Softimage 2015 Last Release Announcement

#21

Honestly… I am a bit emotional ATM,but I wanted to say to ADSK:
You really have no idea what You are doing … its not just XSI… its about the whole business… and… trust me… in the long run You will loose big time… it is happening already in minds of many artists … artists that will influence upcoming seats… and so … influence new buys… and so change the work flows… and so… one Day some one will buy what’s left after big DASK and shut it down.

RIP Softimage, the last modern 3d software in the pocket of Autodesk.

q

#22

https://www.change.org/petitions/autodesk-save-softimage

crossposting but necessary

#23

Someone on the Softimage mailing list (Arvid Björn ) brought up this quote from the Autodesk announcenment text/FAQ. Seems like AD wants to p*ss off the Softimage userbase even more …

“Please note that the right to use the Softimage license will terminate at the end of the transition period if you are still on Subscription. You will be transitioned to the latest release of either 3ds Max or Maya depending on your initial choice. If you want to continue to use your Softimage license after Feb 1, 2016 you should not renew your Subscription contract for a period beyond that date. You will be able to continue to use Softimage but will forfeit any future updates to either 3ds Max or Maya.”

EDIT:
okay - Maurice responded in theat thread

Yes this is the case.
Unfortunately these days license agreements are rather complex. The clause is there because subscription includes a certain level of support which we are not going to be offering in 2 years time. Whatever choice you make now will have pros and cons and these have been discussed on several threads but basically boil down to:

  •   You can keep using the license you have in perpetuity, either by itself or augmented by other non-Autodesk software, a lot of which was discussed elsewhere

  •   Migrate to the Transition Bundle - this is a single license that allows you to use two products (Softimage and either Maya or 3ds Max). You will now be able to use both products concurrently (the license functions like a Suite license). If you are on Subscription you can migrate at no cost. Even if you migrate you will still have two options depending on whether Maya (or 3ds Max) works for you or not:

o If it is not working out for you, you can stop renewing subscription - you will then still be able to use both products in perpetuity (at whatever release version Maya or 3ds Max is on at the time)

o If it is working for you and you renew Subscription, after two years when we stop support, you will be moved to wither a Maya-only or 3ds Max-only subscription plan when we stop Softimage support.

o If you want to migrate but continue to access Softimage after two years, we recommend that you not transition all your seats or if you do not keep the Subscription current on all of them - that way you will have a few licenses that you can maintain to access older projects
Maurice

Maurice Patel

#24

In other words, if you want to keep using Softimage, you’ll have to buy into a new suite? Or am I reading that wrong.

“Unfortunately these days license agreements are rather complex.”. A bit like health insurance. (I don’t have half as much trouble with other application license agreements).

#25

I don’t think there’s any basis for a lawsuit. A statement from 2008 doesn’t mean that much 6 years later. It wasn’t a promise.

#26

Ah but Adobe didn’t remove the product line, they just repackaged it.

It’s not like they said “Photoshop is going nowhere” and then promptly announced “it’s over” 24 months later.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=7406885&postcount=55

#27

No. If you want to keep using SI, you just do nothing. The part you quoted was if you want to migrate but still need SI around after 2016 for whatever reason.

EDIT: essentially, part of the transition deal is converting your SI license to an expiring one.

#28

Well if they are killing Softimage as they said: “…for Autodesk to keep pace with the industry’s rapid rate of change and to better serve our customers during this highly turbulent transitional period for both visual effects and games. We need to innovate faster…”

We’ll see if they will really make it so and how much faster that really is. Given the experience so far, no one believes in that words.
Simple example, viewport 2.0 in Maya that was released like, hell, i don’t even remember…4-5 years ago(?) and in 2014 it’s still not full functional. If Bifrost enter the picture in 2015, how long will it take to have real power - 10 years?

2015 version will be huge tuning point of AD. It all depends what will 3ds max and Maya deliver. Because killing Softimage in the name of some half hearted features that need next at least 3-4 year to reach true potential will most definitely not cut it and people will massively run for alternatives like Modo, Houdini, C4D…leaving AD behind.

#29

The sad thing is that baring Houdini, XSI was one of the best written apps in the Market.
I mean guys Look at FaceRobot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOO6Vv-i04Q
or the ICE language
From wikipedia:

ICE is a visual programming platform that allows users to extend the capabilities of Softimage quickly and intuitively using a node-based dataflow diagram. This enables artists to create complex 3D effects and tools without scripting. Among the main uses for ICE are procedural modeling, deformation, rigging and particle simulation. It can also be used to control scene attributes without the need to write expressions, for example to add camera wiggle or make a light pulsate. ICE is a parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core CPUs, giving users highly scalable performance.

XSI was designed from the ground up to be used by a small team, and it showed.

