Softimage2014?

[angus_davidson]

I think the last time we taught nurbs was 8 years ago. I am pretty sure they are stil used in more design areas , but they havent been around for us for a while ;)

I think there is a great many things they can focus on.

1) Make what you currently have work properly. There are so many QOL things you can easily implement.
2) Si feels very bloated and sluggish at the moment to me. (this is on new installs) Compared to other 3D apps.
3) Some kind of ability to set your main UI color schemes. Gray just kills the soul after a while.
4) SVN or Mecurial integration as an option would be a godsend for those of us not working in production companies.
5) Work with ATI and NVIDIA and get decent drivers optimsed directly for SI
6) Spend some time updating inport and export for non fbx formats. (assuming fbx will be updated all the time)
7) Change the shortcut to Face robot to something that requires at least 4 fingers. 8 if its the educational version!

Kind regards

Angus

[ace63]

Guys I was not suggesting to remove Nurbs - I simply wanted to point out how unimportant changes in this area are. There is so much more important stuff that needs updating right now.

[angus_davidson]

Guys I was not suggesting to remove Nurbs - I simply wanted to point out how unimportant changes in this area are. There is so much more important stuff that needs updating right now.

\

I think its more a fact of pointing out how little they are used , then asking for their removal. A case of getting the SI dev team to focus on things that are in use everyday as you pointed out ;)

[gaboraa]

Anyways lets forget about Nurbs we have more serious things at hand to be fixed like file referencing and slow down issues when there are lots of objects in the scene. Also gear like modular rigging suit would be awesome. And I second that we should have a flexible dark UI.

[McNistor]

It amuses and saddens me in the same time that we're making splashes around here while some guy/gal at Autodesk that probably never has and never will use Softimage makes all the decisions about the direction the Software has to take. Then it falls on the Product Manager's shoulders to make it happen best way he knows and what we're saying here hardly matters if at all.

[EricTRocks]

It amuses and saddens me in the same time that we're making splashes around here while some guy/gal at Autodesk that probably never has and never will use Softimage makes all the decisions about the direction the Software has to take. Then it falls on the Product Manager's shoulders to make it happen best way he knows and what we're saying here hardly matters if at all.

This entirely inaccurate.

[McNistor]

It amuses and saddens me in the same time that we're making splashes around here while some guy/gal at Autodesk that probably never has and never will use Softimage makes all the decisions about the direction the Software has to take. Then it falls on the Product Manager's shoulders to make it happen best way he knows and what we're saying here hardly matters if at all.

This entirely inaccurate.

OK.

[Hirazi Blue]

As far as I can tell, McNistor’s statement isn’t 100% accurate, but it isn’t 100% inaccurate either. The “guy/gal” he talks about isn’t a level above the product manager, technically it is the product manager himself, who needn’t ever have opened the software before deciding upon its roadmap.

Taking luceric’s word for it…

The PM at autodesk makes the road map, based on various inputs and customer visits (with people from the dev team). That ends up being high level bullet points per release. Then it's up to the development team to flesh out all of that into actual features. Technically the PM doesn't have to have ever opened the app, but obviously that can better. But it can also be a bit bad because it could lead a PM to focus on what he wants instead of what the customer is actually saying. PM mostly spend their times in excel and legal documents, it's more of a business management job at Autodesk.

(Quoted from here)

[EricTRocks]

Well yeah, saying that someone above the Product Manager is making the road map is inaccurate. The Product Manager and Product Designer do that and take input from various sources as stated in your quote. Those various sources could be studio visits but also could be threads on the forums like this where users share their frustrations on issues that need fixing.

[McNistor]

Ah, I see now why I was misunderstood - definitely my bad choice of words.
With "it falls on the Product Manager's shoulders to make it happen best way he knows" I was basically referring to a road-map. What the guys and gals above the P.M. decide are general strategies, like "we need to have X product well integrated into suits and it has to make sense", a stage to which I'm sure P.Ms also participate (well, I'm not actually sure, but it would make sense) but they're hardly the decision makers.

Anyway, never mind who decides what at Autodesk. Point is that only the big studios and Autodesk strategy have a say in what will Softiamge look like.
I think I'm 100% accurate with this one.

[Falam]

Ah, I see now why I was misunderstood - definitely my bad choice of words.
With "it falls on the Product Manager's shoulders to make it happen best way he knows" I was basically referring to a road-map. What the guys and gals above the P.M. decide are general strategies, like "we need to have X product well integrated into suits and it has to make sense", a stage to which I'm sure P.Ms also participate (well, I'm not actually sure, but it would make sense) but they're hardly the decision makers.

Anyway, never mind who decides what at Autodesk. Point is that only the big studios and Autodesk strategy have a say in what will Softiamge look like.
I think I'm 100% accurate with this one.

I agree with you, because thinking like a PM is very linear and your statement is well put.

[McNistor]

[...]your statement is well put.

I wouldn't go that far. Or maybe my sarcasmometer is broken!?
The only positive thing about what I've said is the fact that it's true.

[Hirazi Blue]

Point is that only the big studios and Autodesk strategy have a say in what will Softiamge look like.

One reads this a lot: "big studios" using Softimage influencing the decisions made for the Softimage roadmap. What "big studios" are these, the ones still desperately clinging to Softimage as their main application? From the admittedly little information we all get, it seems safe to say, Softimage is primarily used as a pipeline tool - understandably so, as that's how Autodesk has been marketing it - often for its rigging and animation toolset. Crowd simulation, for instance, wouldn't seem high on anyone's priority list, as there are several tools a mixed pipeline could access to do just the same. But the "big studios" obviously disagree...
;)

[Maximus]

This year beta testing was widely open to everyone, you guys should have all joined and helped with suggestions and improvements

[Hirazi Blue]

While that would appear to be a fair and clever point, I don't think it really is. Not participating (for whatever reason!) in the beta shouldn't disqualify you from voicing an opinion in my book. And I seriously doubt beta testers have any significant direct impact on the larger roadmap anyway, as that would be fixed beforehand. They will be heard better than any opinion that's voiced on our little shunned community, it's true, but the real roadmap is different story, I would think.
;)

[Maximus]

While that would appear to be a fair and clever point, I don't think it really is. Not participating (for whatever reason!) in the beta shouldn't disqualify you from voicing an opinion in my book.
And I seriously doubt beta testers have any significant direct impact on the larger roadmap anyway, as that would be fixed beforehand. They will be heard better than any opinion that's voiced on our little shunned community, it's true, but the real roadmap is different story, I would think.
;)

I didnt disqualify anyone from voicing an opinion, where did I say that?
Also beta testers have significant direct impact on what they do. If all people in beta hammer and ask for a feature or some particular bug fix they listen and they try to work for it, that is so far how its going. The problem might be that there arent enough people asking some particular thing, hence why its not get implemented or fixed.

Thats why I said, the more people join and push to help them, the better it is for everyone. This is inside our boundaries of whats possible to do, even if sometimes is not enough.
But I myself switched from "complaining" only to a more active role, joining beta and trying to get things done.
So i encourage people to do this next time.

I still complain tho