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Apple...


MG

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Yesterday, while I was reading the latest issue of 3DWorld Magazine, I stumbled on the Shake 2.5 review.

You all know Shake (and Silicon Grail) have been acquired by Apple. And we all remember Micro$oft being dragged to court for their (too) tight integration of Internet Exploiter in Windoze?

But here comes the best part. After Apple had finally ported Shake to MacOS X, they are going to sell it for $4950 for MacOS X. While Windoze, Linux and IRIX (SGI) users have to pay $9900 (!!!)

What also angers me is that these same clowns (read: Apple) have also 'murdered' the FilmGimp project. Since it's main contributor, on this wonderful open source project, was Silicon Grail!

So please Apple, do me and the rest of the 3D community a favor: Get the hell out of here and spend some more time on creating even bigger desktop icons! :angry:

I rest my case... <_<

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lol...

yeah Apple really wants into the film biz it seems...or rather, they want to sell hardware to the visual XF studios...

I went to a Maya demo at a local reseller early this week - because it promised info on mental ray....well, after the 20 minute Apple sales pitch we were give about 40 mins of "this is how we move stuff around in Maya, and you can have a 'virtual camera' etc..." :blink: then this on mental ray :"maya has mental ray now...so you can do GI, and HDRI...and here are some pretty pictures. The End." <_<

I don't mind the fact that Apple has bought Nothing Real and Silicon Grail, and I can't blame them for wanting to sell more hardware....after all - that's the business that they are in...it's the fact that users (read - studios that have to make purchasing decisions) have fewer choices now...or maybe just more expensive choices.

as for Film Gimp....I knew that Silicon Grail was a big player in it's development, but I'd also read that Rhythm & Hues are as well....so all hope in not lost... :)

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Well Shake was always 10K, wasn't it? So as far as Shake users are concerned it shouldn't matter. Even so, if they'd like to continue to use Shake it's easy and cheap enoguh to upgrade to the latest greatest Macs, with Shake, and use them as dedicated compositors. I don't think it's really that bad. They'll end up saving lot's of money down the road.

Also, Film Gimp, is far from dead. Silicon Grail dropped out of development a long long time ago. Currently it's being worked on by people from Rhythm and Hues, Sony Pictures Image works, and ILM. They are regularly adding new features and putting out new releases, and they look to have a very nice development schedule planned for themselves.

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I am rooting for DD's NUKE. Not because there are people from DD in this forum, but becuase I REALLY am cheering for them and hoping NUKE to give Apple a very SERIOUS competition.

The most pleasing reply so far :D

And speaking of NUKE, hell yes! Especially since I've heard rumours about "apprentice/non-commercial" versions of it being released aswell!

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Shouldnt forget Halo, it is a good compositor, & in the near future it *will* get better as a stand alone product.

;)

I am not forgetting it at all. Infact, I'm using it quite extensively already!

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I dont like Apple and this for more then 10 years - poor desktop and and a poor system. Now it seems it is a bit better with the BSD-base, but a high price for nice design of the box and icons?

And I dont like the plans with Shake: Pricing and to drop the Windows-version.

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When it comes to beauty on the desktop, it's in the eye of the beholder. The "issues" most people have with the way the OSX desktop appears usually have to do with its default configuration. Spend five minutes and it becomes one of the most functional and, to my eyes, pleasing desktops to use. I like it a lot better than my KDE desktop at work or my XP and NT desktops at home and compared to Irix...fuggetaboutit...in a word, useless.

Anyway, it's been pointed out already that Shake was $10K for the GUI version before Apple had anything to do with them. Even $5K is a fairly outrageous sum in light of current 3D suite license realities. Even assuming I intend to run it on OSX, why would I spend twice the average 3D app price for a compositor when I can do most everything I could want or need to do with Commotion, AfterEffects, either/or, or both, for less? In fact, if Pinnacle made Commotion a 3D compositor like the current AE I could almost forget I own AE.

I miss the more flexible node based approach (of Shake) and the more worthy of the term "pro" ability to easily pass data in and out (you'd never know someone with real production experience actually had a hand in either Commotion or AE's design...let me import and export ASCII you 'tards!). But I can get by doing it their way and save myself $3K in the process. I've got good tracking, great roto, Primatte (not that I plan to ever need to use it) and high bit precision. As cool as Shake is, it's not $5K cool to me and wasn't ever $10K cool.

The days of expensive graphics software are over. Maya commercials running on the SciFi Channel should have been a wake-up call to the entire industry.

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I guess I'll never really understand the whole "What a beautiful desktop" thing...I have a nice (user configurable :) ) wallpaper, a few icons (most used apps only - not: everything-that-has-ever-been-installed-on-my-computer-plus-a-bunch-of-files-that-shouldn't-be-there), a few shortcuts in my Quick Launch thingamabob and thats it....

I really couldn't give a rat's ass otherwise...I was at a Maya Demo thing last week (waste of time) and was subjected to an Apple sales pitch (small price to pay for the demo I guess...) and one of the Selling Features of OSX was how nice the interface looks...???...okedoke! Here's my cash! :)

ah well...to each his own....

as for expensive graphics software...tell that to the guys selling Massive!...40K!!...like the good old days...

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Well, I was thinking also how the desktop functioned as well as how it looked. It works pretty well at doing desktopy things. I've yet to install xfree86 on mine so we'll see how well it works with Aqua and X on the same system...I wouldn't do it except for OpenOrafice, er, uh, Office.

$40K for Massive? Any buyers?

I remember when the average 3D seat was $60K, running on the hardware equivalent to a Playstation 1. It's hard to believe the desktop supercomputers we have these days still aren't fast enough.

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Speaking of Massive, in an interview with the creator (forgot his name) he said there would be a free/non-commercial version available for download.

And, Massive's price tag might drop sooner or later. Since there are quite some competitors (including Softimage|XSI 3.0's new crowd system).

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Speaking of Massive, in an interview with the creator (forgot his name) he said there would be a free/non-commercial version available for download.

Steve Regelous or whatever his name is, has since changed his mind about releasing a free version it seems. He initially said he was considering it in an interview, but around Siggraph last year he announced that there would be no free version, maybe a cheap student license, but no free version.

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from their FAQ:

Q: How do I get a demo license of Massive?

A: Massive is being beta tested at selected studios and will be available for sale soon. Demo licenses are not currently available.

Q: Is there a free version of Massive?

A: There are no plans to make a free version of Massive.

:(

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