3dsmax 2017

[padre.ayuso]

We are all miserable, complaining, but we keep on paying the ransom. I say we schedule a protest. We can block the AD office entrance. However, I sincerely think that the suits have no clue what is going on; they think that they are creating incredible software. It's like when I call Apple support. They act like I am the only person with an issue and the issue is actually me. Yet, I read hundreds of complaints, about the very issue I am having, on-line. You know, "you are holding it wrong!"

Yeah, you are right. But funny enough, I was speaking to the head of the company that is my retailer for AD and VRay just two days ago. He was telling me how he's been telling these guys (the suit guys at AD) to knock it off and actually listen to the public, as I have other issues with AD products. Perhaps, there are a few more suit guys around who really don't know what is going on, but then again, that is weird to me. Sooner or later that company will come down. I mean, the development team for 3DS Max has actually shrunk... they have removed Mental Ray from their plug-ins and they have bought Arnold, but it is not integrated with 3DS Max and it may be years if ever... Are we possibly seeing a slow but sure disintegration of 3DS Max just like it was with Softimage?

[glorybound]

Didn't Autodesk just have a record quarter?

[padre.ayuso]

Didn't Autodesk just have a record quarter?

Perhaps, but that does not mean they did not remove a good chunk of their development team. One day at the Area I found a blog about the Development Team that was put on place to better listen to the public's problems and help resolve issues. The first post went up and the next thing was posts from some of the users, who months later never got an answer from the development team. Then I have come across a few posts that mention that the development team was lesser and lesser (for 3DS Max).

But to be honest, they can't buy Blender, and they will never be able to buy it. So I'm really looking forward to Blender's development, really excited about, frankly.

[glorybound]

Bigger profits make sense with a skeleton office. Many US companies have let most of their staff go, starting with the highest paid seniors staff. Productivity goes down, product turns to crap, and the only people that win are the stakeholders.

[jstrob]

Good thinking but here's the problem. We have invested more than €15 000 in 3ds Max licenses, upgrades and accompanying plugins & scripts and it's infuriating to think we should spend time learning other software when the only thing we need is for things to just work. New features aside, can we at least have things not get broken with each new release? That's not too much to ask for the price we pay for upgrades each year, is it?

That's approx what it must have cost me too and what make me furious is that if a client ask me to create a fluid sim or with variable viscosity or a sand simulation etc, I have no choice but learn Houdini to do it cause Houdini for 199$ a year still does a lot of stuff our 15 000 Euro setup can't do! Even Blender has many tools max doesn't have without plugins (deltamush, compositing, video editing, 3D camera tracking, game engine, amazing hair simulation)

[jstrob]

...If something is resolved in terms of export of files in blender and able to turn over a job for my VFX department from Blender to Maya/3DS Max, AD can forget about seeing my name in their books ever again. I'd happily even pay Blender for their product. I was checking it out; and then there is VRay for Blender, so.... the last piece of the puzzle needs to fit in, which is to be able to turn over my files to the VFX department... to be continued, as soon as I see Blender 3.0....

There is a test version out right now with Alembic import/export (2.78: see here). So I think it's the best time to start learning it and prepare for the future. The future is open source with maybe some paying plugins like V-Ray with which you get so much for your money.

It's not only Blender, I use more and more open source software everyday: Handbrake (for video compression is just perfect), Natron is very promising, Libre Office (replace Ms office perfectly) , Thunderbird (replaces outlook perfectly), Krita is an awesome painter with even a lazy mouse option that PS does not have, djv_view (a ram player that is so fast but not sure it's really open source).

I think that an open source software, once it gets enough attention can be much more successful than a paying app in the long run. The problem is that with a paying closed-code app like 3ds Max, just a handful of programmers knows how the code is made and when one of them is layed out for short term profit, who will be able to correct a bug in his part of the software? With an open source software, the whole world has access to the code. An open source software invite every programmer in the world to help develop the code so when one of them leaves for a reason or another and if the software has enough attention like I said, there will always be a bunch of other persons who could already know how the code works and it's should not be a problem to debug it and develop it further by other hands.

If the team is well tied together and listening to their users like it seems at Chaosgroup and SideFX, they can still be even more successful cause even if they are a small team, they are all working full time, paid for their work and more focus.

[jstrob]

Didn't Autodesk just have a record quarter?

http://news.autodesk.com/press-relea...uarter-results

Revenue from our Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) business segment was $253 million, an increase of 8 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Manufacturing business segment was $177 million, an increase of 3 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Platform Solutions and Emerging Business (PSEB) segment was $86 million, a decrease of 47 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Media and Entertainment (M&E) business segment was $34 million, a decrease of 16 percent compared to the second quarter last year.

