Topic: Wishes for future Lumion versions

[Arthur]

I don't want lumion for free

I wasn't talking about you, so no offence if that might be the case.

[d3v7]

Lumion is possible that an effect resembles parecidoa this?...

http://www.laposte.fr/

[BABE™]

Babe – you’re also strangely in agreement with the developer line,
Why the game-playing and silliness?

Some of us like to live in the REAL-WORLD............

You seem to be under the illusion , that the only thing the developers, have to do ,
to grant your many requests,is to just ...........PUSH - A - BUTTON

the Advancement of Gi in this program is a Major Breakthrough,
I cant imagine the TIME & PATIENCE  ,that must have been involved in creating that.

Not all Fantasy's , can become reality's ,............... by Clicking your Fingers.

[sirsasana]

Babe, having worked for some years on 3d software development myself (not as coder, but as a designer for interfaces/ workflow and working closely with the programmers) I've got some idea what's involved, and I know it takes time and headbanging, but none of the features asked for by anyone (except maybe the massage) are in any way outlandish.

Arthur, no offense taken – similarly please don’t take offense at my comments regarding lumion’s development.

I’m just trying to encourage ACT-3D to respond positively to requests for basic additional functionality which would:

a) not make lumion harder to use and not discourage your target market of primarly  inexperienced 3d architects

b) not require lumion to somehow become a ‘jack off all trades’ general 3d or ‘hardcore application’ – just a functionally better version of what it is already.

c) attract more of your target market as well as a lot more experienced 3d architects and 3d professionals

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – you will make your existing customers happier and get a lot more new customers:
 
Not least me and every 3d pro I know who really likes the look of lumion and would love to use it as part of their existing 3d pipeline, but find it can’t quite do what they need it to do - particularly with the animation import limitation…

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – everyone, both ACT-3D and its growing customer base, will be happy.

[cpercer]

Babe, having worked for some years on 3d software development myself (not as coder, but as a designer for interfaces/ workflow and working closely with the programmers) I've got some idea what's involved, and I know it takes time and headbanging, but none of the features asked for by anyone (except maybe the massage) are in any way outlandish.

Arthur, no offense taken – similarly please don’t take offense at my comments regarding lumion’s development.

I’m just trying to encourage ACT-3D to respond positively to requests for basic additional functionality which would:

a) not make lumion harder to use and not discourage your target market of primarly  inexperienced 3d architects

b) not require lumion to somehow become a ‘jack off all trades’ general 3d or ‘hardcore application’ – just a functionally better version of what it is already.

c) attract more of your target market as well as a lot more experienced 3d architects and 3d professionals

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – you will make your existing customers happier and get a lot more new customers:
 
Not least me and every 3d pro I know who really likes the look of lumion and would love to use it as part of their existing 3d pipeline, but find it can’t quite do what they need it to do - particularly with the animation import limitation…

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – everyone, both ACT-3D and its growing customer base, will be happy.

After reading the entire post I am left with a question:  what is it about Lumion (features, functions, etc.) that makes you want the developers to add basic functionality?  I can guess, but you know what they say about assumption.

[bottedepaille]

Babe, having worked for some years on 3d software development myself (not as coder, but as a designer for interfaces/ workflow and working closely with the programmers) I've got some idea what's involved, and I know it takes time and headbanging, but none of the features asked for by anyone (except maybe the massage) are in any way outlandish.

Arthur, no offense taken – similarly please don’t take offense at my comments regarding lumion’s development.

I’m just trying to encourage ACT-3D to respond positively to requests for basic additional functionality which would:

a) not make lumion harder to use and not discourage your target market of primarly  inexperienced 3d architects

b) not require lumion to somehow become a ‘jack off all trades’ general 3d or ‘hardcore application’ – just a functionally better version of what it is already.

c) attract more of your target market as well as a lot more experienced 3d architects and 3d professionals

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – you will make your existing customers happier and get a lot more new customers:
 
Not least me and every 3d pro I know who really likes the look of lumion and would love to use it as part of their existing 3d pipeline, but find it can’t quite do what they need it to do - particularly with the animation import limitation…

With the addition of some basic additional functionality the result will be – everyone, both ACT-3D and its growing customer base, will be happy.

Would love to see some  of your work, have you got a website, portfolio, can upload some images of work you have done? Might help understand where you are coming from.

[sirsasana]

Hi Strawbale,

Where I’m coming from is common sense – which is I hope evident to the other contributors on the forum: asking for basic improvements in lumion functionality which I’m sure everyone would benefit from, not least the developers.

I’ve no real need or wish to publicize my work (or my name) on an open forum entitled ‘lumion 3.0 secrets revealed’  - but if you want to message me directly I’ll be happy to go into more detail. I’ve already corresponded with Ecuadorian with some details of my experience, and I’m happy to correspond personally if you wish.

