Hi, I just wanted to know if combustion still in development ? any news about ?

Officially Autodesk claims that it’s still in development, but for all practical purposes it seems it is dead.  Little news other than telling us to expect some news...no new version, and apparently a lot more attention being paid to other products.

They still say it’s a living product, but it feels like it’s not.  I’m at the point where I’m looking around at other software that will do the few tings I use Combustion for, and I’m refusing to even consider other Autodesk products - not simply because of price, but because I’m tired of not being able to guess which products they are going to kill - I had Animator, Lightscape, and Hypermatter (which wasn’t completely Discreet, but similar situation).  Tired of the guessing game and the lack of news beyond announcements of future news.

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

Yeah...at the bare minimum, if they are going to kill it, why not at least offer it with 3ds Max...that way the average Max customer has something WAAAAYYYYY better than video post.

Well...based on other posts here, it looks like bundling it with Max won’t make sense, since it appears that the Combustion map no longer works within Max, basically killing one of the only reasons I had for owning it...if that remains broken, I wish they would kill Combustion so I can’t stop waiting for news.

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

just as a side note:

you cannot call a 32bit programm, or parts thereof, from within a 64bit program. hence, as long as c* stays within the 32bit realm, its live texture connection will never work with 64bit 3dsmax.  - btw., same reason why no native 64bit programm supports quicktime at the moment. - if you can live without that feature, c* is as usefull as shake which is dead (by announcement).

my2 cents,
rayk

Why does Combustion, or any other product, need to be in development in order to be valid? If it works, it works and I will continue to use it until I am no longer able to install it on a distant version of Windoze or some revolutionary new computing platform that makes PCs obsolete. It is a mature product with a vast, deep feature set that works just as well now as it did when the last version was released. I don;t even know what I would need in a new version, it already has all the tools I require to do any job I might want to take on.

warrenBONES
TOXIK Application Specialist
Asia-Pacific

wrbones 16 April 2009 04:16 AM

Why does Combustion, or any other product, need to be in development in order to be valid? If it works, it works and I will continue to use it until I am no longer able to install it on a distant version of Windoze or some revolutionary new computing platform that makes PCs obsolete. It is a mature product with a vast, deep feature set that works just as well now as it did when the last version was released. I don;t even know what I would need in a new version, it already has all the tools I require to do any job I might want to take on.

I would just be happy if C* 2008 were patched to make it work correctly on Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard).  It’s extremely annoying that I can’t cue up multiple comps to render because Render Queue crashes once the first comp is finished rendering.  Leopard is not a bleeding edge OS, it has been out for over a year and a half.  Why is it such a problem for Autodesk to simply make a product that they released over a year ago work correctly on an operating system that was released three months prior to C* 2008?  Really, really sad.  I’ll make you a deal:  If Autodesk finally releases a patch that brings full Leopard compatibility to Combustion, I’ll shut up and be happy.

hi there,

well, even though, i am with warrens, i must admit that the LACK of bug-fixes and let’s call them “glitch-removals” is more than annoying.
i don’t ask for new feature and i’ll move to toxik, anyway, by the end of the year, i guess, but i’ll also continue to work with combustion and releasing at least a patch a year, cannot be that hard.

cheers!
-rayk

wrbones 16 April 2009 04:16 AM

Why does Combustion, or any other product, need to be in development in order to be valid? If it works, it works and I will continue to use it until I am no longer able to install it on a distant version of Windoze or some revolutionary new computing platform that makes PCs obsolete. It is a mature product with a vast, deep feature set that works just as well now as it did when the last version was released. I don;t even know what I would need in a new version, it already has all the tools I require to do any job I might want to take on.

There are issues on a number of levels with your argument....among these (and of course all my opinion) is that when released, Combustion was sold to me as a partner to Max.  It only “works” in the capacity if you are willing to stay with a very old version of Max, or with a computing infrastructure that no longer allows you to take advantage of Max enhancements.  Really that’s the biggest problem I have...I bought Combustion primarily to play along with Max, and now I have to keep old versions on because Autodesk has dumped it.

The next issue I have is the link between development, new sales, and SUPPORT.  If there is no development, it is clear that the company knows that sales will decline for this dead product.  As sales decline, the company becomes less and less willing to provide even the most basic of support for the product.  So Combustion being dead means that even if it has all the bells and whistles you need, if you have a problem you’re out of luck.

And whether it’s a good idea, or fair, or not, when I shell out substantial money for software, I don’t like it when a company just drops that product with few if any options to step off it short of buying a whole new product.  Example: I just shelled out $1500 for Vue.  It does great things. 

But IF I KNEW that the company was going to drop support and never create another Vue edition, I would not feel so happy about the large expenditure - part of what I pay I see as an investment in the company that will lead to R&D which benefits me, beyond just the basic product functions as they exist now.

If Vue, to continue this example, was discontinued, and then the producer released a product that did very similar things, but cost $5000, i would be annoyed, because I know that some amount of my money went to R&D, and that R&D money went to develop something else.  I like companies that continue to develop the products I buy, and if they discontinue them, offer me a path to other products in return for my continued support.

This might well be an unfair way to view the company, but it’s how I feel...and I wouldn’t feel quite as strongly if they weren’t still selling Combustion and claiming that it’s not dead when it’s clear to me that nothing is going on.  Would I love to be proven wrong?  Absolutely, but I’d be shocked.

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

just as a side note:

you cannot call a 32bit programm, or parts thereof, from within a 64bit program. hence, as long as c* stays within the 32bit realm, its live texture connection will never work with 64bit 3dsmax.  - btw., same reason why no native 64bit programm supports quicktime at the moment. - if you can live without that feature, c* is as usefull as shake which is dead (by announcement).

my2 cents,
rayk

It’s not just live edit that doesn’t work in 64 bit, the map doesn’t work at all. I understand the reason why, but why is it even included in the list of maps to use inside 3ds Max 64bit then?

Live edit doesn’t work correctly any of the past few releases of 3ds Max, 32 bit or otherwise. It’s featured online at Autodesk, but doesn’t work and hasn’t worked for awhile, so why isn’t Autodesk doing something about it?

Does Autodesk care at all about it’s paying customers? This is no way to do PR, it’s very angering to be treated like this.
Also, what is the point of reporting bugs if there are no updates about whether a bug is being looked at or not?

See, what makes people so mad is that there is no communication at all, it’s very rude and unprofessional.

Tony Bonavera 20 April 2009 01:51 AM

See, what makes people so mad is that there is no communication at all, it’s very rude and unprofessional.

...and I don’t stop telling his to AD’s officials on every possible occation, i can get hold of them.
even though i can’t make anything of ADs PR department, i still work with c* and will continue to do so, as well as, i will work with AD products in the future....

cheers,
rayk