Yup, if you were one of the NASA engineers back in Houston during the Apollo 13 mission, the astronauts would have all died. :p
ICE not stable and mature? You're kidding, right? Some things are worth figuring out how to fit a round hose over a square filter. ICE is one of those things. Sent from my iPhone > On Feb 12, 2014, at 5:01 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote: > > Part of it is circumstance, as in we only have so many resources. For > example, our art department is 100+, but I'm the only one in the department > who writes code and I'm currently tasked with significantly higher priority > issues helping out an under staffed engineering department than writing > one-offs for every artist who needs a button. > > The other part is pipeline management of a large scale software development > effort. We have a feature film sized team working to build a high profile > AAA title. With an engine and tools under constant evolution, and life > expectancy of 15+ years, you must choose methods of content creation which > can withstand changes to the software, such as Softimage, as well as changes > to the game itself. An asset created today must expect to live for 10+ years > without any further maintenance. If given the choice between creating an > asteroid belt using constraints vs. ICE, we'll probably opt for constraints > because we know it's a fairly stable and mature system, which cannot be said > for ICE. We've been bitten many times already such as when we created a > number of simulations back in XSI 5 using the Softimage particle system only > for the particle system to be ripped out and replaced with ICE. We can no > longer open those assets in Softimage. Same happened again with updates to > the realtime shader APIs. So now we must either live with their current > state of dysfunction, or rebuild from scratch. On projects of this > magnitude, risk assessment has a very high priority and taken extremely > seriously because one bad move can literally sink the project if the ripple > effect is large enough. While we do take measures to abstract data from > commercial tools, we only have so much programming power in house to do so. > > The point is we cannot subscribe to workflows which are prone to human error. > Creating temporary data and expecting the artist to clean up after himself > has proven to not be reliable as assets are referenced by other assets all > the time. If crap is left around, then anybody referencing that asset also > inherits the crap which results in bugs in game. In film/video you can sweep > things under the carpet if they aren't perfect as long as the problem doesn't > show up on camera. We don't have that luxury. What you make has to be > functional and optimal for a live game environment, conservative on > resources, and not make any assumptions how it will be used. Function has > higher priority than looking pretty. > > There's a lot more to it, but I think you get the gist of it. > > Matt > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Ponthieux, > Joseph G. (LARC-E1A)[LITES] > Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 10:59 AM > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? > > So cheese and monkeys aside. After 25 years as a 3D animator I've never > worked in games. So from a serious perspective I simply don't understand. > It's not clear to me why you aren't able to use ICE or scripts and freeze > those construction connections sending only the raw assets over without ICE > or scripting. What is it about this pipeline which makes that difficult? > > -- > Joey Ponthieux > LaRC Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) Mymic Technical > Services NASA Langley Research Center > __________________________________________________ > Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and do not represent > the opinions of NASA or any other party. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind > Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 1:35 PM > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: RE: Survey - how would you do this? > > We'd have to add support for ICE in our exporter and pipeline management > tools. We don't have resources to do that at present. > > If the artist doesn't clean up after himself responsibly, it creates a lot of > problems. > > > Matt > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com > [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric > Rousseau > Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 7:21 AM > To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com > Subject: Re: Survey - how would you do this? > >> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 10:30 PM, Matt Lind <ml...@carbinestudios.com> wrote: >> The solution is 100% art driven in this case and cannot rely on game >> engine logic or engineering resources. If it could, there wouldn't be >> a challenge ;-) >> >> Cannot use ICE, but you can use expressions, constraints, or animation mixer >> to set up and plot out to explicit controls later if you prefer. >> >> A junior or staff level artist must be able to setup and complete the task >> unsupervised in 30 minutes or less. Must also avoid creating any bugs such >> as leaving temporary data in the scene or methods that require such tactics. >> Bugs that make their way into the game engine are very expensive to find, >> fix, and QA. Therefore, great emphasis should be placed on technique and >> working cleanly. > > Sorry, I missed a bit. Why couldn't you plot animation by things driven by > ICE? Don't you have to do that for expression, anim mixer, etc? I mean you > don't have that in the engine either, right? > > > >
