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•••A Sneak-Preview of the next ZBrush-Update•••

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#301

Well this isn’t very encouraging at all… I suppose we should be prepared to wait between 8 and 24 months before we even have an official announcment for the release date of the 2.5 update. Apparently Pixologic isn’t too concerned about keeping the ‘have nots’ that arn’t on their list of ‘super star’ beta testers informed about Zbrush’s future. Saying that new information will be posted ‘soon’ dosn’t amount to a hill of beans when you consider the same thing was said after the original announcment of the update.

Sorry if I sound a bit disgruntled, but I really would have expected something more from Pixologic at this point…

Regards
Xarf

#302

I’m also a little disappointed that Pixologic hasn’t shown all of the stuff they’re working on at Sigg, but guys, think about it: If Pixologic gets the whole retopologizing stuff just right, it’ll definitely change the way the whole CGIndustry models organic objects. And working out something like that takes time - I’d rather wait another year and then some before I’d accept a half-assed update that doesn’t really give me anything.

It’s better that they take their time to get the things working, no rushing and we’ll all be happy. ZBrush 2.0 was a revolution to digital sculpting and I’m sure Pixologic will want to repeat that with 2.5/3.0/whatever.

#303

I dont think you quite understand where I am coming from. I’m not saying I want the update right now, I just want them to TALK TO US. So far they don’t have a very good track record of this or making good on thier word as far as I can tell. IIRC the mac port of Z2 was perpetually late, the demo of Z2 that was supposed to emerge a ‘few weeks/months’ after the mac port never came to pass and with this new bussiness about 2.5 we learn that Pixologic has a very flexible and crreative understanding of the words ‘soon’ and ‘shortly’. They have given us absolutley NO reason to believe their statements that there will be new information about the 2.5 update ‘soon’ after Siggraph.

If we, the ‘average’ users are not their core audience and therefore don’t matter as much as, lets say the folks at WETA and similar places, they should just flat out tell us that instead of stringing us along.

Don’t get me wrong I love Zbrush and I have no problem waiting for the update, I would even PAY for it. I do however have a problem with a company being noncommunicative with its customers and treating them with as much indifference as Pixologic seems to regarding these matters.

Regards,
Xarf

#304

I agree with you Thomas. In fact, I can’t help but find this whole thread amusing. You see the same thing when a new game in a popular series is announced - people get all agitated and start demanding screen shots :D. Its probably smart of pixologic to stay quiet lest they say something they have to take back, which would probably inflame the community more than being quiet (I don’t know - sounds good anyway). They probably just want breathing room to get it out when its good 'n ready rather than disappoint the already soaringly high expectations.

Just my 2 cents.
#305

Can’t we even wait for them to get back, and write about it before we go bashing them? aurick just posted, and the show is still going on. They have not left, and they have a long flight home, and probably some rest to catch up on. Wait a week, from right now, and there will probably be a nice “new” write up about it just like the one on the first page of this thread. :wink:

#306

Pixologic isn’t as big of a company as you might think people. It’s my assumption (and probably an accurate one too) that only 2 to 5 people at most actually code zbrush. When you don’t have the massive teams of people like adobe, alias, autodesk, or avid (funny, those all begin with ‘a’) have working on the product, then you must realize that releases won’t come as fast as you’d like them too, and you probably won’t get too much new news from the developers because they are too busy creating the next release.

It’s my believe that we were given a sneak peek of the next release in November of 2004 a little early. More or less, to quell the questions and concerns of users about zbrush in its current state, and what the future holds for the product.

If you remember, just a bit before November of 2004, an appreciable number of people on the forums were in an uproar about Silo’s new topology brush and how, among other often requested options, fixes, and features, zbrush badly needed something similar.

I know some people are disgruntled that they have to wait so long for the release, but just a little more patience. Afterall, it’s almost here :slight_smile: With such few people working on zbrush itself, the last thing you’d want to do is rush them into releasing a product that isn’t up to par.

just…be cooooool :sunglasses:

#307

Throwing more developers at a project won’t necessarily speed it up anyway - as the saying goes: you can’t make a baby in 1 month with 9 developers :D. There is usually only a small team of people working on the core functionality of an application anyway as large teams tend to just impede progress. Companies with lots of developers usually have them compartmentalized very well (if the company is any good at writing software). Having been a developer on a 2-3 year R&D project myself (which I’m not saying makes me an expert), I can tell you that trying to break new ground just seems to take time no matter what. There’s a million little wrinkles and things that are just impossible to think of before hand that must be found, understood, and ironed out.

#308

I am also surprised that we havent heard anytthing … I dont know of a company doing this kinda thing that hasnt announced something: Silo, Modo, LW, Maya, C4D, XSI, etc.

I always have had the feeling before that the Z guys were well intouch with the community … but at this point Im not feeling like that at all anymore.

I know someone with rise up to defend the Z Guys and thats all well and good but no matter what is said the complete lack of communocation lately is quite disheartening. :frowning:

#309

relax
this just allows more time to learn and explore ALL the wonderfull features that ZB2 already has.
all the new features are just gonna pile on another life time of things to explore, and insure you’ll never leave the computer.
…whispering, just slip the pancakes under the door.

#310

The main team of Pixologic is doing the most hard core presentation schedule at their booth at Siggraph. I think they have 15 or so minute breaks between demo’s, and answer people’s questions in between that. Ryan Kinglsien can barely even talk, I feel sorry for the guy. They are giving really cool demos (mostly Pixolator), it’s nice to finally see it in action. All the new features are really exciting. They are really working their butts off right now, I wouldn’t doubt that any kind of update on their site will be a few days after the show is over.

Aaron Sims and Rick Baker were there talking and signing their cool posters today…good times!

It does suck they don’t have any info up, but that’s why it’s worth it to attend Siggraph if it’s at all possible, all the new news first… :slight_smile:

#311

we’ll hold you to that :slight_smile: …the sooner the better,the next ZB is looking very,very cool
wishing I was at siggraph too.

Cheers
Stefan

#312

I’ve been circling the ZBrush booth every once in a while in my Siggraph travels, and yup those guys are all working their freaking tales off, the demo’s seem to never stop, and there always ends up being standing room only whenever anything is shown off.

I got a couple of posters from Meats, VERY cool to see him in action, he’s a great “explainer” of ZBrush in person.

They (Ryan, I think) did mention when they would at least give a release date for 2.5, lol…yet just in case, I won’t be stupid enough to repeat even that.

ZBrush 2.0 is crazy amazing, but seeing the new stuff shown off for 2.5 just makes it that much sweeter.

AgentSmith

#313

I have always been under the impression that at most the developer count is 2; pixolator and perhaps someone doing the less intensive ‘grunt’ work (such as coding the ui toolkit and what not). This is all besides the point. I get the distinct impression that we are being ignored.

I have worked as a developer before, and I know it can take a long time to get these sorts of things done. This isn’t about development cycles, its about communication. The last time Pixologic said we would have new information ‘soon’ was 8 months ago. Now Siggraph is well underway and Maxon, Avid, Alias, Newtek, Luxology, AutoDesk, NeverCenter and several others have made press releases concerning the new stuff they are showing. The best we have gotten from pixologic is a promise that ‘soon’ something would be posted on zbrushcentral. Their definition of ‘soon’ is very flexible it seems. The mac port of Z2 was meant to follow ‘soon’ after the PC version (1 year), the Z2 demo was meant to be released ‘soon’ after the Mac version of Z2 (still hasnt happened over a year later) and we were supposed to have more information here on zbrushcentral about the 2.5 update ‘soon’ after the original videos were posted. That last ‘soon’ is 8 months and counting. All the while every other major 3d software vendor has managed to update their websites/make press releases and get to siggraph at the same time.

I am sure the Pixologic guys were busting their tails at siggraph and thats good, but that dosn’t change the fact that they have repeatedly conducted themselves in way that can only lead me to believe that they regard their ‘ordinary customers’ with ambivalance at best.

Believe it or not Pixologic is hardly the worst offender in this respect. I have waited patiently on software vendors in similar circumstances FAR LONGER than I have with Pixologic. I feel like a broken record but this is not about development cycles, its about broken promises and poor/hardly any communication with customers.

What makes you think it’s ‘almost here’? I have seen no indication of that, only that we will ‘soon’ hear an update on its progress. Given Pixologics definition of ‘soon’ that means we might get a post from Pixolator in 8 months that simply says ‘were still working on it guys, it will be done when its done, see you in 8-16 months for the next update.’

