Latest news from pmG!

#88

Perhaps pmG, famed for listening to their users, saw this comment and took their site down for a revamp!?

#89

And in true style, famed for their complete lack of communication…thought… hey, rather than tell people we’re changing the website, we’ll just remove it and then go quiet! LOL :smiley:

Edit: I don’t get it, the website - it’s still down…why not make the changes offline and do a quick swap out…unless it’s something bigger…better…should I be excited?

#90

I get the first page now. Hope all this means that new things are about to break, and they’ve been updating all the info as fast as their little fingers can fly.

Keeping fingers crossed…

Rick

#91

I’ve heard from a VERY unreliable source that the site will be down until Easter. Now where is this Judas guy !! :smiley:

#92

LOL maybe its because MACs arent supported by the act of god?

anyway i agree totally with the overall point of showing progress. Not words, not cryptic blurbs or rousing ambitions. just picture and videos. I want to know what is in store.

Honestly, im using messiah only for animation…why? because im uncertain about messiahs direction to dedicate more importance on it. Its renderer is powerful, i know, i tried it. However, i want render farm support. and i dont want to be stuck to using butterfly. how about a rudimentary renderfarm access? ala LWSN batch rendering at the very least?

anyway i dont want to turn my post into a feature request. But if there is a request, no, REQUIREMENT - its openness. Also, i would love to be a beta tester if that would help at all. I have down time and would love to throw some fodder for this community. anything i can do to help. believe me i promote this program every chance i get, but you shouldnt rely on users to promote your software if you keep them in the dark.

Also, about the scaling issue.

I have brought this up before. Having some programming experience, i suspect that my nightmarish woes experienced with the soft bodies are linked to the scaling! I know that precision of calculation depends greatly on the numerical scales at play. if you are working with very small values, the precision of your SBD calculations will suffer! i suspected the scaling to be the issues behind SBD and voiced it previously. there was no response as far as i know and would love to hear your thoughts pmg.

Also, resizing my objects in LW is not a solution because i work to real world scale and my scene elements that arent animated in messiah prevent me from scaling to compensate for messiah…

#93

pMG site is back up, I think general updates on information/layout… take a look for yourselves.

Maybe I just havn’t looked INSIDE the web site recently, it seems to have been tided up.
Ie: tutorial download section etc, info on develop.

Then again, as I said, been a while since I looked past the front page.

#94

What are we looking at? Looks the same as it did. . . doesn’t it?

#95

Well, NOW it looks the same. SHortly after Taron teased all of us, the website was unavailable. Then we had the home page, but that’s all, with the various other pages listed at the bottom of the page. (I don’t think they were active)

So…rampant speculationrs, from myself and others, wondered if the things Taron hinted at were being prepared, along with a site revision. Purely speculation, and 2 parts dreaming…given that everyone that uses messiah loves it and can’t wait for more.

Best,
Rick

#96

HAHAHA, damn. Yeah, weired timing! We’ve switched servers. I’m sorry we’re so bad in informing people. I guess we were hoping it would go over a lot quicker! :wip:

Anyway, the migration always takes a moment, so please, be patient and don’t worry! :wise:

AND THANX! That’s always very nice to read! Yes, there will be a few new things in connection with our site. One of the main thing is that I’ve requested a little folder that allows me to throw clips into as I go along and make new examples and experiments. My personal website couldn’t handle the bandwidth. The website itself is also facing a few additions and changes. We’re planning on featuring artists more prominently, adding a new gallery section for beginners and explorers, so to say, and expand our tutorial section!

SOoo, a lot of new things are about to happen! :smiley:

Taron

#97

Well server has been up for a while now…hehehe, in the meantime people started gathering on IRC:

Freenode

#messiah3d

Why dont u come up there and make us a visit? :smiley:

#98

I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THAT MUCH in this thread…HAHAHAHAHAHA…great…what entertaining discussions. Fantastic! I think for now I shall just share my delight of reading through the posts…haha! Beautiful. Ark, Titanic, smashed dreams, true believers, Mac vs. PC…hmmm…very wholesome I find! :applause:

Looks like we’re closing in on the next release. Looks like there will be only one minor compromise in it in terms of the amount of new output buffers, because we originally wanted to put in absolutely everything anyone could ever want, but realized that a few of these things require yet a little more field research and testing. The new buffers however are working fantastic and should take care of most production needs! We already have a plan for another little update on them shortly after the main release, which should truely make everyone very happy! I’m already psyched about it, because of my little side-project, which happens to benefit from them, too!
Although this might sound a little weired, I was pretty amazed that even if all the 6 buffers are outputting it takes away little to no time per frame…because I expected that the saving should become a bit annoying, but no. That’s very pleasant. I’m not used to work like that, really, and it’s actually absolutely fantastic. One render and all the major things are ready for compositing. Ahem…eh…I know, sounds like I’m really new to this…but I actually had never worked with Object IDs for compositing, for instance, and it’s totally wicked.
Hmmm… … …I really don’t know what saying this makes me look like… …but I try not to care! I’m happy! :cool:

Alright, that much for a little update.

Taron

#99

better hurry before Lightwave and Lux beat you too it.

(sidenote) LW release fantastic video of their new SSS shaders.

