Don’t bother worrying at all about me, and my Mac anymore. I’m buying the cross-grade now that Alias was bought by Autodesk. Maya for the Mac just ceased to exist. So I’m picking up a copy OF XSI, and joining the switchers club for those who have seen the light.
LOL!! I saw the light!! I am in the club with you. 
I have been in 3D world too long and finally the light knocked my head.
You are one of my weirdest pals 
Fear mongering never helped anyone. 
I have to admit the cross platform approach is starting to get more and more interesting, but those of us that rely on Maya and the tools developed over the years hope things continue. It will be a shame to see loss of development for Maya and MB under OSX if it truly happens.
Fewer competitors is not a better community.
I’ve just had to endure MotionBuilder going to Alias, now Alias to Autodesk. I think I’ll start backing OpenSource tools far more than I currently do.
Of course this doesn’t affect Zbrush, but really what a shame to see the Microsoft approach happening to these great companies and products.
Many of you may look at XSI and I guess the price is right, but I think I’ll wander over to Houdini at SideFX.
I am really enjoying this thread! I agree with CY about the family fighting. I would hate to live in a world (or forum) where we have to be overly careful of what we say. Manners don’t hurt, but it seems to me that nowadays so many people are ready to take things personally.
Sorry to do this but with people defecting to the dark side I can’t resist: I love the mac, and don’t mind waiting for tools to be developed for this platform. I dislike windows because I do not find the interface as asthetically pleasing or the set up as intuitive. I also dislike my system crashing and my files disapearing and prefer my more stable system. I am excited about the intel chips coming macs way though. I figure they must be amazing if they can make windows run so fast.
I also realize that it is harder to program for the mac. Oh well, good things come to those who wait - I have only really found this true here - actually. I really love Zbrush and can’t wait for all the new plugins and 2.5.etc. (Well - I can and I will, but you all know what I mean!)
Yeah the funny thing is after Jobs made the “wattage per processing unit comparison/Intel move” wich made a bunch of folks eat some big toad…people are still going at it. For once the man spoke…and no one listened.
Thanks for reading.
Edit:
If you want a good Gui try dif shells. I dont know if the concept translates to the mac, but you should def check out on what your missing.
I really like this friendly Mac/PC thread… but can we open one on the community section? It’s getting more and more off topic…
However, I planed to buy a BIG Mac this Month. With the decision to go to Intel and thus the abandonement of the IBM power processors I bought a dual dual Core Opteron 280 AMD setup. I’ll run it under Linux Dual Boot and will have something faster than Apple will ever have with Intel… Sad day for me but I need speed.
Lemo
Ok, I haven’t sat and read all of the posts in this thread, just the last 12 or so. I can’t wait to see the artwork that will come out of ZB 2.5. I’ve watched out since version 1.23 and couldn’t believe the outcome of art that people were putting out until version 2.
When ver. 2 came out, it was like the race was on!!! Alot of excitement and enthusiasm and some even more mind-blowing art.
This whole time, this community has grown and evolved through sharing ideas and encouragement. Way cool.
What will ZB 3 be like or 4, 5, 6 etc???
What is the goal for Pixologic and Z-brush?
Will they sucker up to the $70+ million offer to make it a 3D Studio Maya plug in, or will they go the whole route and make a full blown modelling and animation proggy that will blow doors of the so called “Big Dogs”?
Just anxious to know the outcome. Very exciting!!!
here I come to save the day, by changing the subject. I had a discussion with my zbrush-blessed buddy last night regarding the upcoming zbrush 2.5, and he pointed me to the amazing video where it showed redrawing a mesh ontop of an underlying one. as I figure, this is mostly to be used to redraw the base mesh into something more properly animatable than say a zsphere base mesh. now, my question is if I could import a detailed mesh I’ve done in wings3d, create a lower base mesh for it as done in the video, and then continue to subdivide the imported mesh adding additional detail?
here’s hoping my fuzzy question makes any sense…
I’m curious about the new 2.5 update to come later on… will it support stuff like subsurfacescattering and have a overall improved render and light engine ? if so it would be great as alot of people make characters with Zbrush and then SSS would be helpful, faking it isn’t just the same thing…
/ Max
Sure. Why not? You will also be able to rig that imported mesh and repose it if you need to, which is a big win. because you only do that with a mesh generated from z-spheres today.
