Is Stitcher now end of life?

[Anonymous]

Seeing as how there seems to be no comment at all from Autodesk about the future of Stitcher and the removal of professional features like batch processing, is this software now end of life? I have a substantial investment in Stitcher over the years and the last upgrade actually removed features I specifically purchased it for. The user base deserves an upfront and honest statement by Autodesk as to it's intentions regarding the future of both the software and support for it.

Thanks

Rick

[Sam Rohn]

yeah, its strange that they would buy realviz and then abandon this product, but it has been over 1 year and nothing but downhill since autodesk's acquisition -

seems pretty clear they dont give a hoot about the users of this product, which i had used since version 3.0

glad i didnt buy the last version, money which was better spent on PTGUI -

sam

[Sam Rohn]

i actually got a better response to this on autodesk's facebook page, where it seem that somebody is at least paying some attention -

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Autodesk-Media-Entertainment-User-Community/122525584362

Sam, we spoke to Sticher product management and received the following response:

Details on development plans for future versions of Autodesk Stitcher are currently unavailable. We are unable to comment on future development schedules at this time. Further details will be communicated as and when these become available.

We will keep you posted on any news as soon as we receive it.

unfortunately, this is the same form letter non response that they have always given, perhaps if enough stitcher users visited and posted on the facebook page someone might motivate the stitcher team to actually respond to customer questions and feedback ?

sam

[egarreau]

Hi Sam and Rick,
I'm Elisabeth Garreau, Stitcher Product Marketing Manager at Autodesk. As of today, there is no plan to abandon Stitcher. We continue to provide 30-day support, as it has been the case since the Realviz acquisition. Unfortunately, we have no dedicated resource for the user forum...
I would be happy to discuss with you about the problems you may have experienced with Stitcher. Please feel free to contact me directly and I will make sure the dev team get your feedback.
Elisabeth

[Sam Rohn]

thanks elisabeth, but it seems kind of rude for autodesk to continually ignore the fundamental questions here, asked by myself and others many times -

"Why was batch rendering removed from autodesk stitcher 5.7 & Stitcher Unlimited 2009 ?"

and also

"Will it be returned in a FREE patch to users of stitcher 5.7 & stitcher unlimited ?"

many users who had paid for previous versions of stitcher where batch render worked felt burned by the silent removal of this feature from stitcher 5.7, a paid "upgrade", and autodesks subsequent refusal to respond to or address the issue in any way

batch rendering is a CRITICAL pro feature, it was somewhat buggy, but did work in 5.6.2 and before - removing this critical feature makes autodesk stitcher now unsuitable for pro work, and reverting to a previous version is not an acceptable workaround...

please, addressing this question once and for all in autodesks own public forum is not too much to ask, autodesk is a large company, surely they have the resources to participate in their own forums and address customers issues with their products ?

offering to forward our feedback to the devs is nice, but forums are now an important part of the way most modern software companies support their customers, why don't the devs already pay attention to the feedback already here ?

sticking with realviz long established policy of ignoring customer feedback & issues posted in your own public forum only alienates existing and potential customers

and 30 days is a trial period, not a support plan, all of your competitors offer excellent support for the life of the product !

is this explicitly saying that Stitcher users are totally on their own 30 days after autodesk receives their money ? clearly, many long time users are still having problems after using the software for years, is this saying that there is now no support offered to these repeat customers at all, we don't care about any probs long time users have with our product, good luck ?

all of Stitchers competitors, PTGUI, Autopano, Hugin, Pano2VR, Panotools, etc, also offer very large and helpful user communities & developers who pay attention to paying customers - if a company with Autodesks resources cannot muster the same, then this product really is dead -

thanks

sam

[Anonymous]

I think the Dodo is looking livelier at this stage...

[Anonymous]

Sam and all,

I understand that you are concerned about the removal of batch rendering, a Pro feature that is essential to your workflow. It was removed because of instability. It’s not an excuse, but the explanation is that there was a lot to cover in the transition from Realviz to Autodesk, and we simply did not have time to effectively restore the stability of this feature. Unfortunately I am not allowed to comment on our plans for future releases. I don’t want to encourage or discourage, but I do want to be honest with you: the requirements of the professional photo-stitching market are relatively unique in the expansive universe of Autodesk’s broad product portfolio, and consequently get less attention than they deserve. That being said, we are interested in this market, and we continue to invest and derive real value from our Realviz acquisition. Since the time of the acquisition our priority has been to share the wealth of Realviz technology with as many relevant Autodesk products as possible, and Realviz technology is now an important ingredient in our product mix. We’re also exploring methods to grow the Stitcher userbase, which will have the most impact on our ability to respond quickly to your requirements.

