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Rumour: Autodesk apparently killing Softimage!

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Ark
polycounter lvl 11
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Ark polycounter lvl 11
So rumours are Autodesk will be killing off Softimage after the 2015 release. Can't say I never saw this coming, It's taken the back seat ever since Autodesk got their grubby mitts on it. After all, they only bought it to keep it from their competitors hands and forcing Autodesk to do some innovating and work into their releases.
It's never been advertise or marketed the way Max or Maya has.

Seems all the focus is going to Maya now, wouldn't be surprised if Max's days were short lived.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=59&t=1160074
https://twitter.com/sanders3d/status/438453216498688000

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  • Clark Coots
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    Clark Coots polycounter lvl 12
    i wonder if in fact Max and SoftImage's days are limited what will happen to the studios who use them? Switch to Maya? Or it open an opportunities for studios to look at Modo and other programs more for production? In which case Autodesk could start to lose their dominance. All just rumors for now though.
  • radiancef0rge
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    radiancef0rge ngon master
    love a good rumor.
  • mats effect
    Surely Max is too widely used for them to risk just killing it? Because I don't think it would mean everyone will default to Maya.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I did a linked in search for People in the game industry who list Max, Maya & Softimage in their skillset. This is the breakdown:

    Maya: 24,654
    Max: 23,894
    Softimage: 892
  • CrazyMatt
    They need to just merge the 2 (or 3) into 1 major package.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    CrazyMatt wrote: »
    They need to just merge the 2 (or 3) into 1 major package.

    Just right click and select merge programs, that easy!
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    I kinda feel like Softimage died in 2008 when Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand from Avid for ~$35 million.
  • Lazerus Reborn
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    Lazerus Reborn polycounter lvl 8
    CrazyMatt wrote: »
    They need to just merge the 2 (or 3) into 1 major package.

    Then unheard of bloat, bugs and breaks would ensue.

    Be interesting if they did it modularly. Just install as you need without the hassle of un-needed bloat.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    I did a linked in search for People in the game industry who list Max, Maya & Softimage in their skillset. This is the breakdown:

    Maya: 24,654
    Max: 23,894
    Softimage: 892

    Does that include the Japanese market were Softimage is dominant?
    ZacD wrote: »
    I kinda feel like Softimage died in 2008 when Autodesk acquired the Softimage brand from Avid for ~$35 million.

    Pretty much, same with most Autodesk software.
  • MichaelElphick
    Another sign that Mayax is coming.
  • j_bradford
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    j_bradford polycounter lvl 17
    I used Softimage for years professionally, but had to finally abandon it because AD wasn't adding any modern features anymore. Once I learned AD had taken off the original XSI devs and put them on Maya, that was it. Kind of sad, the fundamentals of it are better than any package AD has.

    I hope AD sells it off, to someone who will appreciate it. It still has a lot of potential to be updated, modernized and a great alternative to Max or Maya if priced better.
  • NegevPro
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    NegevPro polycounter lvl 4
    I doubt they'll ever merge Max and Maya (and Softimage?) into a single package, there are just way too many problems that would occur. I think it's an idea that sounds great on paper but in reality would be quite terrible. Not only would there be a ton of bugs, but then there would be the question of "What does the UI look like?" or "What are the default hotkeys?"

    As a Max user, I tried opening Maya once and gave up trying to try learning it since it felt completely ass backwards.

    There are far too many Max users for Autodesk to just come and end it one day. The only way a 3d package would die out from Autodesk is if the demand for the package falls. If Justin's numbers are reflective of the industries that use this software at all, then I'd say the demand for Softimage has fallen quite a bit. It sucks for the people who exclusively use Softimage but unfortunately I don't think they have any choice but to stick to older software or move over to a more popular 3d package.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    With all these people talking about merging Max and Maya, I've always thought Softimage was a nice inbetween Max and Maya program.
  • Makkon
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    Makkon polycounter
    No! Don't let Maya live! Of all the programs that should die a horrible death, why can't it be Maya!

