RE: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Angus Davidson]

Unfortunately Apple has defined pro market to mean , FCP X and a little bit of 
after effects. Its the only reason I can think of for some of the dumb 
decisions made in the last two years. Up to and including today.

At least dell gives decent EDU discounts. Going to make the move from apple far 
less painful for us

--
ICT Project Manager
Digital Arts
Wits School of the Arts
angus.david...@wits.ac.za
011 717 4683










From: Stanley Mpofu
Sent: 31 May 2017 03:14 PM
To: Collen Rasalanavho; Angus Davidson; Brian Maistry; Shunmuga Pillay; Andrew 
Sam; Tumishi Madihlaba; Donald Dandawa; Bekir Genc; Arinavho Tshifularo; Simon 
Mofokeng; Charl Roberts; Mark Allen; James Mokoka; Ernest Maluleke; Shereen 
Jacobs
Subject: Wits ICT Strategy.pptx

Colleagues
As discussed this morning, Please note the attached strategic direction as well 
intended service catalogue that will talk to the SLAs between ICT and the 
University. Please respond with comments and more ideas around what I have 
proposed for Wits going forward.


Many thanks

Dr Mpofu Mgobansimbi SB
Chief Information Officer (Wits)
+27117171662
+27733779947
stanley.mp...@wits.ac.za
"Lions Don’t Worry About The Opinion Of Sheep"

PA
Celesse-Ann Brandt-Jacobs
Tel  :+2711 717 1602
Email  :   
celesse.brandt-jac...@wits.ac.za




From: Marc-Andre Carbonneau [marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com]
Sent: 06 June 2017 09:38 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list
Subject: RE: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

Heheheh thanks everyone. I’m not so much using powerful pcs anymore but was 
interested in getting the low down on these “new” contenders.
MAC

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Moore
Sent: June-06-17 3:36 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google. 
com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
Subject: Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

Apologies for this slight digression into the benefits of 2012-2014 generation 
Zseries workstations but the final good points about them is that they're built 
like tanks with top drawer components so they’re less risk than many other 
second hand purchases. The total cost for my three Zseries workstations was 
under £2k (GPU’s on top) so that’s a heap of processing power for the budget 
(96 threads running at 3.1 Ghz). And E5-6670’s are incredibly efficient too so 
running costs are very favourable for typical Houdini/ICE CPU simulations. 
Although running 9 GPU’s across three workstations for rendering chews through 
the juice.

So back to the original point of the iMac Pro. There are far better ways to 
spend your cash!  :)

On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:21, Jonathan Moore 
> wrote:


As you can see plenty of PCIe Gen3 x16 and x8’s as long as you go for a dual 
processes build.

Dual E5-2670 based systems won’t best a latest & greatest i7 for GPU rendering 
but if you pick up a system (or preferably multiple systems) at the right 
price, you’re get something that performs well both on CPU simulations and on 
GPU rendering duties.

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04400043.pdf


On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:05, Ognjen Vukovic 
> wrote:

I thought those z workstations had pretty old mobos. They only had pcie 2 
slots. And at 8x or somthing like that which seems quite unremarkable for gpu 
rendering. --
Softimage Mailing List.
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RE: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Marc-Andre Carbonneau]

Heheheh thanks everyone. I’m not so much using powerful pcs anymore but was 
interested in getting the low down on these “new” contenders.
MAC

From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Moore
Sent: June-06-17 3:36 PM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. https://groups.google. 
com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
Subject: Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

Apologies for this slight digression into the benefits of 2012-2014 generation 
Zseries workstations but the final good points about them is that they're built 
like tanks with top drawer components so they’re less risk than many other 
second hand purchases. The total cost for my three Zseries workstations was 
under £2k (GPU’s on top) so that’s a heap of processing power for the budget 
(96 threads running at 3.1 Ghz). And E5-6670’s are incredibly efficient too so 
running costs are very favourable for typical Houdini/ICE CPU simulations. 
Although running 9 GPU’s across three workstations for rendering chews through 
the juice.

So back to the original point of the iMac Pro. There are far better ways to 
spend your cash!  :)

On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:21, Jonathan Moore 
> wrote:


As you can see plenty of PCIe Gen3 x16 and x8’s as long as you go for a dual 
processes build.

