well siggraph is not far away so i’d expect to see something NEW announced/shown there…could be a mac osx port for zbrush 3 or maybe a 3.5 or 4.0 release for zbrush on windows AND mac.
still there’s not much in the way of competition going on in sculpting from other apps…mudbox is due ‘something’ from autodesk i’d guess and modo shoudl be more usable in future but they still don’t offer the range of what ZB3 has right now…
SIGGRAPH is 57 days away! (sigh)
I don’t think at all that Siggraph is a good place for a mac release of ZB3.
On the contrary, they should give us ZB3 BEFORE Siggraph… they don’t want further bad publicity.
siggraph is THE place to launch new versions or new app for CG also pre release details too.
with osx there’s a few options for sculpting>
zbrush 2
modo
blender
silo
hexagon
and currently zbrush 2 still leads the way with modo offering ‘some’ capable tools.
on windows>
zbrush 3.1
mudbox
modo
blender
silo
hexagon
artform
for pixologic’s viewport alot of mac users thesedays have intel based macs if there keeping their hardware current so they can with a fair amount of ease use zbrush3.1 with a virtual windows install or with bootcamp…that then leaves those who are still on the ibm chipped mac’s or those who detest windows SO much they refuse to put windows option on their Mac
…this is i think only a few people in reality…
…a few annoyed people i’d add!
i believe you can propbably level the lack of 3.1 on mac more down to apple creating bootcamp for intel and the virtual windows installers than pixologic really…they must have ‘the numbers’ on mac users transfering to a windows version…and that would leave the people who didn’t…and by the looks of it …it’s might be just a rather small percentage…and so not much incentive to develop a mac update…
on top of that you have the osx development and the 64bit of osx is due soon so maybe they are developing for that rather than the hybrid osx we have right now…
yeah i now lots of excuses!
well siggraph is a point to look toward for some press realse from pixologic.
…only 56 days and counting down!
OS10.5 is already fully 64bit and comes with at least one fully 64bit app (Chess) I think there’s another on the install too but I can’t remember which app it is now.
My guess is the next release of ZB will be a simultaneous Windows and OSX 64bit version.
While I would like to be mistaken, I suggest that if you do not see a release at Siggraph, you are not going to see one at all.
The Mac community appears to be a small portion of their business base.
Apple’s upcoming system release will not be supporting PPC, while serious Mac users will be migrating to the newest intel machines.
As a retired software executive, I would not be supportive of development costs for a platform and operating system that is no longer in support by Apple. Considering that my entire development time can now be focused on one system, yet run on two platforms…well, two for one!
I can easily see that Pic might have had plans for a release, then with a few problems and develpment news from Apple, decided to just wait until timely events overtake the situation.
Do I expect a release at Siggraph, yes, but version 4 that runs on Win and can run on Mac under emulation. A blast from the Mac users, yes, but overshadowed by new features and a lot of marketing about the new ease of using it on future Macs under…
Development costs for an old system…at this time…they’ll take the hit while pushing the professional credits of the program…notice how often that Pic site has been updating their home page with new professional user stories, book releases. This brings me to something I brought up last week. You don’t support 3rd party book releases if you are getting ready for a new release and especially if you paln to surprise everyone. The book developer wants to be current and would be working closely with the developer.
But what will the industry say!!!, well you have said it, they are the only game in town at the moment, they can bring up that the hardware and system software are no longer supported by Apple and must stay current with their majority user base.
I had recently mentioned that “Lets forget the passion” and look to business reasons for what we Mac users would like to see, hopeful wishes, but I don’t see any real discussion here.
I spent 14 years as the Chief Operating Officer of Nemetschek N.A. “Vectorworks” before retiring. I would love to be wrong, but can not overlook the business markers here. You don’t estimate a ship date and then miss it by 4-5 months and still have no marketing news about it.
Again this is one business estimate I would like to be wrong about!
Good Thinking!!
Just had to get post No. 600 in…!
Cresshead & Don, I SO much hope you’re wrong. And when I say I hope (and doesn’t state that you actually are wrong) it’s because your analysis of the situation makes terrible sens (except maybe for the fact that Mac users having to run applications through bootcamp or virtualization might not be so happy about it…).
If that’s the path that Pix is taking, then whatever how business-wise it might be, that would however show a sad disrespect of their customers, not matter if it’s only a small portion of them…
Time will tell…
one thing to add in is that apple killed off one of the 2 options to develop/port applications to mac osx in january 2008…they sold it as a positive move but if your were developing on the now dead route then you’d either have to wrap up REALLY quick or start again on the other option…now i don’t know ‘if’ this had any impact on the mac port of zbrush 3…but i might have…combine that with bootcamp and virtual windows options for mac users running parallels for zbrush and the ‘urgency’ for a mac port is diminished…and also making it ibm chip compatible is dropped for new apps as well…
i’d expect to see a osx version someday but in reality i’d hope to see an update/new version first and have to run in with bootcamp/parallels on a new mac [i have a g4 mac mini as well as a few windows pc’s] …
as other people have pinted out ‘time will tell’
pixolgic have to look toward keeping and expanding their userbase and remember 3.0 was a free update…i’d expect they’d like some more CASH from users soon…and the only way for that to happen would be a new version…this would bring in revenue for more r & d plus cash to develop on other platforms than windows…like osx and linux.
