Autodesk Softimage EOL

[Richy]

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-softimage/overview

:/

[Ondra]

Good thing there is no Corona integration then :D

[racoonart]

So they finally admit that they were trying to sell a dead horse the last couple of years. Let's face it, they did absolutely nothing for softimage anyways (apart from letting it die a slow and painful death) - so it's not really surprising.

[cecofuli]

This is unbelievable!!! I'm shocked!!! Try to think a big company (but also a small office like mine) to rebuild the entire pipelaine, try to learn a new software etc...  I think softimage users have to do a class action. Or Autodesk sell Softimage to a different company. Try to think if this will happen to 3ds max!!! I will can died!!! O__O

[lacilaci]

I'm surprised that people are surprised :D I guess max goes in 2-3 years..

[cecofuli]

If 3ds max (Maya, AutoCAD etc...) will die in 2-3 years, what will happen to million people that work with these software? And the plug-developers, like Vlado, Ondra etc... They spent years and, with a simple Autodesk decision, they lose money, time, etc.... I think AD have to be clear with the users, with the plug-in developers.
People live with 3ds max or Maya or XSI. This isn't a game. This is life! Not everyone has the energy, money and the ability to re-organize an entire way of working, consolidated over decades of study and passion.

There must be some very specific clauses between users and Autodesk. If they want to kill Maya (for example) in the next two years, they have the duty to inform users. Not to say " Hey user, don't worry, we will support Maya for next 5-10 years and... boom! After one years the kill what they want. This is absurd and inconceivable, as well as fraudulent! THE RUMOR THAT THE EOL OF SOFTIMAGE and 3DS MAX IS UPON US IS TOTALY FALSE --> Are you sure Chris?

Otherwise, AD pays penalties to the entire 3ds max users. It's too easy to say "paid subscription, pay licenses" and then AD erases years of study, pipeline, without giving you any official notice....

[Utroll]

What you're saying is that when a software reach EOL it should be open sourced and thrown back into the sea of web ?

Actually it's terrible for Softimage even if not great surprise, but what about sketchup which is maintained ...while inert as dead.

[cecofuli]

Maybe it's time to see a new software? Like Modo or C4D? Blender?
Because if AD will take the decision to kill 3ds max, all our pipeline will be change and I don't know if I will have the time, energy and money to support all this changes.
But the worse part is to lose my entire asset like models, proxy, shaders, created with years of work, script, etc...

[Ondra]

I highly doubt there is any legal mechanism forcing autodesk to continue with the support. And frankly, I hope not. I dont want to be obliged to support corona in 40 years :D

[cecofuli]

Yes, ok Ondra, but...
I'm not expert, maybe I wrong, but I think that there might be room for a lawsuit against Autodesk for disclosure of false information to manipulate the market. False statements, indeed, to have earned by selling license of XSI, while users have lost money (they have to rearrange their work, pipeline, delete plug for XSI), and waste time. Or, for example, they wouldn't have bought XSI and purchased another software.
How can you say to a plug-in developer these words, how can Chris say, one year and half ago (not ten years!) , "THE RUMOR THAT THE EOL OF SOFTIMAGE and 3DS MAX IS UPON US IS TOTALY FALSE" , when you know that XSI is on the end of the life! How is it possible? This is why I'm shocked. XSI it's not a Windows 7 Gadget!
Maybe I'm shocked because I didn't know, as 3ds user, that unofficially XSI was on EOL. But this is another story.
AD resemble more and more to Italian politicians. Only interested in the money, the chair and not the citizens welfare !

http://jamiesjewels.typepad.com/jamies_jewels/2012/09/3dsmax-rumours-response.html

[cecofuli]

I can only repeat here what I said on the V-Ray forum - I remember when Autodesk bought Softimage and we were telling people that we were hesitant to develop V-Ray for it because we were not sure what Autodesk would do with it. Back then we were Reprimanded For Spreading Rumors and Autodesk assured us that Softimage will continue to be developed; eventually we decided to move forward. I guess I should have trusted my gut feeling back then :-) But on the bright side, I am very much relieved - we've spent much more money on developing V-Ray for Softimage than we ever got out of it. It would be good to put our developers on more profitable projects.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Utroll]

I highly doubt there is any legal mechanism forcing autodesk to continue with the support. And frankly, I hope not. I dont want to be obliged to support corona in 40 years :D

That's why EOL should mean code release.

