Lovecraft Forest

Kerwin’s Musings And Other Discoveries

Archive for category Ramblings

Modo 401 — Not Quite There . . . Yet

Feb 20

Posted by Kerwin in 3D, Ramblings | No Comments

2-20-2009-2-46-58-pmWell, the Luxology gang has been busy previewing Modo 401 for the past few weeks.  I’ve held back on commenting in the hopes that I’d see something worth commenting on.   To be honest, it looks like Modo 401 is aimed at enhancing their rendering features.   Sculpting & Painting (along with the attendant bugs, inefficiencies and just down right baffling errors in terms of understanding what a modeler does . . .) seems to be forgotten in this latest push.   The main features they’ve wanted to bring out are: Fur, Lighting & Rendering Enhancements, and replicators.   Since Modo’s animation capabilities are somewhere between slim and nil, I’m pretty surprised to see their current obsession with still image work.   Without attending to the weaknesses in their hold as modeller, I get the sense that Modo is heading into a neither here nor there world.   Not quite the best modeller, not quite the best UV solution (UV Layout has that one locked up at the moment), not quite an animation package,  not quite the best hair/fur system, no quite the best sculpting system, not quite the best texture map paint system . . . well, you get the idea.   Pretty much everything that Modo offers can be done better elsewhere.   Clever stills that infer fluid dynamics (without delivering the actual animation) pretty much is a yawn . . . where’s the cutting edge in still replicators when the real work is animating flocks and crowds?  Where is sculpting when it’s crippled by a slow image-based solution which is far outstripped by new contenders like 3D Coat which is already incorporating Voxels into their sculpting . . .   Where is the innovation Luxology?

Don’t get me wrong, the still images they’re showing are indeed pretty, but I just don’t see where Modo wants to be in the 3D Universe . . . it seems mildly deficient in many departments, and has given ground in modeling/UV to Silo while giving sculpting up to Zbrush & 3DCoat.   Painting they never really had a lock on (sorry, Bodypaint is better at it), Animation is outstripped by XSI, C4D, Maya, max etc.

At $895 a pop (with probably another $295 from existing clients) wher does Lux go?   I’ll keep following the story, but it is not a promissing beginning.   Prove me wrong Lux, I’m still cheering for you to turn it around, but it looks to me like your development has turned your back on modelers and sculptors for the flash of still rendering.

——

Update 4/9/09:  So far not much new.   They have revealed a few modelling tools which will be welcome enhancements to things like beveling, but nothing earth shaking.    Luxology has devoted as much time to the amazing new feature, “Presets”,   which apparently they believe is as important as any new modeling enhancement they have made.    Judge for yourself.

-K

Red Ring of Death

Jan 27

Posted by Kerwin in Ramblings | No Comments

rrodDon’t let anyone tell you that Xbox 360 Elites are immune that that most ubiquitous of Xbox360 hardware problems: the infamous Red Ring of Death.  We’ve all heard of it, where the Xbox sullenly displays three red lights in the front and nothing but nothing seems to be able to bring it back to life except sending it off to Redmond for repairs.

It happened to mine just after Christmas.   The machine being more than a year old, Microsoft wanted to charge me for repairs, so I was more inclined to find what was going on.   I looked at a number of remedies, many intriguing to out and out bizarre.  A common thread seemed to be that forced overheats might bring the device back to life.    More investigation yielded that most Red Ring of Death (RROD) problems are caused by a connection failure between CPU and GPU.

The fix to the problem for me (actually Mathue did most of the work, I just did the research) turned out to be correcting a flaw in the basic Xbox360 design–the way heat sinks are held in place–a problem that remains in the Elite model the same as the basic model.   This is not a project for the faint of heart and requires some technical knowledge.   If you’re not comfortable working inside of electronics, the fix best be left to technician.  The current mounting system in Xbox360’s does not prevent the very hot CPUs and GPUs from deforming in their surface connection with the mother board and the fix is to assure that the chips a tightly sandwiched between the heat sinks and the mother board.

While usually skeptical of these things, you can either search out on you tube some ideas of how to replace the heat sink bracketing system with steel screws/bolts some good info here.)   You will also need to re-heat with a hairdryer or heat gun some key components to re-establish their connection with the mother board.  This is a delicate operation.  I ultimately paid the $25 for information from http://3redlightfix.com/.   While their information is pricey, it does appear to work and does provide you with step-by-step info for finding you way around the Xbox360 interior.

The Xbox360 is the machine for Halo3, but I have not found that it is a well built machine.  Maybe they’ll get it right with Windows7 on the Xbox720.  :)

After about three weeks of testing, I find that fix keeps things going for a while, but it does not seem to be as permanent a fix as we could hope for.   I find that the fix needs to be repeated too frequently as the thermal problems will likely continue.   The only permanent fix would have to come from Microsoft in the form of a better design.

-K

Tags:

What is a Show Stopper?

Jan 6

Posted by Kerwin in 3D, Ramblings | No Comments

Apparently the folks at Pixologic don’t get it.   The inability to construct mac-based displacement maps without artifacts is apparently not a “Show stopper” to them.  I was struck by this original concept–the maker of a product, deciding for themselves what is a “show stopper.”   What next?  Cars without brakes?  It’s not a show stopper, just use your feet . . .

It is this kind of nonsense from a manufacturer that engenders the love-hate relationship between Pixologic and it Mac user base.  On the one hand, they build a unique and interesting product.  They promise a mac version for years and when they ultimately deliver, it’s broken in several places.  They promise to fix it in the next version and promise it will be delivered last year.   Then, when called on it they sheepishly announce “we’ll tell you later.”   When further called on it, they derride the concern as not a show stopper.   This is a PR nightmare and it amazes me to watch a company just dig themselves in deeper.   If you think it is a showstopper, let Pixologic know: support@pixologic.com.

References
——————–
http://zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=61998 
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=517238&postcount=14
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=64630&page=7&pp=15

Tags:

Zbrush Mac Saga Update, A Date for a Date

Dec 30

Posted by Kerwin in 3D, Ramblings | No Comments

We’ll, after saying nothing much since Siggraph (shortly after Pix announced they would deliver ZB 3.5 in Q4 2008 and this would finally unify the Mac and PC version.)   Today, not suprisingly, they finnaly made their next announcement.  

Hi,
The next ZBrush version is currently in development. Information about its release date will be made available 1st Qtr 09.
Thank you for your patience  
Happy ZBrushing! and Happy New Year!
__________________
So, no mention of the fix for displacement mapping, no acknowledgement of the absense of Zmapper, and no ETA for the eccentric behavior of Zbrush canvas (such as arbitrary scaling of the canvas to square form factors.)
It’s a sad thing that Pixologic, which has such a fine sculpting product, can’t do a little better at improving the issues with the Mac version nor provide any form of satisfactory communication as to when they might address the serious issues with the product.
Perhaps we’ll hear more in Mach . . . but given Pixologic’s difficulties with the calendar, I remain on the fence about recommending ZB to anyone who works with Macs.
-K

ZB 3.1 Mac Update

Dec 18

Posted by Kerwin in 3D, Ramblings | No Comments

KanBody.png

Well, it’s a been a few months since Pixologic finally released a Mac-native version ZBrush3 (actually ZBrush 3.1) about 15+ months after the initial PC release of Zbrush 3.   It is definitely an improvement, both in terms of performance and usability (no more funky playing with Wacom tablets/displays in virtual machines!)  Pixologic also announced at Siggraph Zbrush 3.5 will be based on a unified Mac/PC codeline with simultaneously releases in Q4.   It remains to be seen, but that would be the next major step to getting their Mac version in parity with their PC version.

I didn’t write a review right away because I was busy, and still skeptical, I didn’t want to jump the gun.   So far, it’s been a pretty good tool, but with some definitely rough corners.   The most serious of these rough corners is that Displacement Map generation seems to be broken in Zbrush 3.12.   This means that Zbrush 3.12 as a pipeline player is clearly still quite weak.  I’ve tested several methods of baking usable displacements.   The most satisfactory (with my C4D and Modo pipeline) is to export the the high-res model as an .obj, and reimport into Zbrush 3.10 on the PC (you can’t move ZTL files between 3.12 to 3.10  due to file format changes.)   Once in ZB on the PC, you can then use “reconstuct subdivision” to recover a base mesh or just reload your original base mesh if you have UV’s created.   Not helpful for a pure Mac pipeline,  but still doable.   

Another alternative is to use xNormal (www.xnormal.net).  It’s a nifty free solution, which though is PC only, will be multiplatform in the upcoming  months.   (The author expects to reach alpa stage in the first quarter of 2009.)

ZB 3.12 is also not as stable as the PC version–this means that it is more testy at importing UVs and the like, but with the aforementioned broken displacement map generator, it is somewhat irrelevant.   It does seem to generate OK normal maps (although the more full-featured Zmapper is still MIA after 3+ years.)

So, it’s a split decision on Zbrush 3.12.   For sculpting, I think it’s ready for duty on the Mac.   For map generation, and more sophisticated pipeline applications, it’s pretty weak unless you’re willing to go back to PC-based applications.

Above is an example of a kangaroo body I sculpted without much issue and probably in a quarter of the time with other products (such as Modo, C4D, etc.)

-Kerwin

P.S.  A few hours after posting this, one of the annoyances of the Mac version, the lack of the SubToolMaster plugin, was solved when Pixologic posted the updated plugin for Mac on their download center.   Little-by-little, they’re getting there, but it’s been a long, slow ride.  :)

-K

Tags: