Macromedia Hype & mTropolis
TheParadox
Shashank Parasnis writes:
>As all of our technology, it is very well planned out, not an addition or
>adaptation of existing technology. One could say we were one upped by
>macromedia because of shockwave, but even with their lead, one look at
>shockwave (hype aside) and we are not that far behind, if at all.
From what I've seen, I agree!!
Kudos to mFactory, damn it!! It's so refreshing to see a company that
wants to do things right, instead of ramroding new features (read "bugs")
down developer's throats.
Director is at the end of it's rope, it doesn't support team development
very
well, contradictions abound... etc. etc. but what's most disturbing is
the
attitude by Macromedia that these problems simply don't exist.
It's quite possible that the number of creeping design assumptions that
have become outdated are simply too entrenched to address with anything
less that a major revision. So perhaps it makes sense that Macromedia
shifts to quick-pleasing add-ons like Shockwave, and buying out a majority
of the content development tools availible.
Director is reaching the limits of it's architecture, whereas mTropolis
has almost as many features and has barely begun to grow into it's
architecture.
But that's precisely why everyone should watch out. If Macromedia is
stuck
with a dying dinosaur, they will do everything in their power to protect
their
market share... disinformation, hype, etc. I have seen more than a few
good
products that were striving to be done right get killed by this type of
campaign.
In the infancy of computer software, there was an honesty about it... if
your design was better than mine, we could both realize it, and I'd try to
make mine better than yours next time around. But now that investors
are involved in the process who barely understand the technology, it's
very easy to be swayed by hype.
Of course, there is another path that Macromind could take that would
make the industry better for everyone (and I think mFactory would agree):
to revise their architecture not only to equal the object-model
of mTropolis, but to improve on it or make something better!
(This might not be easy, since the mTropolis guys certainly seem to know
OOD.)
Free competition always brings the best to market. Hype and
misinformation
are the tools of the dying.
David Jackson Shields
TheParadox wrote:
>
> Kudos to mFactory, damn it!! It's so refreshing to see a company that
> wants to do things right, instead of ramroding new features (read "bugs")
> down developer's throats.
Oh, sure. So now mTropolis is going to try to ramrod visual tinkertoys down
everyone's throats and call it the answer to "multimedia authoring"...Director's
latest version 5.0 has 100 new Lingo commands, anti-aliased text on the fly, and
support for a new open extensible architecture. Those aren't bugs, sir...
> Director is at the end of it's rope, it doesn't support team development
> very
> well, contradictions abound... etc. etc.
Not by a long shot. When industry leaders flock to Macromedia's user conference year
after year, when hundreds of thousands of people all over the world use Director
within development teams every day, I'd say your assessment of the product being
at the end of its rope is just about 180 degrees out of phase with reality...
but what's most disturbing is
> the
> attitude by Macromedia that these problems simply don't exist.
Perhaps the problem is you've taken a position that many others don't agree with...
> It's quite possible that the number of creeping design assumptions that
> have become outdated are simply too entrenched to address with anything
> less that a major revision. So perhaps it makes sense that Macromedia
> shifts to quick-pleasing add-ons like Shockwave, and buying out a majority
> of the content development tools availible.
>
> Director is reaching the limits of it's architecture, whereas mTropolis
> has almost as many features and has barely begun to grow into it's
> architecture.
What poppycock! Creeping design assumptions like what?? If people need linear
animation, they can do it with the score. If they want structured code, they
can use Lingo without objects. If they want o-o they can create parent scripts
and child objects. If they need extensibility to the limit, they can create
XTRAs....sounds like there are no limits except ignorance...
> But that's precisely why everyone should watch out. If Macromedia is
> stuck
> with a dying dinosaur, they will do everything in their power to protect
> their
> market share... disinformation, hype, etc. I have seen more than a few
> good
> products that were striving to be done right get killed by this type of
> campaign.
As a former employee from 1990-94, I never heard anyone say "let's release some
disinformation about another product." Everyone was too dedicated to making
Director better, more solid, and work on more platforms, to spend time acting
the way you describe...no sinister plots were hatched while I was there...
> In the infancy of computer software, there was an honesty about it... if
> your design was better than mine, we could both realize it, and I'd try to
> make mine better than yours next time around. But now that investors
> are involved in the process who barely understand the technology, it's
> very easy to be swayed by hype.
If you are speaking about venture capitalists, they are quite sophisticated
about technology and don't invest money because of some press hype...
> Of course, there is another path that Macromind could take that would
> make the industry better for everyone (and I think mFactory would agree):
> to revise their architecture not only to equal the object-model
> of mTropolis, but to improve on it or make something better!
