88 replies to this topic

[Juanxer]

I hope you release the new version really soon. I've just gone through FIVE re-renders because of Renderama systematically crashing upon reaching the last volley of frames, if not failing to fully stitch them, etc. Of course, yesterday at the very least it remembered where things were after the crash and managed to finish the last tasks after relaunching. Today it won't, no rhyme no reason, no matter the usual slave folder voodoo.

Oh, look, now the sixth one went without a hitch, what's the deal? I've got an SSD'd hexacore Mac Pro, and all gains in speed are offset by the constant losses in re-render times. I simply can't risk letting this beast of a machine doing renders overnight: the fastest the task (say, rendering a few grayscale masks) the bigger the risk of a crash, it looks like. My trusty Mac Pro 2006 at home seems to prove that slower is better Renderama-wise.

This is not a bug report. You've got quite a lot of those already, Having into account that you don't seem to be addressing them at all, we need something far, far better than a "real soon now" and a somewhat smug smile.

I must launch an occlusion pass now. Will it work?

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Juanxer,

You dont know How we want to release it asap, we are solving a complex detail now, to give you some light, we had a serious and hard work on Rama to make it robust.
We are doing our best to make your and our user base life easier and better!

I know you want to use EIAS 9 right now!

Thanks

Tom

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Juanxer,

Only a detail, Joe already was having some of your problems with Rama, which I already answered:
http://www.eias3d.co...ch__1#entry4087

Thanks

Tom

[bwcc]

Ola Juanxer,

Only a detail, Joe already was having some of your problems with Rama, which I already answered:
http://www.eias3d.co...ch__1#entry4087

Thanks

Tom

This is not problem with Renderama. There is a 2GB limit, but when RM reaches the limit it suspends the stitching and moves onto the next job. It does not crash. It's a bit of a work around, but it's easy enough to open the sequence of frames in QuickTime player and export a .mov.

The problem is RM crashing, because it won't move on to the next job. From my experience, RM will crash nearly every time when it is rendering frames very quickly, like a few seconds per frame or less. When completing a job where the frames render very quickly RM will get to the very end (>90%) and sit even though all the frames have been rendered. It will not begin stitching. Sometimes it will move on to the next job but eventually it will crash and nothing else gets rendered.
If you reopen RM the jobs will be at 100% (or close) but not stitched. Hit "Go" and it will begin to stitch or render that last few frames if necessary. The rendered files are usually fine and error free.

On jobs where the frames take longer to render it seems to work fine.

brian

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Brian,

Yes, you are correct, we did a hard work on Rama 9!!!

Thanks

Tom

[Phungus]

This will prove to me at least what kind of customer service your team will provide to its user base. I'm sure Phungus who has been keeping track shares my sentiment.

Well, I´ve never been a fan of the "Silence" modus operandi they are running and for obvious reasons.
I occationally stumble upon these "Has anyone heard of this EIAS software?" threads and shure, I could always promote EIAS, but being out of the loop I just don`t know what to say.
"It`s has been around for a long time....but hey, it`s STILL being developed!!" probably does more damage than good. So I just keep my mouth shut and move on.

Also, since they haven`t set any real deadline.... outside the company, that is.... they haven`t actually committed to anything. Which makes it easy to take a few extra days or another week to polish this or that. Who is to know, right? Judging by the last few months that would be my guess as to what has been going on.

And just to keep track of things. It is 7 MONTHS since the announced feature freeze?? Yet another month has passed since the post I´m replying to. Tomas has now been running for 3 months AND I predict that February will pass without v9 seeing the light of day. WHY? Simply because TWO of the competitiors is scheduled for a release this month. Lightwave, January release, Newtek running a similar "Silence" M.O. has blown YET another deadline (no surpise there).....and Modo. So letting them steal whatever little thunder EIAS might muster would be a waste.

Just my 2 cents.

[davidlgood]

I would also like to know a "ballpark" of when EIAS 9 might get released. Even if the estimated release isn't for another six months, it would be nice to know (I'd rather be given a conservative estimate and get surprised if it somehow gets finished early, than to get an early estimated date that ends up slipping). I'm not going to jump ship on EIAS. The software has served me well since the earliest days when the software cost many thousands of dollars -- and it serves me well today. As long as my hardware will still run the software, I'll continue to use it.

Still... the new version is very exciting, and I, like many, would simply like a general idea of when it might get released. If not, I'd sure be happy to see "test" images from the new software (I always appreciate seeing other people's beautiful work -- it gives me something to shoot towards in my own work).

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Phungus and David,

I really understand your both feelings, EIAS 9 is our first upgrade, tons of details and we want to do our first step really well done, to explain clearly whats going on, we decided in the last minute do a optimization which we feel really necessary to all EIAS users, its not easy and we are working a lot to deliver it, its not finished yet, after that, the beta team will attack it and see if everything is going fine, see if we still have some bug to squash and we will be ready, I cant point exactly the time to finish right now.
Phungus, as you pointed correctly, We don't like the procedure to promise a release date, e.g. Newtek and see the user base frustrated with several delays.
Release EIAS 9 before LW and Modo is interesting, but right now, in our first upgrade, we are a lot more interested seeing EIAS users happier, and then, step by step, rebuilding our brand to the 3d market.

We are remembering your wishes all the time, believe me.

Thanks

Tom

[Phungus]

Like I said, no need to let Modo steal the attention by releasing now.... and here is Modo 601
http://www.luxology....modo/index.aspx
Absolutely gobsmacking....

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Phungus,

I already read it, I really would love to had released EIAS first, but we dont want to release a premature build, which can have serious problems.
Example, Autodesk release Maya 2012 and tons of Hot fixes after, Maya users are totally irritated with this procedure.
Since, Its our first upgrade, we want to do correctly and do everything possible for the next releases to have shorter development time.

I really hope you can understand us.

Thanks

Tom

[Mark Johnston]

Hi Tom I think getting a quality update is important , so I like what your saying . Still feeling excited to see ESIA 9 soon.
Mark
Yeah modo and zbrush updates are both great.

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Mark!

Thanks! Its really important the last optimization we are doing right now, we really would like to be faster, but its really complex.

Tom

[MickaelBehn]

If it helps to speed up i can do a coffee run and get some sandwiches :-)

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Mickael!!

You will see...

Thanks

Tom

[Phungus]

Still keeping track.....barely....over a month since my last post....why bother, right?...and as this is supposed to be some sort of a fresh start....a new era of sorts.....is this the way to restore faith and confidence in the company and the product? This is getting redonkulous......

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Phungus!

My answer in another thread:

“Ola Thomo!!

Camera 9 only works with Animator 9, since the lots of changes we did!
Our last optimization is taking a lot more time than we predicted, thats the problem, we are trying to finish it asap and then fix the related bugs! but I cant provide exactly How many time to finish it.

Thomo, Gigayoda and friends, we are anxious to release EIAS 9, believe me.

Thanks

Tom”

[Phungus]

Well, still here keeping tabs on the progress....or "lack of" is more appropriate....and Thomas........it is now 8 months since you said (post #22) "almost there" ......8 MONTHS!!!

Sorry but I can´t do anything else than laugh!

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Phungus,

We did a decision to change some part of EIAS 9 which reached a limit, so, we are paying the price of this decision, if you were aware of what we are doing, you will understand!
But right now, we cant roll back!

I really hope you like our efforts after we finish it.

Thanks

Tom

[Phungus]

Thank you for taking the time to have a personal conversation with me, Thomas! Will be interesting to see what you guys have been up too. (And no, he did not reveal anything new )

[vincifr]

...a beta version working with duo usb key... just to give a taste of eias 9 to us in the meanwhile? ))