Dual E5-2670 based systems won’t best a latest & greatest i7 for GPU rendering 
but if you pick up a system (or preferably multiple systems) at the right 
price, you’re get something that performs well both on CPU simulations and on 
GPU rendering duties.

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04400043.pdf


On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:05, Ognjen Vukovic 
> wrote:

I thought those z workstations had pretty old mobos. They only had pcie 2 
slots. And at 8x or somthing like that which seems quite unremarkable for gpu 
rendering. --
Softimage Mailing List.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to 
softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
 with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.


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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Jonathan Moore]

Apologies for this slight digression into the benefits of 2012-2014 generation 
Zseries workstations but the final good points about them is that they're built 
like tanks with top drawer components so they’re less risk than many other 
second hand purchases. The total cost for my three Zseries workstations was 
under £2k (GPU’s on top) so that’s a heap of processing power for the budget 
(96 threads running at 3.1 Ghz). And E5-6670’s are incredibly efficient too so 
running costs are very favourable for typical Houdini/ICE CPU simulations. 
Although running 9 GPU’s across three workstations for rendering chews through 
the juice.

So back to the original point of the iMac Pro. There are far better ways to 
spend your cash!  :)

> On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:21, Jonathan Moore  wrote:
> 
> 
> As you can see plenty of PCIe Gen3 x16 and x8’s as long as you go for a dual 
> processes build.
> 
> Dual E5-2670 based systems won’t best a latest & greatest i7 for GPU 
> rendering but if you pick up a system (or preferably multiple systems) at the 
> right price, you’re get something that performs well both on CPU simulations 
> and on GPU rendering duties.
> 
> http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04400043.pdf 
> 
> 
> 
>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 20:05, Ognjen Vukovic > > wrote:
>> 
>> I thought those z workstations had pretty old mobos. They only had pcie 2 
>> slots. And at 8x or somthing like that which seems quite unremarkable for 
>> gpu rendering. --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
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>>  with "unsubscribe" in the 
>> subject, and reply to confirm.
> 

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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Saeed Kalhor]

With that price I can buy a PC with 2 nVidia GTX 1080 TI + 2TB SSD + 10TB
HDD + a good i7 Cpu + 64Gb of RAM + many other things.

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 11:35 PM, Ognjen Vukovic  wrote:

> I thought those z workstations had pretty old mobos. They only had pcie 2
> slots. And at 8x or somthing like that which seems quite unremarkable for
> gpu rendering.
> --
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Jonathan Moore]

There are plenty of lanes on both the Z620 and Z840 but you need to use a riser 
to fit the 3rd card. It’s perfectly practical if you don’t mid open cases but 
is better if you customise an outer case to manage dust and maximise airflow.

I picked up my Z workstations for well under £1k each and specifically went for 
E5-2670 CPU’s. These are relatively old but they run at 3.4 Ghz single core and 
all 32 threads run at 3.1 Ghz. They’ve provided fantastic value, and reasonable 
performance even though they’re not Intel’s latest and greatest.

I’m happy to purchase the best of previous generation hardware if I know where 
the workstations were previously used. I advocate self builds too with the 
E5-2670’s seeing as you can still pick up a matched pair for under $200 - this 
is a good guide to the build.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/ 


Buying second hand kit or engaging in self builds isn’t for everybody hence my 
recommendation of leasing, but for those that don’t mind a little risk you can 
put a mini farm together as reasonable cost.

> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:25, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:

