Modo 10 Announced
interpolator
The announcement article can be found here.
They avoided giving any hard details on what would actually be included in the update, but in looking carefully I think there are at least a few features I can be confident of.
It's finally going to focus heavily on game development workflows, which I'm really looking forward to.
Here are some more specific additions I think it will be including, though;
-Unity/UE4 Shaders
" artists can author in MODO and be confident that their assets will look virtually the same in Unity or Unreal Engine"
-Texture baking improvements
"get realistic detail into their real-time assets more easily through a streamlined, repeatable texture baking workflow
-Improved export for game engines (similar to Export to Game in Maya?)
"and enjoy new ways to export to popular engines featuring simple, automated steps that minimize the need to recreate work, saving time and reducing the potential for errors."
It's supposed to release during the second quarter of this year.
They avoided giving any hard details on what would actually be included in the update, but in looking carefully I think there are at least a few features I can be confident of.
It's finally going to focus heavily on game development workflows, which I'm really looking forward to.
Here are some more specific additions I think it will be including, though;
-Unity/UE4 Shaders
" artists can author in MODO and be confident that their assets will look virtually the same in Unity or Unreal Engine"
-Texture baking improvements
"get realistic detail into their real-time assets more easily through a streamlined, repeatable texture baking workflow
-Improved export for game engines (similar to Export to Game in Maya?)
"and enjoy new ways to export to popular engines featuring simple, automated steps that minimize the need to recreate work, saving time and reducing the potential for errors."
It's supposed to release during the second quarter of this year.
Replies
The upcoming gamedev updates have been previewed before in their hidden forum. And I was hoping it would be a free 903 update. I'm not gonna pay upwards of $500 upgrade price just for those (especially when I already use SP and Marmo). Unless version 10.x includes a character auto-rigger like in PSOFT (see video below). Or a solid discount price if PSOFT will be released as a 3rd party plug-in.
Otherwise, I'm good with 902 for awhile. It already solves a lot of my previous Modo wishlist items. Spline/Curve tools, though still not as good as Max's, are a lot more user friendly. You know that sketchup blank shader look that looks great for concept work? Solved by wireframe shader and renderable "poly-line" curves. Re-topo tools? Not as intuitive as 3dCoat but definitely more user friendly than in Zbrush. MeshFusion I feel is a bonus but a lot of modo users expect it to produce finished models as opposed to an aid to arriving at an optimized mesh.
Remaining want from me is upgrades to the character rigging and animation editing tools. (Not a fan of ACS plug-in style of rigging plus you have to pay for it).
But PSOFT can make me rig and animate more in Modo instead of looking at Blender or getting a Max subscription for those.
My own impression from the preview videos is it's more of a polish of existing tools. I didn't get a feeling of "I must have these NOW!" But maybe they're still keeping some killer features to be unveiled at GDC.
Seen Crytek's cinemaware for MAya? It's kinda like that but only for props and not whole enviros, plus they've only showed it to work so far with UE.
[Note this video is an old cryengine-maya tech demo and has nothing to do with Modo]
http://www.cgchannel.com/2016/03/see-more-details-of-the-new-features-in-modo-10-0v1/
The improved viewport and WASD navigation are two things I've seen requested a lot in the past, though personally I'm uninterested in either. FBX improvements better mean they've restored the legacy (2006.11) fbx versions... I needed that for arma 3, so it's a shame it was removed. Maybe they had a good reason.
Also would like to see some more options in rapid hair creation for games, besides the few options available pretty much only for Maya and Max. Hair improvements are coming to UE4, and I hope that we see some new tools to help streamline this aspect of content creation. Esp. as next-gen games push for more characters with more dynamic appeal.
It's good that MODO's integrating some texturing pipeline improvements, though we've got plenty of options elsewhere, which most of us are already using. What we really need are better streamlined innovations in other areas in game development. I would hope for more innovations, rather than just catching up to features existing widely in other software.
woo, this is good! I love how Modo handles UV sets and vert colors, but found them cumbersome with the unexpected export orders. I wonder if they'll fix the UV Distortion channel being exported as RGB vert color in FBX, or delete itself outside of UV view pleasepleaseplease
It's all more a streamlined interface than a revision to Blender's existing capabilities. Though, Blender's getting some work done on that baseline Boolean system, but we'll see how that goes. And even what's proposed so far still isn't quite what MeshFusion does.
If anything, Hard-Ops/BoolTool are quite the opposite of MeshFusion, in that MeshFusion works best with subdivision surfaces, while Hard-Ops/BoolTool (or rather, Blender's Boolean operations) works better with simpler (base primitive) geometry. At least as far as system performance and cleaner topology goes.
Here's hoping that the newer improvements to Blender's operations do actually tackle issues such as faster/cleaner/stabler performance for subdiv surfaces and cleaner results in mesh topology. Though, I wouldn't hold my breath too much, since Blender abides by its own community-based priority--not industry-based priorities.
I think you'll only buy a license if it makes sense for your particular situation: that after trying the demo you think it's a better fit for your modelling needs or fits your budget because you're not into paying subscriptions, etc. but at same time don't feel like using Blender.
I don't think it's a time worthy plan to get onboard Modo because you want to convince Autodesk owners to change their hearts on Max/Maya. I'd leave that to the marketeers/ business people to battle it out.
But i see your point, Im not paying for something if i dont see the value of the upgrade witch is why i despise subscriptions.
Modo anyway has the benefit that you will not get penalized if you skip a version.
Really hope they will polish the animation tools this round.