Showcase 2015- What's new

[admaiora]

The new release 2015 of Showcase has passed in silence...

A bit due to the Morgan competition...ok...

But now...what's new in Showcase 2015?

[DarrenP]

as far as i know nothing is new

from showcase 2015 the read me:

http://help.autodesk.com/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/Installation-Showcase/files/GUID-68D76120-3D1E-41D2-8BA8...

Showcase Help

Showcase 2015 uses the same Help files as Showcase 2014, because the concepts and procedures explained in the Help have not changed for the 2015 release.

[admaiora]

not so much encouraging the purchase of the new release

Now there is V-red, why offering to the costumer 2 realtime visualization software?

I hope that Showcase wll not be killed....it's  a great software, it 's always frustrating learn something  about a software and then suddendly doesn't exist anymore the software..

[Christian_Garimberti]

Don't compare Showcase with VRed. VRed is more compex and powerfull software.

Vred is most used for Automotive Brands, and is more expensive....

Showcase has a faster and simpler workflow, and is perfect for non professional designers.

Bye

[admaiora]

I don't compare them, indeed just for their differences they should  exist both.

[cikho]

whenever you try to buy showcase 2015 there's a sentence saying:

Note: Showcase 2015 software will be available soon. But you can try Showcase 2014 now.

my perception is that the 2015 release is not fully ready yet, it's just a 2014 with some minor changes, the true 2015 has yet to be released..

the only person who can actually answer this question is marion, provided she's actually allowed to say something..

but, again, it won't change much imho..
2014 improvement were pretty important, they've included the field blur, and the connection with hdr studio which are cool, but also they screwed a few things (see the fbx problems and relative hotfixes).

these addition where somehow previewed in the 2013 r1, a servicepack only available to subscription customers, and then introduced to the 2014 release..

we did not have a 2014 r1 this time, so is not clear if we will have any improvement..

but the wish list is still pretty long

about vred, it looks like a very good software but much, much, much more complicated (and complete) and much, much, much less intuitive than showcase.. learning showcase it's pretty easy, with the proper mind set you can easily obtain renders from scratch within a day without having any rendering knowledge

[Christian_Garimberti]

Showcase 2015 is fully released. Maybe without news.... but released. You can download it and use it.

And it is part of the Autodesk Suites 2015 with full 2015 file type support.

I also hope then autodesk put someting new in the 2015 version...

[admaiora]

Which is your Showcase Wishlist Christian?

[cikho]

mine:
1.improve hardware shade reflection:
-tool to render a 360° image to be used in interior scenes as a reflection map, in order to have a more realistic hardware shade reflection.
-improve render engine to actually calculate reflections (some game engine does it, so why not showcase?)
-eventually, possibility to activate a sort of selective raytrace for chromed/reflective materials

2. more lighting options:
-more light shapes (tubular for example)
-area lights
-self illuminated objects actually emitting light and illuminating the scene (at least in global illumination method, c'mon!!)

3.more rendering options:
-photometric illumination
-connection with mental ray or fast export to 3ds max (fbx never works, materials always get lost)

4. visual engine optimization, and support for high end gaming hardware: it is not possible that a game engine such as the cryengine runs at 60fps costantly using 1000$ hardware and showcase dramatically drops to 4 fps whenever a scene is animated using 6000$ GPU!!

5. more animation options:
-motion path creation, both for objects and for cameras! c'mon to create a fluid camera motion path i have to import the camera from 3ds max using fbx!!! and once is imported you cannot update it (2013).

