Ricky Jordan's Blog - Latest Comments in Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

cadjockey — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:55:09 -0000

Ricky

OK, the toy comment was a loaded gun <grin> Let me qualify it some more, Eventually it will be a good tool, but at the moment *for our products* it is of no use. I need decals, and they are sufficiently complex that changing them to features would not be realistic. Likewise, we use many materials which are not present in the libraries, and it is almost impossible for me to get the results I need. However, for a lot of people, yes it will be good enough right now. It is certainly a fantastic renderer, and a glimpse into the future... just wish it were here now.

BTW, I have been playing with it, and love the simplicity, much like Hypershot (which I also have)

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

rickyjordan — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:40:06 -0000

cadjockey,

I do agree with you that decals and custom material support are critical features that NEED to be added ASAP, but I disagree that this is a "toy with no use in a production environment".

PhotoView 360 is ALREADY in use almost daily where I work. It is a simple fact that most users will be able to generate a nice rendering on their first try with PhotoView 360. Even the out of the box preview looks good. You can generate high quality renderings in a fraction of the time as compared to PhotoWorks. This really stacks up when you have a pile of renderings to get out to a client.

To get equivalent results with PhotoWorks takes MUCH longer in moderate and intermediate users. For advanced PhotoWorks users there will still be time saved - mostly in the actual rendering time. This IS the future of rendering in SolidWorks. It is VERY useful in its initial release and will only get better.

If you haven't already tried PhotoView 360, give it a shot. This is the kind of tool you need to try out for yourself before judging it too much.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to leave a comment.

Ricky Jordan

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

cadjockey — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:06:45 -0000

bah. I was all excited over this until I read there's no decal or custom material support! Without this its little more than a toy with no use in a production environment.

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

rickyjordan — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:16:29 -0000

Mike,

YES! Luxology definitely has some cool stuff. It is exciting to see SolidWorks partnering with a company like this. It will be interesting to see if they will utilize some of the Luxology technology in other areas of SolidWorks.

Ricky

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

rickyjordan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:53:30 -0000

Jeff,

One of the benefits of PhotoView is I think the technology behind the rendering engine. The rendering engine just seems faster and I think has better capabilities in working with multi-core processors. I have not run any benchmarks or anything but in the usage it feels much faster than PhotoWorks. I'm sure once the rest of the NDA is lifted Rob will have some more items on his Blog comparing the two packages. I will have more details on the interface and usage once they release the information.

Thanks for the comments....keep em coming!

Ricky

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

Mike — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:48:04 -0000

Luxology has some coool stuff!

Press Release

http://www.luxology.com/press/release/20080812_...

Luxology Website

http://www.luxology.com/

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

Jeff Mowry — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:51:18 -0000

I really like that quick speed in getting something set up. The gloss reflections are also great. Very interesting.

Many of my "real" renderings in PhotoWorks now take only a short time, too. Fast processors and a library of custom materials/scenery make the rendering process much more drag-and-drop for awesome effects. But wow, getting to that stage is such a pain with the defaults PhotoWorks starts from (speaking as a SW 2007 user, anyway). You'd think they'd have some great tweaked materials in the default library by now, but I find them quite limited. If they'd solve those basic issues, perhaps PhotoWorks would no longer be seen as such a pain to work with.

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

rickyjordan — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:58:26 -0000

Hi Gabi,

Thanks for the complements on the renderings. PhotoView 360 deserves most of the credit. :-)

No, it will not replace PhotoWorks in SolidWorks 2009. There is still a few things that PhotoView can't do when directly compared to PhotoWorks. Do I think PhotoView could replace PhotoWorks in the future? Yes....I think that is a possibility.

Rumors right now place PhotoView 360 with customers that have SolidWorks Professional or higher. I can't confirm this as a fact yet. As soon as it is known for sure, you can bet I'll post it.

Ricky

Re: Sneak Peek: PhotoView 360

Gabi — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:50:55 -0000

Hey Ricky,

The renders look awesome! Is this going to replace photoworks, then, or is it an option? Is it going to be included in every seat or is it an extra?