at least on par with ADESK’s FBX dev-efforts - which, by the way, is a major “commited” stratregy for ADESK, as they say. The way i understood some of the posts on the blog, Crosswalk was/is an one-developer show at softimage…

Double-think about this and than still say “nothing gonna change if ADESK owns Softimage”

If i look into my crystalball i see the following:

  • in some far future (3-6 yrs) they will introduce a replacement app for all 3

until than, each app will introduce/improve features in areas they are already strong in.

Maya for Film/FX/Character as usual, Max Design will even further focus in Viz/Architectual/Real Lighting. 3ds Max itself will only get some UI-retouches and only some things it inherits from the Design version. This is my major frustration-point as a Max user. XSI will be heavily targeted at Games.

But there will be no major integration effort be made between the 3 - besides FBX. ADESK is simply to lazy and to cumbersome to do this. They will simply focus even more on draging new “once per week 3d app users” to their 3D apps (following the “Viewcube”-Paradigm, which was a start for this). The existing userbase, which might have dreamed of an app-switch, now simply doesn’t have a chance to escape ADESK. So why should they focus on keeping them happy ? At least not as long as a new serious contender enters the battleground…

#1271

That makes more sense. If AD is to cross pollinate those three, what’s the point in keeping all of them? might as well pick the best of the three and make an “über app”.

#1272

Well, as I think if you add Maya + Max + XSI licences to one company it’ll always be > than OneUberApp licences even if the OneUberApp is essentially more expensive.

But that’s pure speculation, might be quite the opposite as ADSK has to keep the support teams and sales teams for each of the app. Don’t know really the real numbers behind this, but essentially, if ADSK can sell you 10 licences of Maya, 8 of Max and 5 of XSI (for example) you can bet your ass it will instead of investing millions to the OneUberApp and sell you (years later after you’ve invested elsewhere or built your own software) 5 licences of these…

#1273

By the way, another point:

If ADSK right now announces that they’ve killed any two of the “magic-three”, they loose money! Why? Well, simply because the people who used the two killed apps WON’T upgrade! They’ll be first and foremost pissed so much about ADSK’s decision and secondly, possibly, they won’t be familiar with the winning app. so they might as well invest in a totally different app. if they’re forced to conform.

I for one am still on Max 8. I’m really happy with it and I consider it a very good and very stable release (man, if Max 8 was x64, I’d pass out!). Until ADSK fixes the terrible Select By Name dialog, shitty Vista support and some other more or less minor features, I won’t upgrade! What does this tell you? Well, if you DON’T WANT something or DON’T NEED someting, why the hell would you pay for it any company, not just ADSK?!

There are features that make me wanna upgrade though. Like the x64 support, .NET support, awesome MAXScript editor (which I use in Maya as well as for all of my text editing tasks btw) and a bunch of features and additions. So, I’m considering Max 2009, which’d basically mean I’ve skipped 2 releases = ADSK lost money. The question is, do they want to loose money or not?

#1274

loocas:

you skipped 2 versions and if you upgrade now, you have to pay exactly the same (even more i think) amount of money if your where on subscription since Max 8. Additionally you are not allowed to use your previous versions strictly speaking, and do not have the other subscription only benefits like Home/Office-licenses, Extension packs etc…

So in fact if you upgrade, ADESK did not loose any money, but you lost the option to use Max9/Max2008 ( if you have to provide data for a customer with that older Version)

To make it short:
Subscription makes sense even in terms of money, at least if you will not skip more versions…
after that you have to pay nearly the full price again…

ADESK is very clever in balancing the licensing sheme for their maximum income, not for customer ease…

#1275

cmon, pointless thread already :smiley:

#1276

No, I wasn’t quite clear, I meant to say that I DECIDE whether I WANT to upgrade or not :slight_smile: It’s simple. If ADSK persuades me it’s worth, I’ll be happy to spend the fortune (especially since EU pricing is so fairly setup!), if they don’t, then screw them…

#1277

Surely we’ve beaten this horse to death by now.:shrug:

#1278

Hopefully I’d like to see in maya the compositing/tree/render layer/passes system I’ve heard is so great in xsi. I think there’s more but I’m not really into xsi so I don’t know.

#1279

more changes at Avid

#1280

Meanwhile, Avid has named former Autodesk media and entertainment EMEA director Patrick Jocelyn as vice-president EMEA. Jocelyn starts next week

great, this all looks like the usual coporate/managment deals to me
It’s 100% all about business and money and not about the customer

http://www.escapestudios.com/en_GB/awards/judges/patrick-jocelyn.html