Whoops! sorry, I’m still reeling about what’s available in the current version, "Locks of hair, photon mapping and my fav the maintain curvature feature for detailed mechanical modeling.
I have 9.5 but don’t use it because of stability issues so back to 8.5 I guess. There have been a lot of good things said about 10.5 and that helped restore my faith in the software, we’ll see about the upgrade in '04.
You know, of course, that Hash’s version plan calls for new features to be added to new versions, like v11. Then in the .5 version (11.5), stablity is their number one goal. So upgrading next January is only going to make you more disenchanted with A:M. You might want to consider upgrading now.
Just trying to help,
Jim
Good point and I plan on getting the upgrade real soon but I’m still connecting with other software to do it just yet. Talk about “disenchanted”, I’ll be going from 8.5 to 11… what a jump! I’ll be learning all the new features and I hear there may be no manual…?:banghead:
Or they might decide to switch CD keys mid year and ask you to pay fedex + taxes to get on the .5 bandwagon…
Bugle-
If that happens I won’t be around to bitch anymore
what will I do without my daily bitch from you…? Only thing that’d really hold me up from upgrading is a manual. Unless Obnomauk is going to set up a deal and get something written and ready so I can upgrade and get a users hardcopy manual at the same time?
I’m happy to pay the extra cost for a proper, useable manual. (Before anyone says anything - yes a manual SHOULD come as a de facto standard but it’s now become established AM habit to just ship a slim comic for bedtime reading.)
I agree - i think it deserves a manual and I was quite disappointed upon upgrading to find it didn’t come with one. I would also have paid extra for a manual.
I found David Rogers book took the place of a manual for me but obviously most people expect one with software. A PDF version on the CD would be fine as this could be read online aswell as printed out for reading in the bath etc.
As the new features are added a PDF manual would be very easy to update too. The more I get into the program the more I yearn for a good manual that takes you through all the features.
Well I’m not contractually obligated to not speak of it sooo…
I will not be writing a new version of the book… for Charles River Media.
We have some basic disagreements that cannot be worked out. I do have plans to update the book, but I am contractually obligated to not publish a competing work while the current book remains in print. So what I am going to do is update the text for 2004 and place it on the Reader’s Section of am-guide.com in PDF format for free download (presuming you have the book already which contains the log-in info for the Reader’s Section). With new project files and Video files in the same section. This will be the last updating I do until such time that the book goes out of print and all rights revert back to me, at which time I will probably re-vamp the whole thing and figure out a different distribution method. I’m kind of disillusioned with publishing.
Basically what I am waiting on at this point is the Beta for the 2004 version. I know what I plan on changing and expanding and have ideas for the projects I want to use for tutorials but until I see what they change for v11 I don’t want to spend to much time on it 
I should have the introduction done and up soon though.
I do have other projects up my sleeve as well, but I want to get a bit further along before I talk about them.
-David Rogers
Well v11 alpha is here… and I don’t see an update for 10.5. This might be another slightly messy transition. I can tell that there are going to be lots of “Don’t complain about bugs in an alpha version” excuses. I bet that there will be more bug fixes in the alpha than in the current version, but maybe I should give them the benifit of the doubt for a while. At least they havn’t re-written the thing.
They rolled all the fixes from 10.5 into 11 alpha. Because if you look at the forum there is a image of the new hair-holy crap its amazing!! Here are the notes:
v11.0 Alpha Fixes (Most fixes are to bugs intruduced to pre alpha versions)
-Latest forum posts now visible in AM:Community panel
-Fixed chor action export as action missing .act (broke in 11.0 pre1, by action save as)
-Fixed multi select, deleteing light caches
-Fixed undo for: and action menu’s move and delete frames, and delete, cut, paste, channel operations
-Fixed action save as not changing its name
-9/26/03 : Temp Group Plugins don’t crash now.
-9/26/03 : Added sorting to NetRender Server.
-9/26/03 : Fixed NetRender Server crash when pool is closed while rendering.