#100

I’m scared! :argh:

Yeah, and then there’s the whole “I’m too busy” thing I can’t get over! :wip:
Honestly, I’m happy enough I can find the time to check out the thread every once in a while! As you may have noticed, I can get quite sucked in as soon as it comes to communication. Ehm…monoloquish in a way, which I apologize for, but chatting can so quickly become obsessive to me! :bounce:

Sooo…sooner or later I will swing by and join for a moment. But let me just finish my stuff a bit more before I do that! :wip:

#101

LOL…dont be scared ahaha, and yes i know that you coming over there is less time you have to code…but see it like having a “virtual beer” :beer: ahahaha

Whenever u have the time/patience drop by even if it is to just say hello, you are more than welcome :slight_smile:

#102

Thanx, I appreciate it!:beer:

#103

Ahem…eh…I know, sounds like I’m really new to this…but I actually had never worked with Object IDs for compositing, for instance, and it’s totally wicked.

Scary, really.
“Welcome to the real world Neo” may be a fitting phrase…
Well, if this is true for everyone at pmG, we at least know now why this took so long to implement (which left every real compositor completely baffled since it is so basic…).

If I interpolate that to other things I requested in the past, I no longer wonder about running against walls… If the wall doesn’t even know what I’m talking about that is…
One day someone should do some tutorials for all the pmG guys to bring them up to speed about the current state of CG >LOL<
Should be fun to do a XSI 5 Demo for them… :wink:

I know this was a very innocent remark Taron, sorry if I jump onto it, but I knew how cool that is for about 6-10 year now…
As next reading in this area I would recommend .rpf and layered .psd output so not every pass has to be a separate sequence (quite annoying if you have a lot of passes and AE uses the integrated data of .rpf for instance in a very direct manner with the 3D-Effects and can extract camera data from it…).

I also recommend looking at Blender every now and then - some wicked stuff in there…

Well, best regards anyway :stuck_out_tongue:

#104

Isn’t that surprising, that after like 13 feature movies and countless additional projects, a lot of them involving compositing just as well as modeling, rigging, animating and everything else Neo needs to be reminded of the real world by…ahm…Mr.Expert from back home. My methods are made to suffice a very small team and even single artists to create International Awards winning visual effects without the requirement of strict pipelines or other conveniences that serve more convoluted work envirnoments. This is not to defend our late arrival at this common type of feature to have decent output buffers, but to express my annoyance to get lectured by someone, who appears to get more pleasure out of shouting louder than anyone else, instead of understanding how much we’re willing and enjoying to complete our tool to fit even the most traditional production environments. Late for you or not, you should cut us some slack, man! :hmm:

Besides, once we’re through with them altogether, there’s gonna be a really nice reason to start saying “Thanx” again, really. Although, clearly, it’s merely a faint hope of mine to ever hear you say “thanx” again. “Again” because I believe to remember that there was a time when you said that. But maybe that was just me interpreting?! :shrug:

I like the PSD idea. Our RLA should also get buffed out with it all, because I don’t think it is, yet. There are a bunch of formats that contain plenty of extra layers. I don’t know of all of them, but we’ll figure them out. Particularely, of course, the most common once and they’ll come first!

Taron

#105

It is just too much fun actually :wink:
You are right, my “thanks” are all used up as far as pmG is concerned as well as any patience I ever had.
And no, you don’t have to thank me for it either, so it should be a fair deal in the end :thumbsup:

.rpf as its successor is much more advanced than .rla, so I vote for it.

Cheers,

#106

HA HAHAH! Well said Taron.

I personally can only think of one instance when I have ever “needed” a render layer in all my time doing this. I’m a strong believer in getting it right in the renderer itself.

That being said I’m SOOooo glad they are coming. It will finally break down that mental wall that people have about Messiah’s renderer and more people will actually start using it.

Thomas you know we love you and we don’t want you to go away. . . but lets please ease up on the high and mighty “I have been telling them to do this for years” stuff.

I have been asking for things for years too. Sometimes they even listen. But most of the time they pat me on the shoulder and say “thats nice”. :smiley:

#107

AND we shall continue to pat you on the shoulder and say: That’s VERY nice, Weggy! :thumbsup:

HAHAHA, no really, it’s been a long road and all that, but it really feels like breaking into the sea, kind of like Mr.Hanks in “Cast Away” trying to leave the island on a selfmade raft and overcome the huge breaking waves. As it all comes together it become easier to focus on specific things and therefore listen and react more immediate to all the requests.

However, if it wasn’t for the many great requests of yours, a lot of things that deserved or even needed attention wouldn’t have made it into the mix already! Weighting them and prioritizing them is a complex matter depending on the existing framework, knowledge and current development. We’ve actual been putting more focus on getting things done fluently as opposed to having dozens of flames burning at the same time. Well, they do that anyway, but we’re narrowing down our immediate focus on finishing up two or three things at the same time, sometimes even just ONE (even if that happens rarely!). :banghead: :wip: :lightbulb :buttrock:

So, I think it’s save to say that everything you’re asking for is noticed and cared for, even if it’s not taken care of immediately it will eventually…well…not everything, we’ve heard all sorts of things. We will NEVER have a software synth build into our particle system! :wink: