Shade 9

[aether]

I recently purchased Shade 8, (haven't used it yet), and according to efrontier's web site version 8.5 was the most up to date version available. I'm only now learning about version 9.
Is there an estimated release date for Version 9 English?

[Wася]

Still no release date, but you may start to learn v.8, because v.9 is not too different.

[juanmanuel]

From what Google translation can tell me, Shade9 goodies have a lot to do with enhanced versions of things it already has. So I think it would be a safe bet to hone your skills in Shade8.5, and when Shade9 comes along, you'll have a solid foundation to understand what is so great about Shade9 vs Shade8.5

[fpfrdn3]

Gotta love ANY 3Dapp that can speed the standard renderer up well over 50% between specific updates(in alot of scenes), and NOT have to upgrade your hardware at all.

If you want to see the speed difference from Shade 8->to 9, just go to the e-frontier JP site(might need translate on this one) and Shade 9 product page-"Advanced capability"- and scroll down to the coffee cup picture and click on it. Quicktime will show the differences. I saw 23sec for S8, and 9sec for S9. Thats a 60.8% increase in speed.

[Wася]

When I started with Shade I had 2.26 GHz P4. Four month ago I upgraded it to 3.0GHz hyperthreaded P4. But my current 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo is about 10 times faster in 32 bit mode on Shade, and 20 times faster in 64 bit mode. Poser dynamic hair and dynamic cloth simulation is about 8 times faster.
So hardware is hardware, we can do nothing with it.

[fpfrdn3]

Hi Wacя,

...you have a very fast system there. You can use your older hardware for ShadeGrid client. I would love to upgrade to even dual core right now.

[Wася]

Unlike me with my P4 you already have 64-bit system which is faster than 32-bit one even when the CPU clock frequency is the same.
So I think it's better for you to wait little bit longer for the prices drop and buy quad-core.

[fpfrdn3]

Yes I agree. Waiting for maybe the Intel Core 2 Q6600(approx $532usd) would be nice. I would then use my system I have now(in sig) for a ShadeGrid host, and send out my renders to the client(Q6600) so I can keep working on projects while the faster client renders. One can use either computer when working with projects by switching the ShadeGrid rendering computer thread under render settings(a single checkmark click). ShadeGrid is the best network setup in 3DCG I found so far. I don't think Shade 9 made any adjustments to that(probably didn't need to).

[juanmanuel]

Yes, displacement mapping in non-curved surfaces would be really awesome.
How about that tornado thing? Have you found out how it is done?

[transient]

Even if Shade 9 doesn't have displacement mapping for non-curve objects I think I'll still get it. Parallex mapping is pretty cool, but I'll still be a bit disappointed.

At first V9 didn't seem like much of an upgrade, but there seems to be a lot of nice stuff like that particle physics tornado stuff that I'd definitely like to get my hands on.

To be honest I'm still finding cool new things in V7pro, so I'm happy to wait a bit longer (hopefully not too much longer). It's a bit worrying that not even a vague release date has been released by e-frontier, but I guess Amapi is a priority at this stage.

[fpfrdn3]

Yep, Im almost positive, that tornado clip, is full blown Shade 9 particle physics with gravity and such, maybe even wind emulations. Similar to the particles feature we have now.

Things will definately get going once Shade 9 is released everywhere else. I guess its the normal thing for e-frontier to wait and be sure Shade 9 is ready, before announcing it, especialy in translations from other places(which I found isn't easy). I don't know how much MAC code or PC code needs to be ported either, for some countries?

Many don't see the powerful features Shade has to offer until, like any 3D app, you start needing or experimenting with them. Some are VERY intuitive, some are not. Im very deep into Shade animation currently, and the only thing giving me a headache is the camera key-framing, as well as some browser hierarchy modeling situations. I can't wait for the Shade 9 render speed-up, cause a 1000+ frame animation usualy kills my outdated system, .

E-frontier made a BIG step in the right direction with Shade 8.5. Now we just have to wait and see what others can do with S9 when it shows up.

[juanmanuel]

Particle physics? This will simplify LOTS of things for me!
I want to see what those tornado-clouds work like, I could use some smoke in my angel images-I mean-my architecture renders