[Feed]

This beta is out of date. Please check the latest post in the News section of the forum to find the most recent beta:

http://www.silo3d.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15


Hey folks,

IMPORTANT: YOUR REGISTRATION CODE WILL NOT WORK FOR THIS BETA. YOU MUST USE IT AS THE FULLY-FUNCTIONAL DEMO VERSION.

Just wanted to get that out of the way, to try and cut down on the potential support e-mails. This means that we've switched to the new copy protection scheme for 2.0, which will allow for a single code for both the PC and Mac and should generally be better for everyone. Nobody has this code yet, but you can use the demo period which will make it fully-functional until the final release. We'll let you know when we get to the point where we're sending out the new codes to those who get the free upgrade. It won't be right away, as we may need to make some changes to the code system based on results of these betas. This does mean that anybody can download and use the latest beta, not just registered Silo users. Tell your friends.

We feel we're getting pretty close to release at this point. We've been spending a lot of time recently preparing help files, the new website, and all the other things which will be necessary to get done before we can get Silo 2.0 out to everyone. There will probably be a couple release candidates. There will, of course, be bugs in the final version as is the case with all software, but the reports we're getting suggest that Silo 2 is at this point quite stable, and on par with or better than 1.42. Once 2.0 is out we'll just start working on 2.1, so there won't be much of a real difference in terms of when things get fixed.

This would be a good time for people to post the most critical issues they would like to see fixed, especially if you feel there's something that HAS to be in 2.0 and can't wait until 2.1. Along those lines, let me mention again that an SDK and displacement map generation will NOT be available in 2.0.

One interesting thing that we're doing is with regards to the 2.0 demo period setup. After people's 2.0 demo expires, Silo will revert to a mode that is basically a free 3D file converter. I.e. you'll be able to continue to use Silo to open and save files in supported formats as long as you don't modify them. You'll also be able to continue to use Silo like the learning version from 1.x (saves are limited to a certain number of faces).

Here's a list of some of the updates for this beta:

- The topology brush close loop and continue stroke functionality has been corrected and restored.
- Double-clicking on Silo-associated files will open them in Silo
- Several obj improvements, including speed increases and the option to import/export objects as groups is back.
- Fixed locking issues. (Only objects and object groups are available to be locked.)
- Fixed a bug with hiding and unhiding faces.
- Fixed a crash when using Merge across the mirror seam of a mirrored object.
- Fixed a Spin Edge crash.
- Updated default preferences, and added presets for Mouse Settings.
- Fixed issues with lasso selection and area selection, so they are much more reliable.
- Fixed issues with Toggle Current Subdivision.
- Fixed a normal map generation crash.
- Added status information for file loading and saving.
- Fixed png alpha issues for normal map export.
- Fixed an issue with saving a .sib file with UV proxies as a .sia file.
- Fixed more general crashes.
- Opening the Brush Editor (Shift + T) will automatically enter the displacement brush. Use this command if you want both to open at once.
- Fixed an issue on Mac where numerical entry didn't work when a window was not docked.

Please let us know if you have any problems with installation, and of course please keep posting about bugs and critical issues.

And once more, just because it's fun to yell sometimes:
IMPORTANT: YOUR REGISTRATION CODE WILL NOT WORK FOR THIS BETA. YOU MUST USE IT AS THE FULLY-FUNCTIONAL DEMO VERSION.

This beta is PC only for now, with a Mac beta soon to follow:

This beta is out of date. Please check the latest post in the News section of the forum to find the most recent beta:

http://www.silo3d.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=15

Have fun!

[the grinch]

cheers

[ADL7]

Thanks Guys !

[Ediseye]

Wow...

This is great news. Sounds like Silo is getting even better than I imagined it would be when I bought Silo 1.42.

Keep up the great work Nevercenter. I'm sure you’re getting the attention of many with this recent news.

I'll get to testing as soon as I can.

[Adam_A-F]

Nice work guys. just in time for our speed sculpting sessions over at SubD forums.

Adam

[RogerKnightly]

If UVs were interpolated on modeling opps id be happy. especially when I break a piece from a mesh to an intependant object. its nuts that it looses it uvs.

nice to finally have a logo

PNG still dosnt work for me. I just get a blank tile, bmp n all are fine

in sculpt mode im getting serious cursor ghosting and if i sculpt in multiwindow mode then the ui buttons all try to squish into the pane im workin in. never had this before n it dosnt happen in 9e. also having the default number of splits as 5 seems a bit odd

[Memag Neman]

KEWL!!!
Guess that Janimatic won't be too happy when he reads "no SDK".
Well , no displacement either. too bad.
Thanks NC!! Keep rockin'!!

[lhnova]

Thanks, always nice to see a new beta out

I'm off to test. 8-)

Linus

[justa_newbie]

Originally Posted by Feed

...
This would be a good time for people to post the most critical issues they would like to see fixed, especially if you feel there's something that HAS to be in 2.0 and can't wait until 2.1. Along those lines, let me mention again that an SDK and displacement map generation will NOT be available in 2.0.
...

errr.....whut? That's news to me. I had thought displacement map generation was going
to be in the final 2.0 release.

