topic Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke? in Mudbox Forum

Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

pokoy — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:34:13 GMT

I got an e-mail today telling me that Mudbox 2020 is now available for d/l... I was a bit hyped and thought "Well, maybe it's usable finally!" only to find out that there's nothing new except for Send-to-Flame, and no fixes at all?!?!

I mean this forum is full of issues with 2019.1, ranging from errors while sculpting/retopo/baking to crashes to hangs and freezes, UI problems and Autodesk can't be bothered to fix even a single thing for their paying customers...

So, Autodesk reps - what do you think we should do now? Is it even worth our time to submit bugs?

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

ElectricGeisha — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:03:59 GMT

It really is pretty sad now. Just dump it Autodesk why even bother.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

DienhartDotCom — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 03:28:18 GMT

I had the same feelings/thoughts. I was pretty really excited and when I finally found the changelog, I was flabbergasted. I love the idea of Mudbox functioning well with its current feature set, and when I first started using it, I was excited to use it. Unfortunately, it's quite disappointing to see it continue to be unmaintained. This version announcement was quite a letdown.

I agree that the software either needs to be a priority and get the TLC it needs, or it needs to be scrapped. There really is no middle ground.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Intuos5 — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 15:08:00 GMT

You've got it all wrong, Mudbox 2020 is a feature for Flame, not the other way around. There is a reason why there is no release video on Mudbox. See:

There is this saying: "if it's broke, don't fix it" Oohh wait...

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

GeoffKornfeld — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 19:51:04 GMT

Installing it now. This is very strange. On the changelog they list that they fixed the re-topo bug that was driving me insane a couple months ago -but only for Mac. I'm on Windows, so I'm not sure why I'm installing it.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

sergimen2001 — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 13:01:32 GMT

Autodesk itsellf is an entire joke.

Autodesk have no idea what the users need on Mudbox: Stability, solidity, and new added sculptural functions:( Booleans, new enhanced transform tools, and precise measurement tools,(you can change the size units on the Preferences, but the Caliper always show you the size on metric centimeters).

Instead what is that Autodesk did: In resume, ruin all the good things that workded fine on Mud:

-Autorretopo ruined and buggier than ever.

-Type in bugs in all the numeric fields.

-Extraction of texture maps Ruined:

Specialy AO Maps, buggier and defective like ever,(map extraction was always very robust, fast and precise on Mud)

-Crashing like the hell:

The last more crashier version I remember was the 2015. The 2018.2 was an very stable version plus the Dynatess. Now Autodesk moved back to 2015 with the 2019.1.

-Digital sculptors are not interested in the Send to Flame option:

They want a real all terrain digital sculpture app for make more impressive digital sculptures in time record in the possible.

-Digital texturing:

No PBR support in the viewport. Already Mud continue using the the old and outdated CGFX shader.CGFX is already good, and ligth for the sculpting fase. But is outdated if you already are using Mud for digital texturing things to be rendered on the PBR engines today,(Arnold,Unreal, Marmoset Toolbag 3, etc).

Autodesk has Arnold: But already they don't want to include it like render option for the Render Image/Render turntable options at least.

Another good option would be the Stingray realtime PBR engine. But Autodesk killed it too.

-Easy to use and intuitive sculpting tools, but slowly became outdated:

Some basic new additions,(but very usefull), are not present on the Mudbox tools today.

Like the Radial Simmetry. But are present in a free software like Blender.

-Year 2020: No Booleans on Mudbox, but yes in Meshmixer?

The sculptural workflow is diferent to the poligonal/procedural modeling workflow present on 3DSMAX, or Maya.

For this reason Booleans are a must in a sculpt software like Mudbox. The Meshmixer booleans works fine with Dynatess meshes. But is a pain in ass the jump from Mudbox to Meshmmixer, and the Meshmixer sculpt tools are laggish like the hell. For this reason booleans are necessary on the real sculpting software. more than 5 years since the purchase of Meshmixer by Autodesk, and the booleans are not present on Mudbox yet.

