Maya standards slipping?

# 1 01-12-2002 , 06:30 PM

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I've just read my current copy of 3D world and there is an interesting review of Mental Ray for Maya.

The point that interested me however was this:
" ...many A/W customers are switching to XSI or seriously considering doing so - in part due to the specific issues namely that XSI offers the most seamlessley integrated and most efficient workflow overall as well as high-quality rendering. Many customers recognise that Alias is no longer focussed on their production needs. Alias appears to have shifted the focus away from the core professional 3D market to selling low-cost products into the prosumer space."

Hmmm does this mark a toppling of Maya from it premier position, will it become more of a middling package?

Then there were comments from Maxon like:
"We have always known that render quality and price are important to users. However, Maxon has found that these are not the only factors that affect a purchase decision. Ease of use, speed, stability and features are all vital, especially to new users, who demand powerful software with a shallow learning curve. Cinema 4D has long been lauded for its excellence in all these areas"

Then Newtek say:
"Mental Ray will be giving Maya users a good single node render engine, albeit without being able to render some of May's features, such as Fur, Paint Effects, and particles. But by contrast, Lightwave has always had a built-in proprietary network capable rendering solution that is without peer and used by many studios the world over as an example of quality"

Hmmm it makes me think that AW is reducing it's prices and giving things away to get a bigger market share at the cost of sacrificing its quality or is it just overpriced ... I wonder that there will be another price drop for Maya Complete to compete with Lightwave and Cinema 4D.

Certainly seems that XSI seems to be becoming the leader for professionals and that its only competition only comes from a flagging Maya Unlimited?

What do you lot think?

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# 2 01-12-2002 , 09:14 PM

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i think i invested in the wrong software then if all that should be true. but i dont want to believe it. why is maya going so massivly into games right now? and why is mr only a beta? will a|w shock by having mr compatible with pfx? or do they drop the price so you have money left to buy mr ?? i really do hope that mr will be free of charge for maya once it left beta status - otherwise they might loose more customers. i just dont understand why the renderer is so bad compared to others, if everything else is so good in maya user added image

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# 3 01-12-2002 , 09:38 PM

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people will always find things to complane about, no matter how good something is.

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# 4 01-12-2002 , 09:43 PM

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Originally posted by mtmckinley
people will always find things to complane about, no matter how good something is.

Originally Posted by

ok mike, now i feel already better about it. your avatar is too funny. reminds me of the minimike (as you dont see the small body).

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# 5 01-12-2002 , 11:03 PM

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Originally posted by mtmckinley
people will always find things to complane about, no matter how good something is.

Originally Posted by

Amen!

Don't let the marketing people fool you user added image

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# 6 01-12-2002 , 11:10 PM

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why is maya going so massivly into games right now?

Originally Posted by

Because thats where the money is right now - whilst A|W may well have lost some ground in the film area to Softimage they have gained alot in the games area. I have friends/ex school mates in 2 games companys and one has already switched to maya, and the other are evaluating it.
One other thing - 3D World arent really known to be the most accurate and trustworthy source of information. Remeber theyre journalists and have to try and keep things interesting by whatever means possible. When a company shaves off as much money as A|W did from maya theres massive scope for speculation, and naturally the specualtion is likely to be far more interesting than the reality.

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# 7 02-12-2002 , 11:40 AM

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One of the things I wonder about is film and special FX are highly specialised so the software is highly sophisticated so if SoftImage get the lions share in this field its not a big share anyway.

Games are massive and if AW is trying to collar more of this market then they seem to be doing the right thing. Let's face it if you want to get into a job in 3D you have more chance of getting into games than film anyway, there are just more opportunities... or are there?

As far as Maya is concerned I would like to see a cut down version of complete to amke it more affordable, kinda like Cinema4D are doing. Then I think it would be more affordable for hobbyist like myself. You would then have the opportunity to move up as your demands increase. Or is this sounding a bit like 3D Max with all of it's jumbo plug-ins.

By the way is Mental Ray only available on the Mac?

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
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# 8 02-12-2002 , 12:55 PM

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Mental Ray is avail for the Windows based OS as well user added image

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 9 02-12-2002 , 01:16 PM

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Oh b*******s! What I meant was is Mental Ray only available for the PC... jibbering idiot should read what I am writing!

Tickety boo and ta ta for a bit...
Gazzamataz
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# 10 02-12-2002 , 01:21 PM

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LOL happens to the best off us I do it all the time, not sure if its avail on the Mac or not sure someone here will know though.

From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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# 11 02-12-2002 , 08:34 PM

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Hi,

Alias|wavefront say that Mental Ray will be out on the Mac soon, which shows they are still dedicated to the Mac platform which is always a good sign.

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# 12 02-12-2002 , 09:47 PM

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I am seriously looking at XSI, have used XSI 3 before and there are things i really love about it over Maya.

When XSI gets rigid body dynamics and better particles, I will probably change over

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# 13 02-12-2002 , 10:08 PM

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origanally posted by gazzamataz
Then Newtek say:
"Mental Ray will be giving Maya users a good single node render engine, albeit without being able to render some of May's features, such as Fur, Paint Effects, and particles. But by contrast, Lightwave has always had a built-in proprietary network capable rendering solution that is without peer and used by many studios the world over as an example of quality"

Originally Posted by

From what I heard at our Club Maya meetings is Mental Ray will render all of Maya's native features in the final version.:p

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# 14 02-12-2002 , 10:17 PM

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Originally posted by Tolerate
I am seriously looking at XSI, have used XSI 3 before and there are things i really love about it over Maya.

When XSI gets rigid body dynamics and better particles, I will probably change over

Originally Posted by

i cant afford to change over

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# 15 02-12-2002 , 11:15 PM

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Originally posted by 3djoe
From what I heard at our Club Maya meetings is Mental Ray will render all of Maya's native features in the final version.:p

Originally Posted by

I don't believe anything about whats coming in future versions of A|W software until it's offiially announced. The A|W site says the MR will be a standard rendering feature in future versions of Maya, but ppl have read that as "MR will be the standard renderer in future versions of Maya"

Which isn't what they said, so a lot of people have got the wrong end of the stick. One day MR COULD be the standard renderer, but it's highly doubtful that it's gonna be any time soon

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