Well, I hope it's dis-inclusion is due to the fact that you're working on the tangent space
solution.

Anyhow, congrats on getting closer to final release! Ready to pony-up my $60 for the
upgrade whenever you've set up the bank account. :mrgreen:

Kind regards,


justa_newbie

[ghib]

Without going to much into silo freezing and 'thinking' for a short period with some functions here are my main gripes with the current beta.


1. exclusion of 'no manipulator' function (I'll be extremely sad if this one goes)
2. displacement painting

• center seam

• flatten tool raising area instead of flattening down. (might be nice to set levels)

• a better visual clue to strength of selected brush (mudbox has this one pinned imho with simply a line)

• lack of ability to bind brush size & strength to hotkeys.

3. numerical editor weirdness - rotation changes size not rotation. same with scaling.
4. split loop - slide gizmo remaining open while using mouse button shortcuts. (major hindrance)
5. tweak functions not working as standard across the board.

• using soft selection with local move & orient work if poly is selected but not in tweak mode.

6. missing option to export current subdivision level without having to refine mesh.

For me these are the major things that stick out at the moment and I feel would mar the release if not fixed.

Otherwise good job on the beta. I couldn't live without the calculate symmetry functions & a whole host of other additions. Good luck with the release

[cookepuss]

Darn....

I can understand displacement export not making it into 2.0 proper, but I'm still sorry to see that partial subdivision hasn't been put back in. Pretty tragic really.

Oh well. Good to see that the beta's now open to non-v1 people. Why should we have all of the fun.

[chrono]

Originally Posted by Feed

This would be a good time for people to post the most critical issues they would like to see fixed, especially if you feel there's something that HAS to be in 2.0 and can't wait until 2.1. Along those lines, let me mention again that an SDK and displacement map generation will NOT be available in 2.0.

Well that's a shame.
An utter shame.

A MASSIVELY TITANIC SHAME OF OVERWHELMING PROPORTIONS!!!

Well until you get the SDK up and out I'll just have to stay with 1.42, because your going down the same "I don't care about plug-in developers." road that removes a program from further use and ultimately kills off the program because it lags so far behind the competition.

So yet again the SDK for 2.0 is a "Must have!", "Required for purchase.", "Deal Breaker." item.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Wishful for 2.1:

- Combination of the 'Cut' tools polygon drawing ability with all 'Append...' functions, Line Tool function, and Polygon Tool functions for a superior functioning Polygon macro tool.

- Changing the Orient tool name to sometime clearly understandable by non-professional that doesn't require jumping with logic hoops to remember (Pivot is one suggestion).

[zerebrush]

>>>And once more, just because it's fun to yell sometimes: ...


Have fun!...<<<

Sure - one question remains: HOW??

Seriously - being no coder I am certainly missing half of the fun of the missing SDK, but - even if I can not write any meaningful line of code to do some nifty plugs, I can still (I COULD) use any clever done tool.
Not now. Means "never"?

Guess that Chrono hit the nail.

And, with all things that had been left out my personal wishes are certainly small ones - but I do not want to deal with missing the partial subdivision option.

SMALL FUN, even in yelling.

[Teyon]

Well, good to hear that we're getting close to the final. Not surprised that displacement painting and the SDK will have to wait until 2.1, as I'd have expected to see some sign of them before now and didn't. Well, I'm gonna go roll around in my demo and expect to be buying my upgrade as soon as I can (and we're allowed too).

Keep up the stellar work gents.

[Ozokao]

any news on displacement map exporter...should I ask that or not?

[zerebrush]

Well, I have to admit >> must have been the early morning hour that made me do my post about having no fun with this latest excerpt of software development.
And, by thinking on it again - well: I misjudged what had come down on us.

Seriously: this all is nothing but a darn clever form of advertisement. Not for SILO, though (and the cleverness of this had been the cause for my confusion), but for -------ZBrush!! Please, let me tell you why:

If you think of it:
- by returning to this site day after day for years you passed the test of utter devotion, of your boundless will to endure even "slightly" longer developement times.
First test passed.
- by cheering at every raised version number you demonstrated your further will to even take detours and like it.
- knowing - and liking the beta state that much - you agreed to not use this app for anything but fooling around, means "testing" (now, this is an Silo exclusive).

There would be more to the list, but in the end: you can have all of this and more by turning over to ZBrush!!

As a special bonus for those who finally will be seeing this: at ZBrush you get all the missing things in Silo, including the ability for everybody to write serious plug ins, do everything named displacement, normal mapping, texturing, etc.

So, in the end this all had been for one purpose only: to see if you are fit for ZBrush, latest version!
My fault to not have seen this earlier - and my luck to have Z3 in the box.
Now, THIS had been fun doing, even with near to no shouting !