> I mean the 840 could hold max 2gpus
> 
> 2017-06-06 20:24 GMT+02:00 Olivier Jeannel  >:
> I was told the 820 can hold max 2GPUs. Did you remove the "air tunnel" ?
> Someone on the RS forum couldn't fit 2 cards, he had to let the case open...
> My 620 is full with one TitanZ.
> My next computer will be a big case, so that I can put whatever cards and up 
> to 4.
> 
> 
> 2017-06-06 20:11 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore  >:
> I run three Z series workstations each with three GPU's (2 Z620’s and one 
> Z840 as my main rig). The Z840 has three 1080 Ti’s.
> 
> What’s bad about the Z series workstations with GPU’s? 
> 
> The only things you need to look out for is ensuring you have a strong enough 
> power unit and you pick XEON’s with reasonble single core speed (Redshift is 
> heavily reliant on CPU for memory/asset management). I fitted Z840 power 
> supplies into my Z620’s as they come with 900W supply as standard (enough for 
> 2 GPU’s but three is a stretch).
> 
> Both of the Z620 and Z840’s are reasonably old now but the litmus test for me 
> is that they run Oculus/Vive apps at maximum quality settings so I believe 
> I’ve still got a few more years in my investment.
> 
>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:00, Olivier Jeannel > > wrote:
>> 
>> Forget the Z if you're going gpu
>> 
>> 2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore > >:
>> Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a Z 
>> series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement where 
>> you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly agreement.
>> 
>> I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded the 
>> family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury but a 
>> wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the older 
>> models get recycled through the family.
>> 
>>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster >> > wrote:
>>> 
>>> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very 
>>> difficult repair/replace curve.
>>> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, with 
>>> the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
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>>  with "unsubscribe" in the 
>> subject, and reply to confirm.
>> 
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>> subject, and reply to confirm.
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Ognjen Vukovic]

I thought those z workstations had pretty old mobos. They only had pcie 2
slots. And at 8x or somthing like that which seems quite unremarkable for
gpu rendering.
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Nono]

WTF, ATI gpu ?! again...

On 6 June 2017 at 20:25, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:

> I mean the* 840* could hold max 2gpus
>
> 2017-06-06 20:24 GMT+02:00 Olivier Jeannel :
>
>> I was told the 820 can hold max 2GPUs. Did you remove the "air tunnel" ?
>> Someone on the RS forum couldn't fit 2 cards, he had to let the case
>> open...
>> My 620 is full with one TitanZ.
>> My next computer will be a big case, so that I can put whatever cards and
>> up to 4.
>>
>>
>> 2017-06-06 20:11 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :
>>
>>> I run three Z series workstations each with three GPU's (2 Z620’s and
>>> one Z840 as my main rig). The Z840 has three 1080 Ti’s.
>>>
>>> What’s bad about the Z series workstations with GPU’s?
>>>
>>> The only things you need to look out for is ensuring you have a strong
>>> enough power unit and you pick XEON’s with reasonble single core speed
>>> (Redshift is heavily reliant on CPU for memory/asset management). I fitted
>>> Z840 power supplies into my Z620’s as they come with 900W supply as
>>> standard (enough for 2 GPU’s but three is a stretch).
>>>
>>> Both of the Z620 and Z840’s are reasonably old now but the litmus test
>>> for me is that they run Oculus/Vive apps at maximum quality settings so I
>>> believe I’ve still got a few more years in my investment.
>>>
>>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:00, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:
>>>
>>> Forget the Z if you're going gpu
>>>
>>> 2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :
>>>
 Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a
 Z series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement
 where you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly
 agreement.

 I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded
 the family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury
 but a wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the
 older models get recycled through the family.

 On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster  wrote:

 It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very
 difficult repair/replace curve.
 I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike,
 with the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.



 --
 Softimage Mailing List.
 To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
 with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.

>>>
>>> --
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>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
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>>>
>>
>>
>
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Olivier Jeannel]

I mean the* 840* could hold max 2gpus

2017-06-06 20:24 GMT+02:00 Olivier Jeannel :

