Spoiler Alert: NO SPOILERS ANYMORE

[FXDude]

since the AD acquisition, is Softimage still seen as a revolutionary 3D app?

Actually it often (still) very much is, but just not because of any new things.


But when Chinny said that SI was 'very mature',

If you look at Photoshop (also very mature.. and also quite unequaled as an app ;] )

but at a certain point, it becomes increasingly difficult to find things to add/change,
and features become more and more superficial or like accessories.

CS6 main features consisted of video editing and 3D tools
and a dark interface (which wouldn't be a bad thing for SI but)

But 'mature software' can typically be 97% the same as quite a few versions back.

I can personally can be quite comfortable in CS3 for what I need,
and even with PS 7 I could manage just fine.


But I very much agree that the more recent new things could have been far more consistent with what people actually wanted..

As you mentioned CrowdFX, and this latest camera sequencer are good examples of main features that no-one asked for,
(without implying those things to be useless or at-all badly implemented)

HQV (or 'viewport love') on the other hand was actually quite frequently and persitantly requested, and which seemingly will have it's main issue adressed which was performance when invoked, with compiled shader caching.


Of course there could always be things that could be added/improved.
(I'm sure we could all think of a bunch of things)

But I think that as it is & has been, to be quite something
(to me because of a bunch of work-FLOW subtleties and little things)

[McNistor]

I'm very curious what will they cover in the 1.5 hours dedicated for Softimage, cam sequencer?
Hopefully, the leaked list is not all there is and we'll be pleasantly surprised.

[luceric]

I believe Version 7 was an important release. With ICE, the goal was to make easier for users to develop custom Tools, in a way that was friendly to artists, not just to coders. That was a clear roadmap.
Now what's the roadmap? Crowds? HQ viewports? That's not a roadmap, just features

ICE wasn't finished in 7.0. After 7.0:
- ICE SDK (2010)
- ICE Kinematics to extend ICE to rigging (2011)
- Lagoa (which of course was made by Thiago and licensed by Autodesk) (2011.5)
- ICE Modeling (2012)
- ICE Crowd (2013) is to extend ICE animation into procedural animation and find some place market where ICE's scalability could benifit solving a problem with its parallelism.

It was always the plan to make ice and build features on it. In fact Crowd was something on Ronald's roadmap since 2007, alongside ICE modeling or ICE Kine.

From V2 to V7, Softimage was adding incredible features that was making a lot buzz in the industry. Now since the AD acquisition, is Softimage still seen as a revolutionary 3D app? I don't think so.
THIS is the problem Luc.

Also, what do you really remember from V2 to V6 that 'revolutionized the industry'. You can remind yourself of what these V2-V7 releases were on wikipedia

[grendizer]

Some of them are not in the list. Just some examples:
- Construction modes. I don't think other general 3d app have something like that.
- Netview, Synoptic view: heavily copied by other apps
- Gator, Motor.
- Tweak component tool: a must have for modeling, I'm not sure Maya and Max have this yet.
- Render region's "memorized renders".
Yes, these are game changing features. When I demonstrated these tools to people who didn't know Softimage, even the contemptuous ones were impressed.

[dfp123]

The two big problems, as I see them, is the subscription system AD has, which forces AD to release a new version every year, whether or not they actually have completed enough work with the program to warrant a full release. Bug fixes are great and much needed, but they should fall into the category of a 'point' release. If it takes more than one year to complete a full software update, then so be it. I would prefer to get the new software releases when they are ready, not because AD dictates that there needs to be a new version every year to justify their subscription pricing. In addition, they should adjust their subscription to renew when a new full version of the software is released. Please stop it already with a new version dated a year ahead (2014, so futuristic).

The second problem is what looks like AD's fractionalizing of Softimage into parts rather than embracing it as a whole application that excels in everything. According to AD's own promotional materials (the Single-Step Interoperability and the Autodesk Workflow), Softimage only lightly touches 'excellence' in the area of Particle Systems, whereas Maya and Max are labeled as 'excellence' in everything. I think Softimage is the most flexible, powerful and user friendly content creation software, especially for the freelance artist and small studios. I fear that AD's promotion of Softimage as an addition to Maya and Max is now stretching into the recent development with new niche features catering to large companies (primarily recently with CrowdFX and the Camera Sequencer).

I had high hopes for this release after reading AD's "the future is bright" message. What is the future? I little honest communication from AD would go a long way. What is the overall game plan for Softimage? Where does AD see the development going in the next 5 years?

[Bellsey]

somebody posted the version 7 list, now that was a feature list.

Not disputing your dissatisfaction, but just to put it in context for other people:

XSI 6.0 was released in 2006, and XSI 7.0 was released in 2008. There were two years between the two releases.
So XSI 7.0 would compare Softimage 2012+Softimage 2012 SAP+Softimage 2013

Also, it was Autodesk that bought Lagoa (Softimage 2011 SAP) and brought Face Robot (Softimage 2011) down to earth.
There were 6 Softimage releases in 4 years.

Yep, and there was 6.5 between them as well, launched at Sigg '07. That was a relatively light release between 6.0 and 7.0.
Many customers also stayed on 5.11, skipped 6.0 and then went current with 6.5

[Kzin]

- Render region's "memorized renders".
Yes, these are game changing features. When I demonstrated these tools to people who didn't know Softimage, even the contemptuous ones were impressed.

especially the render region is outdated like hell. no 32bit support (which results in suprises in render pass renderings), no progressive rendering, no way to change things like gamma, exposure, means, not able to do basic tonemapping. its a good example of developement that stops over the years.
thats a general problem in xsi, you have no amazing features anymore that other packages dont have. passes system would be one example, but nothing that let people buy si because of this.

