Autodesk retires Softimage

[Pancho]

Fuck Autodesk

Well spoken!

[ThomasHelzle]

There are two kinds of companies in the world.

One kind tries to do all they can to help customers do their work. If a hard decision has to be made, they make every effort to ease the pain as much as possible. It would cost such a company nothing to set Softimage free for existing customers, allow them to use all versions they ever had and let them keep it while offering a transition to the alternatives. Maybe even give them a little extra on top.

Then there are companies like AD. They make every error in the book of positive customer relations. Not only kill the - for many - best software they have (for CG), but make you lose Softimage if you want/have to transition to Max or Maya. So a freelancer who needs to keep Softimage to be able to access former projects has to re-buy from scratch.

Yes, you can build an empire on brute force.
And of course you can make a lot of money from customers who basically hate you.
Fear is a mighty weapon...

I personally chose to work on smaller jobs with smaller tools from developers who respect their customers.

Good luck everybody!

Cheers,

Tom

[ThomasHelzle]

I'm not so sure, Max is one of Autodesk’s top products, so there are no plans to discontinue it. If you look, it's in every one of the Suites that Autodesk offers.
Though I've never been a big user of Max, it's always had this broad appeal across different industries and that's likely to continue.

While I have all due respect for every fellow human on a personal, private level, I think it would be a good idea if you would just silently leave the room for a while and spare the mourners your presence as a corporate mouth.

At the moment each time I read your name, I have to think of the Monty Pythons:

"What's brown and sounds like a bell(sey)? Dung!"

Dismissed!

Cheers,

Tom

[Kzin]

If they had put even a small amount of effort into showing what an amazing piece of software Softimage is it would have become a real competitor to Max and Maya, but of course that's not what the suits at Autodesk wanted.

not to mention that a competitor in your own company makes no sense, but have you ever worked with other software and people using other software?
alot of max and maya users having the same attitude like most si users. they would not changed and did not, as we all know.

not to mention that si was never a bestseller. there was a reason why avid gave it away for such a price.


i dont understand why all the energy now on bashing ad comes that late and not as ad aquired si with input to the devs on how it can go further.
have you all thought si will be the next maya or max under ad?

[Dwindleflip]

But Autodesk gave us High Quality Viewport mode...

Fuck Autodesk.

[McNistor]

Let's get real. Neither Modo nor Lightwave are an alternative to SI. NOT -AT - ALL!

Modo is a nice modeling application. But I would never use it for animation nor particle FX. And LW? Same Modeler for 12 years at least. And for the rest, forget.

Moving over to Maya seems to be a good idea for those who are eager to ride dead horses. Very good decision.

Currently FE seems to be only way out. But what is it at this point and where will it be in 2 years time? For those who actually work with SI it'll be still a good and valuable programm in 2 years time. Till then hopefully something other pops up. But spending thousend of hours to bend my head around a shitty software from a company which is dead in terms of inspiration and new visions is a total no go! Only because a software still gets updates doesn't mean it isn't already dead.

Photoshop is dead for at least a dozen of years, but a lot of people don't seem to notice and still use it....

Why no mention of Houdini? It's expensive but it also has lower tier options. Not to mention powerful as a truck. Modeling sucks big time tho, which might change in the future and from what I'm reading on their forums, I say most likely it will improve.

edit: I forgot to mention (something that I won't get a beating for hopefully) but FE "suffers" from the same condition Mudbox (and many others) had when it was at Skymatter. If Autodesk will lay their eyes on it, an impossible to refuse offer might be made.

[angus_davidson]

Let's get real. Neither Modo nor Lightwave are an alternative to SI. NOT -AT - ALL!

Modo is a nice modeling application. But I would never use it for animation nor particle FX. And LW? Same Modeler for 12 years at least. And for the rest, forget.

Moving over to Maya seems to be a good idea for those who are eager to ride dead horses. Very good decision.

Currently FE seems to be only way out. But what is it at this point and where will it be in 2 years time? For those who actually work with SI it'll be still a good and valuable programm in 2 years time. Till then hopefully something other pops up. But spending thousend of hours to bend my head around a shitty software from a company which is dead in terms of inspiration and new visions is a total no go! Only because a software still gets updates doesn't mean it isn't already dead.

Photoshop is dead for at least a dozen of years, but a lot of people don't seem to notice and still use it....

