I Just Got Back From Macworld

[system]

I agree. And I’d further add (as an experienced beta tester) that sometimes the experience can be as difficult for the people who are “privledged” with the advanced release. Imagine working along in your favorite tool, then becoming a beta tester - all the sudden only half of the buttons work, the program runs slower, features which are half complete don’t function as expected, crashes become more frequent, your older documents aren’t fully supported, lite or no documentation, and many other frustrations. It’s not all “I’ve got the new version before everyone else!” at all. Being a good beta tester requires a lot of hard work and good reporting skills. Beta testers have a responsibility to properly test functions that they might not otherwise even use. It’s not all fun and games, and sometimes the privledge is rather dubious.

It’s not ALL fun-n-games.

That said, I want my 1.5!! I want it right now!! I’m going to hold my breath and not go to sleep until I get it!!

[system]

I have to agree with a lot of the comments here. I wasn’t going to jump in at all but, since I have beta tested a few products, I can say that I’d rather not again.

Stim brings up some very good points about beta testing. Along with all the extra things that you can do, and the things that aren’t implemented, you do have to put up with all the nasties that come along with that and sometimes they can be really nasty.

I’m as anxious as the next to get the new version but, I’m perfectly happy to continue learning in 1.23b until that happens.

Rushing a product to market is not a good plan. As someone else mentioned, look at the track record of software put out by other companies who do rush to deliver. Service packs, updates x.1a, x.2, x.2a, x.3 etc, etc, etc, argh! You spend more time downloading and installing the updates and service packs than you do using the software.

Great things come to those who wait and I have great faith that Pixologic will deliver a great product once all the testing and updating is done. I can certainly wait for that certainty.

I am extremely pleased for those who received the Premiere version. I share in they’re happiness/excitement and say kudos to them! I don’t feel left out at all by it and I do definitely enjoy seeing what they can do with it and those doing the beta testing.

I prefer to have full working, beta tested, bug removed software to install on my machine. I have enough trouble just figuring out how to use the software and do something without having to deal with any other details.

[DM1]

Whilst I’m the first to admit that Ofer Alon has produced an incredible piece of art software and in general a very helpful community, I feel a little uncomfortable with the feeling that any sort of criticism of Pixologic and you become “unmutual”. This was a term used in the Prisoner series with Patrick McGoohan where everybody in the village had to always say positive things about their leaders or become “unmutual”.
I first saw ZBrush in the October 2000 Computer Arts in a small article that showed a futuristic car created by Sonny Santa Maria. I was only a couple of months into computing having up till then done conventional sculpting, the talk of being able to work with virtual clay had me intrigued. I had got nowhere with Corel Draw’s vectors and thought this wasn’t for me. I tried the Z demo for about two weeks and didn’t get beyond the 3D brushes; I had not come to grips with sculpting a primitive. My wife was not too keen on spending £200 on the internet to a company that we had no knowledge of other than a small article, she said buy something that you get on CD and supplied with a printed manual. I persuaded her that Z looked like it had great potential for newcomers to 3D graphics and the free upgrades, yes it helped to persuade me. When my month was up on my temporary serial number I still had no permanent serial, though Z was still running I didn’t know how long for. As I had sent at least 3 emails to register and had received no answers, I decided I was going to have to spend on the cost of a phone call, with my wife of course saying I told you so. The result of that phone call was a call from Jaime who was very helpful and I was put in contact with Chris Senn.
For the next few months Chris was so helpful with any difficulties I had, the times shown on some emails from him indicated he was obviously answering them in the early hours of the morning. I was so pleased with this helpfulness that I wrote to Computer Arts praising Z to the sky, at that time I would have walked miles to persuade people to buy ZBrush and took Z work along to every computer related business that I dealt with. The upgrade from 1.03 to 1.13 proved a problem - it would just not accept my permanent number, in the end when all ideas were exhausted, Chris obtained a new serial number. Then I found I was getting an illegal operation if the first layer was deleted or I used the Zdepth picker. Because Chris tried everything he could think of to try to solve it, I did not at that point become frustrated. In the end he asked me to send as much detail as possible, so I included complete details from the illegal operation dialogue boxes, which he passed on to the programming side.
During the waiting time for a response Chris would still keep in contact but I realised this was not a problem that he could solve himself. The next I knew was that he was going and I speculated whether anybody could be quite as dedicated to customer problems as he had been. I emailed support and asked if they would be kind enough to follow up this illegal operation problem now that Chris was gone. After a month and getting no response’s my interest in Z began to wane, Computer Arts gave away a free copy of Amorphium and I began working with that as I was fed up with the continual illegal ops in Z.
My wife at the end of about 3 months, said aren’t you going to chase them up anymore you have paid to use the program, so I contacted Jaime again and told him that support was non existent since Chris had left and he responded. 1.23 was then coming out so there was no further point in bothering with my problem with 1.13.
With the repeated problems with the serial number each time change and the frustration of being ignored now Chris wasn’t there I was inclined to use my other programs I had invested in and not use Z for everything in an image. One person on the forum kept me on track to do all the image work in Z; the last total Z was Hercules. I struggled to do the post work in Z knowing it would be easier in PSP, but the friend persuaded me to stick with it, I sent it in for the gallery and never got a look in, whilst there is stuff on the gallery that is only part Z. Some people got annoyed at me for daring to say that the first UK advert, was about 80% Poser, I accept the Poser work was acknowledged. I wasn’t suggesting my own work for it, there are much more proficient all Z artists than me. Z is great in my opinion, but I must confess since the Computer Arts advert, it’s made it much harder to persuade people that they don’t need Poser to make it work.
You might ask where this is all going; well Kathy seems to be fighting this almost on her own. Is it true that if you’re not critical of anything Pixologic does you will more likely get a chance to test new programs, I think the answer to that is yes. All I ask, given some of my past experiences can we just be honest and critical where necessary, in the same way we can praise where that is justified. When I purchased a licence to use ZBrush I wasn’t aware of an agreement that stated I must always be uncritical, or as a user I must act like an employee. I hope Pixologic will take this in the spirit it is intended and take on board the fact that some criticism where things are wrong is constructive not destructive. Total sycophancy cannot possibly help the program’s sales growth, the company need to look at criticism as well as praise. If you have never had a really aggravating problem with Z or continual serial number difficulties then you won’t have experienced alternative Z, which believe me is frustrating. Perhaps a proper request for volunteers to test would have saved any feeling that favourites were automatically chosen. I realise as an “unmutual” I would have been counted out.
Dave

