#3DS/NT: CANCELLED!
43 messages in this thread
I just have recieved this month issue of PowerPC News via Internet. Take this
people: 3DS Release 5 for NT developement has been halted and the new version
will be released for PowerMacintosh only as a result of Apple's buyout of 55%
stock from Autodesk Inc. The new 3DS will fully support Quickdraw 3D and maybe
Autodesk is going to start its own Mac clone operation targeting the high end
3D market, directly against Silicon Graphics. Apparently, the move has come out
from the latest SGI and MS adquisitions of the major 3D developers on the
Silicon Graphics arena, Alis, Wavefront and Softimage. Quoting an unnamed Adesk
official: "We can't longer be the wife of Microsoft and NT, specially since
they are going to directly compete with us with their Softimage's products and
probably use their own technology against our former 3D star, 3D Studio for
NT).
As for the clone move, the same official said that the license is still on the
works but most probably the new machines will be based on Daystar/Apple
multiprocessor technology and will count with up to four 150MHz PowerPC 604
processors and with a custom PCI graphics board by Truevision/Rasterops with up
to four GLiNT 300TX processors running in parallel. The machines would have
prices from $6,000 to $15,000 for the full blown package, including 526MB of
RAM and a 2GB disk RAID O array. Of course, all the boxes will come bundled
with 3DS Release 5 for the MacOS and will probably be released arround 1Q/96.
Monitors are not included in price.
The press release is dated for the 3rd of April (to be released this monday),
but I have received the advance _today_ from powerPC news (to subscribe:
add@power.globalnews.com) If you want, I can post the press release today, but
most probably it will be available here by monday.
Maybe Gary would like to comment on this surprise move by Adesk and his team.
Gary?
and /krazy images
HA HA!!! Good April fools joke Ana!
A joke? What joke? <g>
ana /krazy images
Now THAT'S a sick joke.
It won't be as sick when you read the news at the WSJ by Monday 😉
ana /krazy images
Nice try, April fools!!! You can keep dreaming Ana! 3DS on NT will pretty much
take over the industry within a few years. The MAC will die, as will it's
decade old OS that has more bugs than OS2! Well, maybe not that many, but you
get the picture.
TTYL,
JACK
Ha! There you are. Bugs! And NT is bug free, not to talk about Windoze, hmm? I
keep trying to find something I _don't_ like about my PowerMacs and still I
haven't found anything. Do you want me to send you the list of bugs and
hardware headaches on my Intel systems, starting with the processor? <g> And
these are Compaq and DEC, they are all great without their slots empty but just
start to add components and you will have a party. I installed my first card on
an Apple some days ago, a Radius PhotoEngine, and the only strange thing I have
found so far is that an Unsharp mask takes now only 20 seconds instead of 68 😉
ana /krazy images
Jack
This IS no joke!!!! After ana's dramatic anouncement I called "Psycic
Friends" and darned if I didn't get the SAME STORY!! Adesk says "we will not
discuss….." but there are other's who REALLY know!!
The worst of it is that we lost Gary Y. at Sigraph to "Mind controlling",
scheming Macentrics!!
He says that he will help control IPAS prices but what's really going on is
average IPAS will be
99.00 but the basic GUI will hold a power over the owner and who knows for what
purpose!!!
Maybe it's "dump the evil box" or "charge a MAC" maybe the monitor will flash
a pictures of Tim Forcade or Greg Pyros….OOOH THE HORROR!!!
Whoah!…..Cross Dimensional time-rip! <BG>
Murph'
"Greg Pyros"
he, oh yeah, instead of the MacOS logo at startup we can get Gary, the whole
Yost Team and Carol Bartz morphed into one stylized face with YostOS in Futura
Italic bellow. And don't tell anybody, but if you hold down the Option key, the
logo will change and will morph in cycle to show all the Adesk online support
and sysops with a finale with Martin, Greg, Gus and myself singing the Mistery
Science Theater 3000 main theme. Oh boy, would that be wild or what? <g> (If
you hold option+command you will get the whole Yost Group dancing samba, all in
Quicktime VR so you can admire their dancing style from all angles).