[cecofuli]

Or sell it to a new software house!

[kumodot]

Max is the Third most important App inside ADesk. After Acad and Acad LT. Autodesk is Hiring people for Max team. The future is not clear for any of it´s softwares, but i am not worried about 3dsMax in a Short Term. There´s a crysis on the Vfx Market. Max is more stable than maya at this point of view cause it attends a lot of markets and ArchViz is strong with it. (2Cents)

[Ondra]

Release code and create a competitor for themselves? Heh, autodesk would never do that

[Snikon]

monster as Avtodesk never thrown on the street such as product 3c max, too much time and money has been invested in it, and popularity in the world is very high, so do not worry :)

[Utroll]

Release code and create a competitor for themselves? Heh, autodesk would never do that

If they could not make it sustainable why should a competitor succeed ? :)

In a utopic world that's how it should be, or you sell it, or you give it...
So you don't have to take care of it till end of time, and clients may hire dev and adapt to futur standard along specific needs.

Trashing it is just like destroying tons of unsold food from supermarket,
... Autodesk is just more and more perceived as crappy and they have some competitors, they should think about.

[elindell]

Release code and create a competitor for themselves? Heh, autodesk would never do that

If they could not make it sustainable why should a competitor succeed ? :)

In a utopic world that's how it should be, or you sell it, or you give it...
So you don't have to take care of it till end of time, and clients may hire dev and adapt to futur standard along specific needs.

Trashing it is just like destroying tons of unsold food from supermarket,
... Autodesk is just more and more perceived as crappy and they have some competitors, they should think about.

I think that was the point, they bought it so they could kill it and have less competition.

This is why I think a robust standalone version of corona is important, who knows if Max is next...

[Ondra]

Corona is ready for integration into other software/standalone. It would still have unimaginably pissed me off, though

[kumodot]

    Autodesk will not release nothing for public or private use. There´s a lot of Patents on XSI that they can "replicate" now inside their other Apps (I will not bet a single dollar on this). But They can. Before the XSI EOL they "can´t" replicate stuff (redundancy), cause it will accelerate the death of their own software, but now, they can.
    Nowadays Adesk products entered on slow development...
 As we can see,coders, almost alone can bring up to the market an almost fully featured Render (Corona). Other guys, like JokerMartini, Clovis Gay, and the ThinkBox Guys shows that Max´s Core could be bad (as everyone keep yelling) , but not THAT Bad, cause they can (and show) Incredibly fast tools made by small teams of coders, even using MaxScript, with an unbelivable Speed, running on the same, "bad",  Max´s core.
    How can 3dsmax´s core to be worst for Autodesk native tools than for those guys around the world ? Hell no.

[vkiuru]

Wow I knew people would go to lengths hating Autodesk but this is the first time ever I've seen someone suggest a company simply donates a product to the public because "they don't need it anymore so where's the harm". It's the same thought process children have when they ask their parents "why don't we just print so much money that everyone is rich" :D

[CHRiTTeR]

Release code and create a competitor for themselves? Heh, autodesk would never do that

If they could not make it sustainable why should a competitor succeed ? :)

Ever considered the fact they didnt buy it to continue sell it but just to own the tech/patents?

[Utroll]

Ever considered the fact they didnt buy it to continue sell it but just to own the tech/patents?

Ahah.. ICE in 3dsmax and Maya ? Nice. When ?

Wow I knew people would go to lengths hating Autodesk but this is the first time ever I've seen someone suggest a company simply donates a product to the public because "they don't need it anymore so where's the harm". It's the same thought process children have when they ask their parents "why don't we just print so much money that everyone is rich" :D

Well it could have been plus or less what Linus said, let's give it to everybody so everybody is rich.
And why do you call product something which will be nothing but a dead corpse ?
Filezilla, OpenOffice, Blender, VLC, or.. oh wait.. notice how Corona uses Embree which has accesssible sources while you're around :)

Anyway autodesk will provide free migration from softimage to 3ds/maya to their users so, it's already not too bad.