6. lens flares

7. environment ground plane reflecting objects

8. animated textures option (gif for example)

9. generation of unwrapped uvw projections and map adjustment

10. human body tool, or crowd plugin (similar to 3ds max)

11. direct import of max & maya models

12. more virtual reality:
-implementation of AR tool
-support for oculus rift or similar
-support for tracking devices

13. motion blur

14. network rendering or backburner support

15. tool to cap holes when geometry is sectioned, at least for mechanical assemblies from revit or similar cads (basically recognise stitched element in alias studio for example), and ability to raytrace render sections (must)

16. more environments (water based for yachting for example, airport, etc)

17. nested alternatives support http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/General/nested-alternatives/m-p/4406871/highlight/true#M1321

18. export to mobile feature
19. export to web visualization (unity3D player stile)
20. faster connection of remote devices for external UI (eg bluetooth or direct wifi), setting a remote connection during expositions or fairs was a pain the **** during my previous work

[admaiora]

nice!

For me i add at your list the ability to control acceleration and deceleration in behavior and the ability to import animation fbx from dynamic simulation of Inventor and finally,  automatic and complete control on every constraint from Inventor assemblies and relative parameters.

[Christian_Garimberti]

OK.... it is difficult to find something missinig from cikho ..... Good Job!

Someting to add to the list:

1: possibility to save presets in publish panel (not only rendering settings)

2: possibility to publish (render) only a portion of the image (for testing purpose)

3: possibility to publish only a portion of a video, for example, from frame x to frame y or from time x to time y

4: more options in camera control (perspective correction, tilt & shift effect)

5: camera options embedded in the still creation panel

6: possibility to use an user interface without tranparencies an special effects. in presentation mode the transparents panels are very good, but in producion mode the panels are very heavy.

7: possibility to create "instanced" copy as 3DS do.

...maybe more, but now i don't remember...

[sam_m]

good lists, my thoughts (and I hope they're not already in the software, only boot it up rarely) 😉

1) annotation tools, so text call-outs can be set to appear at specific points in animation or clicking hotspot.  Without the need for dummy "card" models, or adding via something like After Effects.

2) turntable behavious - add option to specify number of rotations so it will stop specifically after 1, 1/2, etc. turns

3) orthographic/perspective toggle and shift+mouse wheel to adjust perspective (to match Inventor)

4) be able to output in a different mode to the screen - i.e. work in non raytracing but still be able to choose raytracing when exporting (atm I need to swap into raytracing mode, then export - otherwise the "ray tracing properties" settings are all greyed out) 

5) Default the publish mode to previous setting - I want it set to locally only but I have to change it everytime I re-start the program

6) add png (with alpha option) to image export list

7) preview anti-aliasing settings without needing to render/publish - slider option in publish image, but can't see a way to set the slider while rotating and setting up the scene

😎 web export with 3d control/interaction - retaining hotspots and behaviours linked to them.

I know I had more "niggles" but can't remember off the top of my head as I've not used the program in a couple weeks.

[Christian_Garimberti]

A little info for You (sam_m):

           5) Default the publish mode to previous setting - I want it set to locally only but I have to change it everytime I re-start the program

You can disable the cloud logging in once and setting your preferences.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/General/User-preferences/m-p/4996376#U4996376

Bye

[cikho]

4) be able to output in a different mode to the screen - i.e. work in non raytracing but still be able to choose raytracing when exporting (atm I need to swap into raytracing mode, then export - otherwise the "ray tracing properties" settings are all greyed out)


omg this!!!
how ciuld i forgot this 😐

[sam_m]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

A little info for You (sam_m):

           5) Default the publish mode to previous setting - I want it set to locally only but I have to change it everytime I re-start the program

You can disable the cloud logging in once and setting your preferences.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/General/User-preferences/m-p/4996376#U4996376

Bye

---

cheers mate.

there's a certain irony having to log into the online system to disable the option for the online system...  (I've never logged in before as I don't want to use the cloud storage so I've never seen the option - as I'm sure the majority of users not wanting to use the cloud haven't).

[cikho]

just to add a little bit more emphasys on a dead thread..


i forgot to add to the list:

full gaming hardware support:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/gtx-700-graphics-cards?m=gtx-titan-z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw7yFAdBZu8

3000$ against a 6000$ quadro k6000..

c'mon