Thank you for correcting me and pointing that out. Lightwave was used in many 
productions, like  "The Force Awakens" in  2015 and many more.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Moore
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 9:28 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
Subject: Re: Getting close to a 3 year old EOL annyversary

 

I just wanted to say that it's more likely that AD revives XSI, than Newtek 
will gain substantial grounds with Lightwave. :)

 

That's maybe a little unfair to lil' old Lightwave considering XSI is not only 
dead but long since become one with the daisies. Lightwave to it's credit still 
draws breath and I'd be pretty proud of being behind the DCC that was the 
primary technology used on so many well known FX driven TV shows through the 
nineties and noughties. Surely you reached that part of the wiki page to read 
the roll call.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightWave_3D

 

On 1 March 2017 at 19:42, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de> wrote:

I just wanted to say that it's more likely that AD revives XSI, than Newtek 
will gain substantial grounds with Lightwave. :)
Personally, I would like to see Lightwave raise from the dead even I never 
worked with it. The first time I heard of it was ,when its was called a "video 
toaster addon" for the amiga system and the last time was when it was used on 
Seaquest. There was more, as I just found out on Wikipedia.
I honour the work Newtek put into it. But it didn't play a mayor role in the 
business it was targeted for. Even 10 years ago.

 

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Moore
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 8:12 PM


To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
Subject: Re: Getting close to a 3 year old EOL annyversary

 

..talk about intuition

;) 

 

On 1 March 2017 at 19:09, Olivier Jeannel <facialdel...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey I loved Lightwave ! I made incredible stuff all alone with it  back in the 
days (incredible at my level, of course)

I just quited it,  I knew it would soon die or not evolve much (the separated 
modeler and animation layout).

I had the strong feeling that investing in XSI was the definitive next move.

..talk about intuition

 

2017-03-01 18:56 GMT+01:00 Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de>:

Talking about the undead…it's not impossible AD will revive Softimage. Ok, very 
unlikely looking at ADs policy when a software was killed, it's killed. When 
Houdini grows even stronger and the whole procedural approach will simply not 
work inside Maya or Max for whatever reason in the long term, they potentially 
have the technology to compete with Houdini and a software that (ex-) Maya or 
Max costumers would accept more easily because of its combination of 
proceduralism and the "intuitive" way of working. Aka the old way, like you 
know…max and maya works.

 

 

From:  <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: 
<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Moore
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 6:34 PM


To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
Subject: Re: Getting close to a 3 year old EOL annyversary

 

I agree a return of Lightwave isn't the most probable thing to happen but 
Newtek still have a lot of customers in broadcast sector in the US. They have 
the funding through the rest of their business that they've been able to allow 
the rewrite to take forever and a day; and there's enough customers outside of 
the hobbyist market that are looking for an alternative to the Autodesk rental 
monopoly that will never take to a technical procedural toolset like Houdini's.

 

Market disrupters don't always come from the most obvious of places and 
sometimes they rise from the dead. ;)

 

I'm not suggesting I like Lightwave, just that a resurgent Lightwave could as 
an outside bet, become a serious alternative for those that refuse to hold 
their nose and pay Autodesk too much for too little.

 

On 1 March 2017 at 17:18, Sven Constable <sixsi_l...@imagefront.de> wrote:

Was thinking the same. Didn't they rewrite the core since five years at least? 
Giving the very low price tag of Lightwave (last time I checked it was couple 
hundred bucks) and the tiny user base which is probably 50% hobbyists, I find 
it hard to believe they will get the money to finish that task.

 

From:  <mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto: 
<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> 
softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Olivier Jeannel
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2017 5:55 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List.  
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list> 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list

Subject: Re: Getting close to a 3 year old EOL annyversary

 

Ligjtwave returns ? Seriously ?

 

2017-03-01 16:44 GMT+01:00 Jonathan Moore <jonathan.moo...@gmail.com>:

I think disrupters still exist in the marketplace. You just have to look at the 
success of Allegorithmic. They've built tools for the major gaming studios by 
leveraging the consumer marketplace as their largest profit centre. Their $20 a 
month offer has well in excess of 100k subscribers and this in turn has given 
them the funds to rapidly develop their product portfolio. Substance Painter 
has seriously eaten into Mari's base, and that's without UDIM capabilities. 

 

The smart thing about the Substance business model is that it's managed to 
permeate into all the 3d sub-sectors - it's integrated in VFX, media, 
architectural & design product offerings as well as it's core gaming sector 
ones.

 

And this may sound crazy, but I wouldn't write Lightwave off either. They're 
just about to launch their long awaited rewrite 'Lightwave Next' offer and 
there's a legion of ex Lightwave customers in Modo-land looking for an excuse 
to jump back in 'all is forgiven' style. If Lightwave deliver with a rewritten 
core that takes advantage a parallel processing world and maintain a price 
point around the $1k mark they might have something to build on.

 

10 years ago I don't think that anybody would have predicted that SideFX would 
be a leading games pipeline DCC tool in 2017, and would be pursuing a more 
generalist non VFX customer with a focus on direct modelling, rigging and 
animation. The great thing about this industry is it's constant ability to 
challenge convention.

 

On 1 March 2017 at 15:13, Matt Lind <speye...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Likewise, if you had asked me back in 1997 if Maya would still be around and
the dominant player in 2017, I would have said no, and also,"god I hope not"
(come to think of it, that may have actually happened).  Anyway, it's 2017
and here we are.

What's more realistic these days is the ol' Indiana Jones swap out the gold
monkey head for a bag of sand trick.  Instead of introducing new products
built from scratch, we're seeing incremental updates that shift an existing
product over to whatever it was supposed to be.  It takes more energy and
time to do that, but it's a safer bet in the business space.  There's more
to new product than the technology - there's also sales concerns.  You have
to create a brand, educate the consumer, develop sales channels, etc... Even
if the product is done right, there's no guarantee it will sell as we've
seen with Softimage, Nichimen, Matador, and other quality products.

What I would like to see more of is improvement in the individual user
experience to be able to run with a creative idea and be able to bring it to
fruition uninhibited.  It seems like that aspect of user workflow has been
lost.  While today's software is vastly improved, more scalable,
customizable, team oriented, etc...there are so many extra layers just to
get started that I found it a big turn off to do personal work anymore.

While recently going through some old stuff, I came across my first demo
reel which I created using Softimage Creative Environment 2.62 in the early
90s.  As I watched it I remembered the effort it took back then and started
to think about how much time it would take to do that same project today.
While the rendering would absolutely be faster (practically real time), the
manually labor intensive operations such as setting key frames really
haven't changed.  In other words, the project would take about the same
amount of time.  Frankly, while I've had ideas I've wanted to pursue, the
thought of using current tools became a deterrent as they don't feel
natural.  Today's tools are not inspiring as they require a certain
controlled mindset just to be able to function in un-intuitive ways, and
that mindset is in conflict with being creative where ideas just need to
flow.

I would like to see another Daniel Langlois type where inspiration to create
drives the improvement of the tools, not engineering bravado.

Matt


Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2017 14:19:24 +0000
From: Andy Nicholas <a...@andynicholas.com>
Subject: Re: Getting close to a 3 year old EOL annyversary

>the risk vs. reward proposition doesn't seem to be attracting enough new
>players to the market.

True for the moment, but things don't stand still. Do you think people will
still be using Maya in 20 years time? (god I hope not!) Technology,
hardware, and client's needs all change faster than we realise.

So I have a more optimistic outlook, I think it's just a matter of time
before someone somewhere comes up with something new that does it in a
different way, or maybe just in a better way.

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