But just in case anyone doubts my credentials, trust me, if you’ve played an EA sports game from 2000 onwards – you’ve seen my content – as have most people using secondlife, as well as some specialist 3d modelling applications.

My current personal interest/ requirement in lumion is the same as everyone else: fast visualization and rendering. Only my requirement is not just archviz (which is pretty easy really) but characters and deforming (vertex animated) meshes. Again – no different from the vast majority of existing (and potential) users.

Anyway, to the doubters – here’s a character render 

[sirsasana]

PS Strawbale – the functionality I (and many, many others) have requested has been described in detail in my previous posts, but just to recap:

In terms of basic. fundamental functionality:

1) Vertex animation import would make me buy lumion immediately. This would allow me and everyone else to import custom characters and animations (and any other deforming objects) which would – as has been requested – allow storytelling.
It would allow curtains to be drawn and fluids to pour out of glasses. It would allow things like car crashes or oil rig pipeline failures to be simulated properly…the list of things which could be done with lumion if lumion only allowed vertex animation import is pretty well limitless.

2) Export cameras would get me extremely close to buying lumion (because then I could could get round the lack of animation import by compositing using other 3d apps with shadow catchers on the overlaid content).

3) *.exe export would just make me really happy because I like sending clients interactive demos in none-branded windows - and at 3K per license, I should be able to.

In terms of interface (and I know, many existing users are religiously opposed to any change here…) – it would benefit everyone to have:

1) A more flexible interface – one which could be multi-viewport as well as single view (existing lumion) would allow everyone to work faster and more precisely.

2) Type-ins as well as sliders for all parameters (where’s the precision in the existing sliders?).

3) A multichannel timeline in build mode would simply make animation easier and faster all round, instead of the incredibly noddy (dumb) method currently employed of separate timelines in movie mode.

Obviously there have been many other requests for functionality, such as object export (with which ACT-3D have a licensing issue), more intuitive environmental controls, vegetation painting – as well as all the rendering requests, but basically I keep coming back to one thing:

At least to me, vertex animation import is the most important upgrade of all. Again, if it was there – I’d buy lumion right now.

Now none of this is asking for a 'hardcore' application. Just some basics which would benefit everyone. So what's the problem?

[Ecuadorian]

Regarding the video I posted here: I'm not asking for a massage. Everything in the video is actually quite likely to be soon implemented in Lumion. Here's why:

Planar Reflections
Already in Quest3D since 2001:

Quest3D, had planar reflections from 2001 onwards

Check the mirrors in the "Moebius house" demo here:
http://quest3d.com/demos/
It was made by a Quest3D user back in 2008. Quest 3D is the engine powering Lumion.

TVs with movies in them
Also possible in Quest3D.

In Quest3D, animated textures are streamed from files on the harddrive. In Lumion, however, the developers strive to include as many external files as possible in the Library and Scene files, so that they are more or less self-contained.

Add to that the minefield of playing video files with exotic codecs, framerates and resolutions, alpha masks if using .MOV files, combined with the new framerate types in Lumion, and things can quickly get very complicated to implement.

Quest3D users are usually quite tech savvy and know how to prepare their video files in order to make them work. I doubt that the developers want to place a similar burden on Lumion users.

So you see, the only reason why they haven't implemented custom video textures until version 2.5 is because they believed most Lumion users to be not very tech-savvy when it comes to video encoding. However, this didn't stop the developers from adding a "Movie from file" option in Movie mode... which only accepts .mp4 files. So, if they have trusted us to properly encode video in .mp4 format for Lumion's Movie Editor since version 1.0, they will surely also trust us to properly encode it for video textures in a future version.

After all, anybody can now create proper .mp4 files with Handbrake, which is free and requires no knowledge at all. Just load the source file and press the big green "Start" button.

See the "Home cinema" demo here, created with Quest3D:
http://quest3d.com/demos/
It really adds a lot more life to scenes with screens. And in 2012, screens are everywhere in a project. When was the last time you saw an office or a home without any screen?

Global Illumination
2 months ago, Remko hinted that Lumion 3.0 might have GI:
http://lumion3d.com/forum/general-discussion/lumenrt-3/
...and it has now been confirmed for version 3.0. Thank you a lot, guys!  

More Animated people
With the launch of Lumion 1.0 we were amazed to see people talking, making dance moves and walking. The logical progression, two years and four versions later, is to have a lot more of them. Animated people are actually one of Lumion's selling points!

Bringing your visualization to life is child’s play with the hundreds of entourage models in the model library.
For example trees that sway in the wind, moving cars, animated people, buildings, street furniture and much more.

http://lumion3d.com/details/
And it has been stated that there will be, indeed more animated people:

More animated people (including seated people and different races) will be included in future updates.