No wonder Autodesk did not know what to do with with. It seems that they are concentrating on building tools for Medium to Big business.

My guess is that a culling is going on. God knows who will be next.

#30

A lot of people are saying Max is next - which I’m not to sure about based on sales - but if they did kill off Max a couple of years from now after people switched from Softimage - it would be one of the most horrific things a corporation could do.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some people snapped.

#31

My question for Softimage users (I myself still own a couple of licenses from the Avid days, but have not been active in 3D for the last few years):

Are you just going to roll over and take this, or are you going to fight for the software that you love? Your options:

[ol]
[li]Give more money to Autodesk for another product, rewarding them for this.[/li][li]Apply all the pressure you possibly can on Autodesk to sell Softimage to another group.[/li][li]Adopt some other vendor’s software, which could eventually suffer the same fate.[/li][li]Take a long term perspective about the viability of proprietary, commercial 3D software and look at options to use some of your money to fund open-source alternatives that can never again be pulled out from under you:[/li][ul]
[li]You can pool your money and apply it to an existing project like Blender to try to sway and speed up development in the direction you would like to see.[/li][li]You can fork or start your own project from scratch to replace the functionality of Softimage a few years in the future.[/li][/ul]
[/ol]

#32

Since i uploaded the meeting after the Softimage acquisition i decided to also upload a demo of Softimage|3D Version 1 done by Mark Schoennagel at a Siggraph event from 2006 on an Octane and SGI machine, the crowd obviously loved it.

Featuring Godzilla

//youtu.be/nzj3VITdN5A

#33

@spacefrog - ref the answer regarding licenses you quoted from AD

The clause is probably also there to cover the possibility that they might do a repeat of history by shutting down the license activation server/service for Softimage rather quickly.

Then, even if the license is perpetual, you will be stranded once you need to upgrade your OS or hardware and there is no server or service from AD that will reactivate.

Just a thought…

Somewhat of a contrast to what the Autodesk Company itself describes it’s mission as:

… we’re taking technology originally built for movie studios, automakers, and architectural firms, and making it available to anyone who wants to create and share their ideas with the world.

#34

I can only repeat here what I said on the V-Ray forum - I remember when Autodesk bought Softimage and we were telling people that we were hesitant to develop V-Ray for it because we were not sure what Autodesk would do with it. Back then we were Reprimanded For Spreading Rumors and Autodesk assured us that Softimage will continue to be developed; eventually we decided to move forward. I guess I should have trusted my gut feeling back then :slight_smile: But on the bright side, I am very much relieved - we’ve spent much more money on developing V-Ray for Softimage than we ever got out of it. It would be good to put our developers on more profitable projects.

Best regards,
Vlado

#35

That’s a very sad day for the whole 3d community, a lot of knowledge and talent just got wasted… This kills my last hopes in AD even or especially being a 3ds max user…

#36

@thev You know the Houdini crowd loves V-ray standalone. They would sure welcome some tighter integration. And i imagine there might be some marooned XSI users that might find a privately owned company like SideFX an attractive option.

#37

What companies in the west have a Softimage centric pipeline? I only know of Mill and Nerd Corps. I thought SI was pretty big in Asia, especially in game companies. I can’t imagine them being happy about this.

#38

That video is awesome

#39

Houdini would be the absolute king of the hill, if it “character animation” tools would be as good/easy to use, as those of adsk. The $100 watermark free HD version is going to be a bestseller I guess. BTW if not already linked her are the features of Softimage 2015:

http://area.autodesk.com/userdata/products/What’s_New_in_Autodesk_Softimage_2015_latest.pdf

#40

If 3ds max (Maya, AutoCAD etc…) will die in 2-3 years, what will happen to million people that work with these software? And the plug-developers, like Vlado, Ondra etc… They spent years and, with a simple Autodesk decision, they lose money, time, etc… I think AD have to be clear with the users, with the plug-in developers.
People live with 3ds max or Maya or XSI. This isn’t a game. This is life! Not everyone has the energy, money and the ability to re-organize an entire way of working, consolidated over decades of study and passion.

There must be some very specific clauses between users and Autodesk. If they want to kill Maya (for example) in the next two years, they have the duty to inform users. Not to say " Hey user, don’t worry, we will support Maya for next 5-10 years and… boom! After one years the kill what they want. This is absurd and inconceivable, as well as fraudulent! THE RUMOR THAT THE EOL OF SOFTIMAGE and 3DS MAX IS UPON US IS TOTALY FALSE --> Are you sure Chris? :rolleyes:

Otherwise, AD pays penalties to the entire 3ds max users. It’s too easy to say “paid subscription, pay licenses” and then AD erases years of study, pipeline, without giving you any official notice…