Very well put as always Raf! I just get the feeling for the simulation/assembly/final integration scenario I am sitting around waiting for things while many people have simply moved on...
A good example is probably found in some of the top Naiad users, who simply walked away and within weeks were posting test videos of equal quality from Houdini. They are maybe not the best example of the broader population as they are already very technical minded individuals who are used to working in the 'undocumented zone'. I don't harbour any particular resentment to Autodesk over this matter, as Naiad was not a very well supported product and I think Marcus found himself swamped with admin and other tasks which probably kept him away from his core strengths. I guess I do fear somewhat for Softs future as more of this tech gets pushed toward Maya, and even with Fabric Engine making the whole thing portable to my mind starts to pull the rug from under Soft. Combine that with ageing IO and it really is not a pretty picture past the next year or so. The fact that Soft makes no appearance in any of the R&D videos probably shouldn't be read into to much, but you would have to have your head buried pretty deeply to not let your mind wander onto the subject a little... I don't intend to push this thread into another Autodesk bashing exercise so please anyone refrain from going down that well trodden path. I guess I am trying to get my own roadmap sorted for the future as many of us do from time to time, it seems it is an amazing time for a divergence and abundance of technology but also somewhat confusing as to where some older technology fits (or more precisely will fit) into the grander scheme. Sorry for the long winded post, very much thinking out loud at this point ; ) N ________________________________ From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] on behalf of Raffaele Fragapane [raffsxsil...@googlemail.com] Sent: 15 August 2013 10:40 To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Re: Future of Naiad It might be worth figuring out what you want out of your choices. If you want a mature solution with well integrated production tested solvers, a rendering engine with inifnite licenses that is very highly tailored to scale massively with those simulations, you won't beat Houdini, no matter what rendering engine you tack on in another package. Bifrost is an interesting departure from shoving things into the host and obscuring them for Autodesk, and it relies on relatively fresh or refreshed (but not untested or immature) libraries/frameworks, and it seems to be wanting to attempt a certain degree of generically approaching some problems, plus it's likely, when it will be out, to have some very good solvers. You are betting on months to a year or more away though (assuming it will even be available and viable in 2015 and patched in an eventual 2015.5). If you can wait for that long, wait, but if you want things sooner than that Houdini already has some great solvers, now has solid OpenVDB integration, and it's impossible to beat Mantra's scaling economically, and hard to beat it in other regards too. You only need one license of Houdini to begin with, and whether Naiad will blow it out of the water or not, it's unlikely to be a waste of money. On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 8:43 AM, Nick Angus <n...@altvfx.com<mailto:n...@altvfx.com>> wrote: Interesting, thanks Luc-Eric, it certainly looks very tied in to Maya at this stage, although I am sure it is mostly a front end. Much in the way Pixomondo integrated Naiad into Max, although deeper by the looks of all the adaptive stuff. I imagine this level of integration would be a bit trickier in Soft due to the older school nature of the IO. I must admit at this point I am pretty tempted to start looking into Houdini, even just for fluids it could be good value, particularly with Arnold integration. I don’t want to bash on Maya any more than necessary, but if I am going to pick a partner for Soft to extend it into areas of simulation that it struggles in I don’t think I will we going down the Maya path… N From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com> [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com>] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau Sent: Thursday, 15 August 2013 5:34 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com> Subject: Re: Future of Naiad The siggraph user group meeting videos were posted. The one with bifrost is called " Behind the curtain of RD" http://area.autodesk.com/Anaheim2013<https://connect.autodesk.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=bK-GRTdfLUiXi2n0RgTMcYqHgi28bNAIpkHDsL63ZwuMDdYAFdDXoVTVWcZLNdA1fgkawqvC1gw.&URL=http%3a%2f%2farea.autodesk.com%2fAnaheim2013> -- Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
