Hexagon update news?

[gugesbri]

Does anyone know if there is going to be an update to Hexagon 2.0?

Thanks in advance,
Gustavo

[corzair]

very early on there was update 2.01
and then 2.1

nothing after that

[crazy wabbit]

I would not worry too much yet, just work with what you got. You can do lots with it, check out some of the awesome artists here.

[Arsenic]

Hexagon is nearly dead, nothing more to say. :/

[Nate Owens]

It appears that development on Hex is at a standstill, but the program as it is is pretty awesome... it works for me.

[E-Z]

there was such a high demand for Hexagon 3 the stock was sent out 3 months ago
and do to improper packaging the shipment was over loaded causing the Delay.


tech support hope's to have this problem resolved soon as possible,
thank you for your patience

we aim to please, Hex Yes

[bwtr]

E-Z wins the prize for the best thread reply for 2006/2007!

[Magian]

Laughing out loud in the middle of the night while the rest of the family tries to sleep is not always a good thing...

[Affuso]

I'd love the partial subdivision feature , just like Silo..

[Arsenic]

I'm really sad because Hexagon push me on the happy way of polygonal modeling, but I have to be realistic : no update for months, no DAZ feedback on the supposed work in progress, no apologizes to customers who brought a buggy software. They just treat customers like dummies. It was the last product they sold to me.

[E-Z]

to bad the Truth came out in the End
when it should of came out in the begging.

i was told on the phone they were going to advance this app
and still nothing, personally i don't like being Lied to.

[shaunmckinnon]

i got my head bit off for even mentioning Carrara 6, yet these threads about Hexagon over and over again go over looked. Seems there's a bit of bias here.
I myself have stopped placing faith in any software company. Just don't see the point anymore. The only softwares that seem to make leaps and bounds with each release is Blender, and other open sources. If the developers for commercial software had even a 10th of the dedication that the open source community has, we'd have stabler, feature enriched software with every release.

[Couerl]

Originally Posted by shaunmckinnon

i got my head bit off for even mentioning Carrara 6, yet these threads about Hexagon over and over again go over looked. Seems there's a bit of bias here.
I myself have stopped placing faith in any software company. Just don't see the point anymore. The only softwares that seem to make leaps and bounds with each release is Blender, and other open sources. If the developers for commercial software had even a 10th of the dedication that the open source community has, we'd have stabler, feature enriched software with every release.

I don't think any one's biting any heads off, or trying to anyway, but you have to admit it does get old. There's plenty of complaining bandwidth left at Daz where these threads can be noticed maybe and this forum is not dedicated to that.

Funny thing is that Hex or Carrara or whatever could be completely 100% bug-free with their own nice shiny new website and the same people would still find an exscuse to complain and not learn or contribute much in general. I don't think you're one of those people myself..

[medeamajic]

shaunmckinnon,

I feel as though Hexagon and Carrara had decent upgrades with decent pricing. Best money I ever spent. As of now Daz has indeed droped the ball. You could have expected to see Hexagon 2.2 released under Eovia by now. I still think Daz bought Hexagon in the beginning with no intention of making any changes. I think Hexagon upgrades will come at the same speed as Bryce upgrades (depressing). Carrara 6 is long over due and because of this I have given up on both Hexagon and Carrara and the revamping of the Daz website. Once a doll house always a doll house. As of now it is wise to look at what TS, XSI and Lightwave have to offer. Daz will continue to play house rather than make a flagship software for the 3-D community.

[steama]

No news on Hexagon from DAZ should not be a surprise to anyone.

If you look at DAZ, what they do best and how they have dealt with the Eovia products they have purchased then we should realize that which does not promote the sale of DAZ content gets put off. As far as I can tell the only application which does not aid in DAZ content sales is Hexagon. Considering this, where will the motivation for DAZ to seriously develop Hexagon come from since Hexagon does not sell or promote DAZ content? Then the Brycegod fiasco (the developer that is going to save Hexagon that believes it was poorly designed if at all). 2/13/07: Help us identify the "ten most hated" Hexagon bugs. Give me a break! Nothing has been done at all! No Hexagon team (not even yet). The silly DAZ bug tracker in which so many users were encouraged to waste their time was so very effective.

There is evidence that DAZ is solely focused on content in the latest promotion on the DAZ website. The Carrara/Enliven promotion pretty much spells out the DAZ direction and business model. DAZ is in it to sell more content. It is pervasive in everything they do. It does not really make sense that DAZ would alter their philosophy to be a better home for Hexagon or Carrara with the exception that these two applications would eventually be developed to sell more content.

I spoke with Bob Stockwell at DAZ shortly before he left. Believe it or not Bob expressed the opinion that the market for inexpensive or low cost modelers like Silo and Hexagon would eventually not exist. He said that the users and funds are just are not there to sustain long term growth. He said applications like Modo will survive and be the ones to continue to grow in the 3D market place. I wondered how he formulated his opinion? I think it must have something to do with being a marketing VP or maybe something he absorbed from DAZ or the fall of Eovia.