Neat!
ana /krazy images
And I can finally spell.
Mike
Ana,
>> the whole Yost Team and Carol Bartz morphed into one stylized face <<
wow! what were you smoking last night? <VBG>
Ana:
I take it you fired up Photoshop on 4/1/95? If not, set your computer's date
back and check out the startup and logo.
Bob
I saw it! – I barley noticed it at first – then I restarted Photoshop several
more time to get a good look at it.
Everything you said is completely true, Ana (except for the really big news
about Radius purchasing both Apple and Compaq and folding them into a new
company called Applepaq). We're going to be one of the many new
subsidiaries… Applepaqdesk.
– G
Drat – my stock broker is closed today and I can't get some of that hot new
stock before Monday morning. Think I'll be waiting on his door step when the
office opens! Applepaq – nice ring to it!
Are you telling me that the news aren't correct? Oh my…
ana /krazy images
ps.hmph! I was expecting some more cover from you, Gary <g>
And OJ confessed and the baseball strike has ended, etc…….
ana
Best "gotcha" I've seen in years. Had me laughing out loud all nite
long(LOL)!!
I can imagine the resonses …..Eye poppin', Left clickin', chest grabbin'
SHOCK!
YTB,ana (you're the best)
I am really wondering how many people did forget about April when they read the
topic and the first paragraph… "what? WHAT!? WHAAAAT!?" followed with a few
"I am going to send letters to everybody at Autodesk, I am going to call the
President, the Navy and burn Sausalito to the ground, mmmh… how much was the
4 processor 604?" <bg>
ana /krazy images
Excellent one !
I must admit it made me jump at first sight, then I found this long forgotten
brain-activation-switch. 🙂
Michael
Wow! How long was I asleep?
— noitoM oerohC — semaJ —
This things happen overnight 🙂
ana /krazy images
ana,
Thank you. The experience of my heart not beating for over 60 seconds is most
memorable.
I just spec'd the purchase of 50 pentiums for our school last thursday. Too
well thought out.
I'm not sure I should be thanking you…. you're downright dangerous.
Jeff
PS lets not give anyone, any ideas
Hey, I thought the message was already scrolled from the forum. Glad you liked
it! <bg>
"PS lets not give anyone, any ideas"
Why? Giving your costumers more options to choose from is not bad for anyone
(except for the developer if they give too many options 🙂 I always have been a
defendant of a multiplatform 3DS and that's why I was the first person in the
forum promoting an NT version of our favorite program. That was back when some
people were saying: "Ah Oh, naaah, I hate this silly windows, NT is MS's toys,
mouses? double-click?" (nobody says that anymore, except the OS/2 fan-atics)
Now people are not limited to buy Wintel, but they eventually will be able to
choose Alphas, PowerPC or whatever. Going a step further and make it available
for another OS if it could result in a benefit is a "logical" step, althought
the NT move has been planned to avoid costly ports.
It is not only that we have two 8100s and a 9400 coming this spring <bg> but I
also believe that if Adesk talks with Apple about a port paid by the last one,
Apple will do it. They need a leading package to jump over their Quickdraw 3D
thing and make it the standard. Of course, current Mac 3D programs are not
going to establish a 3D _industry_ standard, and that's why I think they
[Apple] could do it, eyes closed, check-on-demand <g>. Besides, if 3DS ever
comes to the PowerMac (in any form, including running over NT on a CHRP
PowerMac), they will eat the 3D Mac market alive (which actually, is not as
small as some people seems to think). If Adesk and the Yost Group get out a
PowerMac 3ds, I will be the first to buy one, even if they release a port of
the Release 3, I will get it.
ana /krazy images
ps. Greg [Pyros, who else will understand the following<g>], if you are reading
this, what can I say? From hate to love there is only one step, like people say
in my home country 🙂 (and this are not silly expensice 68xxx Macs, these PPCs
are actually real computers, I tell you 🙂
ana,
I agree with your opinion of multi-platform software, what scared me was
not having the option to run 3d Studio on a NT platform. The school (where I
work) has also ordered a bunch of 8100's and when they arrive I plan on
taking a serious look at them. I think Intel can push their architecture only
so far, and the future seems to lie with an Alpha or Motorola chip.
