Silo 2.3 update

BeatKitano

So Silo got a new update and...

Move along nothing to see.

In that regard I updated my video with latest changes to be fair

Gmanx

Ha ha @ MacGuyver. Nice.

I've not found much use for Silo recently if I'm honest. I find Blender can cope with my modelling needs quite well.

BeatKitano

And it's free. I follow here.

ysalex

it is insane that silo is getting an update after like 5 years. It is a lightning fast modeling tool, I use 2.1 everyday, but not sure what the point of this is, since silo will never be anything but maybe a modeling swiss-army knife. I guess Nevercenter wanted to make some money on a product they abandoned, randomly, years ago, and then scrubbed their forums when people asked about the updates they had been planning.

seth.

crashreel ftw. brilliant

DoubleLeaf

That video is still the best thing ever it stopped me from buying Silo and I still tease my buddy who is a hardcore silo user. :P

ysalex

You're missing out, silo2.1 is the fastest piece of subd modeling software I've ever used, hands down - it is also very stable. 2.2 or 2.3 might not be so great, but it's hard to go back to the molasses tools in Maya after you use it. Modo has basically replaced it since however, although Silo is still faster (in my opinion).

MissMaddyTaylor

Even with crashes, Silo is still the fasted modeling software for me. Since other programs crash too, I just make sure to save ever few minutes so I never lose a big chunk of work.

ysalex

TerraBite wrote: »

Even with crashes, Silo is still the fasted modeling software for me. Since other programs crash too, I just make sure to save ever few minutes so I never lose a big chunk of work.

plus autosave.

DoubleLeaf

I gave silo a try a while back and I was crashing just dicking around with a cube. Plus I use Modo both at work and at Home. Despite the crash it felt very smooth, but I could see it getting buggy once a model gets more complex.

I've heard of plenty of people crashing on auto save as well.

My buddy loves silo and just deals with the crashes you just cant do A,b, or c in a certain order and it wont crash or so he says.

Muzzoid

This is a shame... it has such a small feature set that making a truly stable version ought to be in the realms of reality...

ysalex

DoubleLeaf wrote: »

I gave silo a try a while back and I was crashing just dicking around with a cube. Plus I use Modo both at work and at Home. Despite the crash it felt very smooth, but I could see it getting buggy once a model gets more complex.

I've heard of plenty of people crashing on auto save as well.

My buddy loves silo and just deals with the crashes you just cant do A,b, or c in a certain order and it wont crash or so he says.

This is highly, highly over exaggerated. I said before I use silo 2.1 everyday, I really do use it everyday, I don't even shut it down. I load new files, but that's it unless it restart my computer. I almost never have crashes, or at least fewer than with zbrush and maya, and my silo is set to autosave every 10 minutes and I have absolutely never once had an autosave crash, nor specific keystroke crashes - the only thing I have noticed crash wise is if you subdiv too far it crunches forever then crashes, and if you quickly cycle way way up and way way down a couple times it will sometimes do it.

2.2, 2.3 might be different, but 2.1 is very acceptably stable, even when I am doing a heavy amount of subd modeling in it.

It's a fantastic app for what it is and what it does (super fast modeling, good fast uv tools)

ScoobyDoofus

No changelog, no list of updates, nothing huh?
It is pretty comical to see them release an update after years of silence and censoring their forums from frustrated users.

BeatKitano

ysalex wrote: »

You're missing out, silo2.1 is the fastest piece of subd modeling software I've ever used, hands down - it is also very stable. 2.2 or 2.3 might not be so great, but it's hard to go back to the molasses tools in Maya after you use it. Modo has basically replaced it since however, although Silo is still faster (in my opinion).

Stable ? You kidding ? Even Nevercenter admit it, it's stable like a nail on a centrifuge.

ysalex wrote: »

plus autosave.

I can get it to crash sub 1min on complex model easily (and by complex I don't even mean 600k tris), so autosave (which is minimum 1 min) isn't worth a damn with such a buggy software. It's even more an issue since those crash tend to happen after a certain polycount treshold and when you reach it, it takes longer to save, so basicaly you spend your time saving instead of working...

People who don't crash using it, are not using symmetry (not that old school instance mirror though) and toggling between subdiv level. Cumulating that with chamfers and extrusions is what trigger crashes.

I've been an hardcore fan since 1.42 but hell 1.42 was running like clockwork, 2.0 was never stabilized, it can be the fastest/easiest modeler on the market if you keep losing work all the time it's worth nothing.

I didn't make that video to troll nevercenter, I wouldn't screenshot every crash of an app just for fun, but because I suffered quite a lot using it, and choose to transform this slowly building anger into something more creative: hence this stupid project. But this is not exagerated: it was quicker to gather the crash frames than put the stupid thing together.

And I must add: this is not a "pov" thing. I get crashes in maya and zbrush, only those happen 1/40th of silo's... Those two I would call stable, silo absolutely not (and it's pretty sad). And again: not an hardware issue, I used (actually more "tested" on the latest machines since I lost hope) this on 6 different workstation with very different hardware: always the same result, crash after crash.

@ScoobyDoofus Hi, yeah you were there for that too. I think I was also banned for a while after asking why there was no update... anyway. "Mature application" ahah.

ysalex

Our experiences vary then because 2.1 is stable as anything for me, like I said I use it everyday, auto saves every 10 minutes, and I rarely have a problem.

I also import large meshes (300k) from zbrush to make small topology changes all the time and I have no problems. When I do high poly models I can easily subdiv to 2mil+ to save out a high-poly for baking and again, no problems.

2.2 and 2.3, I have no clue if they are atable, but 2.1 is more stable for me than 1.43 ever was, with symmetry, with auto-save, with subdivisions, keystrokes, everything.

But yes I was around when never center went dark on their forums and stopped answering questions or updating silo, and that was very sad, makes me wonder why they are bothering to update it at all at this point.

BeatKitano

Well you're lucky then, I envy you. But looking at the steamcommunity page of the product looks like you're one of the very-very few. I really wouldn't recommend the software at this point.

Better off with blender which has come a long way since silo 2.0, and in case you still want to buy silo: gave it a full run with a complex model for a good while just to be sure...

EmAr

I've been using Silo on a daily basis since 1.42 as well.

I hope we don't have to wait this long for the next update. Improved stability, bug fixes and addition of as few as 3 features(solid chamfer(edge extrude in Max), distance based edge slide and straighten UVs) would stop me from switching between programs while working on a model. I didn't have any hope but this update is a good sign.

They are also working on a Linux version of Silo!

NB-DanTE

Even 2.3 isn't stable like 2.2, I got 3 crashes in less than 2 hours of work today.I Hope there a real update for Silo with new features better sculpting tool more stable and 64bit version.

S-S

I sort of lost hope with Silo back in 2005 or so, but seems like they put out another update after 2.3 update... I still use it occasionally

(It would be nice it they sent out an e-mail... )

Anyway if someone is interested and missed this:

Silo 2.3.1 released

"A cut tool crash has been fixed"

"Windows 64-bit native version. The 64-bit version can handle larger meshes due to availability of more than 4 GB of RAM"

etc.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=175&t=1237509

(EDIT: seems like 2.3.1 was already released a week ago)

ironbearxl

I'm glad Silo is getting more attention. I helped to beta test the 64-bit version of 2.3 recently and Mike Farnsworth is doing a great job.

I've switched to Blender for modeling 100% though and have it working like, if not better than Silo.
I changed/deleted/added tons of shortcuts, which did take some time and googling, it wasn't a nightmare though.
Also there are some nice modeling gems in Blender missing from Silo like Deselect Checkered, a better Knife Tool (with center looploop and angle snapping, a project through toggle, and isolated face cutting) and Grid Fill.

flat-D

Until a year ago (when I switched to Blender) I was using Silo on a daily basis at work, and home. It was very reasonably stable for me. One thing to note, it's highly unstable on ATI cards! I've always been on nVidia, both home and work, so never had any major issues.

Silo introduced Zen to workflow. Even after 5 years of no development, there's hardly anything that can stand up to it in what it does.

I've setup Blender to feel like Silo. Still not there fully, but the benefits by far outweight the shortcomings.