#The Screamer
I am glad to read of progress on the Screamer. I think that in order
to keep costs down, it would be wise to sell the product direct to
the customer. As others have mentioned, the dealer is not a
necessary part of the ingredient here. A lot of the people involved
in 3D animation are already fluent with their hardware and really
require minimum assistance.
I would like to see the Screamer offered at various stages of
performance (processors and RAM). This is particularly important
since you have indicated that the $10,000 price mentioned last year
may not be realistic.
Lightwave is an excellent program which has allowed the masses access
to the once alien world of 3D animation. I hope that you will follow
the spirit with which the Toaster was created and provide the
Screamer in variations that would allow current Lightwave animators
to compete on level ground with SGI users at a fraction of the cost.
The great limiting factor for the majority of us is the rendering
time. And as not that many of us have access to multiple machines,
our productivity and ability to meet even average turnaround is
greatly compromised. It has been my experience that any decent
animation will take a minimum of 20-30 minutes per frame on an 0'40
4000 with 18MB RAM.
I think that you should also consider putting together a killer, top
of the line model designed to compete with the Onyx Reality Engine
(they are expandable to 24 CPU's). At the very least this will get
you a lot of ink in the press and put the heat on the competition –
you know sort of like the concept cars at the auto show. You would
also be able to attract customers with very deep pockets.
A friend of mine oversees all architectural designs for the FAA. They
are heavily into 3D animation. I was visiting him in September and he
had just purchased over $750,000 in Silicon Graphics equipment
(including the Onyx) along with Wavefront (they gave it to them with
the deal). I mentioned the Screamer to him and he was very
interested, however, he mentioned the need for the hardware to be
able to fit into their current system (which is why NT is very
important, particularly if you are to attract current high-end SGI
users).
I am sure that if you can deliver a high-end Screamer that will
compete with the Onyx system (I think they run around $250,000) at a
considerable price discount, you will have government agencies
beating a path to your door.
As for me, if you can deliver the 600+MIPS performance with the
necessary RAM for around $16,000, I am your man.