3D articulated assemblies really are not that hard to do with a library I'm working on.

"..A sim is not just for pilot training, let's say an architect could show off a proposed building design within a reasonably accurate mock up of it's surroundings"

 

Check out the Frank Lloyd Wright house modelled using the Half-Life 2 engine..

 

heehee. I want to model my garden shed and see how much wind it takes to blow it over and what damage it makes to my neighbour's greenhouse in FS11. :lol:

This looks interesting:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/hp-reportedly-turn-android-next-generation-mobile-devices-212440875.html

 

Sadly another high profile vendor giving up on Microsoft ... not really a surprise I guess.

This looks interesting:

 

http://news.yahoo.co...-212440875.html

 

Sadly another high profile vendor giving up on Microsoft ... not really a surprise I guess.

 

After Saitek, HP is my least favourite computer firm... My trouble and bad experiences with HP printers and laptops is endless...

My exposure to HP has mostly been around their Proliant servers which have been very reliable for us. But on the home front HP color laser printer has been very good (CP1525nw color) -- use it to print all my FSX Aircraft manuals, SimPlates, Flight plans, etc. -- I do however get false "Toner cartridge" is empty messages when in fact there's a good 3000 pages left in it.

 

But it's not a big surprise HP isn't going with Windows Surface ... there was considerable tension between MSFT and HP. I think at one point HP were going to pull out of the personal computer business completely and just retain their server hardware.

Gotta love those toner cartridge warnings... my HP home printer has been saying that for the last 8 months.

 

Very interesting discussion.

 

But what I think it all boils down to is the big boys trying to figure out how to get more money out of our pocket's with new scheme's and most consumer's not falling for it. I'm a SolidWorks customer and it astounds me how I've gotta pay $1500 a year per license just to have access to patches that fix bugs and I have to run SolidWorks 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 just so I can have 2 way communication with my customer's because it's very inconvenient for Dassault to include the option of saving a file as an older version.

 

Everyone and they're monkey wants to go to a subscription based model because it's easy money. These big monster corporations are just getting a little to greedy and it's time for some of them to go down.

I would have no problem with subscription based software so long as I got something good from it -- heck I'd even settle for fixed bugs and more stable/solid product (refinement).

 

 

I'm an Microsoft MSDN and an Apple ADC member ... MSDN is $3300/yr Apple's ADC is only $198/yr (for iOS and OSX).

Yes I have an MSDN subscription also and a full subscription to PluralSite which is a great resource if you want to hone your programming chops. I just wish I had more time to play with all the new technologies out there.

 

Cheers

jja

...Why do you thinks no one's developed such a product already...

I was wondering maybe your translation's not as forgiving as it could have been, :wink: but if you are wondering about my background as a matter of interest, I was coding 3D at work back in 1976 ! :db:

I was wondering maybe your translation's not as forgiving as it could have been, but if you are wondering about my background as a matter of interest, I was coding 3D at work back in 1976 !

 

Have you used Cinema 4D R14? ... that's my personal favorite ... I just love how quickly I can build stuff with it. It's certainly not a Solid modeling tool like SolidWorks, but it can do surface modeling VERY well and animation is "almost" effortless. Think I paid about $4000 for C4D Studio R14 + MSA. Much better than GMAX IMHO.

Yes. I've got some mates run their own engineering forms, robot packaging, air blades, etc. go on all day about them. They say the same thing, why don't 'MS or someone' replace these expensive modelling programs and clean up at $1000 a box! :rolleyes:

Am I the only one wondering why this thread is being monitored?

 

Strange. There is some really good infomation being exchanged here.

 

Jas

I think the jist of it askes "is MS messing around", and I say hopefully not. I think FLIGHT was an experiment that if took hold could still be around, but it's probably a red herring in the course of the MS FS series. Windows 8 is misunderstood, it's not particularly a feature release, the tile screen can be useful, but there's more under the hood looking good this time.

They say the same thing, why don't 'MS or someone' replace these expensive modelling programs and clean up at $1000 a box!

 

There are options out there for some, but not all of the expensive modelling and CAD programs. A couple of big issues are similar to the ones that keep Microsoft Office the dominant office package, familiarity and compatibility. Also, most of those high end programs have had many years, if not decades, to add and refine their features.

 

An example of an option on the architectural side is Sketchup (formerly owned by Google), which is probably good enough for many people for personal use. And at $495 for the pro version, it costs far less than AutoCAD, and is a little easier to learn.

 

http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/index.html

 

On the other hand, some alternatives, like Blender are quite powerful, but have a steep learning curve. Microsoft did appear to be getting into the 3D modelling arena at one point, but then dropped it.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueSpace