Kzin wrote:looking at the current state of si and bugfixes we have/get, i dont think something big like this would make it on their list.
it would introduce much more bugs which have to be fixed, that makes it impossible to fix current ones.
These bugs I'm talking about ARE current ones. They block plugin writers to do a thorough job.
First, there's the problem being that the SDK is not fully fit for any kind of topology operator, and that means polygons, too!
If this was working, you can happily do curves as well.
This was actually considered to be done by the old dev-team, As Luc-Eric mentioned. It probably would engage one dev for a full cycle, give or take, but it is as important as it is overdue.
Because the sorry matter of fact is that Softimage is not really customizable, operator-wise, and that is a HUGE drawback, especially in the current situation - the developers are too swamped to add any operators (of whatever kind), but 3rd parties cannot do so because the SDK sucks, so we're stuck, NURBS or not.
Max and Maya are much, much more open in that regard.
Second, there's a bug that shows up when you increase the number of subcurves in a custom op - the new ones will be unselectable until you freeze.
The exact same bug existed for polymesh points also. I reported both, and the poly bug was fixed almost immediately...
Why was the other one not fixed as well in one go? Everybody hears NURBS and runs screaming.
There are a few other minor ones, which I expect to be simple to fix, like wrong COGs for subcurves and such stuff.
So, do you relate to ICE NURBS when you fear more bugs?
Well, when ICE Modeling was added, was it particularly buggy in the beginning?
The foundation of ICE NURBS would mean adding a "Set NURBS Topology" node, and various attributes, like subcurve/subsurface index etc.
The plethora of compounds that actually mess with the NURBS data can then comfortably added bit-by-bit, also by the community.
It would open up the doors for really cool parametric modeling tools, like there continue to pop up for Blender(!)...
Kzin wrote:so you have the option to support a new big feature and fix it several releases until its working and meanwhile, the old bugs stay in the software and the related parts are not working.
OR, except that the industry changed to polygon modeling, which includes the decision that xsi will be a polymodeller in early dev days (as it was clear that xsi cant be feature rich like planed by devstart) and let increase the chance for fixing actual bugs. i prefer the second one, from my pov, nurbs are dead, it would make no sense to invest alot of dev time into this.
Nobody's asking Softimage to become a second Rhino. That's out of question, don't worry.
Rhino, by the way, is used heavily in architecture and design companies. I heard from a friend that works at Herzog & DeMeuron that they have about 250 seats of Rhino and ACAD.
What if you ever get NURBS data from companies like those?
NURBS are not "dead". That's nonsense, sorry. But let's not throw curves and surfaces in the same basket for a moment.
How can curves, which represent 2D-geometry, be dead? Are ICE strands dead?
Did you ever extrude any curve shape? Maybe not, because working with them is so stupidly and inconsistently implemented in Softimage.
If you happen to know 3ds Max, you will know that deriving polygons from Bezier-splines (a subset of NURBS) are a reliable and practical workflow you do not want to miss once you are used to it. You can start off building shapes of all kinds using curves, then extrude (or sweep, for better corners) them, and continue on the polygons.
What you probably mean, then, is that NURBS are not used for character modeling. That's true, yet not for rigging purposes, because they have the big advantage of being parametric. You can position anything on them with UV coordinates. Have fun letting anything slide along a complex polygon surface...
Regarding fixes of existing NURBS tools: it's pretty trivial to add subcurve/subsurface support. I know because I put that into my curvetools addon.
One thing at the moment is, that the devs that created those tools are not around anymore at Autodesk, and the new guys fear a can of worms or something. Pity, because the stuff I wrote wasn't really that complicated. Cut/weld/offset... if I can do this, the professionals can in a fraction of the time.
And they actually wouldn't need to, was there a proper SDK - or ICE NURBS.