Understanding Project Skyline code

[Daniel H]

I've been catching the videos on the new Maya Project Skyline just out of technical curiosity, but my ears didn't really perk up until I read an older 3D World article interviewing Marc Petit: “We’re expanding the Maya pipeline with Softimage technology,” he says. “It’s the Softimage team that are working on Project Skyline. We chose Maya because it’s the most flexible, but you can have a Max pipeline and use Skyline.”

http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/03/04/autodesks-marc-petit-talks-to-3d-world/

Marc made it sound like the Softimage team was incorporating actual ICE code when he haphazardly said, "Softimage technology". But from my understanding Skyline just has a similar visual UI to the ICE node-based environment with "customized" game-like nodes specifically for Skyline. I'm bringing this up so I can get some clarification on what Skyline is actually coded in, and how much different it is to ICE. Just today I saw a comment from someone who made it sound as if Autodesk is actually ripping ICE directly out of SI and putting into Maya and thereby hinting of an SI demise via piecemeal. Let's clear the rumors before they grow... right?

-Daniel

[Luc-Eric Rousseau]

Skyline is as you describe below. The trees processes matrices and
vectors (only), and it runs in the game engine on the xbox, ps3, etc.
It's not a particle system, it has no interest on maximizing a
multi-core workstation PC and doesn't process batches of points in
multiple threads, have a scene graph, do scene queries, etc. It
doesn't actually execute in Maya, but in the game engine. It doesn't
do anything you need to do offline effects, deforms, modeling, etc.
It's not the same kind of "thing" as ICE.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 6:10 PM, Daniel H <vfx...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been catching the videos on the new Maya Project Skyline just out of
> technical curiosity, but my ears didn't really perk up until I read an older

> 3D World article interviewing Marc Petit: �We�re expanding the Maya pipeline
> with Softimage technology,� he says. �It�s the Softimage team that are
> working on Project Skyline. We chose Maya because it�s the most flexible,
> but you can have a Max pipeline and use Skyline.�

[Jason Brynford-Jones]

For the nth time, please stop reading into stuff. 2.5 years and 5 releases after the acquisition Softimage, we are still doing business as usual.

Some of the Softimage team did work on this project given their experience with ICE. But Skyline is not ICE.
Skyline is a way to edit animation when connected to a game engine.

Chin

-----Original Message-----
From: softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimag...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Luc-Eric Rousseau
Sent: Monday, 28 March, 2011 7:18 PM
To: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: Understanding Project Skyline code

Skyline is as you describe below. The trees processes matrices and
vectors (only), and it runs in the game engine on the xbox, ps3, etc.
It's not a particle system, it has no interest on maximizing a
multi-core workstation PC and doesn't process batches of points in
multiple threads, have a scene graph, do scene queries, etc. It
doesn't actually execute in Maya, but in the game engine. It doesn't
do anything you need to do offline effects, deforms, modeling, etc.
It's not the same kind of "thing" as ICE.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 6:10 PM, Daniel H <vfx...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been catching the videos on the new Maya Project Skyline just out of
> technical curiosity, but my ears didn't really perk up until I read an older

> 3D World article interviewing Marc Petit: "We're expanding the Maya pipeline
> with Softimage technology," he says. "It's the Softimage team that are
> working on Project Skyline. We chose Maya because it's the most flexible,

> but you can have a Max pipeline and use Skyline."
>

[Robert Chapman]

hey! hands off our team!

 > technical curiosity, but my ears didn't really perk up until I read an older

> 3D World article interviewing Marc Petit: “We’re expanding the Maya pipeline
> with Softimage technology,” he says. “It’s the Softimage team that are
> working on Project Skyline. We chose Maya because it’s the most flexible,
> but you can have a Max pipeline and use Skyline.”
>
> http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/03/04/autodesks-marc-petit-talks-to-3d-world/
>

[Christopher Tedin]

I don't think Daniel H was saying that "Maya was ripping off ICE's code and going to junk Softimage" or anything like that. He just wanted to make sure we all spoke up about how healthy Softimage's community is, and that Skyline simply just shares a UI similarity. As usual, tamp out the silly rumors when they come up. At least, that's how I understood it.

At any rate, I really don't care either way. I love Softimage, and am excited about the new features, especially modeling procedurally. Don't see Maya doing that for a while.

[Steven Caron]

ya, i am happy for the team but i am selfish and do wish they would return. it is amazing how ICE has evolved even after the team that originally created it is no longer present.

s

[Daniel H]

Re: "It's not the same kind of "thing" as ICE" - Luc-Eric -> Agreed. Thanks Luc-Eric.

Re: "But Skyline is not ICE. Skyline is a way to edit animation when connected to a game engine. - Chin -> Thanks Chin. I just wanted everyone in doubt to hear it from AD, so we can have more ammo to fight off some of these doom-n-gloom rumors popping up.

Re: "hey! hands off our team!" - Robert Chapman -> Marc P. was the one spouting "Softimage technology".

Re: "I don't think Daniel H was saying that "Maya was ripping off ICE's code and going to junk Softimage" - Christopher T. -> Correct. Thanks for the back-me-up Chris.

Yes, all-in-all I wanted to clear the rumors and get people to understand that Project Skyline is NOT directly re-planting ICE code, but wanted some direct AD comment on the subject. Got it. Good. Great. Grand. Thanks.

-Daniel