Keep it up,
Jeff
Oh, I get it now 🙂 Sorry for the confusion.
ana /krazy images
Ana, you're dangerous. 😉 That new PowerMac 9400/120 [Tsunami] sure has my
eye.. But my boss would definately let fly after we just got that p100/64. 🙂
Keep dreaming krazy thoughts, Gary might listen. (and a custom built hardcore
3D machine would be welcome.) It's actually a pretty interesting proposition.
JNJ
For those of us who have sold their souls to Mephistopheles and Autodesk, the
idea of a high performance custom machine for 3DS (or AutoCAD for that matter)
won't be that krazy. In the other side, this idea won't match Gary's thoughts
about 3DS as an open, inexpensive and popular 3D tool. Furthermore, this won't
make any sense for Autodesk either, who have more important things to do and a
bigger market to serve rather than becoming an overpriced "3D solutions vendor"
like Silicon Graphics.
My wildest dream about 3DS is to get a frontend on the PowerMac and get a
multiprocessor Alpha (or whatever fastest thing out there) box just for the
rendering. I am seeing this possible with 3DS for NT because that will let us
use a solution like Timbuktu and have complete access to 3DS from the PowerMac,
probably via the 100Mbps link that is coming bundled with the 9400. That will
be true multitasking for sure <g>
Well, back to the present! 🙂
ana /krazy images
>>will let us use a solution like Timbuktu
You will most likely know the answer to this. About a month ago I did some
scans for a printhouse here in town that had TIMBUKTU on some MACs with a
DX2-66. We brought up the tifs and I commented about how slow it seemed to
launch and handle the photoshop program in general. I was told that PC's are
much slower than their MACs. Is this true or is it just that they were running
the PC under the Timbuktu. It appeared to be about like a 386-20 in speed,
certainly not like the DX2's I run under lantastic
True. Timbuktu is slow. The speed of Timbuktu depends on the host PC, because
is the host PC that converts all the GDI to Quickdraw. Disk and calculation
speed is just the same of a normal PC, because the PC is the CPU that runs your
application. It also depends on your connection. If you are using Localtalk,
the thing will be slow. If you use 10Mbps Ethernet, things will change. That's
why I was talking about PowerPC native version of client software, as well as
Windows NT native version of host software that will translate OpenGL calls to
Quickdraw 3D and a 100Mbps connection. Of course, this is all scifi for now.
According to MacWorld, if you run Timbuktu on a 486DX-33 you will get 486SX-25
speed on your Mac.
ana /krazy images
Thanks for explaning this. Good info!
But the problem with Timbuktu is that it will be real slow. Good luck anyways
I was just kidding people 🙂 It is all pure theory based on dreamware that will
never exist, not in the current thing. Read my message to Don to get the whole
story.
ana /krazy images
>My wildest dream about 3DS is to get a frontend on the PowerMac and get a
multiprocessor Alpha (or whatever fastest thing out there) box just for the
rendering.<
Now that's a little Mac silly. 🙂 NT will run it just fine, and
right on the Alpha, for killer previews, etc. Other projects can
render in the background, with a lower task setting. Keep your Pmac
on the side for those hi-rez Dark Forces binges. <g>
The bad thing about having a good, fast multitasking machine is that
you can't take the afternoon off due to long renders!!
No John, you haven't got that one right. The nice thing about my
approach is that in that way we would be able to control _everything_
from one machine. If such as solution could be possible, I would have
two front ends on Powermacs and leave all the time available in the
Alpha for _massive_ 3D rendering at maximum speed and no "lower
priority settings" for silly multitasking. At the same time, we will
be able to use painting, illustration, DTP or video editing software
on the PowerMac(s), access the dyesub, the slide scanner or the T2K,
or just play hirez Dark Forces. The Alpha will "just" sit there,
crunching numbers, as a supermaximegaboard exclusively dedicated to
3D Studio and plugged via 100Mbps Ethernet to our wonderful
PowerMacs.