> (This might not be easy, since the mTropolis guys certainly seem to know
> OOD.)
The object model is not the be-all and end-all to everything--this is HYPE in its
truest form...The object model is just one step along the progress of computer science.
It will be seen some day like "structured programming", as just another way of
organizing processes and data. Right now it is a fad which a lot of people embrace...
like a religion. Well, frankly, that narrow attitude is about as welcome as Jesse Helms
at a meeting of the NAACP. Open up your eyes and your mind.
There are some things in Multimedia like simulations and virtual environments which
can benefit from the object-based approach. Other things like electronic catalogs,
and simple presentations do not need it. In between there are a lot of ways to approach
multimedia authoring and managing event streams. Creating a tool that mirrored mTropolis
would be a foolish waste of time on Macromedia's part.
--Dave
_chris_
In article <4mu3sr$t...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, thepa...@aol.com
(TheParadox) wrote:
> Shashank Parasnis writes:
>
> >As all of our technology, it is very well planned out, not an addition or
> >adaptation of existing technology. One could say we were one upped by
> >macromedia because of shockwave, but even with their lead, one look at
> >shockwave (hype aside) and we are not that far behind, if at all.
>
>
> From what I've seen, I agree!!
>
> Kudos to mFactory, damn it!!
OK...OK...Parodox...we get it. You don't have to keep bad mouthing
macromedia. mtropolis probably does have a furture. However,
I'm not going to lay out 5 grand for program with bugs. The
save button doesn't even work right. For 5 g's, save better
work. Frankly, your the only one in here really defending
mtropolis, besides the techs. This tells me not to many folk
are purchasing it. They even charge for a demo! Whoever is
marketing that product is an idiot.
Macormedia isn't hype. They have had products out for years.
If you ask, which I'm sure you don't want to, mtropolis is
nothing but hype, as of now. Sorry, the free t-shirt won't
sway me. IMHO, they will go belly up in a year.
--
_chris_
TheParadox
Ok, maybe I should qualify this a bit...
Director is doing just fine in all the tasks and vision that it was
originally
designed to do. There are thousands of users who use Director every
day for straightforward multimedia.
But for those companies trying to stand out from the crowd of "click and
chirp"
and dealing with the state-of-the-art... Director just doesn't cut it.
You're correct, most users that can't see the benifits of mTropolis over
Director are *not* sophisticated users. They barely, (if at all)
understand
Object-Oriented methodologies and applications, so to them, all this
OO stuff is rather confusing and a general waste of time. They will
see little or no benifits switching to mTropolis.
Advanced proceedural programmers are somewhat happy to write XTRAs for
Director, but they may not notice the general restraints of the system
(such as no control over message path, system messages, etc.), and will
have to
ultimately restrain their code to fit this system. The most interesting
multimedia titles have the most interesting (diverse) interactions between
objects. Between Xtras and Director objects, these interactions must take
place under the restrictions of Director's architecture.
Ironically, the most exciting Xtras to be written are *tools* Xtras
and transition xtras (take XAOS for example)... precisely because
this type of xtra is used in restricted circumstances, and has
virtually no impact on the way the system works.
Once again, these people will not see a difference, nor will their
products necessarily be on the cutting edge of multimedia. Most
developers concede
that the truly original-fast products on the market are the result of pure
or
hybrid custom C code engines.
Unfortunately, developing these cross-platform engines is, to put it
midly,
a *bitch*. So most of us small guys can't or don't do it. That's where
mTropolis fits in.
If you understand and use OOP then mTropolis is great and powerful, but
not many understand it. The popular new engine for Quake was based on
Objective-C object-oriented methodologies, but it took 2-3 years to write.
Now, (as a recent posting put it), one of the developers decided to
implement
dynamic lighting in the 3D real-time game... took him 1 hour from start to
finish.
Notice that non OO C or ASM competition in 3-D real time engines is
unheard of
now. Why? Not because they can't compete, but because they can't
compete *fast enough*!
But as I said, these things don't concern most developers, which is why
there are only a few Id's, LucasArt's, etc. Keep doing what you're
doing...
it'll make my job easier.
- Larry Kyrala
John Dowdell
In article <4mu3sr$t...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, thepa...@aol.com (Larry
Kyrala) expresses many opinions.
Sorry, looks like my server may not have relayed the complete thread. Time
usually helps to put opinions in perspective, though, so I won't worry
much about the vitriol.
Some points you do mention that I may be able to put some context around:
"Director is at the end of it's rope, it doesn't support team development
very well, contradictions abound... etc. etc." You're right about part of
that, versioning is a next big goal. D4 helped by encapsulating scripting,
and D5 makes the big stride of multiple cast libraries -- both of these
help segment out areas, provide "black box" capabilities. But we've got to
go further.
