People... get a grip.

MSNBC:

Disney has co-financed and distributed Pixars animated films for the past 12 years, splitting the profits. That deal expires in June after Pixar delivers Cars, and it had once appeared the companies would not renew it amid friction between Jobs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

But the talks revived under Iger, who became Disney CEO last October. Disney, the theme park owner that also owns the ABC and ESPN TV networks, and Pixar had discussed a new relationship for months.

The two companies will remain separate, with Pixar keeping its brand name and headquarters in Emeryville, near San Francisco. Maintaining Pixars unique creative character was a priority in the talks, executives said.

Most of the time that Bob and I have spent talking about this hasnt been about economics, its been about preserving the Pixar culture because we all know that thats the thing that is going to determine the success here in the long run, Jobs said on a conference call with analysts."

And there is more, but that pretty much sums it up. Disney will OWN Pixar, but will NOT control its creative processes. Okay? Now get back to doing something constructive! :)

Megalodon

Eisner and Jobs did NOT get along at all. With Disney's new CEO, there is apparently a MUCH better relationship between the two parties which laid the groundwork for the deal. Fortunately both "sides" understand the need to keep the companies separate and continue the creative cultivating at Pixar while bringing Disney "up-to-speed" with this sort of creative environment.

Megalodon

I'm one of those waiting for the LW version of xStream - hopefully it will not be too far into 2006!

Also hoping that you really don't need to buy a full version of xStream for every machine you would like in your network to render. A better idea would be the Vue5I rendercow system - though I would prefer it just work with my network renderer Butterfly NetRender rather than it's own network rendering system! Then again... we'll have to wait and see how it actually will work. I'm excited! :)

Megalodon

I've been lobbying E-On about this cloud situation for quite a while. Terragen2 clouds are outstanding. I'm hoping that E-On will surprise us all with an update that will include this sort of reality. I won't hold my breath, but I will continue to hope!

Megalodon

"when i tried lightwave 10 yearsago i liked max better so if you wanna splash money go for max"

Now THAT's funny. Tried LW 10 years ago.... that was version 5.0. We're now up to 8.5 with 9 only weeks away. I'd say regarding 3D apps, get the demo's and see what you like. And let's see.... Lightwave new is $795; Max new is $3500. Hhmmm.... which one to buy... :)

Personally, the deal is outstanding. You figure you're getting two very good apps for less than $800US - that's incredible.

Megalodon

Well.... I can understand your frustration. But... if I had tried to order 3x and it failed all 3x, I would have called OR e-mailed E-On about the problem.

Sometimes E-On is great, sometimes they're not. I'd have to say that they're an average company. I wish you better luck.

Megalodon

Attached Link: http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=3713

Megalodon

Many months ago I e-mailed E-On and pointed out the incredible clouds created by Terragen2 - with several links that many have provided here. While Vue clouds are okay, you really can't compare them with Terragen2. They REALLY need to get on this - though I sincerely believe they ARE already on it. (They just have to be.) An update to Vue5I with real-looking clouds like T2 along with Vue Fusion (and your 3D app of choice) will be an unbeatable combination. Though E-On had beter hurry - T2 will have 3D object import and (it looks like) instances (similar to Eco-System) and it's supposed to be ready by the end of the year.

Megalodon

That's kinda what I thought. Thanks for clearing at least that much up war2! :) Megalodon

Rich,

It DOES say that, but notice that it is only an asterisk to a point:

Edit Vue 5 Infinite environments directly from within Max or Maya (using the Vue interface*).

*Requires a separate license of Vue 5 Infinite. Vue objects cannot be edited independently in Max/Maya without prior export from Vue.

To me this suggests that Vue5I is only needed in order to edit objects/scenes. This leads me to believe that if someone e-mailed me a Vue5I scene/Fusion scene I could load it into my application (Maya, Max, C4D, LW) without having a license of Vue5I. I may be wrong, but this is what it seems to imply.

Megalodon

From what I have seen... you won't need Vue5I in order to use Fusion. You WILL need Vue5I if you want to be able to alter any of the scenes. For instance, if your friend sends you a Vue5I scene to render via Fusion and Lightwave - which is one of the 3D apps not mentioned above - you can still render it. But... you can't change any of the Vue5I items UNLESS you have Vue5I.

At least that's how I understand it. :)

Megalodon

PS. And I'm pretty sure that it won't be free.

Ahhh... now it's making a little more sense.

Still... I would then NOT buy any content that is locked from export - and I would urge others who require objects exported to other programs to do the same. What I said in the first post still applies: Why should we - the paying customers - be punished for the crimes (or potential crimes) of others?

Anyway... thanks to DaleB and agiel for the clarification! :)

Megalodon

krimpr: "THIS is what I've been waiting for. I don't know how long that the LW plugin is going to take, but I have the feeling that I'll be checking E-on's site for an announcement every three hours for the next three months." I'll be right there with ya! :) Megalodon

Hey Josh... any new on the Poser to Lightwave plugin? It's only been about two+ years. From Curious Labs, March 2003: I just called up Josh (Reiss Studio) really quick to check, it turns out LW was just left out of the press release and is on a very similar time table as the rest of the plugins, we should have more news soon. Don't give up all hope on us yet!! I will send you info as soon as I have it and am sending you email to the development team as a push. From Josh, May 2004: ...and there's 1 bug which is preventing us from announcing the lightwave plugin and it's release date. As soon as we get that one addressed and resolved, we'll be moving forward. Honestly, the only reason that the c4d is coming out before the lightwave is that this compiler issue is not present. ---- Looks like they COMPLETELY gave up. Megalodon PS. Sorry for the "slightly" angry post - this is obviously a sore point.

Well.... I will still persue through Renderosity on ocassion, but from this time forth I will not buy anything in the Marketplace. I currently have about $115 in my wishlist which I will now clear out. I WAS planning on buying everything by the end of the month, but because of these new turn of events I will not. I don't really produce any artwork that I post and this really doesn't affect me - but even though this is a privately-owned site, this new TOS is a cave-in to the far right and is very wrong. If that's what they want, fine - but I will not contribute to help them stay afloat. Too bad... Megalodon