[ann0314]

What I would still like to see is the ability to create groups in Silo and then save the groups in the OBJ...I know in 1.4 any groups you made didnt save in the obj or they saved but the names didnt take :O( I know that the betas I have tried thus far this still wasnt fixed...is it in this one? Would it be a hard feature to add? I only ask cuz for those using this to make items for Poser (which is alot of people LOL) it would be VERY useful, as to make clothes or characters to rig or even hair sometimes you need to group everything and at the moment you have to go outta Silo and into some other program to save out the groups or you have to save the groups as materials then go back through again and save out the real materials...and then to boot if you have to go back into Silo after making groups it renames them on ya and doesnt keep their names LOL....its a real PITA..and the only complaint i have about my dear wonderful Silo :O)

[VisualKing]

Originally Posted by zerebrush

Well, I have to admit >> must have been the early morning hour that made me do my post about having no fun with this latest excerpt of software development.
And, by thinking on it again - well: I misjudged what had come down on us.

Seriously: this all is nothing but a darn clever form of advertisement. Not for SILO, though (and the cleverness of this had been the cause for my confusion), but for -------ZBrush!! Please, let me tell you why:

If you think of it:
- by returning to this site day after day for years you passed the test of utter devotion, of your boundless will to endure even "slightly" longer developement times.
First test passed.
- by cheering at every raised version number you demonstrated your further will to even take detours and like it.
- knowing - and liking the beta state that much - you agreed to not use this app for anything but fooling around, means "testing" (now, this is an Silo exclusive).

There would be more to the list, but in the end: you can have all of this and more by turning over to ZBrush!!

As a special bonus for those who finally will be seeing this: at ZBrush you get all the missing things in Silo, including the ability for everybody to write serious plug ins, do everything named displacement, normal mapping, texturing, etc.

So, in the end this all had been for one purpose only: to see if you are fit for ZBrush, latest version!
My fault to not have seen this earlier - and my luck to have Z3 in the box.
Now, THIS had been fun doing, even with near to no shouting !

Are you saying that you are quitting on using Silo? Well, Silo kinda came in short of what we were expecting, but I am not mad. I have Z3 and I guess I am lucky. But Z3 can't do what silo does. Z3 can't beat Silo in the SubD modeling area. The retopology in Z3 for me its useless. Not as intuitive or easy as silo or Maya with NEX...But I guess if you want to do everything in 1 application, you would have to force yourself to spend some time in the retopo area on Z3.


I am not ready to quit using Silo just yet. no diplacement export, no sdk, and some bugs etc..but over all i am not totally dissapointed. Silo2 is free for us who bought silo1.4 i believe. So, why quit when you get a free upgrade? Silo will only get better with time. NC has done a great job on keeping us posted from beginning to end. I believe that they had more than what they could handle on their hands. They came up short with some things that everyone wanted, but its not a total loss. I am sure they will make it up by 2.1

Silo for me is the fastest program out there for doing subD modeling using only keyboard shortcuts for my modeling needs. Other programs you have to scroll all over the damn menu bars to find the tools you need.

I use all the programs i need or want, because they all have different tools that others don't have. That is why, it's great to know more. Silo for me stays in my pipe line.
Hope you stick with it too because its a good applications, and the community and the NC guys are really great.

[Jamchild]

Hey guys,
Didn't mean to upset some so much. Hopefully you'll understand that there's a finite amount of time, and it's just time to put a cap on the features and get 2.0 out so that we can have that milestone passed and get back to the old days of quick updates to released versions rather than betas. I realize that with these things, someone's always going to be disappointed because we can't do everything, though we try to minimize that. In a way it's just a naming convention - we could hold on to Silo 2.0 in beta form for another month or two and get the displacement mapping and SDK ready to go. Or we could release 2.0, then get those things ready for 2.1 and release it at roughly the same time. You guys remember the old days of Silo 1.x, when we would release a new update with cool features every couple of months? We want to get back to that again, that was fun. Getting 2.0 out will be a big weight off our shoulders, it's been a long journey which is finally about to enter a new phase, the 2.x phase.
As a side note, it is our plan to keep 1.4 available in some form or another for people who liked certain features that aren't in 2.0 yet. We haven't figured out the details yet, but it won't diappear.

[janimatic]

A must-have list before silo 2.0 is released :

* no displacement map : ok but at least refine UVs ....
refine UV when you refine the mesh. Because it will help to generate displacement/ vector displacement and other map externally. For mle it's ok if silo 2.0 can't generate the maps (becaise shader writers provide excellent ttols for that) but i NEED the refine UV. I guess it's not too hard to add this ?

* no sdk : ok but more info please...
Ok if there is no sdk for 2.0 but can you start giving some info on mesh reconstruction. I'd be happy to put my own sia sdk in open source if you are ready to help by giving some info in this area. Adding support for the faster sib files, and help me to locate displacement data parent face index so i can add weight map controls to xsilo etc....

*
add a "unknown" user data tag to sia files. This cost nothing and will help me until an sdk is released...

This is the minimal request list i wanted to send you , trying to keep it reasonably small...
I know tangent space displacement data storage is a lot of work i guess i won't be in before 2.1 ... snif


Thank you very much
kind regards