Autodesk buying out Scaleform

PatrickL

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33073/Autodesk_To_Buy_Scaleform_For_36M.php

Interesting turn of events for anyone who uses Autodesk products like myself. We might be seeing another UI overhaul in the near future.

glottis8

If only they just incorporate the software they own into one!

crazyfingers

Nice to see some good industry news. Hell yeah universal interface.

Justin Meisse

Wait what, a flash UI for max? Probably not, this means Autodesk is getting more of the game industry's money.

oXYnary

Justin_Meisse wrote: »

Wait what, a flash UI for max? Probably not, this means Autodesk is getting more of the game industry's money.

+1 who also wants to think that UDK will drop support or have to start charging more for license fees for final games.

Purplepaint

Yeah I highly doubt Autodesk program would use a Flash UI, however it should be cool to see within 3DS Max etc

oXYnary wrote: »

+1 who also wants to think that UDK will drop support or have to start charging more for license fees for final games.

Oh probably

Justin Meisse

In case some people didn't know, Scaleform is a middleware that lets you use flash to make your UI.

It's still funny to see that the default reaction to buyouts of any kind is "yay, now they'll combine A & B" 6 years on - Max and Maya have not merged.

PatrickL

PatrickL wrote: »

We might be seeing another UI overhaul in the near future.

Doh ho ho ho.

cman2k

I highly doubt a bunch of their software will get a huge UI overhaul with Scaleform. Autodesk wants a monopoly. They want to control a ton of middleware for games, the same way they control a ton of middleware for movies. Autodesk already owns other game-related middleware (like Beast and Kynapse), and that hasn't trickled down to any big changes for licensees.

Their acquisitions haven't led to any big mergers of existing software, but have led to big pushes for standardizations and cross-platform technologies (like FBX). It has and will continue to become easier to move data of all kinds between all of their software packages. (This is how they build value into their "suite" of software).

If anything, I imagine a next-gen where Autodesk builds and licenses their own game engine that is integrated with their existing tools (engine in a viewport), works with their standardized formats, and uses all of their middleware. They've taken a lot of baby steps towards that future already.

Mark my words.

oXYnary

Tyler wrote: »

UDK wont lose Scaleform support, Flak said so over on the UDK forums. (de said nothing will change)

For now. Just wait until Autodesk gets settled and wants to renegotiate when the old contract is over.

Marine

Justin_Meisse wrote: »

In case some people didn't know, Scaleform is a middleware that lets you use flash to make your UI.

It's still funny to see that the default reaction to buyouts of any kind is "yay, now they'll combine A & B" 6 years on - Max and Maya have not merged.

i'd prefer them to build a whole new suite from the ground up, cherry picking the best of max, maya and softimage

Purplepaint

Marine wrote: »

i'd prefer them to build a whole new suite from the ground up, cherry picking the best of max, maya and softimage

Dreams

greevar

So Scaleform is a translation layer that gives you the ability to build UI's with flash and action script so you can just drop it in to your game engine?

skankerzero

what autodesk has in mind for the UI overhaul

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LZMvlOn8V4[/ame]

I could see scaleform being used here.

Neox

crazyfingers wrote: »

Hell yeah universal interface.

with flash? oh please lord no, maya recently just switched to QT i think they would rather switch the rest to it as well

Snacuum

Marine wrote: »

i'd prefer them to build a whole new suite from the ground up, cherry picking the best of max, maya and softimage

But then how can they sell us three or four different programs three or four times over according to each of our personal preferences?!!

Steve Schulze

Neox wrote: »

with flash? oh please lord no, maya recently just switched to QT i think they would rather switch the rest to it as well

Would be nice to see them fix everything that sucks about that interface before they go making an even more sluggish and unfriendly one.

Harford

Sounds like this could be tied into a future integration of a game engine within max. Perhaps we might see max 2013 somewhat like blenders game engine implementation. All the viewport and simulation features seem to be pushing in that direction.

I'd be quite disappointed to see a major UI overhaul and months of using a bugged /slow version before a service pack comes out.