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Autodesk declares "End of Life" for Softimage

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:46 pm
by AceMastermind
http://www.autodesk.com/products/autode ... e/overview
http://area.autodesk.com/softimagetransition

Softimage users suspected this was going to happen eventually and now it has been confirmed. Its sad to see such things happen, especially to great software like Softimage|XSI. The poor decision making of Autodesk won't affect me since I still use Foundation 5.11 and Mod Tool 7.5 which are still alive and well on my machine.

EDIT
I'm renaming the thread since XSI doesn't die, it'll just fade away. It will still be used for many years or at least until hardware no longer supports it.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 8:21 pm
by Chadaface
Hmm..had to happen at some point.
Well the future of 3D art belongs to digital sculpting anyway

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:27 pm
by minilogoguy18
Chadaface wrote:Hmm..had to happen at some point.
Well the future of 3D art belongs to digital sculpting anyway
You are so wrong especially since those programs have no animation, simulation or composting abilities.

I wanted to see if this community had heard the news, Autodesk will never get my money, I'll use Mod Tool 7.5 and the student version of 2013 for as long as I can.

It's funny looking at feature videos of Maya and things they call "new" are features and tools that Softimage has had before Autodesk even bought it.

Things like this is what stands in the way of progress and innovation, hopefully they release the program for another developer who will care about it.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:07 pm
by Marth8880
So wait, so basically, Source Engine developers are screwed, then? Because isn't Softimage Source's main pipeline or something?

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:10 pm
by minilogoguy18
There are TONS of studios using Softimage primarily or part of a pipeline right now, the most recent SUPER successful work recently would be the LEGO movie.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:12 pm
by Marth8880
Ugh, that really bothers me how they'd abandon it then. Does Maya or 3ds Max have ICE? Probably not. Do either have Face Robot? Maybe, but I don't think so. Do they have CrowdFX or any other awesome Softimage-exclusive features? Don't think so. (Correct me if I'm wrong about any of those, of course.)

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:18 pm
by minilogoguy18
They'll probably integrate them into Maya at some point. If you look at some of the videos on the Autodesk website you'll see that a lot of features from Softimage have already been implemented into Maya. The 3DS Max fan boys don't think that this can also happen to them but that program hasn't been getting much attention from Autodesk lately and they may just be wanting to have a 1 program does it all even though the problem is the HUGE difference in UI and key mapping which is what people will hate most.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:56 pm
by ANDEWEGET
Softimage hasn't been the main Source package for a long time now. Valve internally use Maya(/Modo) and there are way better and more up to date tools for Maya and Max.
minilogoguy18 wrote: Things like this is what stands in the way of progress and innovation, hopefully they release the program for another developer who will care about it.
They won't, XSI was actual competition when they bought it. Now the competition is gone, they don't even have to develop it anymore and probably get quite a few more sales for Max/Maya.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:54 am
by noMatt
ANDEWEGET wrote:Softimage hasn't been the main Source package for a long time now. Valve internally use Maya(/Modo) and there are way better and more up to date tools for Maya and Max.

They won't, XSI was actual competition when they bought it. Now the competition is gone, they don't even have to develop it anymore and probably get quite a few more sales for Max/Maya.
For me its quite easy: softimage is in my opinion DONE. Features that are nescessary for a studio a so easy to add through a script. I dont even see the poin in changing from Softimage 2011 to 2014.
Its the same. Modeling tools are done, rendering tools aswell, animation is way better then in max or maya. So why should the studios change? On the first look the people are annoyed sayin that it was a bad descision by autodesk. But in fact nothing changed. They just keep on not developing Softimage.
Until 2016 they develop fixes an such so until then really NOTHING chaged.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 6:23 am
by DarthD.U.C.K.
Somehow that was expected after autodesk bought them. :( maybe they will incorporate some of the transformation tools from xsi as "new features" into max/maya so that they arent that uncormfortable to use anymore..

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:44 pm
by minilogoguy18
I don't think many people will transition to another Autodesk product, on some Softimage forums they all pretty much hate Autodesk and some have even openly posted completely stopping business with them.

All they did by doing this was lose a lot of customers since Houdini, Modo and Lightwave are moving in by offering deals to every Softimage user like 50% off their product if they currently own a Softimage license.

Autodesk is just a bad company really, I wouldn't support a company that plays monopoly and doesn't care about it's customers.

No one really has to switch though, a lot of tools are still far enough ahead of Maya and Max to just keep using Softimage for a good few years.

https://www.change.org/petitions/autode ... -softimage

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:49 pm
by Chadaface
minilogoguy18 wrote: You are so wrong
I think your being very unreasonable here.

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:23 pm
by Marth8880
Chadaface wrote:I think your being very unreasonable here.
Uhhh, how is minilogoguy being unreasonable? He's completely right; people use sculpting software to create super-high-poly models (>1m triangles) for baking normal maps, etc., not for animation or...really anything (give or take a *few* things) that Softimage/Maya/etc. are made to do. Sculpting's been around for a little while now; it isn't that new, and it certainly isn't "the future."

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:49 pm
by noMatt
you cant create hard surface assets from scratch in those sculpting tools. in zbrush you can create soft surface ones with zspeheres and other methods. this is one of the reasons why traditional modeling techniqes wont ever be replaced by sculpting. sculpting is meant to be for detailing not for asset creation
the only "sculpting" program i know that can model and sculpt is cinema4D

Re: R.I.P. Softimage

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:36 pm
by minilogoguy18
3D coat and Blender are 2 more that I know of that can sculpt but ZBrush is definitely the best since it's the only one that you are not restricted by topology but it's also the reason a real 3d modeler is needed afterwards.

I'm also not being unreasonable, you just seem to be way out of the loop in terms of what a lot of 3d programs can and can't do. Programs like ZBrush are meant to be used in a pipeline where as Softimage can pretty much be used on it's own.