> I was told the 820 can hold max 2GPUs. Did you remove the "air tunnel" ?
> Someone on the RS forum couldn't fit 2 cards, he had to let the case
> open...
> My 620 is full with one TitanZ.
> My next computer will be a big case, so that I can put whatever cards and
> up to 4.
>
>
> 2017-06-06 20:11 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :
>
>> I run three Z series workstations each with three GPU's (2 Z620’s and one
>> Z840 as my main rig). The Z840 has three 1080 Ti’s.
>>
>> What’s bad about the Z series workstations with GPU’s?
>>
>> The only things you need to look out for is ensuring you have a strong
>> enough power unit and you pick XEON’s with reasonble single core speed
>> (Redshift is heavily reliant on CPU for memory/asset management). I fitted
>> Z840 power supplies into my Z620’s as they come with 900W supply as
>> standard (enough for 2 GPU’s but three is a stretch).
>>
>> Both of the Z620 and Z840’s are reasonably old now but the litmus test
>> for me is that they run Oculus/Vive apps at maximum quality settings so I
>> believe I’ve still got a few more years in my investment.
>>
>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:00, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:
>>
>> Forget the Z if you're going gpu
>>
>> 2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :
>>
>>> Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a
>>> Z series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement
>>> where you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly
>>> agreement.
>>>
>>> I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded
>>> the family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury
>>> but a wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the
>>> older models get recycled through the family.
>>>
>>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster  wrote:
>>>
>>> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very
>>> difficult repair/replace curve.
>>> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike,
>>> with the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Softimage Mailing List.
>>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>>
>>
>> --
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>>
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Olivier Jeannel]

I was told the 820 can hold max 2GPUs. Did you remove the "air tunnel" ?
Someone on the RS forum couldn't fit 2 cards, he had to let the case open...
My 620 is full with one TitanZ.
My next computer will be a big case, so that I can put whatever cards and
up to 4.


2017-06-06 20:11 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :

> I run three Z series workstations each with three GPU's (2 Z620’s and one
> Z840 as my main rig). The Z840 has three 1080 Ti’s.
>
> What’s bad about the Z series workstations with GPU’s?
>
> The only things you need to look out for is ensuring you have a strong
> enough power unit and you pick XEON’s with reasonble single core speed
> (Redshift is heavily reliant on CPU for memory/asset management). I fitted
> Z840 power supplies into my Z620’s as they come with 900W supply as
> standard (enough for 2 GPU’s but three is a stretch).
>
> Both of the Z620 and Z840’s are reasonably old now but the litmus test for
> me is that they run Oculus/Vive apps at maximum quality settings so I
> believe I’ve still got a few more years in my investment.
>
> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:00, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:
>
> Forget the Z if you're going gpu
>
> 2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :
>
>> Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a Z
>> series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement where
>> you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly agreement.
>>
>> I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded the
>> family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury but
>> a wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the
>> older models get recycled through the family.
>>
>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster  wrote:
>>
>> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very
>> difficult repair/replace curve.
>> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, with
>> the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Jonathan Moore]

I run three Z series workstations each with three GPU's (2 Z620’s and one Z840 
as my main rig). The Z840 has three 1080 Ti’s.

What’s bad about the Z series workstations with GPU’s? 

The only things you need to look out for is ensuring you have a strong enough 
power unit and you pick XEON’s with reasonble single core speed (Redshift is 
heavily reliant on CPU for memory/asset management). I fitted Z840 power 
supplies into my Z620’s as they come with 900W supply as standard (enough for 2 
GPU’s but three is a stretch).

Both of the Z620 and Z840’s are reasonably old now but the litmus test for me 
is that they run Oculus/Vive apps at maximum quality settings so I believe I’ve 
still got a few more years in my investment.

> On 6 Jun 2017, at 19:00, Olivier Jeannel  wrote:
> 
> Forget the Z if you're going gpu
> 
> 2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore  >:
> Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a Z 
> series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement where 
> you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly agreement.
> 
> I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded the 
> family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury but a 
> wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the older 
> models get recycled through the family.
> 
>> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster > > wrote:
>> 
>> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very 
>> difficult repair/replace curve.
>> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, with 
>> the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com 
>  with "unsubscribe" in the 
> subject, and reply to confirm.
> 
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Olivier Jeannel]

Forget the Z if you're going gpu

2017-06-06 19:57 GMT+02:00 Jonathan Moore :

> Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a Z
> series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement where
> you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly agreement.
>
> I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded the
> family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury but
> a wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the
> older models get recycled through the family.
>
> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster  wrote:
>
> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very
> difficult repair/replace curve.
> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, with
> the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
>
>
>
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> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Jonathan Moore]

Agree with Rob. For a comparable budget, you’re far better going with a Z 
series workstation from HP. Even better get into a lease arrangement where 
you’re guaranteed the latest hardware for a manageable monthly agreement.

