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Silo 3D is finally getting a minor update - Intuitive Programs


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I know most of you "In the know" will roll your eyes, as I did.

However, it appears that Nevercenter is finally updating Silo 3D.

 

Evidence is on their Facebook and CGTalk Forum pages - just FYI.

 

I won't fault anyone's skepticism after waiting years myself but, this is good news IMHO.

 

I'm excited because, I've found very few programs that are as intuitive and fun as Silo.

Although not perfect, Silo 3D was truly zen and allowed me to feel like an artist when modeling.

 

Plus, Silo + 3D Coat Merge Tool = A Whole Lot of Fun!

 

 

 

Regarding Inuitive Programs:

 

Here's my "favorites" list of amazingly well thought out and intuitive programs that stand apart IMHO: 

 

3D-Coat (of course which is why I'm here + just about the best devs and community ever - pardon my fanboy gushing but so many of you have made vids/tutorials etc along with great code + the Photoshop and tablet friendly design is genius. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the little things like customization and menus opening where I'm working instead of me going to them. It's just brilliant.)

 

Mudbox - use it and you'll just know why - simplicity and focus.

 

Sketchbook Pro - Best drawing app (I'm also using Manga Studio 5ex - powerful, but, sketchbook is just so simple an friendly.)

 

 

 

Please add your own as I'm always interested in finding tools that bring happiness to my work.

Edited by CyBorge
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It's a real shame what hppened to Silo, never understood why NeverCenter decided to (effectively) kill it. Had sort of hoped it would go the way of Blender and have its source bought by the community at some point.

 

As for intuitive programs:

 

Paint Tool Sai - Love working with this program. Its no where near as powerful as some of the other paint apps out there but its just so lightweight and easy to customize.

Edited by PolyHertz
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I too am really glad to hear it might finally be getting updated, I love the way that it allows you to model things quickly and efficiently, even better than 3ds Max for the most part, except for those few areas that need updating haha.

As for intuitive programs, I would honestly have to say blender as to me, any program where e is extrude, r is rotate, s is scale, etc... is going to be quite intuitive. Other than that in terms of intuitiveness I think you guys have nailed it.

Edited by GeneralAce55
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- Ha! Beat, I wouldn't put it past them but, I'm enjoying a little "What if..." right now. My guess:

 

Nevercenter will release Silo3D on Droid. 

Someone made an insightful comment that they were using Silo3d when their computer then was as powerful as the Droid tablets are now.

The interface would need some tablet friendly improvements but, a low cost basic modeler could do well in the tablet market for fleshing out ideas etc.

 

That could be an interesting marketing move because, it would be a market where they didn't have to compete with the Modos, Mayas, and Blenders, LW etc.

 

 

 - Poly I completely agree.

I and a few others suggested the whole "Community Buy Out" or "Open Source" years back.

They said no because the program was still profitable for them.

Which I think largely lead to the conclusion they were milking their "dead horse" for all it's worth.

 

Let's hope this is a return to development and not a poor stab at just raking in a few more bucks.

 

Oh, and I think Paint Tool Sai inspired a lot of successful programs so, yeah.

 

 

- General - Yeah ya know I've watched blender and I have to agree about the hot keys. I like the whole translate in x y z direction hot key thing  etc. However, I change the mouse/navigation preferences immediately. I really need to spend some more time modeling with it and see if it doesn't grown on me. 

Edited by CyBorge
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Modeling on a tablet, don't want to sound like an ass (but will anyway since I'll say what I think): stupid. I've already said it I know, but I already have a hard time controling with precision my modeling with a tablet (as in pen tablet), so with fingers alone... and don't get me started on those bogus stylus with finger-wide tips to simulate finger input, they're awful.

As for fleshing out ideas, sorry but if you just want to do that you're better off running sculptris or zbrush (only wintablets I know) but it's much more convincing that using 3d modeling software which will fail, regardless of their port to touch devices and will bet terrible to use in a mobility setup. 2d softwares have a shot at this, as you can do sketching, but 3d sketching by modeling: not convincing at all.

It may change, but I honestly don't think it'll happen soon.