If you ask me, that's the best definition of multitasking ever 🙂 Just
have one machine for each task, all working together and doing what
each does best. And besides that, that will let me plug another 17"
to the 8100.
So as you see, it is not a little Mac silly thing. At least for me,
it sounds like a wonderful setup that will let me have the best of
both worlds (3DS on one side, the rest on the other <g>) working in
perfect harmony. Well, that if my false press release doesn't come
true and Autodesk launches a four-604 PowerMac loaded with 3DS. I've
to have a serious chat with Carol one of these days <bg> hmmm, maybe
Jonas can pass me her phone <vbg>
>The Alpha will "just" sit there, crunching numbers, as a supermaximegaboard<
Supermaximegaboard. I love it!
>And besides that, that will let me plug another 17" to the 8100.<
Hey now, no exploiting my simple desires for the sake of winning a
discussion… <g>
You do have a good idea, but I still don't get the point of
controlling the Alpha supermultimaximegaboard from within the PMac..
why not have them both sit next to eachother? You prefer the Mac's
mouse? <g> (remember, it's not a two button mouse <g>) It's not
like you'd be able to convert R5's interface into a Mac's.. All said
and done, I'll take two. 🙂 It'd sure beat my current reality. 🙂
Just add a PCI Extreme 2 class 3D realtime board in that Alpha.
(we should start a computer design company. 🙂
JNJ
John,
The thing is that a solution like that would save us money and time. As I told
you, we would be able to have a machine exclusively dedicated to 3DS (no
multitasking to reduce performance), quickly cut and paste between 3DS and Mac
software, access all the file systems transparently, get the thing to render
while doing many many many things that we want to do better in our Macs <g>
with no speed penalties… It could be like having a dedicated printing server
but instead of printing, it will be dedicated to 3D animation. Think about it
like a multiprocessor system: It will be separated in two boxes, but who cares
if I can run all the software I want at the same time? 😉
And yes, I like the Mac mouse better <g> (in fact, I like my Wacoms better and
these are connected to Macs now 🙂 If I can access everything with a single
mouse, keyboard and desktop (I say desktop not to say multiple monitors on the
8100 <vbg>), why have these peripherals duplicated?
Yeah, we should start a computer design company. We will start with the
aesthetics, though. We have to save the clone world from the evil green LCD
panels with MegaHertzs speeds on them, the awful three color cases Made in the
USA and Taiwan, and computers for cowboys with gold logos and car-dealer type
advertising.
Then, and only then, when we all have a computers designed by SGI, Porsche and
Apple Technology Lab, then we will add GLiNT boards to those boxes 🙂
ana /krazy images
Ana,
PMJI, but are you going to Siggraph this year? (It would be silly not to).
Someone promised me a personal demo of R5, so I guess that I have to go <g>.
What month is it?
ana /krazy images
Ana,
re: Siggraph
Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I was Scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico <cool>
>> What month is it? <<
August, I think. I forget the exact date. Anyone?
I look forward to meeting you and Jesus if you do come to LA 🙂
Martin
Hi Martin,
Cozumel, uhm? I see that you are in good shape! 🙂 I am glad you had such a
good time in mexico (because I am sure that you have had an excellent time).
Are you really going to go to Australia and forget the wonders of America
(read: double-size burritos <g>)?
I got so many people to meet that I don't know if I am going to be able to get
to you and your wife (juuuuust kidding, just kidding, you are the first on the
list 🙂 Well, maybe after the dinner with Spielberg to see if we get that
contract for the FX of his next movie <g>
ana /krazy images
Hi Martin!
Siggraph 95 is from Sunday August 6th to Friday August 11th at the LA
Convention Center. (Exhibitions don't start until the 8th.)
Siggraph 95 Conference Management Smith, Bucklin & Associates, Inc. 401 North
Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL. 60611 (312) 321-6830 (312) 321-6876 Fax
siggraph95@siggraph.org
http://siggraph.org/conferences/siggraph95/siggraph95.html (WWW)
Your a lucky guy to go diving down there! I've always wanted to…
..Earl