Softimage2014?

[Bullit]

Better viewport and shader support in the viewport has always been one of the top requests for Softimage, from previz to games, whether for shading accuracy or scalability, both of which viewport 2.0 brings.

If the market says i don't argue with it, but like you say it must be a thing done well and that improves the user work. Not just some pretending.

[Maximus]

No matter what people say, they will always spend 95% of time and dev into ICE.
I've been telling this since it came out and now we are assisting to the results. We still have incredible problems with render engine, performance, viewport, user interface, UV tools, modeling tools, Nurbs, and the list goes on.

All those things that makes an application valid at 360°, all of them were completely overlook in those years for ICE benefit and developing.
And things aint going to change.

[McNistor]

In Max and Maya, this isn't just used for marketing; almost all the big studios are using opengl for layouts and lighting setup, and everyone is using it in previz.

I'm sorry, but I think this is a reversed causality. I believe they're using it because it's available rather than it's available because they needed it.
Tons of work has been done before viewports got the "eye-candy" status. I can think of a big number of animated feature films straight from the top of my head.
Having a viewport that helps you at placing lights in the scene will spare you of a few render tests. (a few out of tens or hundreds) and perhaps helps you making a screen capture to show to a client. Not vital if you ask me.

There's no end product (afaik) that's distributed with the "looks" taken directly out of viewport, but as rendered images/movies or models to be used in game engines.
A viewport that can display quality shadows, AO, etc. is nice but very unimportant compared to how well a viewport handles massive quantities of geometry performance wise and that is where I'd like to see some effort put in.

[Bullit]

I know a firm on 3ds Max that even in some architectural work they run away from realistic viewport and viewport shadows.
Btw 3ds Max viewport is DirectX not OpenGL.

[gaboraa]

No matter what people say, they will always spend 95% of time and dev into ICE.
I've been telling this since it came out and now we are assisting to the results. We still have incredible problems with render engine, performance, viewport, user interface, UV tools, modeling tools, Nurbs, and the list goes on.

I second all these you just said and think that if those areas would be touched It could mean Softimage is still alive and not a sidekick to Maya. I hope nurbs, modelling and Uv editor parts of the software will be touched in the next release(s)

[ace63]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

[Maximus]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

People who are in design? Not everyone model monsters and werewolves.

[McNistor]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

People who are in design? Not everyone model monsters and werewolves.

No need to get angry now
People who do design - "serious" industrial design - choose to use other NURBS software, like AliasST or Rhino or who knows what else, not Softimage.
In any other case (product viz and arch-viz), I don't see any reason to go with NURBS even if you don't do monsters.

Why would you want to build a car or design a phone for visualization purposes using NURBS since there's no need for perfect surfaces?
NURBS have a place in the modeling world and in my opinion their place is not in software like Softimage which is a M&A oriented software.
The trend (or the hope of a trend) in M&A is voxels, millions of poly, vector displacement, etc. all of which is step further away from NURBS.

Seriously, out of all the tools that Softimage needs improved or simply added, CAD like features would be the last of them.

[csaez]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

It's not just about modeling, nurbs are really usefull in a lot of rigging situations.

[Hirazi Blue]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

That's an interesting twist to the way our "upcoming release" threads normally play out:
suggesting Softimage can cut something from the software.

But be careful what you wish for:
once they start cutting every feature they've given up on from the software,
you'll never know what we'll end up with...


edit: replaced smiley to highlight the less serious nature of my remark

[Bullit]

I rather have Autodesk T-splines (they bought it) in Softimage.

Having the integration of Nurbs and Subds is the better modeling tool.

[gaboraa]

I don't use nurbs for design or vis either I use them for hairs, mesh projection and rigging. I know Nurbs modeling are old compared to polygon modeling but every app needs them

[Maximus]

Seriously who is using Nurbs? I mean it would be no problem to most of the userbase if they just cut them out alltogether.

People who are in design? Not everyone model monsters and werewolves.

No need to get angry now
People who do design - "serious" industrial design - choose to use other NURBS software, like AliasST or Rhino or who knows what else, not Softimage.
In any other case (product viz and arch-viz), I don't see any reason to go with NURBS even if you don't do monsters.

Why would you want to build a car or design a phone for visualization purposes using NURBS since there's no need for perfect surfaces?
NURBS have a place in the modeling world and in my opinion their place is not in software like Softimage which is a M&A oriented software.
The trend (or the hope of a trend) in M&A is voxels, millions of poly, vector displacement, etc. all of which is step further away from NURBS.

Seriously, out of all the tools that Softimage needs improved or simply added, CAD like features would be the last of them.

Let me tell you something.
The fact that someone use them and someone doesnt is not enough to cut out a tool that has been in the software since start, and that people actually use.

Your logic is quite flawed, an example of this is Maya, it has a more robust and powerful Nurbs tools, what is the Maya market? So based on your logic no one uses Nurbs in maya, no one should adopt maya if not for film and vfx? There are more studios that use Maya for visualization, commercial, design than those that use it for film and VFX.

This is always the same, this is the reason why all the departments that are not ICE are completely falling behind in Softimage.
So based on this logic why would you need UV and Texturing? Go buy Mudbox.
And then people cry cause mental ray is not well integrated, cause pack UV is not working, because Modeling tools are not par to the current standard even against free packages like blender, cause hair doesnt get updated, and the list goes on and on and on.

my 2.54 cents.

i'm not angry, i'm just starting to see a software i spent years and money not being developed like it was so its forcing me to look for alternative year after year.

[McNistor]

Sure, removing NURBS is a bad idea but what is needed for rigging I think it's already available.

Edit:
Maya has NURBS since Alias times. I don't think much improvements have been made since then - not sure though, maybe someone that knows better car correct me or confirm.
NURBS are not used anymore in M&E industry except in a very few cases.
As far as UVs and texturing goes, Mudbox doesn't do UV unwrapping (at least not for the moment) and XSI doesn't do texture painting so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
Poly modeling is (IMO) very strong in xSI and on par with many apps (better if you ask me).

[Ahmidou]

No matter what people say, they will always spend 95% of time and dev into ICE.

no offense, but that's totally wrong, most of the ICE updates involed less people than you might think.
Crowed-FX in 2013 was almost done by Guillaume Laforge alone, and they were something like 2 on ICE modeling...

[nuverian]

So that makes 3 people in total working on SI for the last releases?

(I had to tell this sorry. Found it funny)