I would wait 2-3 years for a new version, patiently, if I had any indication whatsoever that Pixologic gave a flying leap about making its customers feel like they are important and that their patience is appreciated. A monthly update, even if only it said something like ‘hey, we are still working on it, Pix has been grinding away at the new skinning code the last few weeks to make it just perfect. We will keep you posted.’ would go a long way. I know I am not the only person that feels this way. I was speaking to someone the other day who owns 3 licenses of Z2 who shared my concerns. It seems he dosnt frequent Zbrushcentral for reasons such as these.

‘I will believe it when I see it’, and I don’t expect to see it anytime soon. This is the last I will say on this subject as I suspect my posts will be deleted anyway and I dont want to seem like I have an axe to grind. I am merely a disgruntled customer airing a greivance in the only way that I feel has the slightest hope of being effective.

regards,
Xarf

#314

I don’t understand what you’re complaining about - I would rather have someone who REALLY knows what they’re doing being behind the scenes and working on their stuff instead of popping in here 24/7 and telling us whatever we want to hear. Even though we’ve already heard it. That’s not professional and most of all, Pixolator doesn’t NEED to tell us the same thing over and over if the situation has not changed so why do you need to?

Yes, soon is coming soon. You want to hear it again? Ok, fine, it’s coming soon! Does that help? Didn’t think so.

Want to bother the man? That’s probably the reason he’s not posting more, because of this sort of “clingy” attitude. Give him some breathing room, and relax - you get a GREAT piece of software. If Z2 wasn’t great, yes you could complain, but it IS. So give Pixolator some breathing room. Already we’ve seen some pretty inventive stuff posted, so I can understand why they’re being hush-hush about it.

I don’t want the development team holding my hand on these forums instead of working on their stuff. Especially Pixolator… That’s what Aurick is for :smiley:

It’s coming soon, meanwhile. :wink:

#315

I don’t understand what you’re complaining about - I would rather have someone who REALLY knows what they’re doing being behind the scenes and working on their stuff instead of popping in here 24/7 and telling us whatever we want to hear. Even though we’ve already heard it. That’s not professional and most of all, Pixolator doesn’t NEED to tell us the same thing over and over if the situation has not changed so why do you need to?

Yes, soon is coming soon. You want to hear it again? Ok, fine, it’s coming soon! Does that help? Didn’t think so.

Want to bother the man? That’s probably the reason he’s not posting more, because of this sort of “clingy” attitude. Give him some breathing room, and relax - you get a GREAT piece of software. If Z2 wasn’t great, yes you could complain, but it IS. So give Pixolator some breathing room. Already we’ve seen some pretty inventive stuff posted, so I can understand why they’re being hush-hush about it.

I don’t want the development team holding my hand on these forums instead of working on their stuff. Especially Pixolator… That’s what Aurick is for :smiley:

It’s coming soon, meanwhile. :wink:

//might show as double post because for some reason the post did not show up in thread originally, for me.

#316

Thats impressive to see how people are impatient to get the latets version!

I cant remember hahing seen such impatience for any other…

ehammm?? will it be released soon?

#317

Bad news
last night one of the Pixologic PC machine got accidentally turned on by one of night security guards

they believe one of the Zscript started to automatically play the Zscript was Yoshii Red Monster [http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=027570](http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=027570) the Zscript started off in 2D then jump up to 2.5D then went to 3D then came the surprise,Pixologic came out with 4.4D the big red monster jump right out of the screen monitor and started to subdivide each time it divided, it quadrupled in size

he got so huge after a while, the big red monster literary tore up anything in its path while walking through the building,
as he got huge and tall
the big red monster Head went threw the ceiling support beams and weaken the building structure,
shortly afterwards the SIGGRAPH building was just no more but Piles and pieces.

last seen the big red monster was heading to Tokyo. if you Receive a upgrade soon, use these Zscript with Caution [img]http://perso.wanadoo.fr/atil/forum/haha4.gif[/img]
#318

Oh how this whole waiting thing brings back memories, when we were all waiting for the very first upgrade, and then the next one, and this is all so familliar. Pixologic definitely have all our best interests in mind, and at this stage of their development, they are not about to release an inferior or buggy product. The word here folks is GRATEFUL, for another free upgrade! No matter how long it takes…

#319

:lol: :lol: :lol: Good one edonkey . I wish I could have went to Siggy this year.:cry:

#320

Hehe feels like christmas :smiley: