Silo 2.0 public beta

Rick Stirling · Aug 2006

http://www.silo3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6803

The guys at Nevercenter have just got around to releasing a public beta of Silo 2.0. This will ONLY work if you already own 1.4 and have a valid serial. This is for Windows PCs only.

Of course, you could buy 1.4 for $109 and download the beta.

I've beta tested many versions of this for months, and really is top notch.

Snowfly · Aug 2006

Oh yes! Finally!

Mister Sentient · Aug 2006

As soon as work is done I'll be Silo-ing.

rooster · Aug 2006

is there a way to get the default silo options onscreen in the beta?
edit nm I read its temporarily removed.
im getting something wonky going on with symmetry tho, this mesh mirrors fine in zbrush:

I think its something to do with the polys of the base mesh nearest the mirror plane not recieving mirrored displacement

Frankie · Aug 2006

With silo 2 can you now modify geometry without having to use the tool handles or pre determine an axis you wish to constrain to? E.g can you hold a key then move the mouse and your tool gets constrained to the axis closest direction of your mouse?

MoP · Aug 2006

Downloaded and trying now! Will report back later

arshlevon · Aug 2006

i am blown away! i love the dispacement painting! it seems my computer has a rough time rotating or moving around meshes with huge polycounts, but when i am actually sculpting its really fast and has a nice feel. its like they implemented mudbox into silo! the brush editor is nice and simple. man, i cant wait to play with this more i just had to take a short break to change my pants so i thought i would post. silo wins! cant wait to dig into more features.

MoP · Aug 2006

Yeah also I love the way you can change brush size/strength by middle-click dragging on X or Y axis, so simply and easy... better than ZB or Mudbox's solutions for it.

Shame it's a little buggy with symmetry (like rooster mentioned, i've also seen this) and not updating the strength field when adjusting it in viewport, also if they manage to implement changing topology on the mesh without losing the displacement on that area, then it'll win. The brushes feel really good, strong and smooth to me.

Not to mention all the extra little features they've added and generally made it feel more like a high-end app.

Edit: On second look, symmetry is not buggy, I just didn't realise you had to select a central edge and tell Silo that's the line you want the model mirrored around. Seems to work fine now

rooster · Aug 2006

yeah at first I wasnt actually that taken with the painting but now I have a chance to spend some time with it I am liking it more and more.. btw careful when smoothing a lot, save it first! sometimes the mesh kind of turns inside out and vanishes

edit: @mop hehe yeah just giving a heads up incase someone spends hours on a model and thinks 'hmm time to smooth the shit out of this!'

MoP · Aug 2006

I guess that's why it's a beta

Rick Stirling · Aug 2006

Remember to post bugs in their forum, cos this is a beta release.

Justin Meisse · Aug 2006

argh, no instant gratification! I just got off my ass and ordered it but it could take up to 24 hours for a registration code!

ScoobyDoofus · Aug 2006

Hahahah, that makes 2 of us.

cochtl · Aug 2006

3 now....

Joshua Stubbles · Nov 2006

Hmm. Would be nice if they had a 2.0 beta that did NOT require owning 1.4 first.

Michael Knubben · Nov 2006

Well, it's just a beta for people who own the software. People who buy in time get 2.0 for free. I'm sure letting possible future customers into their beta-program is not in their best interest. You'll have the demo to try out, since that's what that's for.
I realise you might really want to use the displacement painting though, since i read you were learning mudbox. I've used both, and i like both.
Silo's shortcuts suited me more, but mudbox allowed me to go to higher detail. The fact that i can model and paint normalmaps in the same program sort of negate that though, especially as Silo's so cheap (my advice? get it now, it's much cheaper), and there's not even a price-range known for mudbox.

there isn't though, right? Because if there is i'm curious!

James Edwards · Nov 2006

Vassago: When they release 2.0 to the market the demo will be available. The public beta is just a little way for them to say 'thanks for being patient with us' to their existing customers. Working with beta software isn't always fun or productive, so it wouldn't be in their best interests to release it to potential customers too.

Joshua Stubbles · Nov 2006

That's cool then. I wasn't sure if there'd be a public demo, either.
Thanks

ScoobyDoofus · Nov 2006

I just want to jump in and say that Silo has been a dream for me. Its fantastic. Especially because I cannot get now ANY version of Max to run on my machine for more than 2 minutes without locking up.

Ninjas · Nov 2006

I bought Silo, and while the beta has some issues it is still completely awesome to me. I haven't tried ZBrush or Mudbox, but I have to say I totally love the displacement painting, and according to the Silo forums, it is not even feature complete yet in the current public build. In the private beta you are now able to bake normal maps... seems like it could be a really awesome package once version 2 officially comes out.

sledgy · Nov 2006

Looks hot, just bought it. That snap-to topology tool itself is well worth $109.

edit: Very impressed...took a total of 15 minutes to get from purchase to displacement painting in the beta. Nice smooth, strong brush too.

sledgy · Nov 2006

This might help someone so I'll go ahead and post it. I struggled with extremely poor performance on my home machine with displacement painting. Turns out I had my display properties set to force AA which Silo apparently really hates. Set it to "app preference" and all is well

Joshua Stubbles · Nov 2006

Yeah, I make custom gfx profiles for all of my apps. I disable AA and other features in most every 2d/3d app I use. Otherwise there are far too many glitches/issues.

Michael Knubben · Nov 2006

What bothers me is that cutting new geometry in (or extruding, or connecting, etc...) when you've painted on it for a bit is really, really slow. And i'm talking about doing it on the basemodel, and it's still horribly slow. That'll teach me to model ears on the base BEFORE starting the painting, heh

Silo 2.0 public beta

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