-Curves Ruined:

Curves were an very usefull add on for precise sculpting/painting process. Or for guide the autoretopo. But:

-Drawing curves over the surface and connect 2 curves is a pain in ass.

-If you create a Curve loop and next you make Stroke on Curve with an sculpt tool or paint tool, the sculpted/painted loop is erratic, glitched or never is finished following the curve.

-If you make Stroke on Curve, the curve became a a mess.

-If you sculpt over the Curve using Snap to Curve. After the stroke, the curve become a Mess.

-If you sculpt over the surface of the model, the curves over the model become an unusefull mess again.

-Pose Tools Outdated:

-Year 2020 and there is no Symmetrical Joints Pose.

-Pose tools crashier than ever.

-New Pose Tool bug: If you are posing of creating pose over a model, and you select Isolate, in the Pose mode, the Skeleton you created became far away of the mesh.

...and a lot of bugs, defects, strange and never seen error messages, I'm forgetting to mention.

Regards:
Sergio Mengual
3D Artist-3D Generalist-3D Character Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergiomengual

https://www.facebook.com/Sergio3D2D/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sergiomengual

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

sergimen2001 — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 14:38:57 GMT

And I can continue talking about the lack of features on Mudbox:

Map Extraction:

-Year 2020 and no Curvature Map Extraction.

-No ligthing Map extraction.

-And etc...

-Duplicate Selected Face,(geometry extraction), with no Shell or Solidify:

or whatever you want to call it, for that option.

-There is no tools for draw free geometry "on the fly.":

Like tubes, or with not? Like the Zspheres.

Something similar like the Metaballs on 3DSMAX could work fine. Specialy for blocking or concept sketching. But no. Autodesk put an "Send to Flame" option.

-Not Make Solid on Mudbox. But yes on Meshmixer.

Some blocking options would be fast, and more easy using primitives and some Make solid option like the one present in Meshmixer,(but much more simplified). The option exists almost 6 years ago in Meshmixer, but no in Mud.

(Inclusive Blender 2.81 have an option called "Remesh" that works similar, is very simple to use, and now able you to choose beetween tris or quads for the resultan Solidfied mesh).

-Not paint objects tool.

This no need explanation. Is like the one on 3DSMAX, but in Mudbox would be much more usefull and powerfull. Due Mudbox is capable to handle much higher polycounts. 3DSMAX simply lags like the hell with you are reaching 300k polys on the viweport.

-No support for Vertex Color Painting:

(No need explanation too).

-No support for Triplanar Mapping:

(No need explanation too).

Regards:
Sergio Mengual
3D Artist-3D Generalist-3D Character Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergiomengual

https://www.facebook.com/Sergio3D2D/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sergiomengual

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

GeoffKornfeld — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:02:38 GMT

Yeah, it's really frustrating because they have an opportunity here to be a real competitor to Z-Brush -to be Z-Brush with an interface that makes sense, and is friendlier to other applications - but they're just not seizing on it.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

sergimen2001 — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 15:58:01 GMT

Autodesk insist to continue ruining 3DSMAX,(3 unusefull and buggier updates in less than a year).

Aparently, looks like they are thrilled due the 2.81 version of Blender.
Is almost sure, and probable,that the people that was part of the Mudbox development Team, was moved to the 3DSMAX beta, and to the Maya Beta.

And all us paying suscription for Mudbox, with the hope that the money will be used to enhance and maintain Mudbox.

Regards:
Sergio Mengual
3D Artist-3D Generalist-3D Character Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergiomengual

https://www.facebook.com/Sergio3D2D/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sergiomengual

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Kloworks — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 13:58:14 GMT

I was hoping to see new features to make mudbox stand again...

but now I already give up. people pay for this software for nothing.
my focus now on blender or zbrush.

What a shame.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

sergimen2001 — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 04:56:21 GMT

Blender 2.82 have a good new load of new sculpt tools and options:

-Voxel Remeshing with voxel target.

-Radial Simmetry/Multiple Simmetry axes at same time.

