HOMEPAGE
http://nevercenter.com/silo/
RELEASE NOTES:
http://nevercenter.com/silo/release_notes/
Talk about a stealth release. Mostly a bunch of bug fixes and a few minor features, but - along with the last beta - I’m shocked to see this app spring to life again. Long time users who haven’t since lost (or dumped) their old serials rejoice.
Yeah, that was a little weird. But for indies and hobbyist that can´t wrap their heads around Blenders very intuitive UI, I guess it can be worth $99. And… “Buy a single-user license for Silo now and you’ll own it - no subscription required!”
Yeah. I’m guessing that they’ve either got new developers on the team or their they’ve milked old projects like Camera Bag dry and have had to return to the well. Could also be some renewed interest due to sales of their Steam version. Regardless, any movement is better than none. If all they do is leave this 2.x series more stable then that might be enough. If, however, they wish to continue beyond 2.5 then they’re going to need to do a LOT of work to compete with the likes of Blender and such.
Great news. I haven’t had to model much for a long time but when I occasionally do, Silo always gets fired up. Pure brilliance. I hope they just keep it streamlined and stable. Apps like Modo are an absolute mess, so I hope Nevercentre don’t try to mimic the every-available-option-in-your-face interface. Silo’s strength is its simplicity on the surface, and power under the hood. It enables talented modellers to fly.
Where would you suggest they go with it? What features should a modeling program have that doesn’t seem to aspiring to be a full 3D suite?
I think it would be best to support creation of PBR materials, for interoperability with Eevee, Substance, iClone, etc.
It would be nice to have rigging, something many modeling programs opt to leave to the animation tool. But it would be great to be able to go directly from Silo to UE4/Unity.
And while Silo does have retopology tools, maybe it could use some kind of automatic solution also. I wonder how many programs, if any, have integrated Instant-Meshes’ code?
https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes
My point is pretty simple. When Silo first came out, it was unique. The market wasn’t nearly as crowded. Blender wasn’t the big player that it is today. Nevercenter needs to recognize this going forward.
Where do they go from here without trying to be the next MODO? Good question. My suggestions?
Honestly? There are a LOT of places you can take Silo that never have to leave the modeling arena. As-is, Silo is still largely constrained by its 10 year old v2.0 design and its much older v1.4 (?) ancestor.
Blender really wasn’t a major player 10 years ago. Now it is and it costs $0. Nevercenter has an uphill battle with Silo, especially since it has largely been assumed dead-ish for years now. (Not to mention how insanely unresponsive Nevercenter as a company became after v2.0; Lots of users got or felt burnt by the v2.x experience.)
Ok, there are several really good suggestions there. Honestly, the thing that turned me off of MODO was the price. I’ve heard users say that it had been developed too fast, but had no problem with the animation tools being added, for example. Silo, on the other hand, I did catch on sale a few years ago. So it was nice getting this free upgrade and seeing there’s still some activity going on with it.
But yeah, I suppose my question was really how much can be added to a modeler before the focus on modeling is lost, not so much how many different tools they could pack in before it becomes cluttered/buggy.
I think PBR materials would make sense as they suggest Silo could be used as a model viewer once the trial expires. The only noteworthy model viewer that comes to mind is Marmoset. From here on I will generally expect that quality of viewport from my design tools.
If you’re specifically doing low poly work (100k quad) and don’t mind a few disabled features then MODO Indie is still a much cheaper option. My real complaint regarding MODO has never been the price or even notoriously (well documented) questionable license enforcement. My problem with MODO has always been the cluttered design. I bought the Indie version some time back and, despite my best efforts, found it to be far too clumsy. It made Blender, imo, look downright elegant. 
Back to the topic at hand… Silo. How much can they add before they have to move past modeling? Good question. I think that the bigger question to ask would be, “How long until modeling itself reaches a point of stagnation?” Things might be a little slow in that arena atm, but I don’t think that the developers or math people have even remotely hit the peak of that mountain just yet. So, as long as the state of modeling continues to advance, Silo and other modeling apps will have new material to mine. I don’t think that SIGGRAPH is going to shut down any time soon. 
I terms of how much they can pack in before it becomes too cluttered or buggy… That all depends on them. I reviewed Silo v1.0 some 15 years ago - give or take. TBH, it was a clusterf*** of an app. Buggy and unusable. v1.1 was better and v1.4x was a pure gem.
(I didn’t keep it, but I do vaguely recall getting a somewhat nasty e-mail from Nevercenter back in the day. They did NOT appreciate me pointing out the v1.0 bugs in my product review. LOL)
If Nevercenter can (somehow) use this renewed interest in Silo to actually restore it to its former glory then I have no doubt that the bug issue will once again become a thing of the past. It’s really all about code management, proper testing, and user feedback.
It’s that last part that worries me the most. Nevercenter spent the better part of the past decade ignoring and (at times) even slamming its own user base. For a good while there, they were really unresponsive. Those of you who’ve been around long enough know exactly what I’m talking about. Send a message to Nevercenter… Get ignored. Post a message on a forum… Get ignored… Criticize their lack of response… Get ignored. It was like… They were more than happy to take on new users, but not respond to them. Frustrating.
More frustrating than that, however, was when they dared call v2.3 “stable” and expected users not to laugh. 
As a long time user and holder of multiple licenses, that annoyed me to no end. It’s like, how can you slap a “stable” label onto a beta and call it a day?
sigh
Having said that… I’m honestly and truly very glad that Nevercenter seems to be returning to its roots. I don’t know who’s at the helm of this ship or why, but I’m seeing some very encouraging signs. What has it been? 4 updates in a bit over a month? That’s more than they did in the past 7 years. Like I said, as a user, I’m very pleased. I’ve even reinstalled my copy of Silo.
My only hope is that they don’t lose focus or decide to disrespect users again. That’d be a huge mistake. As long as they keep on listening to customers, those bug and clutter issues can be addressed properly. Stay on the path, Nevercenter.
You have some great suggestions! Even in a crowded, mature market, it is possible to prosper. You have to find:
Several years ago, I made some overtures to them but they weren’t interested, but I have managed and published products like this before. It is hard to compete in such a market, but it can be done. But often you have companies with very small teams, and those team members try to do everything, and not everyone is good at everything.