Introducing Orbolt™ Smart 3D Assets

[digitallysane]

I still wonder what the actual market base for this is. I think the houdini community is quite small, and my estimate for the number of people that would purchase an asset from the store (based just on a guess and no actual numbers or data) is maybe 3000 people a year. It is not like we are talking about itunes or a store with millions of customers. I hardly see the typical $1 assets as equaling much profit - but once again, that is just an uniformed opinion on my part. We'll know more about that during the next year or two as the store matures.

I see it being most useful to small studios (being launched togheter with a drop in price is significant, I think).

There are many cases in which a small studio has a complex job with an impossible deadline. Having the opportunity to skip a lot of R&D time (which might simply not be available) and just spending some hundreds of $$$ on already developed assets in the store would be ideal.

For that to work, the store should actually have what people might need in such situations, so I think a potential author might want to browse the forums (here and the SESI one) and look for what people want. (wood fracturing system? hair styling toolset? systems and looks for typical crappy jobs like packshots and product demos?).

It's also a nice, centralised place for people who want to freely distribute their tools.

I think it would be nice to have the option for HDK plugins as well.

[dennis.albus]

I have split feelings about this move.

I think it totally depends on what kinds of assets are shared on the store. If it will be something like Lagoa or emFlock for XSI I will be totally happy to pay for it as this really gives me a lot of value which would have taken a lot of time to rebuild (if I would manage to do it). Also these are complete systems that contain lots of nodes that can be combined to create greater effects.

However I don't see a lot of value in buying an asset that does one or two really simple things WITHOUT the ability to go inside and make it my own and customize it. There has never been an asset or hip file on the forums that did exactly what I needed. I always needed to customize it to some degree. And thats exactly one of the core strengths of Houdini. To build your effects EXACTLY how you imagine them and not kind of like this but mostly how the plugin enables you to do it (Hello 3DS Max, I'm looking at you).

In an ideal world the Houdini Community Spirit of sharing will stay exactly the same while the Orbolt store (don't like the name by the way) will be filled with really powerful tools from Studios and top Houdini TDs that would have never been shared otherwise.

edit: I do think it's a nice centralized place to share assets. It depends on us to use it in way that separates us from other communities.

-dennis

Edited August 8, 2012 by dennis.weil

[evgen]

My two cents.

This store is faced to new houdini users i think.

Personally, I dont want to depends on DA author in my work, who locked his assets.

But if newbie user doing simple campfire by one single click with asset from store - he get this possibility.

Houdini is slow solution to make one-click things. So store resolve part of this problem.

[shukin]

the power of Houdini is the ability to dive into networks and learn. locking OTLs is a very very bad move.

I think - thats why ORBIT is a STORE to SELL assets

Its absolutely not a friendly sharing resource for you educational purpose.

If you neen explosion/noise/shader asset - take it and use it

I'm sell to you working asset - instead for 5/10/25$ sell to you all of my tips and tricks including years of experience

All the best

Denys)))

[bhaveshpandey]

@macha and @petz:

Exactly my thoughts..

the whole philosophy of openness and sharing might diminish as a result of this.

its been one day since its official announcement and its already stirring up an otherwise

very patient and giving community of Houdini artists.

I personally think we were better off with just an exchange and houdini integrating OpenVDB was a better

news than this.

I remember there had been an active debate about this on sesi (or odforce forums??) and I'm quite surprised

this has been put into action.

[almatea]

I think it is good chance for freelancers to get some money.

About free opensource. I think that idea must be free but realisation of this idea must be worth.

I think I will post some simple funny assets for free (such as

) and some heavy assets for money.

PS

Also I think that donate button may be good idea for houdini exchange website

Edited August 8, 2012 by almatea

[zarti]

i have the same doubt and question about versioning :

what happens and what shoudnt happen with an asset i buy but decide to fit to my certain project need ?

what if I think it could had been better from me since the begginig ?

if another more experienced user suggest even a smarter way and can extend it further ?

how can we keep sharing opinions about an bought asset ?

contribution should be encouraged at any point and at any level . no ?