-Mask Slice,Mask Extract,(All those functions with Solidfy option), Mask Contrast/Shrink/Grow/Smooth/ Dirty Masks, Curvature Masks.

-Mesh Filters: Inflate,Sphere,Random,Smooth,Relax,Topology,Move,Scale.

-Multi Scrape Tool.

-Pose Tool.(in the next version will support Inverse Kinematics).

-Booleans with curves like primitives or Polyline, without abandon the Sculpt Mode.

-Vertex Painting.

-Dyntopo.

-Bezier Curves to Geometry.

-Multithread Sculpting.

-Multiresollution Sculpting.

All those things in a free software. And more is coming, with an totaly transparent development.

Blender only needs and autoretopo similar to the one in Mudbox, and definetively is the new game changer for digital sculpture. Remember that Autodesk ruined the Mudbox Autoretopo in Mudbox 2019.1/2020.

Mudbox crashes constantly, loosing your work.

Not even The Area's forum or gallery works well. Everything Autodesk touches is ruined or stops working.

Regards:
Sergio Mengual
3D Artist-3D Generalist-3D Character Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergiomengual

https://www.facebook.com/Sergio3D2D/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sergiomengual

Edited by Discussion Admin

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 10:34:03 GMT

After more than 25 years of loyalty to Autodesk,

I have definitely moved on to Houdini, Nuke and Z-Brush.

A BIG THANK YOU to Autodesk.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

absoluteKelvin — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 02:48:42 GMT

if there are no significant upgrades this year. I will stop my subscription. Im pretty much fed up with Autodesk neglect to mudbox users.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

GeoffKornfeld — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 05:00:18 GMT

I wonder if they're neglecting Mudbox in preparation of integrating it into Max, so they can neglect it there (like CAT, PFlow, MCG...).

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

zewt — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 06:17:02 GMT

I usually steer away from threads with titles like these, but when I looked at the release notes for 2020, I had the same reaction. "That's a major release?" It's one really niche feature and two bugfixes. It should have been released as 2019.2. It's a small patch for 2019, and not for any of the problems that have been keeping me locked into 2018. (2019.1 apparently fixed the "export texture button is disabled" bug--not being able to export textures in a texture painting application is a bit of a problem--but it broke hiding paint groups, which is also a complete showstopper.) Now I need to uninstall 2019 and 2020 to make sure I don't accidentally load a project in them again, since Mudbox doesn't warn you before updating a project and projects aren't backwards-compatible...

I've looked at all of the other painting tools out there, but none of them seem to have anything like Mudbox's straightforward "export textures by group name" workflow...

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

HaughtyGray — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 13:39:31 GMT

@sergimen2001 wrote:
Blender only needs and autoretopo similar to the one in Mudbox, and definetively is the new game changer

It sort of already does, though it is third party.

Quad Remesher is written by the same guy who wrote ZRemesher for ZBrush. It's quite affordable, and adding automatic retopology to Blender 2.8's vastly improved sculpting tools gives you quite a powerful package.

(I don't work for them or anything).

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Kranos_Orphydian — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 18:45:30 GMT

Bezier curves to geometry ? does blender sculp mode has this ?

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Kranos_Orphydian — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:03:11 GMT

if they would ever do this I doubt it will be Max but Maya.

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

sergimen2001 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 20:54:42 GMT

Yes. A good time ago. Since the 2.80. There are several add ons making that too.

Regards:
Sergio Mengual
3D Artist-3D Generalist-3D Character Artist

https://www.artstation.com/artist/sergiomengual

https://www.facebook.com/Sergio3D2D/

https://www.youtube.com/user/sergiomengual

Re: Mudbox 2020 - is this a joke?

Intuos5 — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 20:58:56 GMT

@sergimen2001Could you keep us posted on when Blender achieves a more or less similar workflow as Mudbox for sculpting? Sculptlayers were broken last time I checked the forums and from what I remember, I recall that I would hold off till the 2.83 version before giving it a try. What is your opinion on Blender as is compared to Mudbox?