Thank you for expressing your concerns, and keep them coming. Stitcher is not the only product I manage, but I will make an effort to check in from time to time.

Regards,
Sean Young
Product Manager, Autodesk Media & Entertainment

[Sam Rohn]

thanks sean, i have a few suggestions & questions

if autodesk is looking to expand the market for stitcher as you say, being more open with your customers would be a good start, as it is realviz/autodesk has completely alienated sticher's long time paying customers through neglect and abuse of our trust, as the many displeased users here attest

not commenting on future plans for this product sure looks like having no plan at all to us, do you think this encourages new users to purchase this product ? would you buy stitcher, compared to the other more capable and better supported products on the market ?

microsoft, adobe, etc all offer SOME info on upcoming products, even apple is more forthcoming !

how do you think it looks when so many customer questions are completely ignored for over a year, and it requires my going above the stitcher teams head to get a response ?

and 30 day only support ? seriously ? is that for all autodesk products or just stitcher ? this policy seems unique in the software world, would you buy a car from a company that offered such limited support compared to all of its competitors ?

the market for panoramic photography is today larger than ever, with panos being used in a variety of 3D applications, image based lighting, etc, we all hoped that this products acquisition by a company such as AD would mean a better product, but it seems autosdesk has squandered this opportunity, autodesk stitcher as of october 2009 seems hopelessly dated, incredibly slow compared to PTGUI or autopano, no multi-core support, no batch render, no customer support, disinterested devs, and updates which (frankly) seem like a total rip off, charging for branding updates while removing critical features w/ no explanation or response

continuing these policies will only further erode the user base of this product, it has been over a year and a half since the AD acquisition of realviz, and it has only moved backwards since then - this reflects poorly on ALL autodesk products, and the company as a whole

as a long time user of this product, i am incredibly disappointed with all this, and could not recommend anyone else purchasing autodesk stitcher, as it seems pretty clear there is no future for this product

unless we hear of some positive developments very soon, and this app is brought back to its once respected place, you might as well discontinue it now

even the latest version of Photoshop CS4 includes spherical stitching (photomerge), which doesn't yet work as perfectly as it might, but i bet adobe will get it right before autodesk even starts trying to catch up, as adobe listens & responds to customer feedback, fixes bugs rather than remove working features, etc

the old stitcher forum had a very active user community, now this place is like a graveyard, does that tell you anything ?

sam -

oct 14 2009

[Anonymous]

Sam,

I disagree that the market for panoramas is larger than ever. If you look at any of the panorama sites you see that it is mostly populated by hobbyists and the same hobbyists of five years ago. Most people either use in camera stitching or a basic application. There isn't a lot of demand for any high end stuff with the exception of a few projects. I think that is why you only see a couple of panorama applications and not a flood of them.

[Sam Rohn]

maybe i'm just judging by the increase in clients contacting me interested in virtual tours for their websites and other print usage of panoramic images over the last few years, but if you look at sites like these

http://viewat.org
http://www.360cities.net
http://www.panodigg.com
http://www.flickr.com/groups/equirectangular/

and also these

http://www.panoguide.com/forums/
http://www.nodalninja.com/forum/
http://gardengnomesoftware.com/forum/
http://www.autopano.net/forum/
http://groups.google.com/group/ptgui/topics
http://krpano.com/forum/
http://flashpanoramas.com/forum/
http://flashificator.com/forums/
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PanoToolsNG/
http://ivrpa.org/
http://www.tawbaware.com/forum2/
http://www.hdrlabs.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl

you will see the work of hundreds (if not thousands, the flickr group alone has almost 1000 members) of competent new panographers creating full 360x180 spherical panoramas using ptgui or hugin, and plenty of new folks curious about it all the time - true that many are hobbyists, but the high end pano scene is definitely larger than it was 5 or 10 years ago, and growing all the time, as is the market for such content -


there are now many more pano discussion forums than 5 years ago when we basically just had the apple qtvr and yahoo panotools lists for online discussion of such things, hardly any of the sites i listed even existed 5 years ago !

DSLRs are also now much more affordable than ever, nodal ninja pano heads are also more affordable than the kaidan (now out of biz) heads of old, we all have cheaper & faster computers for both stitching and display, ubiquitous broadband, robust flash authoring tools like flashificator etc have all contributed to this increase in quality & interest in viewing nteractive panos on the internet, not to mention the removal of the ipix patent bs, which cost the entire scene years of wasted time

equirectangular panos are also used for HDR image based lighting in 3D modeling, etc for special effects in feature films, etc, and we are now seeing many more "virtual tours" consisting of multiple panoramas for restaurants, hotels, etc than in years past, as this fringe technology moves into the mainstream -

google street view has done quite a bit to raise public awareness too :)

in camera stitching is a different thing altogether, not suitable for equirectangulars etc, and basic apps like canon photostitch or photoshop photomerge are not pro solutions, which stitcher at one point was :(

autodesks involvement with high end 3D modeling and SFX industry seemed like a good match, but they have taken one of the few high end stitching apps out there and let it die - i believe autodesk stitcher is the most expensive stitching app out there as of 11/09, about $100 more than the pro versions of ptgui & autopano, why would anyone pay more when there are now more capable, better supported, faster, and cheaper apps on the market ? maybe if they cut the price to $40 it would be in better company, although the freeware hugin would still be a better app

the pano market is increasing, just not around here - too bad autodesk has abandoned the ship

sam

[stan.bellew]

Wow!

