Hiya.
@transient
Well, transient, I'd have to say I kinda know the "basics" of tS7.5 (I've used tS from versions 2 through 4.3)...so I at least have an idea on how it "thinks". I would *love* to be able to dive into 7.5 and start playing around as soon as I have some more time. I should be able to do this on Sunday. I'll have a good sit down at the computer, crack open the PDF manual and have at er!
...oh. Wait.
There is no manual for anyone who wants to evaluate tS7.5 as a potential purchase.
It's this last part that's rather frusterating. I know enough about 3d to know what I want to do...but if there is no manual to give me something to go on to find what I need then it becomes a 3d game of "hide and seek". Roman outright told me, and I quote:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Roman of Caligari As manual I am not sure we can do it. You guys have great images, you have testimonies of TS7.5 owners, you have Guided Tour animations, Captain's Blog, you have Trial version, you have a community, why not just order TS7.5 and if you still do not like it we give you refund for 30 days.
We are working on the manual BTW intensely for paying customers, next week we should have a better version, including those promised videos. |
But then you already saw that on the caligari forums. The emphasis there is mine. Caligari wants me for fork over roughly $1057.00 of my hard earned cash just so I can "try it out". I don't *have* an extra grand laying around just so I can demo a 3d package with actual documentation.
I don't want to get into a heated discussion about all this. Really, I don't. I guess I'm a bit more hot under the collar simply because I've been waiting for some serious improvements to tS for...when was tS 4 released? Well, since then or earlier. I see and read about all the really nice advancements they have made on it. I can see that caligari entusiasm all over the folks who own tS 7.0 (the Caligari users are one of the best groups of folks I know of with regards to 3d users; very friendly and it's obvious they love tS...dispite all the nay-sayers). Truespace was the first 3d program I ever owned. It still holds a soft spot for me. I just *hate* to see tS's potential get squandered simply because there isn't a manual for it. Can you imagine trying to get a grip with, say, Blender if there was no manual and the only company-made tutorials for it you had to pay for? (and those were sometimes, uh, 'oddly priced'; c'mon, $60 for a tutorial on how to use the manipulation widgets?
).
I need a manual. A full one. With everything in it in writing. I need to be able to say "Hmmm...how do I restrict movement of a bone in only the X and Y axis, relative to the bone's origin", or "Hmmm...how do I create a reverse foot-roll control rig, then duplicate it to the other side of the skeleton". That kind of thing. At least a manual where I can look stuff up and see that it can't be done, or has to be done some other way rather than me banging my head against the wall for an hour or asking a question on a forum and having to wait for an indeterminant amount of time...for an answer that might not even be right.
Caligari
NEEDS to release a PDF manual for the tS demo or 90% of their potential customers are going to install it, confusedly click pretty icons for all of 5 to 10 minutes, think to themselves
"What the hell am I doing?"...and uninstall it without giving it a fair shake.