New changes to EiAS!!!

On the third party stuff I can shed some light.

I’ll let the companies in question detail this themselves, but Northern Lights, Paralumino, Konkeptoine and Ramjac are all going to move to UB. In the case of Northern Lights, Blair has trumped everyone and will have all his products ready for the 6.6 release (or just after it). Woooo!

I have no information about Alexey Kondratiev’s plug-ins…

There is some very positive information about TrippleDTools but I have nothing concrete so I’ll keep my mouth shut. Perhaps someone else knows more…

Matt has posted some additional notes about 3rd parties in the EI Development Status forum.
http://www.eitechnologygroup.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6686
Ian

v6.6 is obviously mainly about UB support.
Is there any reason to upgrade for those of us still on PPC (or windows)?
(new features, bug fixes, enhancements)

I’d like to know that too as a PC user.

i haven´t expected this coming this year. that´t great news.

and 99$ fee for mactel compatibility isn´t that much compared to the benefits youl´ll get using the other machines native.

i am happy about that and will go for it as soon as it is available.

thanks matt .-)

bjoern

As for the ramjac part, of course Xpressionist will be included as UB in EIAS 6.6. We have not so much more plugins to port, and making UB plugins is not sooo much of a hassle Of course Rodeo will also be UB when its ready. We also UB O2F.

As for new features: no. EIAS 6.6 is meant as a UB version of EI 6.5 and is the basis for all further developments. The goal is to provide all users with Intel Macs a version of EIAS that runs on this machines natively (and really fast!) and to have a code base to go ahead from. There have been very contoversial discussions wether or not to release 6.6 or wait for EIAS7 UB (and PC) to make sure it will be a beefy and satisfying upgrade for everyone. Everyone will have his own view of this release, but the users who already have InterMacs (like me) will really appreciate this.

Jens

Arktype is right. v6.6 is mainly about universal binary, however, I think the migration over to Xcode is going to result in a few more enhancements to user interaction with the program. (Mouse scrolling and so forth for Mactel users)

As for a “features” list…I’ll try to get EITG to finalize something for us. But from what I know so far, new features are brewing but they’re intended for v7. But you never know, there might be something for v6.6. (if there are, they will probably be minor) I’ll keep you posted.

v6.5.2 PC & PPC are nearly identical to v6.6 Mactel. Depending upon what EITG plans to include in v6.6 will really determine if PPC and PC owners will want to upgrade. Mactel users are the primary group affected by this upgrade.

The primary issue for v6.6 UB migrators will be the 3rd party transition. Since Blair has immediate access to the SDKs he’ll get the jump on his products right away. Paralumino and Konkeptoine will migrate as well…but there are a lot of products to update there so it will be approached in a step by step manner. Don’t expect everything at once. David Argemi has commented to me that he fully intends to update his specific shaders and wants to keep the migration as free from cost as possible. Paralumino takes the same position. Triple D has commented to Blair that they also intend to migrate. The only 3rd party vendor in question upto now is Onyx. So I’d suggest we start petitioning them ASAP.

And ooops… sorry Jens. Since XP is integrated, I keep forgetting to mention it. Thanks for your update.

I’m a hobbiest at this time and won’t be going to 6.6 [currently at v5.5], but I’m curious if this upgrade means, for those of us folks with older machines [1999 antique g4/400…still works fine], that EIAS and 3rd party companies are now starting to move away from the PPC and older machine/OS/EIAS ver. support.

Cheers, I hope this next phase in EIAS’s history is a successful one for the Users and EIAS.

~Mike

Mike…

I believe EITG and the 3rd Party companies fully realize that there will continue to be a PPC market for a long time. It would be foolish to cut off those users. EITG has managed to keep OS9 users active all the way up through v6.5.2. However, right now they’re supporting 3 Operating Systems. (OS9, OSX, and Windows). By adding Mactel, they may consider finally closing the door on OS9. I’m not certain. But I’ll ask for you.

3rd party developers tend to ride on the edge of development. (Attempting to take advantage of any new technologies integrated into new versions of EIAS). My guess is most will continue with that strategy.

The question was asked to Matt Hoffman regarding future OS support. His answer was:

"With the advent of v6.6 OS 9 will no longer be supported.

We haven’t made any decisions yet about further PPC support. My guess is that we will continue to support it for some time since XCode easily spits out both versions."

So my take on that is, PPC users will be fine for quite some time. Windows will proceed as normal.

Maybe they could do us PC users a bit of a favor and fix the issue where when we close EI it crashes and we have to “end task” on it. I’m not sure if that happens for anyone else regularly but it happens to me quite a bit.

Nothing major but it’d be sweet!

Well, it’s not only on PC it crashes when quiting - the same for me on my Intel iMac. Quit EIAS 6.5.2 and boom - it leaves rather gracelessly.

As you say, nothing major, but still, it ought not to be like that.

Jens,

Since XP was mentioned… will “some” new features make it into XP

pretty please… I have so many scripts in my head ready for work

Cj

Congratulations to EITG, EIAS and the Council.

My dongle should be on the way, and my MacPro is waiting.

God Bless and Much Sucess.

Alonzo

BTW, I’m glad you are offering an affordable upgrade for MacTels, so at least people can be up and running on MacTels before they go into a longer development cycle. Who know what’s next? Resurrect EIM?

Dont’ forget me, I want smooth easy ZBrush intergration. No more cutting up Photoshop files

Oh. and vertex animation import with FBX…

oh what the heck! give me all the character and film productions tools you can muster.

I’m ready for anything!!!

You know what? It is very exciting to hear all the gang of developers commenting policies, timetables and such. If anything, it feels so fresh…

I am curious: do you think transitioning to Xcode will allow for integrating some OS X features here and there that were somewhat difficult to do before? Say, some GUI things like mousewheel support, perhaps Spotlight-based asset autosearch, I don’t know. What do you expect from it? EIAS is based on some multiplatform framework, I believe. Is that a limiting factor for its GUI development?

To a degree, yes.

For instance, mouse-wheel support was simply impossible before because EIAS used the classic (as in, OS9) events manager. However, as has been mentioned by Blair, EITG is now able and is indeed looking to implement it in a future version.

Ian

Hey Ian…

I was under the impression from Blair that mouse wheel support made it into v6.6. I guess I’ll have to check with him.

Interestingly, one of the great features about EIAS v6.5 was that it was OS 9 compatible(!)

I wonder, did EITG even bother inquiring about how many users still use OS 9? I am certain that there are more than a few users out there with G3/G4 desktops with limited RAM that would still be interested in having EIAS… especially if it’s the only remaining 3d animation packages out there available (for OS 9).

Just a thought before the plug is pulled…

So there ARE new features… the scroll wheel support in the project window would be a very nice addition.

Cj

Speaking of changes…

The Advisory Board would like to begin discussions on EIM and its potential resurrection as a separate application. There’s obviously a need for a full fledged modeling package included with EIAS in order to return EIAS back to a “primary” app status and thus compete with the likes of other packages that include modeling tools.

Discuss the all the possibilities:

1. Would you want a UB version of EIM?
2. What kind of upgrade price would you pay for it?
3. Would you want it offered standalone?
4. How much would you pay for a standalone version?
5. Should EI go with EIM or create something entirely new?
6. Due to the base differences between EIA and EIM and the way the two handle geometry, should EIM evolve into the next EIA? (In other words, should EIM eventually include next gen animation capabilities?)
7. Should EIM be capable of accessing Camera by itself?

edit: Or would you just be happy with EIM as it was in the last incarnation, with bug fixes, but as UB.

We want to hear from you.