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Modo 10 Announced

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Zack Maxwell 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?)
"a
nd 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.

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  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    As someone who's been lurking at modo for years (frequently trying out the eval versions of various releases), the UI responsiveness and the viewport performance are going the first things I'll be looking at. For some reason Modo in all its iterations always felt somehow glitchy to me so I am very curious about a new numbered release to see what's been done in that regard (micro stutters mostly).
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    Pretty interested in this. The baking and UV improvements they've made over the past couple of versions have been absolutely killer, so if they can push those features even further I'll definitely upgrade. Hell, I bought 901 for the improvements to the UV tools alone, and the time saved paid for the cost of the upgrade.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    Meh announcement.  The Foundry marketeers just taking advantage of modo forum speculations.

    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.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvrtuzknjbs
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15

    The upcoming gamedev updates have been previewed before in their hidden forum. 
    For those of us who don't have access to this, would you care to share some details of what this means?
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    @Swizzle

    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.
  • Zack Maxwell
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    Zack Maxwell interpolator
    @Swizzle

    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.
    I'm having a crazy time finding any information on what cinemaware is.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    Grimwolf said:
    I'm having a crazy time finding any information on what cinemaware is.
    Video below is what the previews reminded me of (but it won't look as grand or even the same scope).  Where they integrated gamedev tools close to each other or in one single tab.  There's already a baking kit tab, so I anticipate TF to add more tools  in there.  But one of the main points I'm expecting TF to sell:  Modo advanced viewport + unreal shader + BRDF (aka Modo's own PBR system) = what you see in Unreal/ Unity.

    [Note this video is an old cryengine-maya tech demo and has nothing to do with Modo]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqNHJ-ekMR4


  • Zack Maxwell
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    Zack Maxwell interpolator
    Grimwolf said:
    I'm having a crazy time finding any information on what cinemaware is.
    Video below is what the previews reminded me of (but it won't look as grand or even the same scope).  Where they integrated gamedev tools close to each other or in one single tab.  There's already a baking kit tab, so I anticipate TF to add more tools  in there.  But one of the main points I'm expecting TF to sell:  Modo advanced viewport + unreal shader + BRDF (aka Modo's own PBR system) = what you see in Unreal/ Unity.

    [Note this video is an old cryengine-maya tech demo and has nothing to do with Modo]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqNHJ-ekMR4


    That video was all about real-time live links between Maya and the engine. Is that what they're working on for MODO?
  • RobeOmega
  • Bek
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    Bek interpolator
    Interesting article Robeomega, I think that pretty much confirms Farfarer's vertex normal toolkit integrated into modo (which we all probably expected anyway).

    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.
  • Macrow
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    Macrow polycounter lvl 8
    I just hope someone (The Foundry, perhaps) would do something innovative to make rigging next-gen characters a streamlined experience, esp. for UE4/Unity devs.  Just like how we've got autoretopo options these days, I just wish we'd finally start seeing some auto-rigging options for game dev--or at least, better computer-assisted rigging options.

    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.
  • lefix
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    lefix polycounter lvl 11
    I'm not so much into animation, but maybe this would be somewhat relevant:

  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    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.
    Sounds like a liveLink system (basically an applink except deals directly with application memory instead of using generated files as an intermediary ). The problem with those is that they require more upkeep as programs underlying systems change, and thus tend to break after after just a handful of releases.

  • kolayamit
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    kolayamit polycounter lvl 13
    lefix said:
    I'm not so much into animation, but maybe this would be somewhat relevant:

    No skinning required!! looks nice.
  • moose
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    moose polycount sponsor
    the ability to export UV sets alphabetically; and automatic application of default (linear) color correction to vector maps in all loaded clips including FBX and other non-LXO formats

    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
  • DreamWarrior
     And  I was hoping it would be a free 903 update.  

    How do you think that the MODO Indie users feel? They only recently just paid ~$400 for a permanent license. They're stuck on 901 which, if you read the Steam forums, crashes A LOT.

    Now, about 5 months later, they're being asked to pay even more money to fix an app that shouldn't have been so horribly broken in the first place. It's a kick in the butt when you realize that they were told that they'd get, for free, whatever stability fixes 902 would have had. (I think that only the subscribers got any patches.)

    I only mention this because, I think that (maybe) a few Polycount users might also be using the Indie version, which is pretty much geared toward real-time content creation with its 100K quad (export) limit and such.  
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    I would love to see a meshFusion equivalent in Max. Both Blender and Maya already have plugins that do similar operations, it's just Max that's trailing behind.
  • Macrow
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    Macrow polycounter lvl 8
    Well, honestly, while HardOps is quite nice, for its Boolean-based work, it really just cleverly uses aid of another addon called BoolTool.  Either one in Blender doesn't really do quite what MeshFusion does--they merely visualizes Blender's existing Boolean operations.

    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.
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    Personally, I don't think it matters to me how or whether Modo will "catchup" to Autodesk products. Great if more studios use but it's not something that's critical if it will  just forever be a specialist type of tool or only good for indie.  The Foundry has other more popular products like Nuke and Mari that can "carry" Modo dev for years to come.

    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.


  • FXdal
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    FXdal polycounter lvl 2
    Meh announcement.  The Foundry marketeers just taking advantage of modo forum speculations.

    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.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvrtuzknjbs
    The features announced so far is just 10.0 witch is the first of three installments and you just pay for the upgrade to the 10.x series, so who knows what more they have to offer. After what i understood they will reveal more about what will come in 10.x once 10.0 is released.

    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.
  • cptSwing
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    cptSwing polycounter lvl 11
    Not a modo user in the least, I am happy they exist though - let's see if they manage to light a fire under the Max dev team's collective buttocks ;)
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