[Nerox]

I think Orbolt is awesome! Here is why:

- It opens up the forum community with centralized accessible assets which are tested and support version control right out of the box.

- Assets can be as free and open or closed and secure as you like (although I'm looking forward to a 'source' license, which optionally allows the author of a locked asset releases the source for a little extra. Great for larger projects)

- Enlarges the likeliness that talented TD's invest time in high quality tools because they might make some money along the way

- Active market place, sales will tell which type of licenses and pricing is preferred by the users

Imagine the awesome ocean toolkit with some proper support in return for a reasonable price. Not to mention active development and new features.

Imagine production proof, tested assets with active updates. Thus if its properly build you don't need to unlock it!

I believe there is no reason to fear that the learning experience of Houdini might evaporate, I for see the opposite: More maintained examples that are easy to find!

My the road rise to meet you,

Nick Nimble

[bhaveshpandey]

thats the funny thing about it..

eloop(Drew) did an implementation of HOT for houdini, johner prototyped a dynamic fracturing tool

and shared it with the whole community which has been great learning resource as well for all of us.

Its not bad for the people to sell their ideas but sharing the knowledge has grown this community

from just a bunch of Houdini tds (few years back) to a relatively larger number of tds at the moment.

why change now?

Edited August 8, 2012 by bhaveshpandey

[hopbin9]

wow.

I wasn't expecting this thread to go in this direction.

Let's keep something in perspective.

1) The old exchange site for Houdini really really sucked, was out dated and I don't think anyone was using it. Orbolt is it's replacement and a huge improvement over it.

2) orbolt.com is not a support or community website. It's a retail store. Comparing the benefits of a sharing community with a retail store is a mute argument.

3) Locking assets, setting prices, selling big assets or small assets. These are out of orbolt's control. It's purely up to the authors.

4) orbolt is not an educational resource. It wasn't design to fit that need. Something would need to be created with a different design then orbolt.

Up until now we haven't had a centralized repository of assets for Houdini. While people have been sharing OTLs on odforce can you even find them? How do you know which version is the latest? This isn't the right way to be doing it, and orbolt is much better at implementing this.

Here are some key benefits to the store:

1) You can follow authors and receive notifications of updates to assets you are using or interested in.

2) Authors have control over locking/unlocking/pricing/etc.. etc..

3) The store automates dependencies checking and downloading.

4) You can search and find assets by categories.

5) It's maintain and developed by the same company that developed Houdini.

6) Asset authors are also Houdini users. So don't be to quick to say it's not part of the community.

[3__]

Question: Can a scene/otl I share be flagged as 'open' so a 3rd party can't repackage, lock & sell it?

Something like how Apprentice works in making stuff NC, but for .hip and .hip derived otls as well...

[Erik_JE]

I don't mind paying for some stuff to save some time. I would never buy something locked down tho, that I can not modify and build on further.

[Mikee]

Just hope sidefx will not follow autod..k with an infinite number of paid plugins for their applications, but will continue its philosophy of openness for community.

[hopbin9]

Just hope sidefx will not follow autod..k with an infinite number of paid plugins for their applications, but will continue its philosophy of openness for community.

Or worse, SideFX will develop assets and then puts them in the store, rather than include them in future releases of Houdini.

Edited August 8, 2012 by hopbin9

[kgoossens]

I agree with Nick Nimble completely.

I'm a strong proponent of the store because of the following other reasons.

If I want to create bigger projects then there are many domains that I'm not an expert in. Also in Houdini. If I'm able to buy intelligent assets that can do the work for me it will actually help me a lot.

People are still going to share the same things they have shared before because it isn't part of a huge investment.

The difference now is that people are willing to share their tools that they have worked on for weeks or months. This was something that didn't happen before.

So I see this as being very positive! It is going to add something instead of something that is going to be taken away.

I've added a link of some upcoming tools I'll be sharing on Orbolt.

