"I talked to many people at Virtual Earth group and I am convinced that the technical team behind Virtual Earth has a significant, long-term commitment to the 3D Web." Roman Ormandy 02-06-2008

To bad Ormandy couldn't stay in the virtual world, I think the real world just bit him in the butt. I hope he got his money up front.

I do not know that truespace is gone though, they just aren't supporting it. Microsoft will either resurrect it when they see a need (profit) or they are trying to sell it. Most likely Ormandys latest post is a call for buyers.

My main problem with truespace was that on my computers it was a bit of a resource hog.

Why does every modeling thread become an argument about blender. To the blender haters I would paraphrase Jack sparrow " It may be the worst modeling software you have ever heard of... but you have heard of it." To the blender lovers out there I would just say stop getting aroused in public... its illegal in most locations.

Not just at yours

There are three software running when you start tS. Modeler, which is the old 6.6. Workspace, which is the new tS. And a bridge to connect what is unconnectable. The old architecture with the new one.

Turning off the bridge can help a bunch here

Tiles, thanks for your two informative posts. I was not aware of the transition plans for the software. Sorry we didn't see it come to pass.

[EDIT]
Interesting post from another Truespace user at CG Society: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=5879233&postcount=27

Yes, is an interesting article. I don't agree with all told points, but he hits the nail here and there

For me trueSpace will still stay my main app, at least for a pretty while. I am comfortable with it. And it does the job

No matter i got what i wanted for free in the end!

I doubt that MS will resurrect trueSpace or sell it. That is just not how MS works. Secondly, trueSpace and its code belongs to MS, so Roman is not looking for a buyer.

What MS typically does is purchase a property like trueSpace because there is something from the app that they want for their own purposes. It could be a little piece of code, for all we know. If they can make additional money from the product itself, that's great. If not, then they tank the product.

As an example, several years ago there was a fantastic vector program called Expression made by a company called Creature House. This vector program was very advanced and, in some ways, had features that made Illustrator look silly. Even more importantly, Creature House was working on a vector animation program that was incredibly advanced called Living Cells. While Living Cells was in beta, MS bought Creature House and all its assets. As a result, the Expression vector application no longer exists. MS was offering it for free for a while.

Apparently MS wanted some of the code from Living Cells and Expression. The result is the Expression suite of tools for web development and Silverlight (which I think has a root in the code of Living Cells).

Most likely Caligari had hit on some interesting code. MS was most likely not too interested in trueSpace itself, even though they did try to use it like Google does Sketchup. MS wanted the code to use/modify for their own purposes. Now that they have it, if the rest of the assets (the actual app and even the team of programmers) aren't able to generate income, then they are ditched.

Now, in the case of the programmers from Creature House, MS kept this small team. As far as I know, they are still working for MS. That means that the Creature House team was (and remains) an asset to MS. That says something about them as programmers. What happened with Roman? Is he with MS still? Or not? And if not, what does that say?

like digital research dos a company (ds/os)
dissapear when ms.dos comming
the power of the money

I Don't even see qhere's the problem. Truespace wahsn't really a good tool. When it was free yeah maybe for studenst and such but I never heard some team in cg industry unsing it.

Just by checking a job board you'll never see an truespace modeler/ animator position which is essential for a tool.

Professionnal are the core of the tool market and Truespace si so far away from maya or 3ds Max. Compare it to latest houdini for example or modo and in term of price or workflow and it's over.

It's a sad thing for indies because it was free but I won't cry over it. I own my version of maya and I'm really happy with it and I4m pretty sure if I ask any person of my team if they ever use truespace, the answer will be no.

You mean as equal as not "really a good tool" as 3D Gamestudio because no professionals really uses it?

The problem was that tS is in the middle of transition from the old core to the new architecture. And got stuck there. At the point where it started to finally become useful. That's the sad part. There is not this much missing to make it finally a "good" tool. A handful really missing features plus the long awaited bugfixes. It once even had VRay as an optional renderer ...



tS is, or better said was used in the industry. But more for stuff like Webdesign.

And you forget about the hobbyists and low budget developers here i would say. That's where trueSpace once had its market. A mid to low priced 3D Package. No wonder it could never compete with the big boys. Compare the price, then come back and compare features.

Max? Out of reach. Around 4000.- from what i know, Maya also around this. Modo 700.-, in reach but still too expensive now that tS is free. Houdini 100 bucks for the limited Apprentice. But Houdini is no modeler, and the fully commercial version is ways out of reach again ...

It's all about the money in the end!


To be honest all i am waiting for is good file format support for the modelers (blender,truspace,silo,carrara and my little mate wings3d) once the file format support is solid as a rock for them i will begin making games!!!!

Better to make software for all rather than the few!


maya and max etc....can die like the dodo and become extinct!!!