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Beat - You make solid points.

 

As I said the interface would have to get a tablet friendly upgrade. 

I do think 3D on a tablet is inevitable but, like you said probably not going to be functional for some time.

 

On a tablet, along with precision, there is the absence of classic hotkeys as well - CTRL ALT SHIFT etc. and the 3 button mouse etc - so problems to solve.

 

However, they said there's going to be a "platform" addition.

I was guessing it just might be Droid since they're already "App" developers etc and for the marketing reasons I mentioned above.

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Aleksey, I have not seen 123d - I'll check it out.

 

Mykyl, you're are proably correct about ios being their preference.

I'm not sure how Droid got in my head...must of been a Linux thing.

I've been smoking a lot of that lately.  :D

Edited by CyBorge
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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

We have released Silo 2.3.1 for Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Mac OS X 10.9 64-bit, and Linux 64-bit. Here are the release notes:

  • Data directories have changed, so we can stop having a bad launch experience for those coming from Silo 2.2 and earlier. We now differentiate them by version, and they will be in "My Documents\Silo\2.3-x86\..." for win 32-bit, "My Documents\Silo\2.3-x64\..." for win 64-bit, "~/.silo/2.3-x64/..." for linux, and buried deep in app support on OS X in "com.nevercenter.silo2/2.3-x64/..."
  • The Windows versions are now large-address-aware, this is particularly helpful for 32-bit users when running on a 64-bit windows. Silo can now use 4 GB of RAM instead of just 2 GB.
  • Windows 64-bit native version. The 64-bit version can handle larger meshes due to availability of more than 4 GB of RAM, the same as the Mac OS X and Linux versions which are already 64-bit native starting in Silo 2.3.
  • The black-window issue on Linux has been fixed, which was caused by European numeric locales. Silo now forces a US/UTF-8 locale on launch. Some distros may still setup the locale incorrectly, so if you use a non-US locale and run into issues, please let us know at support@nevercenter.com what distribution / locale you are using.
  • A cut tool crash has been fixed. This was particularly easily triggered on Mac OS X and Windows, but could eventually happen to Linux users as well.
  • Alt/option key handling on OS X has been fixed. This fix was made available early in the Mac-only version 2.3.02 as well.
  • It is now possible to delete empty objects in the scene editor.
  • Exported OBJs should play much better with Substance Painter.
  • Context menu placement on OS X with multi-monitor setups should be fixed.
  • Retina display issues on OS X should be mostly fixed, although we don't have Retina-resolution icons yet.
  • Known Issues, Mac OS X:
  • There is a rare OS X crash immediately on launch; please send bug reports to support@nevercenter.com if you encounter this.
  • Silo does not remember the texture assigned to the materials across sessions due to Apple sandboxing. To get textures to display, you must re-select the texture with the file selection dialog from the material dock during your Silo session.
  • Known Issues, All Platforms:
  • FACT files exported to EIAS don't work properly. As a workaround, try another export format if you need to interchange with EIAS.
  • Exporting to OBJ will not include UVs for subdivided surfaces unless you refine the control mesh first. As a workaround, you can refine meshes, export, and undo the refinement.
Update: the new data directory locations may require you to re-enter your registration info. Sorry about that little hassle.
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Just installed Silo 2.3.1. Out of curiosity, because it's way too late for me to return to using it.

Does anyone know how to fix those strange grey rectangles? They supposed to be black buttons, but somehow they're missing.

post-12523-0-30872400-1418157821_thumb.j
Application icon is missing too.

 

 

 

Data directories have changed, so we can stop having a bad launch experience for those coming from Silo 2.2 and earlier. We now differentiate them by version, and they will be in "My Documents\Silo\2.3-x86\..." for win 32-bit, "My Documents\Silo\2.3-x64\..." for win 64-bit, "~/.silo/2.3-x64/..." for linux, and buried deep in app support on OS X in "com.nevercenter.silo2/2.3-x64/..."

I think I'm having this bad experience ATM.

Edited by ajz3d
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I just visited the Nevercenter website and I do not see any such announcements on a new release. Do you have a link?

 

Thanks kindly....

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