    Anyway, rumors rumors...
  • unit187
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    unit187 polycounter lvl 9
    I doubt they will kill Max or merge Maya and Max, they are way too different. Besides, I'd die inside seeing modifier stack in Maya.
  • weee
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    weee polycounter lvl 3
    of course they will gradually do something toward the direction of maintaining and developing just one package, its just more practical business wise, they bought them because they've got the money, so they got rid of these competitors that easily, the only thing left is to carefully re-evaluate and eventually merge them, it will happen sooner or later, maybe in another 5 years we will be able to see what's coming, and no, of course having all these is a big headache to most of the users and themselves. i wouldn't call AD is a very visionary company though, these days they feel more like fackbook type of company.
  • Nox
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    Nox polycounter lvl 5
    I hear that rumor every year.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Yeah buying out competition and shutting them down in a years is a dick move no mater how you look at it.
  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    Whenever I think Softimage, it's always Japanese developers. Just about every studio tour shows them using it.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    Yeah you can forget them selling it, it's the whole reason they bought it was to keep it away from companies like Adobe, Dassault and The Foundary.
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    Ya don't get why people mention merging maya and Max, that would be terrible, the work on different concepts, and they structure there internal data in very different ways.
  • JedTheKrampus
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    JedTheKrampus polycounter lvl 8
    You mean Softimage isn't already dead?
  • Torch
  • low odor
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    low odor polycounter lvl 17
    Another sign that Mayax is coming.

    snapshot20090505144419.jpg
  • Fwap
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    Fwap polycounter lvl 13
    Makkon wrote: »
    No! Don't let Maya live! Of all the programs that should die a horrible death, why can't it be Maya!

    Anyway, rumors rumors...

    +10,508,482,523,123.10²
  • Nox
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    Nox polycounter lvl 5
    3ds Max is dead since 2009 and no one cares.
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Nox wrote: »
    3ds Max is dead since 2009 and no one cares.

    Sorry, according to what? Last time I checked it was Autodesk's flagship software. Lets not have another Max vs Maya vs whatever debate please :shifty:
  • cw
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    cw polycounter lvl 17
    low odor wrote: »
    snapshot20090505144419.jpg

    Ah I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought of this! Showing my age. :)
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    They should goddamn do a properly designed application from scratch. It's 2014 and we're using software that really hasn't changed that much for 15 years...
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    Xoliul wrote: »
    They should goddamn do a properly designed application from scratch. It's 2014 and we're using software that really hasn't changed that much for 15 years...

    this would take more or less 5-6 years...
    and every faster try failed... :D

    on maya they are doing a lot under the hood... for example decoupling some modules (mr) that where tied to the core to get faster development... or change big code branches... thats in a node based environment "much" easier...
  • Michael Knubben
    Torch wrote: »
    Sorry, according to what? Last time I checked it was Autodesk's flagship software. Lets not have another Max vs Maya vs whatever debate please :shifty:

    Flagship? Autodesk makes most of their money in areas other than games/animation, and from what I can tell Maya is taking over from Max in a lot of gaming studios.
    I prefer Max, but agree that development since max 2009 (so the year 2008 really) has been largely pointless. Any advances were countered by increasing slowness, strange decisions and bugs.
  • Alphavader
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    Alphavader polycounter lvl 11
    Xoliul wrote: »
    They should goddamn do a properly designed application from scratch. It's 2014 and we're using software that really hasn't changed that much for 15 years...

    signed!
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    oglu wrote: »
    this would take more or less 5-6 years...
    and every faster try failed... :D

    yeah but this goes on for over a decade now, you could put those 5-6 years twice into the time the software only barely evolved in. ;)
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    true... cause after those 5 years the code is goin to be so complex thats its getting much much slower to work with... you see the same things happening to modo and c4d...
  • Saf
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    Saf polycounter lvl 11
    I know why Autodesk will be killing off XSI. Bulgarov working in XSI. He makes new Robocop and Autodesk fans of old Robocop take revenge on him.
  • Chris Krüger
  • Klaudio2U
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    Klaudio2U polycounter lvl 8
    3ds has alwayas been arch-viz favorite (yeah I know it widely used in other areas especialy in games) but lately its going to much in arch-viz direction which kind of made me think: CAD, Revit and all that for technical viz, 3ds max for beautiful images of that and Maya for entertainment. Softimage down once Bifrost enter the picture in Maya as replacement for ICE.

    Just open docks for 3ds 2014 and Maya 2014 and look at what has added new (extensions included) and the picture gets much clearer.

    That's just my opinion so...at the end of the day I just hope everyone gets what they want..which is also not going to happen, probably :)
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    RIP XSI. You were my first <3

    As for Max getting killed off as well, Autodesk scrambled to dispel such rumors in this video a couple of months ago... so of course I'm very much looking forward to what they'll announce feature-wise for the upcoming 2015 version. Though I'll probably get disappointed yet again.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evKVrQYIV9k&quot;]Expert Challenge: Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 - Extension 1 edition - YouTube[/ame]
  • Xoliul
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    Xoliul polycounter lvl 14
    oglu wrote: »
    this would take more or less 5-6 years...
    and every faster try failed... :D

    Just imagine: a from-scratch, game-art focused application. No extensive animation options (just enough for games), no FX and simulation, no rendering other than GPU-baking, material system is purely focused on realtime viewing. Proper modeling tools to support High-to-low modeling, easy management of what objects to export. Python-only scripting capabilities on a very powerful interface (everything exposed), no compiled plugins that fail after new releases.