I’ll probably pick up a 27” iMac for family use though. I’ve upgraded the 
family iMac every 24/36 months since 2011. They’re an expensive luxury but a 
wonderful piece of kit for general household computing needs. And the older 
models get recycled through the family.

> On 6 Jun 2017, at 18:50, Rob Wuijster  wrote:
> 
> It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very 
> difficult repair/replace curve.
> I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, with the 
> possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.
> 
> 

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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Rob Wuijster]

It has a bunch of impressive specs, but it's a closed box with a very 
difficult repair/replace curve.
I rather spend that money on a nice HP workstation or alike, 
with the possibility of changing/adding parts once in a while.



Rob

\/-\/\/

On 6-6-2017 16:00, Mirko Jankovic wrote:
Like every other mac thing in history of macs and 3d. Overpriced and 
not too good for that line of work

ᐧ

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau 
> wrote:


Hey guys,

What do you think of the newly announced iMac Pro coming this
December?

https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/ 

They’re reaching out to 3D artists and to highly computer
intensive users.

What about what you get for the price tag?

MAC


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--
Mirko Jankovic
_http://www.cgfolio.com/mirko-jankovic_
_
_
Need to find freelancers fast?
www.cgfolio.com 

Need some help with rendering an Redshift project?
http://www.gpuoven.com/


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Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Ed Manning]

No nVidia, no CUDA, so no go.

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Mirko Jankovic 
wrote:

> Like every other mac thing in history of macs and 3d. Overpriced and not
> too good for that line of work
> ᐧ
>
> On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau <
> marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote:
>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> What do you think of the newly announced iMac Pro coming this December?
>>
>> https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/
>>
>>
>>
>> They’re reaching out to 3D artists and to highly computer intensive users.
>>
>>
>>
>> What about what you get for the price tag?
>>
>> MAC
>>
>> --
>> Softimage Mailing List.
>> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
>> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Mirko Jankovic
> *http://www.cgfolio.com/mirko-jankovic
> *
>
> Need to find freelancers fast?
> www.cgfolio.com
>
> Need some help with rendering an Redshift project?
> http://www.gpuoven.com/
>
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> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>
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RE: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list

[Ponthieux, Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES II]]

Back in the day Maya was not designed to be, nor intended to be, a generalist 
3D app. In a lot of ways its still indistinguishable from its original design 
20 years ago. And one of the things any Maya user should never presume is that 
it is a generalist app. Sadly its not and never was an app for generalists.

The need to build things such as scripts, as you have described, should not be 
viewed as a workaround. It is the workflow. Maya was created by its original AW 
engineers that way by design. Back in 98 I called tech support to complain that 
invert component selection was missing. I was told bluntly that is why they 
created MEL, so that I could make the things I need. I was told that I would 
need to make invert selection myself. Being a generalist, and knowing nothing 
of MEL at the time, I complained to AW that such an expectation was 
unreasonable. One of the tech’s, after getting more than his share of my 
opinion why such a philosophy was illogical and lacked significant foresight by 
their engineers, relented, wrote it, and sent it to me.

I’m not agreeing with the philosophy nor promoting it. I was floored that 
something so simple and rudimentary was apparently just left out of the 
application. I thought it was wrong then and I still do now. But the way to 
think about Maya, the way they wanted people to think of Maya back in the 90s, 
is that it was intended to be a shell. A shell that each workgroup could mold 
into that workgroup’s own unique animation system. But it wasn’t designed with 
generalists in mind.

Can a generalist use Maya? Absolutely. I did that for more than a decade before 
I returned to XSI. But the Maya “generalist” has to accept that they are going 
to have to be more than a generalist. They are going to have to be the 
“workgroup”.

In Maya simple things are hard, hard things are simple. It’s the equivalent to 
using a sledgehammer to drive a thumbtack.

--
Joey
__
Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not
represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.




