My impression is that Mstn may soon be able to offer itself up as an alternative to 3dMax/Design as the preferred stills rendering app in the AEC market?
3dsMax users... what is still missing in Mstn that is fundamental...?
Plug-in infrastructure? Fully scriptable?
Procedural materials editor? BIM-aware materials assignment ?
Hardware based preview windows?
Better integration with Photoshop..render to layers? Include 3d plane / depth info so that PS extended can 'paint' like Piranesi?
Other question would be if there any AEC specific functionality / opportunities for Mstn to consider?
Photo based or 'infused' workfkows?
Image based 3d modeling, texture /decal acquisition....?
Point clouds are becoming popular.. but mashed up with particle shaders for rendering? Laser scanners can also capture colour inf0.. convert to textures?
Something that is aimed at rendering landscaping / foliage? Mesh? Particles? Voxels?
Geo-referenced / Verified View Montage tools
Environmental ?
Good story dwy.seah,
I think MicroStation could indeed be improved on some points, but if you don´t have to model, materialize and render a dinosaur, or make advanced animations, why should you already buy an expensive 3D studio Max licence next to MicroStation? Does the extra costs of the program weigh up against the few extra functions you maybe use?
I think that for architectural or engineering visualization MicroStation is an excellent 3D application. The quality of the end product is in my opinion, already comparable with advanced 3D applications like 3D studio Max. The biggest influence is the knowledge of the user. Look for example in the Gallery to images of Kurt S.
Regards Louis.
Louis,
" why should you already buy an expensive 3D studio Max licence next to MicroStation? "
I can only speak from the architectural side, and I would say that most firms do NOT use Mstn, even those who are Mstn shops, as their viz application. The most popular package is 3dMax.
I have always thought this to be a problem, as there was always the translation barrier and the coordination headache, because last minute changes tended to be done in Max and the rest of the CAD info would fall out of sync, among other problems.... not very BIM-my.
Regards
Dominic
I think you're right if you speak for firms who don't use Bentley products. The biggest advantage is for companies who already use Bentley applications.
Regards Louis
"I think you're right if you speak for firms who don't use Bentley products."
Unfortunately, that's not my experience. Maybe its to do with the way rendering was an additional addon that we had to pay for.. remember Intergraph ModelView, MicroSstation Masterpiece...etc
I guess that it also has to do with the fact that most rendering used to outsourced to specialist firms, who would reconstruct the model anyway. When big archie firms decided to take some of this back in house, they would hire the same guys who worked for the specialist firms, who would bring 3dMax skills 'out of the box'. Ability to start producing on day one far outweighs the cost of the software, in this context.
Happily, there is a glimmer of hope that this could now change. I think a lot of firms will start to realise that there is a 'continuum' of AEC-specific visualisation requirements and there are big 'pipeline' type problems / barriers to productivity (similar to what the big movie CG houses ran into a lot earlier), but have no real AEC-specific solution.
This is strictly my opinion and its from and animation standpoint. Not a render single image standpoint.
I have used MicroStation daily and have been doing 3D modeling since the IGDS days. I also use Max starting with the old 3D Studio version. I bought 3D Studio for an animation project that required object motion that ModelView and MicroStation couldn't perform. I only do about one or two animation projects per year.
Even though I use MicroStation daily and Max once a year I still find Max has far better animation tools. Object motion, cameras, lighting and key framing are so much easier and faster to work with. Every time I try to use MicroStation for animations I really struggle with actors, linkages, paths, keyframes and cameras. I don't know why but I really get frustrated trying to use it. To me the stuff seems add hoc and I end up with dialogs spread all over the place searching for what I'm after. For what ever reason I just can't get my brain around how they want to do things. It just seems so awkward..
The rendering times also seem to be painfully slow and the whole .bimg thing seems insane to me.
I'm sure if you use it on a regular basis you figure out where everything is. But if your doing it once per year it can be absolutely madding.
Right now I'm making the switch from MAX to Lightwave for cost and Platform reasons. Well see how that goes.
Regards, DavidG