[Muvlo]

I can certainly see all of everyone’s points. DM said that fewer feelings would have been hurt if Pixologic had made a request for volunteers, but I don’t really think so, because guess what: Everybody would have signed up! Still, I don’t think anyone is really too mad, and I’m sure no-one is angry at the people who spoke against the beta-testing. Let’s just all remember that Siggraph ends very soon, and ZBrush is supposed to be released “shortly after”.

[Nikko]

First off, when has ANYONE from Pixologic ever stated that you would be in the doghouse, or as DM would put it “an unmutual” (excellent reference,DM!), if you criticized them? The answer is NEVER. You can ASSUME what you want, but Pixologic has fielded complaints as well as compliments with equal professionalism. You’ve all made comments about the company’s approach, some based on observations, some based on opinions, but the facts are, NONE of us know the whole story. So until you DO know the WHOLE story, PLEASE try to give Pixologic a LITTLE benefit of the doubt. I believe they are doing things the best way they can.

These postings of images created with the beta versions should just build anticipation for the final release, not resentment that you don’t have it yet! Everyone who owns a copy of Zbrush WILL have the new version, with MORE tools than the beta versions have, with a great deal fewer bugs than the beta versions have! EVERYBODY can’t BE a beta tester! Pixologic is still a small company, and couldn’t possibly handle 2000 or so beta testers for the next version of the software! Out of the sake of curiosity, EVERY single member of this forum would want the newer tools, finalized or not! Think about it!

I agree, the serial number thing is a pain, but it seems to be fairly successful at combatting the piracy that is completely rampant in computer applications. Anyone with an internet connection and the urge can probably find about any software they want for free, through the warez community. Various crackers have beaten the protection schemes of 3DS Max, Maya, SoftImage, Lightwave, Adove, Macromedia, Corel, etc, etc, etc. EVERYBODY making software is getting ripped off. Would YOU enter into a business knowing your hard work was going to fall into the clutches of thieves who wouldn’t return ANYTHING for your efforts? I think it’s a pretty darn commendable thing to develop software nowadays, especially something like Zbrush which is different than anything else on the market. You REALLY have to care about what you are doing to justify the cause. Pixologic is developing software that has NO competition, at least NOT YET.

Which is better, 3DS Max, Maya, Lightwave, or SoftImage, etc, etc, etc? Take your choice. It depends on your intended use and which type of workflow suits you the best, but they all can accomplish GENERALLY the same things, and they’re all getting better and better with each new release. As soon as ONE softare is INARGUABLY THE BEST at EVERYTHING it does, the competion will lose ground and eventually go out of business. Currently Zbrush has NO competition, but sooner or later, SOMEONE will “borrow” some ideas from it, incorporate other ideas original or “borrowed”, and make software that will give people an option to make choices in their 2D/2.5D/3D software. You KNOW it will eventually happen. It IS the nature of the business. So please cut Pixologic a little slack. It’s a LONG uphill battle they’re waging, to succeed.

I don’t work for Pixologic. But I would JUMP at the chance, if it was ever presented to me. Not to get rich, but to be a part of something that was changing and expanding the ways in which artistic vision can be realized. To MATTER.

Whether they financially succeed or fail, Pixologic has made a difference in a lot of our lives. Some people here say they’ve never done artwork before finding Zbrush, yet now are creating with sculpting, painting, texturing, lighting, and rendering tools, releasing the inner artists within themselves. Zbrush has MATTERED to those people, changing part of their lives, whether they ever get another upgrade or not. Discovering artistic appreciation is a life-changing experience.

[Slosh]

Wow, Danny! (Nikko) You really put it in a nutshell. I’ve been staying out of it, and I still don’t want to put in 2 more cents, but I do want to say that I agree with your philosphy that ZBrush has “mattered” to many people. I am one of those people. To say I have no life is all good in fun & games, but of course we all have lives. However, ZBrush has put something into my life that I was missing for many years…a creative outlet and a darn great group of peers to share the joy of discovery and expression. If (G. forbid) Pixologic were to disappear today, I would still have my 1.23b and do not need anything more.