You’re probably right.
…which will hopefully mean it’s already in 2.5, but if not, that’s one of the first plugins we might expect the community to churn out once an SDK is released.
A plugin would need access to the ztool data, at least, the vertex positions. Otherwise the plugin would have to load and convert a previously saved OBJ, which although it would work OK would not really offer any benefits over a separate utility.
It would. Hence, the SDK requirement.
(that subject hasn’t come up lately, but Pixologic did seem anxious to release one a while ago. I’m guessing once 2.5 is complete and the foundation’s not undergoing constant changes, the topic will be revisited)
Buckie]Just buy Zbrush 2 now & you’ll get the update free anyway, why wait for 2.5 to be released???
ZBush 2.5 will work exactly as they did in the videos if not faster depending on your PC/Mac specs.
I wont perchase it now as I only have 1 lot of money and I wish to get on learning and using the functions that are not in the current version. If I have to choose between ZB v2 and XSI foundation it will have to be XSI foundation purly on the basis of making clean polygon models. If however the update is due within the next 4 months or so I will wait as I like the way Zbrush can add detail.
In your circumstance, I would suggest getting XSI now. You could make clean polygon models in Silo (very affordable) or Wings3D (free) for use in ZBrush, but XSI has other benefits which stem from it being a full-on animation program.
Truth is, if the topology matters to you at all, you’re talking about a skillset you’ll never perform well until you try to animate one of your own models and discover for yourself why certain edgeloops are important. You can read books, you can take advice on message boards, but you won’t truly know what you’re doing without that experience.
For god’s sake, start with the basics. If rendered illustrations are your end goal, you can do amazing things with ZBrush alone. But, if you’re using ZBrush to suppliment another tool (even if it’s not your department), learn that other thing first!
Get XSI now, master it, get jobs, earn another lot of money, and buy ZBrush later as a means to take your XSI work to the next level.
Your four month guess may or may not be realistic, but I swear to you, that date shouldn’t even matter. If I knew for a fact that 2.5 would ship tomorrow (it won’t), I’d give you the same advice.
Hello Ctrl-Z good advice there. Iv never done much 3d work and have only ever used zbrush demo. I like zbrush alot because its fun but my system cant handle high polygon models. Because zbrush dont create clean meshes im finding im having to make my models too high in polygons and often they mess up due to the flow of the polygons. I was given a mesh created in hexagon by my friend and it was bliss to sculpt on, the flow of the form went the way it should like lips, eyes, neck muscles e.c.t. My friend actuly owns zbrush 2 and I was impresed what he has done with it but can see that hes more techincaly minded and learns faster than I do. This is why Im stuck between the 2 software. Athough both zbrush 2 and xsi are cheap for the industry for me its a hell of alot of money.
Like I said I think a year given isnt too much to ask what do you think? I mean if you where close you compleating somthink and cant say end 2006 early 2007 then just how near are they? Sorry but I was set on XSI and then these videos came out and now im wanting zbrush 2.5 more as I partly already know its interface and fee at home with it.
Have you tried the XSI demo. If not you really should not decide yet. XSI is one of those apps that some folks hate and others love. I loved the demo and will at some point like to go that route.
Of course if you can get used to the Zspheres you can actually create low poly models pretty easy. Thats how I tend to do things now. Low poly Zsphere model then tweak away.
Cheers
Mike R
I know you can create low poly models from zsphears as thats how they start out but due to polygon edge flow not going in the direction of the models features you need to sub devide it higher and higher much more than if you started with a better base mesh. My friend has made some models from sphears but some workout ok some dont and during this time messing about with them I could I hope have made a basic mesh in xsi. I have used the demo and realy dont like the way it looks but cant afford nothink els for what it can do. My friend told me to get XSI as he says by the time you learn that your have enougth money to get zbrush saved up but hes laughing when hes says that s he thinks 2.5 is ages away. maybe il look at silo.
True enough.
You can also create new edgeloops in ZBrush by hiding most of your geometry and pressing the Edge Loop button (this tutorial will help). This adds geometry more selectively where you need it.
The resulting topography isn’t necessarily what you’d want for animation, but it should still be worlds ahead as in terms of not having to subdivide as often, and you can always finish optimizing the topology once 2.5 comes out.
If your only concern is getting more geometry in hand, do experiment with this before you give up.
Or Silo, or Wings3D.
There are several reasons for him to to laugh. One, 2.5 feels like it is still a while off. I’m guessing early to mid 2007, but probably with a public beta by the end of this year. Keep in mind, however, that my estimates have been completely wrong every time so far.
And two, XSI is a sophisticated application. By the time you’ve mastered everything that it offers, many of us will have died of old age (or more likely cancer – all this computer time can’t be healthy).
If all you wanted out of XSI was some poly modeling tools, by all means check other options. Silo’s a good one, and a fantastic value for it’s price. And it’s an even better value if you buy it through Kurv Studios as a bundle with their training videos. ($150 gets you the software itself and all the training you could possibly want for it. At least until Silo 2.0 is finalized… Meanwhile, Glen Southern is a great artist and an excellent teacher. If you’re going to learn Silo, you should learn it from him.)
A word before you head over there…
You’ll find a lot of animosity between the ZBrush and Silo communities at large, because ZBrush 2.5 covers some of what Silo does and Silo 2.0 covers some of what Zbrush does. I own both (well, 2.0 and 1.42, anyway), and think they compliment each other nicely. Once you delve into what they’re capable of, Silo is much more than a topography brush, and ZBrush is much more than rapid detailing. But the users of each would have you believe there’s a fierce territory war raging, that their side is about to win. Ignore that.
I understand your frustration about Pixologic being so vague, but I don’t think they can change that.
Would it kill them to announce a year? Maybe, yes. They announced one before, and were wrong. Imagine what that did to their credibility, and what missing another date, no matter how vague, would do. Part of earning back trust is simply not making promises that are out of your control. If they don’t know exactly when it’s going to ship, down to the minute, they can’t even hint at it.
Is it torture to know what’s coming but not when? Absolutely. But I don’t think they had a choice in that either – if they had skipped Siggraph or not released videos, most of us would have completely given up on them.
I wonder if ZBrush 2.5 is being beta tested by any of the highnend users?
If it’s being beta tested by artist, it wouldn’t hurt to know some of their feedback on usage so far.
I’m sorry, Ctrl-Z, but I think this is highly over-sensationalized. In my experience
I’ve found that Silo users are pretty much “multi-software” users and don’t hold
animosity towards Zbrush or it’s community. For the most part, folks that have
trouble getting a handle on the Zbrush interface are/were excited that Silo
may be able to offer another alternative for displacement painting (among
other things). In this light, Silo users that can’t afford Zbrush or have had
difficulty grasping it are mostly expressing their excitement of Silo’s future,
not enacting some “fierce territory war”. Additionally, if you’re a new user
of Silo you can expect pretty friendly treatment regarding questions or
problems you may post about on the boards. As a Silo user/owner, I would
have thought you might have noticed this as well, but perhaps your
experience has been different than mine.
At any rate, it’s probably good advice that you try all 3 programs (wings,
silo, xsi) before you make any purchasing decisions, Burton. 
And now back to the regularly scheduled tangents of this thread… 
rookie-z
Don’t be sorry. Yours is a better outlook.
On the whole, that’s true of both communities. It’s just a few outspoken individuals that make the whole group look bad, and I’m glad you haven’t encountered them!
“I wonder if ZBrush 2.5 is being beta tested by any of the highnend users?”
I doubt that the code is frozen already, i think its reasonable to expect it by end of year.
Hey guys,
ive read alot of peoples messages about (why doesnt pixologic tell us when they are going to release ZBrush 2.5) and then read the people saying that they’re trying to make it as good as it can be before they release it, but to be honest, ive never waited this long to get some new app., or game, or even a movie. if any1 remembers Half life 2, that was delayed quite a bit, but not as long as 2.5, i guess the reason is all the new features they show in those videos, like the ones from Chicago. But this a free download for registered users right, so why not release 2.5 with whatever features it has at the moment (mesh extract, subtools, whatever.) and then if they want to add more stuff, just put it up as a plug-in, or add-on, or even another free download??
^You’ve got a good point. Though I’d like to point out that I think HL2 was delayed for longer. Not sure though. One thing I AM sure about is that HL2 was definately worth the wait.
IMO athough alot of people would be happy to have what features we have seen, it dont mean what we have seen is 100% stable. Aside from that Pixologic has to think about compitition so features, stability and timing is also as important as pleasing their custmers. Logic tells me that they wouldnt show you all these videos again like last time and make everyone wait another year, that cant do business good.
Im on the eager list and cant wait either but theres nothink that can be done, but yes a date as in what year would show some confidence that they are near its finnished update. Again going back on my words its a business so who knows why. We can rest asured that it will be very stable and will work great when its ready.
From the look of things, 2.5 is structured differently at a very low level. They could have probably released last year’s features last year, but what we’re seeing now couldn’t be simply patched onto that later.
Meanwhile, as they improve their interface choices, they’re able to scrap early drafts which, if published, they’d pretty much have to support forever. (I’m not talking about superficial things like what a pallete looks like, but rather, how you interact with a tool. Early demos showed Mesh Extraction working very differently than it does now…)
By waiting 'til it’s done and releasing everything together, they can make it stable, yes, but also more intuitive. Which is very important to where they’re ultimately taking this. These changes go way beyond “feature upgrade”…
On a sortof related note, does Zbrush have a proper smooth shader? I think when I used 2.0 the ‘quick’ option was similar to smooth shading, but not the same type as seen in games or with Max’s smoothing groups. I need this for modeling for game level meshes, and from what I know Mudbox has it. Does Zb 2.0 already have it? Or if not, will 2.5 have it?
To be honest, I don’t really care when 2.5 is released. I can already do everything I need with 2.0. Not to mention the fact that I’m pretty pathetic at my Zbrush skills, so there’s no rush for me to upgrade =P.Well I also really need retopologising of which ZB’s videos seem superior, but for now I just use modo which does the job fine.
You have my attention here; what exactly leads you to say this?
Best regards,
P
Nii - What I do is turn Quick Off, go to the tool palette, Display Properties and set DSmooth to 1 and then, here is the trick, set ES to 0. This will give you the proper smoothing effect. You may still see some faceting as ZBrush 2 does not smooth normals, however, this will simulate smoothed normals. You can also increase the DRes slider to simulate more smoothness.
A zscript could even be made to automate those few steps. The commands would be:
``` [IUnPress, Transform:Quick3D Edit] [ISet, Tool:Display Properties:DSmooth, 1] [ISet, Tool:Display Properties:Es, 0] ```These commands could then be put in a button that you could put wherever you like. In this case, we will make a button in the ZPlugin palette in an area called Niis Plugins:
``` [ISubPalette, "Zplugin:Niis Plugins"] [IButton, "Zplugin:Niis Plugins:Smooth Shade","Smooth Shade", [IUnPress, "Transform: Quick3D Edit"] [ISet, Tool:Display Properties:DSmooth, 1] [ISet, Tool:Display Properties:Es, 0] , ,] ```Put all of this in a .txt file and place it in the following directory:
C:\Program Files\Pixologic\ZBrush2\ZStartup\ZPlugs
Then start ZBrush. The first time you want to run want it you have to tell ZBrush it is there so you go to ZScript:Load and then load it. (This creates a .zsc file that will automatically load everytime you start ZBrush.)
Now you can take that button, press Ctrl and click and drag it onto your interface. Press Preferences:Config:Store Config and it will always be there.
The power of ZScripting is the simplicity. If you know how to do something in the interface the commands are fairly direct to make it happen in a zscript. You use IPress to press a button in the interface and you use ISet to set a value to a slider or other input area.
You can learn more about ZScript commands here:
http://pixologic.com/home/z2coderef.html
and also here,
http://www.zbrush.info/site/index.php/ZScript_Command_Reference
Hope that helps.
Best,
Ryan