I recently read what I thought was a wise post by behzad:

Originally Posted by behzad

I personally will go where the crowd is, so Modo is one that I am looking into. Crowd means demand, it means cash and it means support. There is not a big enough crowd surrounding neither Truespace nor Carrara.

There are two factors stopping anyone from trying out these packages.
1) time to learn them
2) money to buy them

Truespace was stalling for the longest time, and people were given up on it, believe me I was in the midst of it. Now they are slowly coming back but the crowd is different than the crowd that uses lets say Lightwave or XSI.

In my opinion, and I may be wrong I think that crowds do have something to do with demand and the life span of a particular product in the 3D landscape.

DAZ is not motivated to sell or develop products that do not support the sales of DAZ content. PERIOD! Hexagon will either be totally rolled into Carrara or be given the run around the end till it goes out of bounds. Either way Hexagon looks like it has entered the end of life phase IMHO.

Progress in 3D is not within DAZ unless content use is your bag. If a person is truly into the art of 3D then they must look someplace other than DAZ for their software needs.

[Arsenic]

I agree on all points.

[Couerl]

Indeed it’s all well said and Bob is a smart guy and so is Behzad and so too is Stan, but so was Antoine and this last post gave me pause to look back a bit and try and put things in perspective:

Hi, Antoine Clappier former CEO of Eovia posted a history of Carrara and so I am reposting it here.
(And I in turn am reposting it here) ;)
=========================

Hi all!

I have seen a few posts lately about the Carrara history. As I have
been involved since a little while with the Ray Dream / Carrara
development, I can give a few dates about these products.

The history of Carrara Studio starts in 1989! At that time a group of
friends coming from France moved to California with the idea of
creating a graphic software using the new Macs with color display (a
pretty vague plan!). Two years later they released the first version
of Ray Dream.

After growing their company successfully, they sold Ray Dream Inc. to
Fractal Design (developer of Painter) in 1996. About the same time, I
founded RAYflect a company developing plug-ins for Ray Dream,
Photoshop and MAX.

A year later, Fractal Design was in turn acquired by MetaTools
(Bryce, the KPTs). The combination of the two companies became
MetaCreations. Meanwhile MetaTools acquired Specular, the maker of
Infini-D.

MetaCreations having two similar products (Ray Dream and Infini-D)
decided to merge the two products and to create Carrara. In 1999,
MetaCreations acquired my company and I became in charge of Ray
Dream, Infini-D and Carrara (and moved from France to California)

Follows the "MetaCreations disaster". To save Carrara, I founded
Eovia in 2000 with Arnaud Berry, Charles Brissart and Alexandre
Clappier. Since then Eovia has released three versions of Carrara
Studio.

Want even more details? Read below the one and only complete Carrara
history (gathered during the last 10 years!):


1989, Dec: Eric Hautemont et al. found Ray Dream, Inc (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1991: Ray Dream ships Ray Dream Designer 1 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1991: Adam Lavine founds Specular International (maker of Infini-D). (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1991-93: Ray Dream ships Ray Dream Designer 2 (unknown date!) (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1994, Jan.: Ray Dream ships Ray Dream Designer 3 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1995, Q4: Ray Dream releases Ray Dream Studio 4 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1996, May: Ray Dream, Inc merges with Fractal Design Corp. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997: April: MetaTools, Inc acquires Specular International. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, Feb: MetaTools, Inc merges with Fractal Design Corp. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, May: MetaTools/Fractal Design becomes MetaCreations Corp. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, June: Antoine Clappier et al. found RAYflect (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, June: MetaCreations ships Infini-D 4.0 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, July: MetaCreations ships Ray Dream Studio 5 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1997, September: MetaCreations ships Ray Dream 3D (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1998, May: MetaCreations ships Infini-D 4.5 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1999, June: MetaCreation acquires RAYflect, ships Ray Dream Studio 5.5 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1999, December: MetaCreation ships Carrara 1.0 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

1999, 2000 : MetaCreation sells its graphic software:
- Poser goes to Curious Labs
- Painter, the KPTs, Bryce go to Corel
- Canoma goes to Adobe (And everyone thought they were going to die)

2000, Nov: Eovia Corp is founded. Eovia acquires Carrara (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2001, Jan: TGS announces the acquisition of Eovia Corp. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2001, March: Eovia ships Amapi 3D V6. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2001, June: Eovia ships Carrara Studio 1.1 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2002, June: Eovia ships Carrara Studio 2.0 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2002, Aug: Eovia ships VectorStyle (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2002, Nov: Eovia ships Carrara 3D Basics (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2003, March: Eovia ships Power Pack (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2003, March: Eovia ships Amapi Designer 7 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2003, Sept: Eovia ships Carrara Studio 3.0 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

UPDATE:

2003, Dec: e-frontier acquires Curious Labs maker of Poser (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2004, April: TGS (owner of Eovia Corp.) is acquired by Mercury
Computer Systems. I leave the company. Eovia Corp. is spun-off. (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2004, Sept: Eovia ships Carrara 4 and Carrara 4 Pro (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2005, May: Eovia ships Hexagon (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2005, Oct: Eovia ships Carrara 5 and Carrara 5 Pro (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2006, Apr: DAZ acquires Eovia Corp. Ships Hexagon 2 (And everyone thought it was going to die)

2006, June: e-frontier acquires Amapi Pro / Eovia Europe (not official)? (And everyone thought it was going to die)



Antoine Clappier
President

Thanks Antoine for the history lesson, I’m still modeling in Amapi and Hex and rendering in Carrara,… March 31, 2007... Nope, not dead yet.

Steven

[steama]

Originally Posted by Couerl

2005, May: Eovia ships Hexagon (And everyone thought it was going to die)

Who thought Hexagon was going to die when first released? I for one had complete and total confidence in Eovia. I was completely floored when Eovia folded as I thought they were expanding and having great success. I have never doubted the survival of Carrara and still don't. Carrara hits a sweet spot in the 3D marketplace very effectively. I was always totally enthusiatic about all Eovia products. Man, I loved that little company.

Yes Carrara has very long history through many, many companies.

Hexagon not so much.

I started using Carrara when it was first released by MetaCreations. When MetaCreations crumbled it was the same kind of disappointment as when Eovia folded. Nobody knew what the future held for many of these products. People seemed most concerned when Corel picked up Bryce. LOL, it is fun to look back.

3D was in quite early stages for the general public when Carrara came out. Carrara was affordable, easy to learn and worked great for beginners and designers that wanted to get involved in 3D. I am not at all surprised it has survived because the niche user base for a product like Carrara was large and loaded with potential.

When looking at DAZ and Carrara I see a wide open future. Carrara is an excellent platform for DAZ to push its content business and is more than viable enough to take on Poser. I think DAZ Carrara has a very bright future.

So DAZ bought a baby modeler from the Eovia deathbed. The conversation I had with Bob about Hexagon was about 4 months after the deal. He clearly expressed doubt about the viability of a low-cost modeler. Personally I think there is room for a low-cost 3D modeler but Bob was very wise and should not be discounted (he knew the numbers side of the business).

Well months have passed and nothing DAZ said has happened. Absolutely nothing except the Mac version of Carrara. This is not shocking to me because I have always been skeptical of DAZ and have never liked where Hexagon and Carrara ended up. It has also been made very clear that the DAZ business is not software but content. Only software that sells and encourages the purchase of 3D content will be on the DAZ menu. Look how long it took DAZ to release a new version of Bryce and what did we get? New ways to import and use DAZ content into Bryce, really not much more given the time development takes DAZ.

I think Hexagon is dead at DAZ because it will not sell content…ever. It can be used like a loss-leader type of product for Platinum Club memberships which has already been done to push content. DAZ does this with many of their products even Carrara. DAZ almost gives this software away in an effort to garner more PC memberships. Hexagon alone will never help sell more DAZ content.

What we will see coming out of DAZ?

For Carrara we will see ways to utilize as much DAZ content as possible. We will see animation bolstered for use with DAZ content and not much else except the possibility of putting all the Hexagon features in Carrara.

For Hexagon if anything we will see another fix to make Hexagon’s feature set more useable like it should have always been. A new Hexagon version? Maybe, but I doubt it. Just look at the Brycegod thread at DAZ Hexagon forum. Ten features most desired improved, a poorly designed application if at all according to Brycegod, and there are still no Hexagon developers at DAZ (only Brycegod if he is even a developer…who really knows). So much for confidence in the DAZ Hexagon effort.

The Hexagon dog simply does not hunt in the DAZ business model. Hexagon appears to be the only DAZ product that does not promote and encourage the use of DAZ content. Hexagon may not be officially dead but yes Hexagon is indeed dead as far as any meaningful development.

Stan

[Couerl]

I agree and disagree at the same time, but all the cards fall on the same table so: To be brief, of-course Daz wants to promote content and the brokerage of that content even so far as to say they don't even want to develop it. Development is expensive and Bob's right, Hex and Silo provide small revenue streams compared to what they cost to develop (maybe not Silo so much, just a couple really bright guys) and all-in-one programs like Carrara and Modo, LW etc... Bring in greater returns across the board.
Truth is, Daz makes most of its money from the figures and comparatively little from all the bras and panties et, al.. Most of that stuff is made from industrious folks just like you and me. I figure for every one guy who can model a realistic human and prep that up for animations and morph it ala Poser,.. There’s a few dozen who just want to open one up tweak the shaders and render it more or less. That’s production in action and there’s a market for it and it’s a money maker. So yes, I agree with you that Daz has a goal to promote the brokerage of content for those few dozen over the one and that’s undoubtedly why Daz bought Eovia instead of the other way around.
Where I disagree is the notion that Hex is dead (or the idea of Hexagon anyway) or that there isn’t enough return to justify the development of a standalone poly-modeler like Hex or Silo. I think they both showed and continue to show that specific niche, hybrid tools are both popular and in great demand and I’d go so far as to say loved. Either one can run circles around the built in modelers of the all-in-one apps just by their nature. I see room in the market for a super poly modeler, the Rhino equivalent in poly’s or some such and that’s up for grabs still. Maybe Hex will live or die, who cares, the idea is already alive and you can’t kill an idea. ;)

[jbshorty]

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