From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Anto Matkovic
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2017 5:34 AM
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 

Subject: Re: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list

Well it's not that serious, I'd say it's more something between lobotomy and 
permanent headache. Depends on level of immunity of user...
Now seriously, it's not bad at all when it comes to some traditional tasks like 
rigging and animation. Despite the horrible ergonomics of Node Editor (unit 
conversion node jumping in range of 1-5 K pixels around, or deleting nodes in 
groups by own criteria, skyscraper nodes..), still it can do things not 
possible to anyone else, and it's doing this fast. Well, as long as someone had 
a time to build scripted procedures for every aspect of such, custom setup.
But, beside that and a few solvers like nCloth or Naiad, I can see only 
problems, compared to any normal 3d app around ('normal' includes Houdini, 
too). Things like separated control of transform - shape node, separated 
reference mesh for deformations (come on, even Houdini hides that), or 
'legendary'' hierarchical behavior, all that makes it impossible to compete to 
others as an unified 3d app fo generalist. In 2017 update 3 they added 'auto 
parenting' mode to lattice modifier ( otherwise, you get *two* nodes in global 
space, not following your object), but, but, when you apply let's say Bend over 
that, there is a double bending because Maya applies Bend to mesh, *and* 
lattice, because lattice is now parented bellow. That is, result of all these 
pathetic trials in last few years, it is only more and more confusion, putting 
it even more in position where it always was in hands of 3d generalist , 
something on level of Lightwave 8 or like (that is, no nodes, no stack, in 
reality), and kind of SiloX when it comes to modeling. Shame, but true

By the way, for those who are able to live without Linux, there's 3d app called 
3D Studio Max, which perhaps is not 'joy' to use, but, in last few years it got 
the all Maya modeling features that worth something ( brushes, Maya live), 
today it is a way stronger than Maya with huge scenes, never ever had problems 
with basic tasks like second UV ( it's just displayed in list). Houdini is 
better and better, but it's still far a way of general 3d app, Maya is 
constantly in 'half disintegrated' state. So, for those who want to stay on 
Linux, and they can not afford a brigade of TDs, very very bad days are coming, 
I'm afraid.


From: Olivier Jeannel >
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 

Re: New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Mirko Jankovic]

Like every other mac thing in history of macs and 3d. Overpriced and not
too good for that line of work
ᐧ

On Tue, Jun 6, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Marc-Andre Carbonneau <
marc-andre.carbonn...@ubisoft.com> wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> What do you think of the newly announced iMac Pro coming this December?
>
> https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/
>
>
>
> They’re reaching out to 3D artists and to highly computer intensive users.
>
>
>
> What about what you get for the price tag?
>
> MAC
>
> --
> Softimage Mailing List.
> To unsubscribe, send a mail to softimage-requ...@listproc.autodesk.com
> with "unsubscribe" in the subject, and reply to confirm.
>



-- 
Mirko Jankovic
*http://www.cgfolio.com/mirko-jankovic
*

Need to find freelancers fast?
www.cgfolio.com

Need some help with rendering an Redshift project?
http://www.gpuoven.com/
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New iMac Pro? Yay or Nay?

[Marc-Andre Carbonneau]

Hey guys,
What do you think of the newly announced iMac Pro coming this December?
https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/

They're reaching out to 3D artists and to highly computer intensive users.

What about what you get for the price tag?
MAC
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Re: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list

[Anto Matkovic]

Well it's not that serious, I'd say it's more something between lobotomy and 
permanent headache. Depends on level of immunity of user...Now seriously, it's 
not bad at all when it comes to some traditional tasks like rigging and 
animation. Despite the horrible ergonomics of Node Editor (unit conversion node 
jumping in range of 1-5 K pixels around, or deleting nodes in groups by own 
criteria, skyscraper nodes..), still it can do things not possible to anyone 
else, and it's doing this fast. Well, as long as someone had a time to build 
scripted procedures for every aspect of such, custom setup.But, beside that and 
a few solvers like nCloth or Naiad, I can see only problems, compared to any 
normal 3d app around ('normal' includes Houdini, too). Things like separated 
control of transform - shape node, separated reference mesh for deformations 
(come on, even Houdini hides that), or 'legendary'' hierarchical behavior, all 
that makes it impossible to compete to others as an unified 3d app fo 
generalist. In 2017 update 3 they added 'auto parenting' mode to lattice 
modifier ( otherwise, you get *two* nodes in global space, not following your 
object), but, but, when you apply let's say Bend over that, there is a double 
bending because Maya applies Bend to mesh, *and* lattice, because lattice is 
now parented bellow. That is, result of all these pathetic trials in last few 
years, it is only more and more confusion, putting it even more in position 
where it always was in hands of 3d generalist , something on level of Lightwave 
8 or like (that is, no nodes, no stack, in reality), and kind of SiloX when it 
comes to modeling. Shame, but true
By the way, for those who are able to live without Linux, there's 3d app called 
3D Studio Max, which perhaps is not 'joy' to use, but, in last few years it got 
the all Maya modeling features that worth something ( brushes, Maya live), 
today it is a way stronger than Maya with huge scenes, never ever had problems 
with basic tasks like second UV ( it's just displayed in list). Houdini is 
better and better, but it's still far a way of general 3d app, Maya is 
constantly in 'half disintegrated' state. So, for those who want to stay on 
Linux, and they can not afford a brigade of TDs, very very bad days are coming, 
I'm afraid.