"but what's most disturbing is the attitude by Macromedia that these
problems simply don't exist." Hmm, I haven't met anyone here who doesn't
think that the tools can't be improved, and who doesn't earnestly solicit
ideas from people on how to improve the tools. Am not sure where you're
coming from with that.
"So perhaps it makes sense that Macromedia shifts to quick-pleasing
add-ons like Shockwave," No, if you'll check the Shockwave White Paper at
the Macromedia site you'll see the fuller picture. Shockwave for Director
was merely the first step, for the first tool. The goal is to enable
creative professionals to reach their audiences economically and
effectively. Delivery through the web is a big win for developers, so it's
what Macromedia must do. Things are already entering the second generation
with this.
Research it.
"and buying out a majority of the content development tools availible."
I'm not sure what you're referring to here. Macromedia is made up of
MacroMind, Paracomp, Authorware, Altsys, Fauve, OSC and iband, with many
talented individuals coming from many other companies.
The "hub" tools complement each other: Authorware for interactive
learning and reference titles; Director for visually rich multimedia;
FreeHand for graphically intense print jobs; and Backstage for interactive
web sites.
The "spoke" tools, too, each fill a niche: SoundEdit plus Deck,
Director (as an Authorware or Backstage component), Extreme 3D,
Fontographer, FreeHand, xRes, and the upcoming video tool.
Paracomp had licensed FilmMaker, true, but this was released to the
original developers after the MacroMind*Paracomp merger. Is this what
you're referring to? I can't tell.
The acquisition strategy is very clear: Macromedia looks for small
*teams* of people with outstanding technology in areas that complement the
existing tools. All these mergers have been accretive, and have each ended
up in additional hires.
The goal is to lower the total production costs of developers by
making the tools work _exquisitely_ well together. We're well along that
path and results are already being seen.
"If Macromedia is stuck with a dying dinosaur, they will do everything in
their power to protect their market share... disinformation, hype, etc." I
beg your pardon?
"Free competition always brings the best to market. Hype and
misinformation are the tools of the dying." Your homilies here sound
reasonable to me.... <g>
I'm really not sure what's up with this thread... such an odd title, and I
believe I missed the original entry. But gosh, this talk is *weird*, just
go out and make some good compelling work whydoncha.... ;)
jd
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Dowdell || Online support is via public forums
Macromedia Tech Support || instead of private email; registered
San Francisco CA || users have private support via phone.
Free SHOCKWAVE for Director, FreeHand & Authorware at website
Macromedia 7th International User Conference and Exhibition
Sept 4-6 1996 at Moscone Center, San Francisco CA
1 800 287 7141 or 1 203 840 5660; or www.macromedia.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TheParadox
You're right John... I apologize.
I've been struggling with several projects in Director and the frustration
levels got a bit high. More objectively, Director has many good points,
and I'm sure Macromedia is working hard to solve some of these problems.
But out here in the front lines, if our product doesn't work well, we get
blamed, not you guys. :)
Possibly the most frustrating thing is that I can't find a single other
Director developer trying to do what we are. A typical example would be
simulating a wizard from Windows 95. Short of writing an Xtra (and having
to worry about emulating such things cross platform outside of Director)
there doesn't seem to be any way to do this type of thing, at least not
cleanly.
We're a small team... we don't have the resources to create custom
crossplatform C Xtra engines on top of Director.
One of Director's good points seems to be it's cross platform Xtras Object
Model (reminds me of SOM), and from that perspective it's pretty open.
Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to dig into Lingo Xtras and Sprite
Xtras to see if there is a way around the problems I'm facing by extending
Director's capabilities.
- Larry Kyrala
_chris_
In article <4mvrth$g...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, thepa...@aol.com
(TheParadox) wrote:
> Ok, maybe I should qualify this a bit...
>
> Director is doing just fine in all the tasks and vision that it was
> originally
> designed to do. There are thousands of users who use Director every
> day for straightforward multimedia.
>
> But for those companies trying to stand out from the crowd of "click and
> chirp"
> and dealing with the state-of-the-art... Director just doesn't cut it.
>
> You're correct, most users that can't see the benifits of mTropolis over
> Director are *not* sophisticated users. They barely, (if at all)
> understand
> Object-Oriented methodologies and applications, so to them, all this
> OO stuff is rather confusing and a general waste of time. They will
> see little or no benifits switching to mTropolis.
