I can't find the webpage, but remember just before Autodesk bought
Softimage, Softimage won several tech/software awards from the
community. So much promise! Does anyone remember that more specifically?
On 2/28/2014 12:49 PM, Emilio Hernandez wrote:
Well if at some point it happens that another company is interested in
buying Sofitmage from ADSK. I belive they will have a very good
handicap to make this adjustments.
And I believe we will all be patient with them while they change the
old stuff.
Some things can be address right away if in that acquisition de devs
go with them. Fix some bugs, minor adjustments, etc.
While they at the same time start to polish and update the core.
So really buying Softimage is not that bad. As it is right now it is
rocking hard and strong.
Cheers!
2014-02-28 13:22 GMT-06:00 Matt Lind <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>:
I don't think that is an option as AD isn't going to give up
source code which holds many patents. If they did, I would tend to
think the asking price would be too steep.
But let's pretend AD offers the source code and the price is
affordable -- is Softimage really worth the price of acquiring as
a business venture? Based on all the pieces of information I've
gathered about the product over the years, it sounds like it would
take a few years just to get familiar with the code and be
comfortable enough to do any significant work.
While one could inherit a nice system like ICE, animation mixer,
render pass system, and so on. To put new features into it would
likely require a lot of study of existing code for ripple effect
of adding new features or implementing significant changes. The
application as a whole is still tremendously useful and a great
general purpose 3D environment, but it's design is from the 1990's
and showing its age in some areas. The user interface is still
single threaded, the playback engine isn't the speediest and
doesn't loop nicely, and the real time shaders aren't real time.
Some of the things we would want to implement in Softimage if we
had the source code would be things that I don't think the
architecture supports -- ability to put modeling operators outside
the modeling marker or pin them into specific slots of the
construction history to enforce order of evaluation, for example.
On a personal level, having been around the product for so long I
would be extremely interested in looking and tinkering with the
source code, and perhaps fix/modify stuff that always drove me
nuts. It would at least explain why certain things are the way
they are. I always thought it be a nice gesture if at Siggraph
you'd get swag in the form of a capsule on a keychain that
contained all the source code to discontinued product(s).
Granted, this will not likely ever happen due to patents, trade
secrets, and other business interests, but would be good for
customer morale and developing interest in 3D animation. I wonder
if anybody would gain anything (business-wise) from obtaining the
Softimage|3D code today considering its successor is also on its
way out to pasture? It would be more useful swag than T-shirts or
CD cases.
As for my employer, I cannot speak on their behalf.
Matt
>Hey Matt --
>
>Out of genuine curiosity -- can your employers not get a source
code license out of AD? IIR, deals like that were
>not unknown among the larger studios -- or was that all
pre-acquisition?
>
>Ed
