3ds max is getting serious about node based modelling

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21

More complaining!
when are users need to understand the business model of OSS development, blender is not an anti-paying model software, it is efficient paying model software, instead of millions goes into the CEO’s pocket just a few thousands, also 3ds and maya users will get these features after along time wishing after they PAYed a few thousands although it looks like it is blender users wish list :slight_smile:

if you feel threatened by 3ds or maya, then you seriously need them, can you hear the “ca ching” :open_mouth:

22

I would love a spreadsheet with projects people would like to write,
and a kickstart for each feature,

catch is it would have to be written in a mannor that it was a addon(maintained?) or trunked.

these modeling nodes, are they realtime gsl?

23

Once again these tools were in Softimage, just redone and pushed into 3ds max. Maybe they have refined these tools more but the basic functionality is the same. AD couldn’t come up with a single fresh idea bar buying out a competitor that has wished for feature, kill the app then stuff it’s guts into one of these oldies.Still very cool to watch. Impressive really.

Note to mods I do not wish to deviate too much from this thread nor hijack it as it has already gone down that route. I apologize in advance for the following rant. I will leave my peace here.

On the blender side. Great to hear the fan fare and complaining happening again.:no: Listen if we all donated regularly to the development of blender, either to developers directly or to the foundation, not just the few who do which is probably most here giving their opinions, but if all users in general were to donate just a few dollars or euros each month, which anyone anywhere can at least come up with, then I am sure the BF could better fund the Devs they have and then some, plus have dedicated polls or services for designing the next big feature request from the community.:yes: But blender is free, people don’t seem to understand that to develop this free app actually costs a lot of money, they imagine Ton and the other devs can quickly whip out a new feature every two or three months from their asses without working a sweat. It is absurd to think such. But that is the reality of open source.:rolleyes:

Years ago there were suggestions for two versions of blender made by one or two developers out there. The free version which anyone and his horse can download and work on for free, or a professional pay for version which has professional developers support for the clients with a different more flexible and permissive license, on site training and the other services that AD or other companies offer. Of course clients get priority for feature request, bugs fixes and the such. Every now and again will professional version features trickle down and get applied to the free version, while some would remain only for the paid for version only.:eyebrowlift2:

Personally, I wished the BF would contemplate at least going down this road in the near future just to shut everyone up, then the pros can get what they want, paid support, feature requests fulfilled, and the best chance of having a studio pipeline system better integrated into blender. The free version of course benefits as the main features remain intact but get better love and attention, as there will be more finances for the BF to support blender better. :yes:

But of course this was shot in the butt back then, and never going to happen. Therefore, if you want said features in blender, then we,… the users,… donate more and support the very development we are screaming and begging for.

I thought it was rich for so many in the community to say that they would not even contemplate the cloud services since they are not happy with the development road map. Though they still expect their wishes to be fulfilled, and cry dear murder when the foundation has to toss a coin to which is more beneficial for it to develop as it relies more on grants being an NPO rather than donations which don’t come close to the needed funds for paying several full time developers.:mad:

Back on target, AD has put out some excellent marketing this time round though. Very impressive videos getting circulated now. Thanks for sharing.:slight_smile:

24

Really graphixsuz? When you 90% of the post is rant, it is hard to believe it’s not the whole point of the post :rolleyes:

Please people, on both sides, we have plenty of other threads (and the ability to create new ones). Let’s not make every thread about 3DS MAX’s features another fight about Blender’s development. Christ, if I can hold myself back on a pet peeve, it can’t be that difficult for the rest of you!

25

interesting, seeing such things in Max, hopefully Blender gets such things in a even better form too someday or the addons which are currently present included in master.

the paid Blender version thing…
that already happend numerous times and is barely news anymore,
on the one hand you have cgcookiemarkets - where you can buy addons
then you have the special Blender versions from Microvellum, Octane and Vray.

heck even the Blender cloud has some addons behind a “paywall” and gives you special builds which you have paid for.
its the gooseberry branch. ever heared of it?

the gooseberry branch is available for everyone - yet it is financed by a current whooping amount of 1677 people.
with a monthly income of 16846$
sounds enough for adding some good stuff :wink:

26

They are not cannibalizing each other’s sales. MAX is more on technical + viz while Maya was more on art / film / games. Overlap only means they only need to develop a source library that both application use.

I’m sure they have think a lot when purchasing Maya and chopping XSI.

27

even if they overlap, there are a lot of studio using 3dsmax for games and animations too, they keep 3dsmax even it is overlapping with maya. :slight_smile:

28

Please tell me how something that is being worked on right now is solving the problems that people had in the past or are having right now. Hint: It will in the future (if it does at all).

The UI revamp was a nice move and attracted a lot of new users but it wasn’t enough. Users were right to complain about how hideous the UI was and they’re right complaining that the revamp is not enough.

And I couldn’t care less about what’s being funded as it is just what Ton wants. The Gooseberry project never hit the crowdfunding goal even with an extended period and it should have been cancelled.

29

wow, so much doubt in people. Lighten up :slight_smile:
Blender is getting some awesome stuff as we speak. It might not be the same, it might still be catching up, but it does have redeeming qualities over autodesk stuff.
It is open source after all!

You want a feature? Hire a developer to implement it. Or you implement it.

30

Looks pretty impressive - the inventor rendering however is pretty sad.

31

Moderation:

Folks, this thread is about node-based modeling in 3ds Max. It is not about your personal pet peeves with Blender’s development. Feel free to take those to another thread (there are quite a few that I’m sure you can find). Any further posts to this thread that are off-topic will be deleted.

32

I guess you didn’t read my post - it’s virtually impossible to find Python programmer do work with Blender. Most people from the Network told me they can’t develop add-on, but they can write small automation scripts. And folks who are involved in Gooseberry, well, they only have so much time a day obviously. And even then, game engine devs / MAX plugin devs cost less that Blender devs (or at least one company who wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for perhaps a day of work; by arm and a leg I mean several thousands of dollars; and that was only one company - I couldn’t find anyone else). There were some devs who worked on addons and helped me in the past, but none of them code any longer for Blender - some dropped it completely, some switched to art.

33

Would be pretty progressive and nice thing in my opinion. I think MCG/ICE was among top requested features and adsk implemented it so having a similar setup where people vote and invest funds into what they find important could help accelerate development and perhaps help with extra revenue.

I would personally love PYTHON BASED(/executing) MODIFIERS as it’s basically ICE/MGC without interface that may not require a lot of work - someone feel free to correct me. Basically Houdinis Python SOP (or the attribWranglers) in modifier form.

34

@Fweeb i’m trying to be constructive, helpful where i can and compact with my posts. To be assaulted and singled out for this without warning is a bit disrespectful, especially considering the nature of all the posts in this thread mismatching your freshly imposed rules.

There is simply too little information on MCG as few people have tried it so there is nothing to be said. Simply cheering or booing it from emotional point of view is pointless while trying to discuss general nodal paradigms or looking at things from blenders perspective (as i did, quoting other post that is not deleted), i thought was not.

So i apologize for offending your feelings and for sake of being relevant to this post - I have high hopes for MGC (being max user for 15+ years) though it remains to be seen how deep/limited the implementation is as ICE evolved for many years.

35

Well it is going to take a while but I am pretty sure that is where it is headed. ICE took a long time but at least they have that legacy.

I mean if they can mature it far enough, it could be on a par with what ICE was/is. This will be an interesting thing to watch.

36

“nodify everything” is planned for blender 2.8 dev cycle

37

This video shows a little bit more of the Max Creation Graph

38

I would die to have this in Blender. The modifier stack works in most instances but can have some limitations because it is very linear.

39

It looks a bit technical right now (possible that they’re trying to get as close to general C++ as possible), perhaps it also has group node functionality and they’ll ship with an entire slew of them to make it easier for artists.

The idea I had in mind for at least a node-based modifier system in Blender would be this…

  • You convert each modifier into a node type
  • Some of the larger ones won’t be there, instead they get broken into two or more smaller, more specific modifiers
  • You also add a bunch of other smaller/lower level modifier node types that do more specific operations on an object
  • Each modifier node has a special input/output type that you can branch off and then combine/add much like the shader socket type in Cycles.

That way Blender would have a node-based mesh manipulation system accessible to artists, I noticed some Matrix nodes in the Max nodes video, I’m not really sure you can realistically expect artists to pick up on that right away.

40

If it is accessible to artists, it is of little use for advanced users. After Sverchok do not see the possibility of having a multifunctional array modifier without access to matrices.