-9/25/03 : Added Muscle support to SDK
-9/18/03 : Added global overrides to Server
-9/18/03 : Grid wizard crsh when step is greater than width or height
-9/12/03 : Fixed Materials on Props animating over time
-9/11/03 : Added GetObjectType(), GetObject(), GetSubObject() to HTexInfo in SDK
-9/11/03 : Added Ambiance Color to surface attributes
-9/11/03 : Fixed Raytrace Prop Cookie-cut
-9/10/03 : Added Sprite duplicate menu option and drag and drop
-9/9/03 : Fixed Deleting Props
-9/9/03 : Added Sprite Features { Random Seed, Max Distance before emmission }
-9/9/03 : Fixed Import old chors with Props that couldn’t be found
-9/9/03 : Added browser for missing props
-9/8/03 : Fixed Props with back facing normals
-Changed channel editor to include all muscle channel curves from spline container. {Victor Navone}
-Added green checkmark icon for the current chor action.
-Fixed lag in NetRender. {Jeff Bunker}
-Added GetBoneDir() function to the expression editor. {David Rogers}
-Multi-pass motion blur on dynamic constraints works correctly. {Matthew Crick}
-Can change the resolution on a distort object via the action object when used in a pose. {Nathaniel
Stein}
-Expressions can be longer than 255 characters. {David Rogers, Marcel Brickman}
-Dynamic constraints on 1-bone long chains works correctly. {Tyler Lybbert}
-Control chains that are sometimes kinematic, and sometimes broken via
translate to constraints in the same scene, are no longer falsely accused
as circular. {Shaun Freeman}
-Validated euler limits so that min is always less than or equal to max. {Mike Hart}
-Relationships on X-Rotate work past 90 degrees, as well as they did on Y-Rotate. {Victor Navone}
-Cloth wizard works again in an action window. {Sotiris Gougousis}
-Simulate is ghosted on spring systems under objects.
-Multi-D Smartskin allows keyframes as close as 1 degree apart. {Stephen Millingen}
Yep, the new hair is amazing. But the fact is that some of those bug fixes are new (the ones in the first half), and there is no 10.5 update. What are the chances of 10.5 being fixed up properly before 11 takes over?
I thought they continued to support(bugfix) the previous version right up until the next is officially released? Or is that when it’s not a .5? Isn’t v10 being updated now?
I don’t know. I assume so but it is odd that there are fixes for v11 Alpha and no sign of a v10 l. Best just to wait and see…
You’ll sometimes continue to see fixes for the current version when they start working on the new version.
I would guess that it depends on whether the fixes can be easily patched into the current code, or whether the fix is the result of new code that only exists in the new version.
Of course, I remember v5.26… :hmm:
D.
I remember all the updates on v5, too.
I would think there would be more updates for v10.5 as v11 is only alpha. The beta drumbeat hasn’t even begun.
And my v9.51e download is dated 11/16/02, and the v10 alpha is dated 9/28/02 so if we’re going down the same road as last year, I would guess we’d go into November at least as well.
My v8.5L download is dated 1/10/01 and v8.5m is dated 2/10/01, and if they crossed over a year then it might possibly happen again. We probably won’t see updates every week or two as we have, but we’ll probably still see them for the near future.
I’m wondering about the Ambiance Color for surface attributes…wonder if it would help in faking sub-surface-scatter…
Yes, I rekon that some kind of skin shader is on its way. If you look where the render shader plugins are, there is ambient as well as diffuse and specular. There is no shader there as yet but I guess that even if Hash don’t write one then someone will.:buttrock:
Kevin Sanderson said:
“I remember all the updates on v5, too.”
I have a vague recollection of v5 being considered sufficiently under-cooked that all users got a free upgrade to v6. Can anyone confirm this?
10.5 l is out, downloading it now… Hopefully we’ll get some increased usability there before the end.
come on hash, there’s a little boy who is losing faith in christmas!!
Yep, they are still fixing things. I got three fixes in a week. Not bad going. Just keep on sending in those reports and they will warrent them in the end.