Why no mention of Houdini? It's expensive but it also has lower tier options. Not to mention powerful as a truck. Modeling sucks big time tho, which might change in the future and from what I'm reading on their forums, I say most likely it will improve.

edit: I forgot to mention (something that I won't get a beating for hopefully) but FE "suffers" from the same condition Mudbox (and many others) had when it was at Skymatter. If Autodesk will lay their eyes on it, an impossible to refuse offer might be made.

From the Poll from the SI mailing list it seems firmly in favour of a modo / houdini combo. Maya is only on 16% currently. Will be interesting to see how an influx of Softimage users will shape those packages futures

[Shredder565]

I wonder if the AD execs are having that butt quenching feeling with all the online hate directed at them, or if they hardly care?

[angus_davidson]

I wonder if the AD execs are having that butt quenching feeling with all the online hate directed at them, or if they hardly care?

Unlikely. I mostly feel for the folks caught in the middle though. The only thing I have enjoyed is seeing the pretty much universal refusal to migrate to Maya.

[duveil]

I have been using si for the last ten years.it is a great 3D App but also the community is great..If AD cares about si users they should release it.I believe that this community is capable of taking care of an open source xsi.

[azurecgi]

I wonder if the AD execs are having that butt quenching feeling with all the online hate directed at them, or if they hardly care?

Unlikely. I mostly feel for the folks caught in the middle though. The only thing I have enjoyed is seeing the pretty much universal refusal to migrate to Maya.

I've ignored Maya up until now as I've heard nothing good about it, but following this news and the 'transition deal' we are being pushed into, I thought I'd look again....

.... oh dear! From what I can see it's a very old, quite basic 3D animation software with a very open SDK! That's about it. How the hell did this become the leading package in terms of installed seats and education?

[angus_davidson]

Sadly marketing and reality seldom coincide. Its a lot better since the QT update but still a long way from Softimage ease of use. The only thing it has going is its ability to be integrated into just about anything.

[c@mesigue]

I am the author of XSILOUNGE former, since the purchase of Softimage I've always said that eventually would XSI sacrificed to the glory of God ... AUTODESK
Of course, I signed the petition, but for what purpose? ...
The company had an ethical Softimage was a way of life, Autodesk has killed the mother and now want to sacrifice the baby!
I do not know how to express my hatred for Autodesk, Autodesk otherwise putting on my black list of my suppliers ... Why would he gain gains murder?

Google translation

Gilles

[Maximus]

If you dont upgrade ur subscription to maya/max, then you can still use softimage for rigging/animate and maybe add modo/houdini if you need.
I just cant understand the slap in the face AD gave to customers deciding to force you to switch to maya or max. They could have kept SI alive lowering the yearly subscription, enter a bugfix mode, pay 2 bugfix developers and that was it.

Would have been an income. Anyway F* it. No longer money to Autodesk from my side. They cant be trust.

p.s. bottom line is i think they arent selling anything, maya/max arent really doing well which is good. Hope for competition to come out with some amazing tool meaningwhile i seriously hope AD keep losing money, they deserve it.

[KLONOA WORKS]

If you dont upgrade ur subscription to maya/max, then you can still use softimage for rigging/animate and maybe add modo/houdini if you need.
I just cant understand the slap in the face AD gave to customers deciding to force you to switch to maya or max. They could have kept SI alive lowering the yearly subscription, enter a bugfix mode, pay 2 bugfix developers and that was it.

Would have been an income. Anyway F* it. No longer money to Autodesk from my side. They cant be trust.

p.s. bottom line is i think they arent selling anything, maya/max arent really doing well which is good. Hope for competition to come out with some amazing tool meaningwhile i seriously hope AD keep losing money, they deserve it.

" As of March 28, 2014, customers will no longer be able to purchase new standalone licenses"

just to be clear, can I purchase softimage in the future ? I am using the student version.

[angus_davidson]

If you dont upgrade ur subscription to maya/max, then you can still use softimage for rigging/animate and maybe add modo/houdini if you need.
I just cant understand the slap in the face AD gave to customers deciding to force you to switch to maya or max. They could have kept SI alive lowering the yearly subscription, enter a bugfix mode, pay 2 bugfix developers and that was it.

Would have been an income. Anyway F* it. No longer money to Autodesk from my side. They cant be trust.

p.s. bottom line is i think they arent selling anything, maya/max arent really doing well which is good. Hope for competition to come out with some amazing tool meaningwhile i seriously hope AD keep losing money, they deserve it.

" As of March 28, 2014, customers will no longer be able to purchase new standalone licenses"

just to be clear, can I purchase softimage in the future ? I am using the student version.

I could be wrong but as far as I know , no.