[Pooby]

thats a general problem in xsi, you have no amazing features anymore that other packages dont have. passes system would be one example, but nothing that let people buy si because of this.

I wouldnt say that.. It has ICE.

[Kzin]

thats a general problem in xsi, you have no amazing features anymore that other packages dont have. passes system would be one example, but nothing that let people buy si because of this.

I wouldnt say that.. It has ICE.

for the moment, yes.

[Lord Futzi Voldemort]

thats a general problem in xsi, you have no amazing features anymore that other packages dont have. passes system would be one example, but nothing that let people buy si because of this.

Almost right. But it is not feature sets that distinguish applications from one another but the overall handling, and there is nothing that can beat Si in this field. If you take houdini, there is almost nothing you can´t do with it, but there is also almost nothing you can do quickly. Ever tried to model in houdini? All the tools are there, but it feels like you are using them with wool gloves on. Just an example.
I worked with almost any other 3d software and there is a reason why I chose XSI (apart from the fact that it wasn´t Autodesk that time).
There is for example no other application where you can configure your UI that easy free and comfortable as in SI. I wonder why so few people make use of that. And there is a lot more that has already been mentioned here.

[adrencg]

The second problem is what looks like AD's fractionalizing of Softimage into parts rather than embracing it as a whole application that excels in everything.

Maybe all the focus on CrowdFX is Autodesk's strategy to sell Softimage to Maya and Max users as a Crowd plugin. I'm half-joking, but you have to wonder why that thing even exists --- and I've seen the leaked list of 2014 features. There was a lot of CrowdFX focus from what I saw.

Regarding AUtodesk's big problem...I got a call from a rep the other day to ask if I was renewing my subscription. I told the nice lady that I'm waiting for the 26th to make up my mind. Autodesk should make my want to renew by giving me something awesome. Getting some old lady who can't pronounce Softimage correctly to bother me about it is just a symptom of your ailment.

In Luxology world, the forums are abuzz with users who are gushing with excitement over the new features of Modo which have been getting leaked slowly until the unveiling of 701 -- which by the way is the day before the Autodesk presentation. I wonder if that was intentional. Anyway, its like a giant collective geekgasm over there, because Luxology sounds like they're listening to their users -- and thinking up some cool tools for use to get our job done faster.

[dfp123]

Yes, the third big problem is the AD resellers. I think we all know what we are buying and have no need for a middle man that eats up costs with no value added.
AD needs to get rid of the reseller and just renew subscriptions online only. Does anyone have any use for the reseller?

[adrencg]

Yes, the third big problem is the AD resellers. I think we all know what we are buying and have no need for a middle man that eats up costs with no value added.
AD needs to get rid of the reseller and just renew subscriptions online only. Does anyone have any use for the reseller?

Now that I think about it, there was a big push from the caller to get me in touch with a re-seller.

[Bellsey]

Yes, the third big problem is the AD resellers. I think we all know what we are buying and have no need for a middle man that eats up costs with no value added.
AD needs to get rid of the reseller and just renew subscriptions online only. Does anyone have any use for the reseller?

Ok, I think you perhaps need to be realistic and practical here. Autodesk conducts alot of its business through its Sales Channel and they're a valuable part of their sales network, and not just for the M&E products either. But of course people can still purchase products via the online store, should they wish too.
It's worth also pointing out, that pre-Autodesk, Softimage also conducted alot of its business via a sales channel and many of those resellers were Autodesk ones as well.

[angus_davidson]

It might only be an educational thing but we need to have re sellers to to be put on our University Vendor system. Its incredibly hard for us to purchase directly from international companies. Part of the why we moved from Maya to SI was because they cocked up our licensing every year religiously. Luckily a few months later when they were bought by ADSK getting the SI licences working wasn't that much of an issue thanks largely to Stephen and of late Graham.

We have also used the re sellers to arrange events to announce product features. We also tend to hear about things like prices hikes and better subscription models for education directly from the re sellers. ADSK as we all know is not very good at the mass communication thing. To some extents that might be because they are so reliant on their re sellers to do that for them. We have been lucky in that because we are still a relatively small community in South Africa there are only a few re sellers country wide and we have very good working relationships with them all. (call me old fashioned but I still believe in the value of building those relationships).

I guess even though I understand the constraints that have been put onto Graham and other ADSK employees I think that it is very wrong the way that they play their cards so close to their chests. I believe for all the money they fear loosing by disclosing where they are going, they are actually going to loose far more in the long run by keeping everyone in the dark.

Its also why I thought having the SIC in London under NDA was such a bad management judgement. They had a very disgruntled userbase, they finally throw us a bone, but its done in a cloud of secrecy that was generally exclusive of anyone that wasn't there. The end result of that was you had a user base which was for the large part now even more alienated. When you have an absence of information decisions are based on perception.

There might have been masses of improvements under the hood (as Luceric correctly points out) but if they are not in a tool / area that is in use by a lot of people the perception is that very little has changed. The follow on from that is the perception that we are not getting value for money , and it ends with people not renewing subscriptions. Whether the perception is right or wrong is immaterial. The end result is the same.

This is why the unfold event for ADSK is now so important. I really hope they realise this.

[azurecgi]

Looks like us Softimage users aren't the only ones getting fed up with paying our subscription for very little return.

Look at the comments on this blog - http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstati ... eek-videos