[glorybound]

I guess Autodesk is diverse enough to storm specific industries. I haven't touched AutoCAD or Revit in two years, how are those programs doing?

[padre.ayuso]

http://news.autodesk.com/press-relea...uarter-results

Revenue from our Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) business segment was $253 million, an increase of 8 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Manufacturing business segment was $177 million, an increase of 3 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Platform Solutions and Emerging Business (PSEB) segment was $86 million, a decrease of 47 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Revenue from our Media and Entertainment (M&E) business segment was $34 million, a decrease of 16 percent compared to the second quarter last year.

It sounds to me that they are not doing that great... Perhaps its time for the suit boys to start listening to the consumer crowd...

[padre.ayuso]

I guess Autodesk is diverse enough to storm specific industries. I haven't touched AutoCAD or Revit in two years, how are those programs doing?

Apparently Revit now seamlessly integrates with Max 2017 (yawn).

CAD I'm not sure, someone here in the office uses it, but I'm guessing it is mostly user interface problems (edit: upgrades). We have to update in the office because the other companies we work with update theirs and it looks/sounds not so cool when you call them later asking them to convert a file into a lower system than yours... Even forcing the consumer to upgrade does not seem to be of benefit for AD right now... Not that great...

[jstrob]

It sounds to me that they are not doing that great... Perhaps its time for the suit boys to start listening to the consumer crowd...

What are you talking about, everyone is happy with subsciptions and cloud?? (SARCASM)

"We posted terrific second quarter results driven by growth in new model subscriptions, the end of perpetual license sales, and diligent cost control," said Carl Bass, Autodesk president and CEO. "We’ve now seen several quarters of strong growth from our new model subscriptions, as our customers and partners embrace a model that has greater flexibility and a better user experience. Finally, we continued to extend our leadership in the cloud during a quarter that delivered our largest-ever increase in cloud subscriptions led by BIM 360 and Fusion 360."


"Diligent cost control" Is he talking about this?:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aut...rce-2016-02-03
"Autodesk Inc. ADSK, -0.93% said Wednesday it will terminate 925 employees, or about 10% of its workforce, as part of a corporate restructuring disclosed in a regulatory filing. The design software company said it expects to complete the job cuts by the end of January 2017. Restructuring charges are expected to be $85 million to $95 million, of which $77 million to $85 million would be for employee termination benefits. "The company is taking these actions to accelerate its move to the cloud and its transition to a subscription-based business model,"

[snivlem]

The upgrade option, while under subscription, doesn't exist. Yes, you can decide to stay on an earlier version, but you are still paying for the newest that doesn't work. We are almost 1/2 way through the release year and most can't use 3DS MAX 2017.

Heh this happens with Maya too. They even ripped out the default renderer in 2017 (mental ray) and gave users Arnold............without a single batch render licence! So you ahve one of the most "advanced 3d packages" and "advanced rendering capabilities" as their marketers say, yet you cannot batch render anymore.

Thank god for V-Ray is all i can say.

It's eye opening what Autodesk can do now most are on sub, they could theoretically start ripping out other modules and doing deals with 3rd parties..."oh you want a cloth sim, please buy more licences"...

[padre.ayuso]

largest-ever increase in cloud subscriptions"

No way!! Seriously? There is no other option... surely, if the previous year it was 4000 and another 50% of the costumers HAVE to upgrade and thus move to the cloud, since there is no other option, wouldn't that be an increase???? Now, he still does not have mine.... I'm still on 2013, although not for much longer.... But anyhow, lets see how things develop.

[padre.ayuso]

But like Bobby said, we are all complaining yet we are still paying. Is there no way we can actually do something pro-active to get these guys to change something? Surely, to at least give us a workable program that we can use?

[Alex_M]

I think that trying to change Autodesk politics is hopeless. Thousands of times people have spoken on forums (even on their own one) and blogs how they feel about the politics of AD and the development of their products but they don't seem to care. Sadly, the biggest wake up call for them would be for their shareholders' profits to shrink. This way they will pressure them to do something. I've realized that the Autodesk are not interested in what their customers have to say as much as making their shareholders happy. At Autodesk shareholders are king, not customers, and they will do anything to please them (meaning increasing their profits). Even if this means a price hike or removing the perpetual license options which no one asked us how we feel about (guess why).