If you’re thinking about carbon that got abandonned, they “officialised” it, but developper new a long time ago that it was a dead end, with a very limited life expectancy…
Going back crossing fingers then 
ahh yeah that was it…
well as we saw with 2.5 NOT arriving but instead getting 3.0 [windows]
i’d expect to see 4.0 next but it would be a paid for update with probably some sort of discount available for mac osx users still only on 2.0
and 4.0 would probably be multi platform…hey i’m all ‘guessing’ here…
but being a new release it would generate money for the company.
also pixologic have had some time to look at what other people have done regards sculpting apps re mudbox and modo for example.
as it stands zb3.1 is pretty darn cool my guess for version 4.0 would be along the lines of connecting to other apps, maybe xsi, 3dsmax and maya even modo…plugins i’m sure mudbox is getting some sort of plugin for max/maya soon.
well…siggraph sould reveal ‘something’ from pixologic
not long now eh!
edit>>
could be that zbrush 4.0 may start to move toward a FULL 3d app [like modo is also doing]…
can you imagine what they could do in regards rigging and animation if they applied their brains to that?
Yet by that logic why do we see Mac versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightwave etc… There must be a market for the Mac versions, these people are also a potential market for Pixologic and isn’t it good business sense to expand not just rely on present users.
The unfortunate thing about this delay is bad publicity, I know this is a forum for owners of the software but I have come across public web sites that have pointed out this delay after doing a search on ZBrush.
j
re photoshop, illustrator…print/photo/illustration design market is MAC biased
re lightwave…it’s been multi platofrm for years and even so the mac versions do drag/delay compared to windows…
re 3d…it’s mainly windows based
there’s not mac version of xsi, 3dsmax or mudbox for example.
i’m not making excuses…there should be a osx version of 3.1…and i think there will be a new osx version…it’s taking its time i know!
there are probably many reasons why it’s delayed and some maybe the one’s i have guessed at…or i could be totally wrong!:o
pixologic have gone some way to help mac bsed users by offering a windows path for free to get 3.1 up n running via bootcamp etc…
it’s not perfect but they have at least done that for the time being.
siggraph…>>lets see what happens there.
I think that a ZBMac 3.1 Siggraph release would be a bad idea, especially if it accompanied a simultaneous Windows 3.x or 4.0 upgrade. Very bad public relations; but then Pixo has shown every indication of being club footed in that department.
I wonder if anyone at Apple is aware of what Pixo is doing to us, and maybe just what the heck their problem is. This is a matter that involves not just Pixologic, but Apple too. If I were a Windows user thinking of making the switch to Mac, a few visits to this forum would certain have a chilling effect.
My instincts about this ridiculous fiasco run the full gamut, but the one that seems most likely, based on past experience, is that there will not be a Mac release. The problem then returns to what chance we will have of getting our money back. I’m pretty sure this would come under the heading of “Don’t hold your breath.” The company is in the position of being able to claim that they have already given us something (Win version under boot camp) for our money. Hints of a forthcoming Mac version can be brushed aside, because Pixo is basically untouchable. I mean, what can we do about it?
This puts me in mind of how I was screwed by the Ford Motor Company last year. They sold me a 2006 Explorer that had a faulty transmission. By searching the Net I discovered that many other owners had the same problem. I took the car back to the dealer perhaps a dozen times, and was told first that there was no problem, next that there was a small adjustment that fixed it, several times, and finally that there was a performance oddity that they had decided to label a “vehicle characteristic.” In other words, tough s**t, go away and stop bothering us. (Needless to say, I will never buy another Ford product.) I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been screwed by any number of companies. I guess Barnum was right.
I’ve said it over and over, and not just here. Once a company or business has your money, you can kiss it goodbye.
Caveat emptor!
Just one more thing, a word of sensible advice:
Stop buying software, and watch your savings account grow.
Well, if they manage to miss that. It’s only another 200 days till next Pancake Tuesday.
Oh how I wish Apple cared about little niche markets like us. Life would be good. They only base their products and efforts towards the absolute mass public, which is why they’ve been so successful lately. They wouldn’t waste a minute of their time worrying about the loss of Apple sales because of the Zbrush delay, unfortunately. Their products are good for art but they’re really just designed for anything and everything. That’s why there isn’t a Mac tablet geared towards artists, we’re a small niche consumer base (relative percentage wise). However, I do think a multitouch Mac tablet marketed towards the mass public is around the corner, which will be good for artistic applications yet designed for everyday use. Especially with the release of the Intel Atom and MobileMe, ect. Sure can’t wait to take one out of the studio and Zbrush with the touch of a finger, iphone style! PC users won’t be doing that! I certainly don’t think they are concerned with the few lost customers who didn’t go Mac because they wouldn’t be able to Zbrush though.
not one to rain on your parade but dell already sell the XT tablet pc with finger touch and pen touch [dual touch]…and ‘multitouch’ will be available in august for a free download…so that ‘iphone dream’ of a finger touch driven tablet with zbrush is already here…on vista of all things!:mad:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080118/dell-latitude-xt-tablet-pc-review/
sorry!
It’s ok, I know, I’ve been checking it out since before it’s release, but I mean iPhone style. It would probably be fun to Zbrush on as well. The accuracy of the finger touch isn’t as accurate as the iPhone’s (only from what I’ve read), which is what a Mac tablet would have. The Dell touch feature is made for larger screen navigation, while the Iphone’s is made for tiny screen typing. Regardless, it ain’t a Mac. If Apple does ever release a tablet computer, it will be even lighter than the Macbook Air and way more slick than a Dull.