Being a 3DSMax Plugin developer today [or why real innovations moved away from max]
Hello,
Today I would like to share with you our
experience as a 3DSMax plugin developer. And what does it mean nowadays :
I will share my analysis based on our own experience here at Onikanabo.
Than i will compare 3Dsmax ecosystem with Blender Plugin Development ecosystem, and try to explain why do I think that today Blender is leading innovations, and will continue to lead :
1. Our Journey as plugin developer :
Everything started back in 2014 when I developed a KeyHydra prototype with AutoHotkey and Maxscripts. I was the only developer at that time. [Developer is a big word as I was helped by lot of friends, and tweaking their codes, etc …]
So I hired Vladimir and hiring a developer
mean paying him, wich was not a problem at all as far as development was
usefull to me. Because i'm freelancing for Ubisoft Nadeo on their upcoming projects. And the more power i get the more juice i can provide to Nadeo team [so that made a blue ocean --> Keyhydra boosted me --> Client happy --> More freelancing missions --> make me happy and solidify the future].
The dev took 2 years before having a truly good peace of software, that reached my expectations.
I decided sell KeyHydra to all 3DSMax users that would want to try it, in order to decrease the cost. So we started
developing a licensing method, and our own Encryption method. Because the one
provided by Autodesk are well known over internet as being super easy to hack.
The more clients arriving onboard and thrust me they are not enough even if it increase everyday, the more
we have to bug fix, and protect stuffs. understand here that KeyHydra is actually budgeted at couple thousands euros. [Started in 2014 with Vladimir and Myself, than Vojtech @Swordslayer joined in 2015-2016]. If i count Trademarks, Lawyers, Marketing, Website Devs, etc ... we easily reach the hundred thousand euros and more.
Lately we spent almost 6 months for bug
fix only, on features I will probably never use myself. We also spent time in
developing another licensing system ‘Nodelock’ in order to ease KeyHydra
installation process. While we already had "floating license" system.
So yes being public start to be too expansive and not intresting anymore as a company.
2. What is it To be a 3dsMax plug-in developer nowadays :
-We need to pay ADN [Autodesk developer network, Hopefully first year is free --> This allow us to get our hands on Beta bulds, Dev sdk, etc ...].
-The ADN support is really limited as if we need something that is not really needed by Autodesk than we do not get any help.
-So it result in us doing lot of hacks
where things should be super simple [Keyhydra WheelCtrl is a total hack]. And if Autodesk granted us the super tiny dev we needed we could do more awesomeness.
-3DSMax development ecosystem is really different from blender one. Max license is really expansive and people using max want everything for the price they pay yearly [and I totally understand that]. This result for a plugin developer like us of having some difficulties in selling. Max user do not have the habits to pay scripts or plugin as much as Blender users do [Because blender is free, so people agree to pay for innovations].
-Max ecosystem is a closed ecosystem so If as a developer you want to sell it you have to protect it. [Encryption or DRM] while with Blender open ecosystem there is no need for protecting your code or adding DRM because people know it is a free open ecosystem and if they provide you money it is because they want to help and support.
-Also developing for max, expose us to a big risk. What will happen to us if Autodesk decide to address what we've been focusing on in next release ? Exemple : We released Insetsg that is fixing and improving broken max chamfer. This will lead people to ask Autodesk to fix their Chamfer modifiers because people will be hable to say hey look those guys did it. Than Autodesk will fix it and nobody will purchase Insetsg anymore. But yeah we worked one year on it and spent money for that, so we're helping max in a way.
I see more and more plugins
developers/innovators moving to Blender : DecalMachine, Textools, Hardops,
FlipFluids, Pie Menu, etc … The list is long but here are the one I like and
see myself as them being leaders in this industry today.
Today i had a talk with the team and asked if we should go DRM free, and Encryption free but we can't. Why should we provide the clear code we've been working hard on. And if we do this than people will probably share it with other friends that will never pay for. So yes we can't in max ecosystem.
But weirdly this do not scare me at all if we were part of blender ecosystem as i can feel there is a real community behind that soft, and this community seems to accept and understand why plugins need to be paid.
Buying a plugin or script is supporting real innovations. And this is why i think Blender as become the Industry Leading software in term of innovations. Today. And future is bright for Blender institute.
That was my raw thought and i hope it will start an intrusting discussion with this polycount community.
@renderhjs I would like to ear from you and tour experience as textools developer.
@Fansub Same from you Adnan even if you're more on maya side.
Replies
i have the chance of having really good buisness partnership with Ubisoft Nadeo so my life doesn't depend of software dev. [But i really start to understand why people developping more than script are disapearing from max radars.]
Here is my story on TexTools,...
...Autodesk and how I transitioned to BlenderUniversity days
I started TexTools in 2009 at uni after an introduction course in scripting for max. Been exposed to scripting in flash AS3 it was fairly easy for me to pick up maxscript.My passion has always been texturing and uv mapping as it was the glue between my 2D and 3D experience. Headus UV layout was a big eye opener and showed how great UV tools can be. 3dsMax 2009 until that point was pretty depressing with its UV and baking tools. Unlike Headus UV layout however we had the license for max at uni and me and my friends could use max at any of computer in any facility. As a result the things we shared and improved upon were the things that we had available at ease and anywhere.
