You know, I love the Foundary and I like what they do. I think Mari sounds incredible. However, I have a feeling the 'lack of market penetration' is a real reason for the possible lack of support on FirePro.
Of course, being developed for Weta's work on AVATAR, they knew what hardware they were using and what they would need out of the software, so perhaps it is legit.
I think it's legit Lynx, Quadro's are very heavily embedded in this industry, it's time for that to change and balance out but the giant high-end production facilities aren't nimble enough to switch on a hem, especially when cost is much of a factor. Now that The Foundry is targeting other segments of the market that do have more flexibility in their hardware option I think they'll find a larger segment of their customers are using FirePro cards, or at least thinking about it.
Excellent writeup, Chris. I think a lot of your speculations will pan out to be spot-on.
For example, movie-to-game adaptations are never going to go away, so hopefully game developers will be able to make the best of things and borrow more assets from the original movie house. Using this tool to touch up the game characters and see how the textures stretch and deform with a (much) lower-poly version of the movie's characters could potentially save a lot of development time (and headache).
Plus, I always find it exciting when a proprietary development software is released for commercial use by both other production houses, as well as the general public. While it's always nice to see what other production studios will come up with, it's also very interesting to see what smaller groups and individuals will come up with. Even amateurs have amazed me before.
Giving more quality tools like this at their disposal can only enrich the creative world, in my opinion.
chrisWhite
Littleton, CO
Comments
Of course, being developed for Weta's work on AVATAR, they knew what hardware they were using and what they would need out of the software, so perhaps it is legit.
For example, movie-to-game adaptations are never going to go away, so hopefully game developers will be able to make the best of things and borrow more assets from the original movie house. Using this tool to touch up the game characters and see how the textures stretch and deform with a (much) lower-poly version of the movie's characters could potentially save a lot of development time (and headache).
Plus, I always find it exciting when a proprietary development software is released for commercial use by both other production houses, as well as the general public. While it's always nice to see what other production studios will come up with, it's also very interesting to see what smaller groups and individuals will come up with. Even amateurs have amazed me before.
Giving more quality tools like this at their disposal can only enrich the creative world, in my opinion.