Just remember that the rig is not an animation rig. Those are pixologic’s words (Aurick?). I am a noob here, so I don’t claim to understand what that means. Is it not an animation rig because zbrush isn’t an animation program? Or are there fundamental differences between the volumetric rig in zbrush and a rig you would animate things with?
If anybody could comment on that (i.e. you know what you’re talking about and you’re not bound by NDA) it would be great.
Thanks!
I haven’t read all the posts on this thread, so forgive me if this has been addressed already. But with all the new features for 2.5, and all the features people are asking for in later versions, it seems like ZB might be in danger of becoming bloat-ware a couple of versions down the line. I really like how simple things are right now, and how easy everything is to get to, and use. But if all the new features everyone wants are put in there, wouldn’t it eventually slow ZB down, and cause instability? Any thoughts on that?
Well you asked for some thoughts, here are a few of mine (geekspeak ahead, but you asked for it…)
First off, new features will not nessecarilly slow the application down. They could, but it boils down to a question of good design and coding practices. You will notice that Z2 is MUCH more feature rich and capable than z1.55, yet it is also MUCH faster overall. Pixologic has certainly proved their mettle in this respect.
Secondly while the size and complexity of a codebase increases it does not nessecarilly mean that there will be a corresponding decrease in application stability. There are a couple ways to tackle the problem, either build a high degree of fault tolerance into your application or build it as if you don’t expect any errors to occur. These are two extremes of the same spectrum and there exists many steps in between. Whilst building a high degree of ‘fault tolerance’ into your application can actually slow things down in the long run (in most languages) there are certain programming practices and ‘patterns’ (in the case of OOP programming) that lead to better and more stable products that are much less likely to produce errors in the first place. Now I have no clue what the zbrush codebase looks like, but its pretty obvious to me that Pixologic has struck the correct balance in the current incarnation of Zbrush which is probably a very sophisticated codebase. We have no reason to believe they will not continue to do so in the future.
Finally the question of whether or not an application is ‘bloated’ is generally whether or not new developments are actually usefull.It is my personal opinion that the featureset of the 2.5 release indicates that Pixologic has done a FANTASTIC job of keeping focused on what Zbrush is ‘made for’ and what needs to be done to hone it and take it to ‘the next level’. This level of awareness in application developers is very, very rare and extremely commendable. Another example of this (and I might get flamed for this) is the ‘Animationn Master’ crew and the work they have done with that app. Very focused toolset and a development process that is all about refining the existing workflow and toolset.
I think the development of Zbrush is going in the right direction and also represents the future of 3D modelling. This is the LAST thing you should be worrying about concerning Zbrush’s future, so just sit back and enjoy the ride
Xarf
Anyone know if Z-app Link is still scheduled to come out today?
it’s my question too ^^ i’m waiting for him since @ long time
Thanks, xarf! That was exactly the answer I was looking for. I’m just so used to hearing about new versions of software that are slower than previous ones, but have all these nifty doo-dads, and gadgets.
I knew the Pixologic team have their stuff together with the coding, I don’t think that’s ever been in doubt anywhere, but seeing as how I’m not a programming geek, I was curious.
I’m very eager to see the new plugs, and version 2.5, but for now, I can do what I need to do with software I have, so there’s no rush on my part. I am excited about the normal mapper stuff, though.
Thanks again, xarf, I think I might be a little less worried now.
Hmm… Still no word on the Z-app Link Plugin?
It’s coming. It’s better to release things overnight. No major hit on server and gets you buzz earlier in the next day.
first time you guys didnt keep the due date. YOUR FALLING APART MAN!!! :lol: j/k hope zapp link is on today
I am surprised since It was working at Siggy.
The ZAppLink plugin (Windows and Macintosh) release has been postponed for a few days. After further testing we will make an announcement regarding its availability. Thank you very much for your many kind words of ongoing support!
…so does that mean you weren’t at the usergroup meeting in january? 
anyhoo, this was pretty much a wasted post.
Keep up the good work guys.