Allright enough talk! Do a project and tell everyone the benefits over
macromedia products, or any other authoring system. You may be the
sophisticated programmer, but to many newbies, like myself, depend
upon the support of experienced user. They are quite a few more
director users then mtropolis users. 5 grand for the software,
and another 2 for support. Naw, I'll just stick with director.
let us know...
--
_chris_
Shashank Parasnis
In article <cvanbus-1005...@news.tcs.tulane.edu>,
cva...@tcs.tulane.edu (_chris_) wrote:
>
> OK...OK...Parodox...we get it. You don't have to keep bad mouthing
> macromedia. mtropolis probably does have a furture. However,
> I'm not going to lay out 5 grand for program with bugs. The
> save button doesn't even work right. For 5 g's, save better
> work.
I was going to ignore the misinformation on the portrayal of the demonic
save button, but I suppose I'll have to clear this up. In v1.0, there were
some design decisions that resulted in some differences between Save and
Save As. Specifically, a Save performed an incremental save (that is,
simply saving the changes since the last save). This resulted in much
faster saves. However, an infrequent bug that resulted from multiple saves
of large projects without performing a Save As _sometimes_ resulted in a
corrupted project file. This was easily solved for the time being by our
recommendation of performing a Save As, as opposed to constant saves. This
has been fixed for v1.1 and was found only by a few developers. So the bug
is not a simple use save button -> corrupt project as is implied in some
of the earlier posts.
> Frankly, your the only one in here really defending
> mtropolis, besides the techs. This tells me not to many folk
> are purchasing it.
Right...Right...and of course the fact that we just doubled in size is a
sure sign of a company which makes no money.....As our developer base has
just started, we have a much smaller developer base than Director (as
Macromedia loves pointing out). It would then make sense that we have not
saturated all of the normal arenas where you find talk about director. For
example, this newsgroup is primarily (and perhaps rightfully so)
frequented by director enthusiasts. Most people who are interested in
mTropolis development issues subscribe to mTropolis mailing lists.
For more info, check with any of the macromedia reps who frequent our
mailing lists or Direct-L where macromedia reps in the past have reposted
articles from our mailing list in order to discredit mTropolis. Or email
me :)
>They even charge for a demo!
Please, let's not get too enthusiastic in our misinformation. We do _not_
charge for any demos, and in fact our free demo gives you full (albeit
save disabled) access to our authoring environment.
> Whoever is
> marketing that product is an idiot.
I'll pass that on to our Director of Marketing ;)
>
> Macormedia isn't hype. They have had products out for years.
This argument always confuses me. The longest running incumbent is the best?
> If you ask, which I'm sure you don't want to, mtropolis is
> nothing but hype, as of now. Sorry, the free t-shirt won't
> sway me. IMHO, they will go belly up in a year.
<big g> see you then. By the way, why the bitterness?
--
Shashank Parasnis
shas...@mfactory.com
mFactory, Inc.
pj...@lehigh.edu
In article <shashank-130...@l27.mfactory.com>, shas...@mfactory.com (
Shashank Parasnis) writes:
>In article <cvanbus-1005...@news.tcs.tulane.edu>,
>cva...@tcs.tulane.edu (_chris_) wrote:
>
>
>>
>> OK...OK...Parodox...we get it. You don't have to keep bad mouthing
>> macromedia. mtropolis probably does have a furture. However,
>> I'm not going to lay out 5 grand for program with bugs. The
>> save button doesn't even work right. For 5 g's, save better
>> work.
>
Look. I don't like Director very much. Actually, I use Oracle Media Objects
for now... but you didn't address the original poster's argument of how you
justify selling a package of _software_ for $5000! That is a bit much,
dontcha think? OMO is free as a download to test out. And the SAVE is not
disabled. How can you make a $5000 decision and honestly evaluate a product
on an unproven product without saving? I'm sure folks at mFactory will say
it is robust software
that is worth the price but if you want to gain the advocacy of this group of
people (which I venture to guess is a rather large collection of people who
you would call YOUR market) and other new customers, lower the price, release
a LITE version. Do something. I would LOVE a bonafide alternative to
Director (and OMO).
Patrick J. Larkin http://www.lehigh.edu/~pjl2/pjl2.html
User Consultant email * pj...@lehigh.edu
Lehigh University (610) 758-5039
xenon
>I would LOVE a bonafide alternative to Director (and OMO).
There is - the new GLpro for Windows - it FAR outperforms Director
and is currently being used to develop CD-ROMs for Compaq, Creative
Labs and CompuServe amongst others - big companies with very high
demands.
We'll upload a FULL preview version now to this newsgroup.