  From: Olivier Jeannel 
 To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 
 
 Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 3:28 PM
 Subject: Re: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list
   
You may want to join a suicidal-group hotline, or maybe turn yourself to a 
religion ?

Sorry, couldn't resist :
Good luck ;)


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RE: Query XSI SelectTool mode (lasso, rectangle, paint etc)

[Brent McPherson]

Sorry, I can't remember.

The GetUserPref command accesses a different persistent value store so you may 
have to use ExecuteCommand to access the values in C++.
--
Brent


From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Prostrelov
Sent: 06 June 2017 05:46
To: Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list 

Subject: Re: Query XSI SelectTool mode (lasso, rectangle, paint etc)

Oh by the way, can i reach UserPreference from C++ API ?

I tried this one: http://c2n.me/3L4f8DM
But i end up with list of native XSI preferences.
There are no prefs like "SI3D_RECTSEL_REGION_MODE".
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Re: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list

[Ben Paschke]

A wild Raff appears!

- Original Message -
> From: "Raffaele Fragapane" 
> To: "Official Softimage Users Mailing List. 
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xsi_list;
> 
> Sent: Monday, 5 June, 2017 11:06:40 AM
> Subject: Re: OTish - Soft2Maya transition list
> 
> 
> 
> There actually is a cult you can turn to for this kind of stuff
> http://www.cultofrig.com
> 
> 
> And now I will fade into the silent background for another year or
> two, after having incidentally proven right both the comment about
> turning to faith, and the one about old timers lurking.
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Raff
> 
> 
> On 31 May 2017 11:28 PM, "Olivier Jeannel" < facialdel...@gmail.com >
> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> You may want to join a suicidal-group hotline, or maybe turn yourself
> to a religion ?
> 
> Sorry, couldn't resist :
> 
> 
> Good luck ;)
> 
> 
> 2017-05-31 15:19 GMT+02:00 Enter Reality < 3dv...@gmail.com > :
> 
> 
> 
> After 3 years here is my situation:
> 
> 
> - Modeling: Trying with Maya, fuck it, use Softimage
> - Animation: some good tools, but overall the flexibility of Sofimage
> still is a strong advantage point
> - Rigging: Surprisingly I feel more comfortable with constraints in
> Maya then Soft, and overall ( using the ART toolkit in order to
> build characters for the Unreal Engine 4 ) the entire process is
> quite good...when it comes to skinning, the rule "Fuck it, export to
> Soft then import the finished product in Maya" still wins
> - Texturing/shading: Jesus...it's a mess
> - Rendering: almost gave up
> 
> 
> Overall I still rely on Soft A LOT almost every day
> 
> 
> I feel your pain Morten, but I honestly don't even want to join
> another mailing list where all the answers are "You need to code
> that"
> 
> 
> On youtube you an still find the videos made by Autodesk about the
> transition Soft to Maya
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2017-05-31 14:45 GMT+02:00 Morten Bartholdy < x...@colorshopvfx.dk > :
> 
> 
> I seem to have seen someone mentioning it here in the past, but can't
> remember. Is there a Maya userlist somewhere, hopefully as helpful
> as this one, or perhaps a forum for suffering Soft2Maya
> transitioners like myself?
> 
> And what a godawful piece of shit software that is!
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Morten
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