[rob]

I totally agree with this. People that usually share their stuff in the communities are now going to think twice before they do that and

probably chose to sell their scenes instead. One of the greatest things about Houdini has always been the fact that there's so many great resources

around that allow people to learn and self-educate themselves. Not a fan at all of the locked OTLs at all, just sharing my personal feelings here

Andrew I'm with you !. I weighed in on the H12 beta about it, It also shifts development of new tools and fixes to the open market instead of sidefx doing it, it gets outsourced.

I do agree though that the exchange was poor and Houdini is sorely in need of a boost in terms of things like shaders and maybe this will drive some innovation. And to counter the "Are they selling my stuff" claim people should just upload a free version of there own workflow.

I just hope these tools all follow the nice neat " houdini" way of doing things.

Rob

[md5]

what stops anyone from taking a free asset from odforce or orbolt, and release a "very similar one" for some cash ? nothing. We are all doomed, 2012 is the end for sure !! Why would I share anything from now on ?

[rgelles]

My take on this asset site is ---it seems a lot of how it ends up is up to the community and the creators choices they make . Its a marketplace. If folks want to put this or that up for free then can . Charge they can. Lock then can or not. buyers can ignore or buy depending on their appetite for the cost. So I think we will get what we want in the end but it may take a while to get to that point.

Rich

[vi_rus]

what stops anyone from taking a free asset from odforce or orbolt, and release a "very similar one" for some cash ? nothing. We are all doomed, 2012 is the end for sure !! Why would I share anything from now on ?

There's a review field, so everyone can type a comment at this case.

[hyperforce]

I totally agree with this. People that usually share their stuff in the communities are now going to think twice before they do that and

probably chose to sell their scenes instead. One of the greatest things about Houdini has always been the fact that there's so many great resources

around that allow people to learn and self-educate themselves. Not a fan at all of the locked OTLs at all, just sharing my personal feelings here

Manu

Just some BG info to set the stage:

I've been at Siggraph for the past few days and had the opportunity to talk to some of the Sidefx people in person.

Also i've been in the alpha/beta testing program for the store as well.

Knowing how the community is build so far I doubt people will start locking all their assets. This community is very tight knit and overall people have allways been sharing little tools and files with one another. Its the big projects that span weeks if not months that people have been keeping private up till now (apart from screenshots and videos) because its something they have been working on for ages and don't want to release because exactly for the problem that other people could copy it whole-sale and run off with their work. I think its those large un-released projects that will be using this locking feature, that go's the same for pricing. And keep in mind its still a beta, so if this does become a problem with people locking and or pricing even their smallest assets, SideFX could simply place a minimum limit or more strict criteria on the size/complexity for locking Digital assets. Solved.

I expect that what has been given out so far on the odforce and Houdini forums among-st the community will remain free just the same at it has always been, and I think people will still share and help. Its those large un-released projects that I expect will now be more likely to be released to the public, perhaps for a fee, but thats not a problem IMO.

I read around and some people are really screaming that the sky will be falling and the community is about to dissolve like a wet rag... and I don't believe that. With sideFX performing QA on the assets to prevent abuse and to guarantee quality and functionality of the assets, I think there will be a slow but steady growth of the store as it matures into its final release and beyond, and a great addition to the community. I expect everything will be just fine, if not a lot better! From what i've heard and from my experience, the store will fill a gap for companies and other people to dive into Houdini themselves.

Manuel, if anything, you might be able to post up your path finding algorithm as a Digital asset, making it easier for people to use it. I'm certainly going to recommend it if you do as its helped me out a ton.

Once I get back home i'll upload a few small tools that helped me during the creation of my level generator. One of which is a tool that cleans line primitives that have the same position and points.

All for free and completely unlocked.

I'm also working on releasing a larger project of 300+ hours that generates train-rails on, below and through a terrain with train stations, and I have no reason to lock that. I'm not even sure if i'll ask money for it, I might as well release it for free.

Edited August 9, 2012 by hyperforce