that’s a shame. I was going to reply to your original mail, saying something like: that’s all very interesting, but is there no better channel to get into contact with softimage developers than this mailing list?
3rd party developers should have a prime communication line to the target software’s dev team – even if it’s ‘just’ a free forum with active participation by people from the dev team. Regardless of their size or investment in licenses. 3rd party developers invest their time, effort and knowledge, often without good prospects of return, at least not in line with that investment, especially with a small userbase like for softimage. In doing so, they are strengthening the target software, overcoming some of its main weaknesses. Some that are still around after a decade - likely never to be adressed by the target software. When that target app is becoming less compelling to keep investing in by itself (see: the price increases thread that going on right now) - 3rd party tools might well save it’s grace, and keep it alive way beyond it’s expiration date. Should be obvious in the case of 3dsmax and FumeFX / Krakatoa / Vray for example - where would max be without them? And it’s not like there is nothing left to whish for in Softimage. Frankly this is precisely what’s going on at all Softimage based studios I am in contact with – each and every one of them considering ending Softimage use. The cost doesn’t seem inline with the improvements. The alternatives under consideration are being favored based on 3rd party tools. If it wasn’t for binary alchemy / mootzoid / exocortex / solid angle and others, in no particular order – that decision would have been made a while ago. I am convinced that limited third party offering is one of the main reasons why Softimage is the underdog software – together with unfavorable pricing/policies/marketing. Too bad, because it deserves better. From: Nicolas Burtnyk Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 10:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Heads up to plugin developers regarding CRef Thanks Kamen - To compound my frustration, Autodesk is being very closed about discussing this issue with me. I wanted a simple conversation with the Soft dev guys to explain why this is a problem and suggest some solutions. Unfortunately I'm not a "Enterprise Priority" customer (lol) so I have to go through the excruciating process of speaking via a support portal and waiting days for replies. On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 12:54 PM, Stephan Woermann <[email protected]> wrote: There is a DirtyList attribute in the renderes context, maybe that helps a little... Stephan