    Just imagine...
  • Mark Dygert
    1st)Re: Rumors...

    2nd)
    cptSwing wrote: »
    I'm very much looking forward to what they'll announce feature-wise for the upcoming 2015 version. Though I'll probably get disappointed yet again.
    I wouldn't expect much in the way of huge innovation they seem to have shot themselves in the foot by switching to annual releases. They seem to only have time for small things that fit into a small window.

    Also their focus on stability a few releases ago probably makes them more adverse to trying big things. When so many of their reasons for upgrading the last few releases has been "improved stability" I don't think they want to cash that in?
  • oglu
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    oglu polycount lvl 666
    I wouldn't expect much in the way of huge innovation they seem to have shot themselves in the foot by switching to annual releases. They seem to only have time for small things that fit into a small window.

    why..? they are working on VP2 now several versions...
    same will happen with bifrost in maya... and they are working on some other things in parallel...
  • Klaudio2U
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    Klaudio2U polycounter lvl 8
    On that last 3ds max Expert Challenge that guy in the middle of those 3 on the right sums it all up on 53:09: "I'm not the expert user.!"
    They laugh about it but it's actually sad..very sad!
  • Neox
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    Neox veteran polycounter
    Xoliul wrote: »
    Just imagine: a from-scratch, game-art focused application. No extensive animation options (just enough for games), no FX and simulation, no rendering other than GPU-baking, material system is purely focused on realtime viewing. Proper modeling tools to support High-to-low modeling, easy management of what objects to export. Python-only scripting capabilities on a very powerful interface (everything exposed), no compiled plugins that fail after new releases.

    Just imagine...

    that doesn't sound very future oriented, with workflows going more and more into the film direction. Going just for games and ignoring film will not work anymore in a couple of years, most stuff is very similar already.
  • Pegbird
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    Pegbird polycounter lvl 5
    Xoliul wrote: »
    Just imagine: a from-scratch, game-art focused application. No extensive animation options (just enough for games), no FX and simulation, no rendering other than GPU-baking, material system is purely focused on realtime viewing. Proper modeling tools to support High-to-low modeling, easy management of what objects to export. Python-only scripting capabilities on a very powerful interface (everything exposed), no compiled plugins that fail after new releases.

    Just imagine...

    This is what I imagined

    Modo / Mesh fusion sub-d tools - check
    Zbrush sculpting / dynamesh tech - check
    Headus UV Layout tools and unfolding algorithms - check
    3D Coat painting / retopology tools - check
    Baking tools with the quality and versatility of Xnormal and the speed of Substance in a magical universalized tangent space - check

    back to reality :(
  • radiancef0rge
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    radiancef0rge ngon master
    Xoliul wrote: »
    Just imagine: a from-scratch, game-art focused application. No extensive animation options (just enough for games), no FX and simulation, no rendering other than GPU-baking, material system is purely focused on realtime viewing. Proper modeling tools to support High-to-low modeling, easy management of what objects to export. Python-only scripting capabilities on a very powerful interface (everything exposed), no compiled plugins that fail after new releases.

    Just imagine...

    And yet when the Gameware team attempts to do this with Maya LT with the exception of from scratch people go crazy.
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    Another sign that Mayax is coming.
    I have to say i like Maxyaz =xyz boom! better :poly127: grr say it isn't so Autodesk also clean these chits up please, :) ty.
  • The Flying Monk
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    The Flying Monk polycounter lvl 18
    Rumours of a Max/Maya merger or rewrite have been around for a while now. Almost as long as Max and Maya I think.
    http://www.maxunderground.com/archives/11007_nitrous_putting_together_the_pieces_of_a_max_core_rewrite.html
  • littleclaude
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    littleclaude quad damage
    I can see Autodesk porting all the best tools from 3DSmax to Maya and then killing off 3DSmax in around 5-6 years time.

    I can also see Modo taking center stage during this transition.
  • lloyd
    Makkon wrote: »
    No! Don't let Maya live! Of all the programs that should die a horrible death, why can't it be Maya!

    Anyway, rumors rumors...


    typing text here because i can't just post a quote
  • m4dcow
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    m4dcow interpolator
    lloyd wrote: »
    typing text here because i can't just post a quote

    You guys must not do much animation...
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