What happened to Shade3d ?
unLight865
Posts: 95
... so I was last week waiting to buy it at the WE (though Iadmittedly wasn't completely sure about that) - and now the day the WE (and sale) started it was gone from the store? 
Didn't they want it to be on sale, or is there a new version coming - or, worst of all, is it discontinued somehow (news on their page looked a bit old if I saw that correctly) ?
It sounded like a nice tool - I was considering the basic or standard version, but without the sale even standard would be a bit too pricey for me atm. (let alone pro).
I know they have their own site - and a demo even - but I don't like creating accounts over and over, so I'd prefer if it came back here at some point...
On another note - I got Carrara when it was on sale some while ago, but didn't yet get to explore it much - So, how much of Shade3d's capabilities is already covered by Carrara ?
Info/tipps about Curvy3d would also be nice - I'm always looking for new modeling tools 
- even if I don't get to use them very much currently...
P.S.: Am not entirely sure if this is the right subsection of the forum for this topic, but it seemed better-fitting then the others, or is it? *confused*
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Comments
It's still in the store.
http://www.daz3d.com/shade-3d-basic-ver-15-1
Huh? I was searching it every day on the weekend, even using (not-so-)old links to it AND my wishlist, and nothing worked... now it's there again... Thanks
Your link worked, and now my old links as well as the search worked also - using exactly the same methods/keywords I tried during the weekend... *confused*
So either there was some technical error ( Friday I even got non-loading grey rectangles in the store AND wishlist where it should have been - and Sa/So not even those ), or (as I speculated earlier) it was kept out of the sale for some reason...
Has anyone further info on this, please?
And any info on the comparisons?
Alone the mention of metaball modeling is mostly enough to interest me in S3d ( or is Carrara's sculpting something similar? ) , since that is a tool I really like in my old modeling program, but always felt that it needed to be extended somewhat ( not to mention that my old program at times liked to mess up the meshes one way or the other... )
Well I know that the vendor (Shade 3D) was not included in the sale yesterday (I took a screen print of the included PAs for my own info) Perhaps the only way to keep that PA out of the sale was to temporarily remove the products from the store? (This is pure speculation on my part)
Thanks
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That basically was one of the explanations which I had been speculating too ( though propably not expressing it clearly enough ) , though I feared it could have been gone permanently... glad that isn't true then
-
And also hope it won't happen at all, since it might take some time till I either can convince me to make do with the basic version ( plugin API disabled seems outright BAD, I'd think - judging by how many plugins I so far needed in the programs I was/am using ) , or get the bucks for the normal price of the standard version 'unassigned' from both RL & the rest of the store...
I did see it included in the sale of an earlier day, though - Am pretty angry at myself for not having put the priorities differently then...
( and because I assumed this catchup to assemble all PAs of this month' sales, I didn't check the list for it yesterday... 
)
Ideally, I'd hope for it to be in sale again sometime - but those strange measures don't exactly make it look likely...
Well, since the sale is apparently continuing for another week (or maybe just part of it, who knows?) maybe there will be a final catchup day (or days) with the whole store on sale. (Keep your fingers crossed!)
I don't consider them a PA, but maybe DAZ does (but probably not). Shade is a Japanese software and I believe they still have a US distributor. It's more a software company that happens to sell their stuff here. Much like Reallusion iClone does.
Just thought I'd mention that Carrara has a metaball modeler too.
I doubt you're gonna find the rare species who have used both Carrara+Shade3D hanging around on this forum.
From the promo pics, Shade3D's interface and modeling toolsets do look at least 5 years younger and more modernized. Native fiber and cloth for that price, wow.
But Carrara has VWD now, and an underused, under-advertised particle system.
Carrara had metaballs for like, 10 years already? Long before I got into Carrara in 2014-15, people have created awesome stuff like
I've squeezed some usable water out of the underused but awesome Metaball + Pycloid + PySwarm
I recall a power user (possibly the pycloid/pyswarm maker) said something to the effect of, Carrara's particle/ instancing/ flocking/ swarm is allegedly on par with - or even better than - 2015 LightWave. Quite something considering Carrara's "benched-ware" status.
I wish Daz Studio have metaballs in 2016. I really really wish...
... AND it's gone again - 404 from the link. Just like last time the "Entire DAZ Store" was on sale during catch-up. Guess I was right about strategic removals.
I have both Shade Professional Vrs 14 and Carrara 8.5- though I haven't had time to dig into Shade's inner workings beyond importing props and/or figures into it to experiment with the rendering/shader system. Which, with work, does really well. You can get a plug in for Shade for Poser figures (Or Daz-up to Gen3 unless you can get the Genesis 3 figures into Poser and then import them into Shade) for free.
It's gone again. I wanted to look at it today.
I have SHADE standard up until version 14. I am still using 13 on my machine. I think Shade is a great program that is underrated. I have been a fan. It is geared toward gamers and trys to make things simple. The poser fusion plugin combined with a convenient sale was a main reason I originally bought Shade.
I have found only two issues with it that cause me grief.
The first is a lack of documentation. When Mirye (?) took responsibility for it around Shade 8 they put out a book with a complete step through tutorial that was really good. That is when I really learned it and I was excited. When newer versions came out, say around Shade 11 they added many features and changed the interface but didn't keep pace with the documentation. Supposedly Shade's real power is dealing with curves, but in going back to it I'm having some trouble reconnciling old documentation and current Shade. They do have a help file, but it's like learning autocad by querying one command at a time at random. If I'm wrong, somebody please step in now.
There are some YouTube tutorials online, but they are fractured there appears to be no sequence suitable for learning. And one set, a set that could be really good, is hard to listen to in broken English-Japanese. Shae folks could at least put up a cohesive You Tube Channel and that would make a big difference.
Finally, under the documentation heading, I don't know of any good forums for it, There used to be one at RDNA but that is long gone. The last time I looked for help it was in trying to put a chamfer on the end of a bar - like what you have on your typical home door lock. Months went by without an answer. At first I checked every day for a week. Then once a week. Then Once a month. I never did get an answer and never built my door latch.
The second is creating holes in objects. Unless they changed it in 14 or 15 they fake it. That means if you have a hole in a box using their commands and export it as obj or lwo it doesn't show up. It shows up inShade okay, but not for transfer to Poser. So creating windows in walls or holes in metal via subtraction doesn't work. Lightwave was having a heavily discounted sale a year or two back, so I counted my pennies and splurged because they did do true subtraction, but I still know Shade better than Lightwave because of that early excellent printed tutorial by Mirye.
Mirye (?) out of Oregon parted ways with Shade at 14 supposedly because there was something about it going to an annual subscription for version 15 so I didn't pursue upgrading it. Who wants a program that's designed to die on you when there are so many others that don't. I wanted to see if that had changed and maybe that's why they're advertising on DAZ. Mandatory subscription is a strategy that's backfired on a number of companies.
I think Carrara is great but it has languished. I didn't put it on my newest machine.
Thanks for the replies and advice everyone
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Yep... A pity I didn't pick it up when I could.
Thanks
. I'll look into it soon, but atm. I'm trying to find my way around Terradome 3 , and maybe at the weekend try some atmospheric stuff for the user-contest...