Reading this seems to have been worth the effort as we are in the market for this type of application. As a longtime Autodesk user this has really given me pause to consider other options for our needs - not limited to Stitcher. I've seen other applications AD has quietly lay dorment only to EOL the product line sometime later, or to have the future path held in question long enough to dispell any interest in the application.

The reason I post is that I'd like to see this application get it's just due.

I can understand AD's ambigious answer to your questions Sam. Consider the technology developments in platforms and the impact it will have on software development, as well as the limited number of software development teams AD employes. With this considered, I feel this is why AD is not going to comment until the release of a new version is imminent, sparing any legal commitment or spilling the beans to potential competitors.
I've been to many of the technology demos for the AD advanced systems (FFI, Smoke etc...) at NAB to see some of the concepts integrated 3, 4 or 5 years down the road. So it does take some time.

Now, don't get me wrong - I agree with everyting you've stated. Ad needs to consider that we are not just clients, we are creatives with business to conduct. If we cannot get the tools here, we will go elseware. For me half the fun workign is using the AD tools, and I hate the idea of going to another, but I will.

Now what you really need to consider from here on out is - have I recieved enough return on the investment of the software to consider other options?

[Anonymous]

Nothing to see here, Move along!

[Sam Rohn]

bump - any news from autodesk for 2010 ?

still waiting for a reply from sean young (stitchers product manager, see earlier in this thread) here since last october 2009 !

[Anonymous]

This is ridiculous and very disappointing ...

Still no response from Autodesk. ARE YOU DEAF ???!!!

Stitcher Unlimited is (or was) a great product that had great potential in many areas of the 3D world - virtual tours, image based lighting, hdr, panoramics and spherical panoramas for Google Earth etc.

Why no mention of support or updates ?

I can't even get an answer as to whether Stitcher Unlimited 2009 works with Snow Leopard 10.6 on Mac !!!

Please Autodesk, put some time and effort into this product before you kill it.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - SOME INFO FOR 2010 !!!

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to add my voice to this thread if anyone at AD is interested. I've been involved in 360 production for 13 years, I have investment in Stitcher and have been using it for the past few years. I upgraded to the AD version, but I'm not sure why now... All thats happened is that I've been hit with a lot of irrelevent and irritating marketing emails from AD to upgrade my subscription, hmm. I need to see this product moving ahead to provide a robust and professional toolset if I'm to stay with it. Please AD, just tell us all (your loyal users) whether its about to appear on the 2011 Software Releases list, or if its dead.

Thanks
David
Panoramic Imaging Ltd.

[Anonymous]

I think we all need to take the hint from the silence and move on. At this point, Stitcher can't even compete with the free Hugin so why would Autodesk even bother putting out a new version?

[Anonymous]

This is truly one of the most disrespectful treatments of customers I have ever seen. Unfortunately this is becoming the norm rather than an aberration. I for one will never purchase or recommend any Autodesk application again.

Rick

[Anonymous]

Hi Rick

Agreed, a sad and ongoing state of affairs. I use the latest version and find it the best stitching tool in may ways. I sell Pano related hardware and software and have had to move clients to AutoPano as a suitable commercial alternative due to no news of any sort from Autodesk. If there was a sign of life in Stitcher I'd be recommeding and selling it.

Maybe 1 year on from her previous post Elisabeth Garreau (Stitcher Product Marketing Manager at Autodesk) has another comment to make to her user base... Any news Elisabeth..??

Regards
David.

[Anonymous]

To AD "Is there anybody out there?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpy7seH5Hc8

To Stitcher 2010 "Wish you were here"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic

[Sam Rohn]

over one year since anyone from autodesk has responded to anything in this forum, and no replies at all to the many questions asked of sean young or elisabeth garreau (see earlier in this thread), stitchers alleged product managers, quite unprofessional behavior on their part, i'd say

stitcher 2011 is not listed in the autodesk new products list, does anybody really think that this product has any future ?

anyone still hanging around here should come over to the panoguide forums, see what he rest of the world is up to 🙂

http://www.panoguide.com/forums/

sam