Lord Futzi Voldemort wrote:
.. I more and more get the impression this whole fuzz is not about features, fixes or anything like that, but about softimage and it´s users getting enough attention.
I think you put your finger right on it.
But I also think that, although perhaps still not on an "equal footing",
*public outspoken recognition* or acknoledgement (however inexpensive),
is what SI needed most, (way) above any feature they might have come up with.
And was the single biggest thing that put it's very (or the quality of it's) forthcoming existance in question.
Also, there is now a long time SI user as a product designer,
and a PM who apart from looking like a nice guy, seems to be open-minded, able to face critisism & be quite approachable,
and (without knowing his background) seems to have some interest, and be quite familiar with SI and the community.
And has (at least verbally) proved to not be completely indifferent,
and has actually introduced himself here (Hi and welcome Daniel! :] )
While without necessarily needing to have daily posts,
I would hope his presence would not be limited to his introduction.
Nevertheless, he seems to at least come check-out the pulse every now and then.
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For the Product Page,
Overall the videos are informative and well explained
yet can be on the long side for product page videos or could have been more like overviews.
And obviously, the HQV could have been shown in a much (much!) better light.
The new shader caching wasn't at all mentioned, which really should be a big thing.
(normally, caching should greatly reduce or eliminate lag when switching back to it after the first time)
Switching to the HQV previously took quite a bit of time (the first time & every time)
And I don't know what system was used to make the demo,
but it looked like 2-3 seconds per frame, while I know it can do much much better
even on a very regular system (2013).
Also overall in all new videos, more efforts could have been made on making scenes more optimal
and perhaps more (or at least some) efforts at could have been invested at basically making them nicer looking,
even if it involved actually hiring external artists.
Knowing it's possible to make pretty good looking environment & props even without too much fancy shading going.
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For the new general branding, although I think they may have gone a fit far towards consistency,
( I personally would have vouched for each product's (original) logos to have been made of folded paper
as opposed to their first letters as logos)
But still I think they did a good job, and find everything generally quite nice looking.
And the typeface (consistant across all products)
just so happens to make "SOFTIMAGE" look like a retro version of the original logo (lol)
BUT! For the Softimage 'S' Origami ...
while I don't think it's so bad,
it doesn't strike me as being super refined or otherwise very "cool" looking.
Perhaps because I'm more difficult for the SI logo as an SI user..
yet I also find the same issue with the the Gameware 'G'.
It strikes me as looking somewhat "clunky".. the main lines and tone intensities don't really seem to "flow" or seems to lack cohesion,
either on it's own, OR compared to some of the other origami Logos.
I think it's that.. it doesn't look like folded backlit cellophane paper,
but like "broken", or like it's made of 2 (independent) overlapping pieces of geometry
as opposed to one piece forming a single shape.
But I dunno.
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For the dilemma of "to subscribe, or not to subscribe", it can indeed be quite a dilemma!
And most points that have been made in favor of terminating subscription AND in favor of NOT, were all quite valid.
Actually not renewing would be understandable given how thin this version (or previous ones, not unlike other products)
has been feature wise (for the money, while subscription not necessarily being all about features for everyone)
Also considering how the bug fix list, which was quite extensive, isn't the kind of thing that should come with a price tag.
(without making abstraction of the work involved)
Yet in light of an (actually) brighter looking general outlook despite that,
a, lets say "mass exidous" might not be the best thing..
(even though .. had the unfold not have any positive aspects,
a "mass exidous" [along with a well articulated petition] might have been a good thing,
Despite the risk of resulting in the exact opposite of a positive effect,
given how it was [unsurprisingly] overwhelmingly unanimous that it was to keep using the last version
(or something else in many cases)
meaning; while not switching to either Maya, 3DSM, Autocad, Revit or any other AD product.)
But all in all, for me I'm mostly happy (if not somewhat relieved) about SI having been (reasonably/openly) considered.
;;)
..