Now, before you tell me: "If you want Quest3D functionality, then buy Quest3D"... Well, Quest3D is actually going to become an in-house tool for Act-3D. It's no longer going to be sold to the public as it today.

In the future, only the hardcore Quest3D partners we have currently will keep access to it and we might stop releasing the program for individual sale completely.

http://lumionautics.com/interview-with-ferry-marcellis/
So the only logical way to fulfill the need for these functionality is to implement it in Lumion.

And I know they listen to their customers.

Many new features in the new version are a result of users feedback.

And that it's not rocket science for them to implement the features already in Quest3D (animated textures and planar reflections):

With Quest3D our development process is easy & fast… so there is a lot that can be done.

So you see, I'm not asking for Lumion to do anything unreasonable like fetching me a beer or giving me an Oscar-winner movie with the press of a button. I'm just expecting it to take the next logical step. I want to keep the optimism we felt when we first opened Lumion 1.0, and when we first read the interview Ferry gave to Bekerman. And I do trust the developers will bring back that optimism with V 3.0, so I have just purchased the upgrade.    

So I guess what this critic with "The Attitude" now wants to say is...

[Remko]

[NOTICE] Orignally this topic was in the announcement section. Split the topic because it's more appropiate to put it in the general discussion topic. Note that there is also an official wish list section on this forum but that's only accesible if you are a licensed user.

[Remko]

PS Strawbale – the functionality I (and many, many others) have requested has been described in detail in my previous posts, but just to recap:

In terms of basic. fundamental functionality:
...

Your requests, combined with all other requests are stored. We review all made requests on our development meetings to determine what will be included in the next version of update.

Note that right now none of the features you list here are planned for future versions.

[Remko]

Anyway, to the doubters – here’s a character render 

The model looks great. Any other models? We're always looking for good models. The new characters models for 3.0 are all custom made for us but we welcome any modeler that could create higher quality characters.

[sirsasana]

Hi Remko,

Thanks, but I won’t be supplying you with character models: I have my own projects – and I wanted to put characters (and other animated geometries) into lumion myself – but as you say, that’s not going happen.

Anyway, you don’t need better character models – in fact you don’t need better 3d models at all…

You need a better and more constructive business model – and you still need more real functionality in lumion. For example, simply allowing vertex animation import would make the difference between lumion being what it is – essentially a walk/fly through viewer for static objects and your object library – and it being a true (unlimited) content visualization and rendering solution with a much bigger market.

But instead the Emperor took an axe to his forum because he didn’t like what people were saying about his clothes…

That’s not good business, and this certainly isn’t:

“Note that right now none of the features you list here are planned for future versions”

Now there’s a rejection if ever I heard one.

But since many of the requests I’ve made have also been made repeatedly over a very long time by your existing users, you’re rejecting them too.

Seriously, I do wish you well with your business – but you guys really need to get your act together and start listening to your customers.

All the best – and good luck!

PS all this time I’ve had the feeling that the reason why you’re so stuck/ unable to add real functionality is because you’re trying to do everything through quest 3d and you don’t have any real C or C++ graphics programmers (hence the tweaking and reliance on more content to sell the app). If that’s the case, let me know – I know some really good ones who could sort everything out for you.

[Remko]

Now there’s a rejection if ever I heard one.

It almost sounds like you take it personally. It's logical for people to have different opinions on things. You very clearly stated your requirements and I think in the end it boils down to us having different plans for Lumion than what you wish for.

Lumion is a tool for architects and generally most do  not even know how to animate a character. Therefore, we choose to not implement vertex animation import. There's a huge amount of other extra features I can think of architects would love. We choose to focus on those features.

We listen very carefully to our customers. Listening to customers and directly implementing every wish are two different things. We seriously considered almost every request on your list in earlier meetings, even before you suggested them. The result, as you know, is that none of those features are planned for future versions.

[sirsasana]

Hi Remko,

Honestly, I don’t take it personally at all – neither should you 

I just think it’s illogical, that’s all.

In my experience, business is about growth and expansion which means embracing new markets and widening the customer base.

Forgive me, I’ve never come across a company before which has been so determinedly resistant to fundamentally improve its product, and so strangely defiant that it knows exactly what its market wants – when clearly much of your existing market wants the functions you’ve decided you won’t implement “in any future release”.
Wow, really – that’s some statement.
To me it smacks of blind arrogance but maybe I’ve missed some innovative new business strategy which has found a way to make a success out of a fixed and inflexible approach (like getting blood out of a stone).

I’ve said everything I want to say and since I know I’ve been wasting my time, I’ll stop posting altogether now (you can breathe a big sigh of relief).

Again – good luck with lumion, I really mean it!