From the beginning TexTools was always meant as something to share with friends at uni or work and the greater 3dsmax community. It was crucial to me personally that it was very easy to:
- Optain & share: no fees, no drm no signup nagging
- Install: just drag and drop mzp file into your viewport
- Learn: animated gifs & youtube videos
At home i used a non payd version because as it didn't make sense for a poor student to pay for something i wasn't using commercially. This allowed me to invest a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the mascript api and build the TexTools it now is.After graduating in Germany i relocated to Australia where i worked as a game developer and technical artist. Again the company paid for a license and i was very happy to keep using max and write pipeline tools, exporters and level editing tools with maxscript. TexTools kept improving over that period as i was using it myself on a regular basis. Over time I was getting generous donations and even an email from autodesk on integrating TexTools functionality into the core of 3dsMax.
Autodesk & Licensing
Then around 2013 we needed another license of max at work but back then Autodesk taxed Australia 200% for the license with a dodgy scheme where they had no official presence here but forced customers to pay via a few sellers that they would charge that very special fee. That was reversed several years later by the way after a government hearing with the likes of adobe who did the same scheme were asked to explain themselves. Australia has quite a few 3D CG studios e.g. animal logic, dr D studios,... and so this buisiness practice has been quite bad in the past for them to compete with compeition cost wise.So as a company with studios in the US and AU we tried purchasing a license via the US studio but to be used where we needee it. Autodesk or their licensing system noticed that we signed via another territory and blocked us - lets just say that it was a very bitter experience that left an impression on me.
Learning Blender
Last year i quit that job as i needed a change. During my break from work i was playing with game development and it was itching me to do some 3D art again and i saw that as an oppertunity to once again learn Blender but this time more seriously (always hated the UX before, soooo frustrating).But I did learn it quite well and it took me only 2 weeks in the end but it was a real eye opener of how great some of the tools actually are in blender. I had been using 3dsMax for 16+ years but I do think that some of the modeling tools are actually superior to max and much faster. Shortly after mastering modeling and other areas i dug into blender python scripting. I downloaded all the uv scripts and addons i could find to study them to then eventually start TexTools again - but for Blender.
Before TexTools existed for blender baking in particular was very complicated and peculiar: it was a lot was of pain to setup anything. Also while some of the build in UV tools were pretty good they were scattered at times in a clumsy interface so I streamlined some of that.
There were also other UV and bakin tools on the market for Blender, many of them commercial which pissed me of initially because i didn't want to pay for something i didn't know was any good or was only available to those who even considered paying for it which meant a tiny or non existing community to learn from or share with.
So TexTools had to be free just to prove that: good tools are not always what matters: accessability is far more important for growth and reach.
Since I started TexTools for Blender at the beginning of this year have received some serious donations of hundreds of dollars of individual members already exceeding all of the donations i receivereceived for the 3dsMax version. I have also received pull requests on git git with bug fixes and feature improvements not to mention the very resourceful, talented and helpful artits helping me better understand blender and the tiny details in baking details, shader nodes etc..
As someone who does it for passion not money: receiving that much welcome makes you feel very special. Even my wife is more forgiving with my time now that i keep getting these donations
At my new work i already converted all of my coworkers to switch to blender: that's what passion does. We are all excited for 2.8 here at work and I can't wait to create more addons and pipeline tools like FBX bundle to integrate it into our work
My main takeaway with Blender:
Because it is open source & will always be available including older versions it is worthy of my time investing in it. Its not something that I will ever loose! With 3dsMax you get either locked in locked out with monthly payments and forced updates. If autodesk removes features or breaks API's and your addon doesn't work anymore you have to pay A$265.00 monthly just to keep up. Its a different story if you work at a place where the license is ubiquitous and you have already some nice tools in house - but for the individualist I don't see a reason pay or use 3dsMax.Is because we are a team and i pay the hard working teamates that make KeyHydra happening + taxes etc ... They deserve that money.
i have no idea how people make a living from this tbh. is the blender customer base that massive in comparison that full time addon development becomes viable?
Sadly users are forced to make a choice, lock in the version of max they are using and swear off all future improvements or drop the plug-in and try to figure out a way to move forward without it. Locking in a version will work for 2-3 versions but eventually they release something worth upgrading or you get forced into a newer version because of Autodesks business model.
If a plug-in developer is still active, you might get an update as part of agreement made long ago, or as their schedule and level of interest permits. That usually is determined less by money and more by their excitement for the tool. Quite a few have simply gone dark and will never be heard from again.
I totally understand that people need to be compensated for their work and I fully support them in their endeavor but trying to motivate someone who clearly has lost all incentive to support something they once made, is an exercise in futility that can cripple a pipeline.
With the yearly updates for 3dsmax and how much they change under the hood that nullify plug-ins, it really seems like they're working hard to discourage their biggest source of innovation.
I don't want to make it seem like plug-in developers are unreliable, because it is the system that they plug into that causes a lot of that grief. It is compounded even more by varying degrees of quality within the plug-in community. It ranges from a hobbyist that is copying code out of the maxscript listener, all the way up to seasoned programmers writing some really amazing code.
To the plug-in developers, understand that I can't always build a production ready pipeline using tools and code that is unreliable, especially if the plug-in has an uncertain future. So while I may share the shit out of your links and I may throw money at your plug-in to support your efforts and promote the idea, I'm probably not going to use it, because I've had my pipeline broken too many times to open it up to that kind of instability.
Keyhydra.com will come, i prefer focusing on development actually.
-Rendering : Redshift / Octane --> Cross soft with special big point for Eevee --> Blender
-Particles : Flip fluids --> Blender / TyFlow --> Max
-Procedural Content creation : Houdini of course & MCG --> Max : But it need more work ...
and i still hope being hable to sell keyhydra to autodesk but if i fail you guys can expect to see it for free inside Blender.
of course nothing beats the HairTool addon for blender in this area.
@Shaz_Snow Understood.
There you go guys still unfinished but at least it is already better https://www.keyhydra.com/