Wishing for an Amapi 8.0 that isn't going to happen (at least short-term) will get you nowhere and wastes valuable time that can be spent creating something.
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Originally Posted by mayito7777  Is Amapi still for sale? |
Yes it is -- although e-frontier itself is now a thing of the past. e-frontier was acquired by Smith Micro Graphics. They are still selling Amapi Pro 7.52 from their Web site:
http://graphics.smithmicro.com/artic...1/816?sbss=816
Although I am deeply sorry to see the Amapi team scattered to the winds, it doesn't stop the existing code from functioning now and into the future for as long as you like -- and Amapi works very well even on older machines. I am working on a project that I posted in the WIP section earlier, a Mercedes aeroengine, and my main modeling machine is a WinXP 1.4 GHz Athlon with 1.5 Gb memory that I built in 2001. I have no problems whatsoever using Amapi, even with very complex objects.
And yes, DAZ did indeed destroy the seamless import capability between Carrara 6 and Amapi 7.52, but really, who needs it? Amapi is and always has been a standalone modeling package; you can not do serious rendering within it. So there always comes a point where you must leave Amapi and bring the geometry into something else. The Carrara seamless import was a great convenience if you use Carrara, but it is certainly not a necessity. Amapi 7.52 supports a wide range of file formats for export. I have selected OBJ format for exporting geometry from Amapi; any worthwhile 3D rendering package will import it. So I'm building a library of objects that are not tied to a particular application. Today my workflow is --
-- model in Amapi 7.52
-- UV map and export texture templates in UV Mapper Pro 3.5b
-- colorize texture templates, create bump maps, other 2D work in Photoshop CS2
-- assemble, shade and render in Carrara 6.03
Tomorrow, who knows? New developments happen all the time. Amapi is a tool, not a religion
. Right now, it is the very best tool I've ever used for modeling geometry and I won't quit using it until I'm sure I can switch to something better. The 7.52 version is very full-featured and stable. It may not be 8.0, but it's damn good and miles ahead of a lot of other modeling apps. Even if 8.0 never sees the light of day, I can keep Amapi 7.52 running for a long time on older hardware -- and maybe even under Vista on a newer platform.
So no reason for tears -- buy Amapi 7.52 while it's still available. Then get Marc Berry's superb video tutorial from VTC -- 13 hours worth of training -- and start using Amapi like Thomas intended:
http://www.vtc.com/products/Amapi-Pro-7.5-tutorials.htm
Then you can enjoy 3D modeling with a really great tool.
And Thomas, I never doubted you and the rest of the Amapi team would land elsewhere quickly; far too much talent to be left idle for long
. It is rather unbelievable that whoever owns the rights to Amapi 8.0 would not proceed with a release; it appears as though the code was ready to ship. Perhaps someday it will, and if it does I will be one of the first to buy the upgrade -- but until then, a Very Big Thank You to you and the team for creating Amapi 7.52. No one serious about 3D modeling should overlook it!