Regards
Jason
Recent Customer quotes:
"GLpro for Windows proves that small is indeed beautiful, but it also
shows that multimedia productions for Windows can finally be very
flexible, reliable and fast".
John Burnham - Multimedia Developer (UK)
"GLpro is the only tool to use when you need the very best performance
and the smallest compiled application. I have shown my work to developers
who use other authoring systems and they're always blown away by its speed
and versatility.
When G-media acquired one of the best kept secrets in multimedia, they
immediately began improving on it and asking its users for suggestions.
In porting GLpro to Windows, G-media didn't only preserve the programs
amazing speed and flexibility - they also allowed it to take advantage
of the explosion in reusable components, including third party VBXs and
DLLs. Would you believe that a really great program, which has been used
to create leading edge multimedia for years, will now be updated several
times a year to add new features as its users request them, and that
the updates will be available, without charge over the Internet?
Believe it!".
Bryan Saint Germain - Griffin Studios (USA)
"After years of trying to beat Director and Toolbook applications into
a reasonable size and systems requirement envelope, we are blown away
by the speed and agility of GLpro for Windows. It's like getting out of
a truck and climbing into a Lotus!".
Jeff Blackwell - Envision Inc. (USA)
"This is a lifesaver - forget you ever heard of BMP or Mac PICT files."
J. Rivers - Dunlop (USA)
"I have used both Visual Basic and Director for Multimedia development
and GLpro for Windows beats them hands down for speed, control and
flexibility. Plus it delivers a final package that can fit on a floppy
or be downloaded from the Net in a reasonable amount of time. Installation
is a snap too, no more cluttering the users system with DLLs and VBXs!
The level of support from G-media is astounding. With many other companies
it is hard to get voice or even email messages answered but with G-media's
on-line support, problems are solved personally, professionally and in
record time.
Most developers have had to completely scrap their work when converting
from DOS to Windows - with GLpro for Windows the port is painless I
thought my favorite language was destined to be an orphan, but thanks to
G-media it has come back stronger and better than ever before".
Tom Guthery - Flix Productions (USA)
"I would like to congratulate your development team on an impressive
GLpro for Windows product. We were able to convert a Multimedia GRASP
application to GLpro in no time. Only two lines of programming were
changed!. The product runs a 3 minute music piece with 3D animation's
loading and playing non-stop during those 3 minutes, with no problem.
Great work".
Pierre Thiault - Presentation Technologies Inc. (USA)
"Lets face it most of us are tired of multimedia applications that
consume RAM and disk space like a raging inferno. For those of us who
want to get back to the basics of writing efficient, fast and economical
code, but have all the advantages of the Windows environment, GLpro for
Windows is certainly the best product in its class. No object orientated
programming, just straight code which gives programmers the flexibility
of full multimedia. The novel update and support mechanism from G-media
has certainly helped myself and my students get the best out of the product".
Professor Steve Molyneux
Head of Research and Professor of Multimedia
University of Wolverhampton (UK)
"Finally! The multimedia tool for Windows that we have been waiting for.
Small, incredibly fast and development times measured in days and weeks
instead of months!"
Donald E Magnusson - Concept! Inc. (USA)
"GLpro for Windows is an incredible multimedia solution that finally puts
the power of true programming into the hands of anyone. Fast, flexible
and fun. It does what you want and doesn't waste time searching through
a mountain of code to do it. I only wish GLpro was available years ago".
Bob Christensen - RAC Productions (USA)
_chris_
In article <4n9v3d$3c...@ns1-1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>, pj...@Lehigh.EDU wrote:
> In article <shashank-130...@l27.mfactory.com>,
shas...@mfactory.com (
> Shashank Parasnis) writes:
> >In article <cvanbus-1005...@news.tcs.tulane.edu>,
> >cva...@tcs.tulane.edu (_chris_) wrote:
> >
> >
> >>
> >> OK...OK...Parodox...we get it. You don't have to keep bad mouthing
> >> macromedia. mtropolis probably does have a furture. However,
> >> I'm not going to lay out 5 grand for program with bugs. The
> >> save button doesn't even work right. For 5 g's, save better
> >> work.
> >
I stand corrected on the free download, which is completely useless(no
saving). I didn't state the fact that the doucmentation that mtropolis
send is
as useless as their demo. I know the product is in its infancy, but
untill it has more support and better literature why would anyone
fork out 5 grand. Mind you the product does have its major bugs.
Hey, do you know for sure they will be around in a year or two.
Then your stuck.
I defended macormedia, because of their support and workable products
and demos. mtropolis does not sell to education institutes at resonable
prices. Director delivers a lot of power, and its is 4 grand cheaper.
Ofcourse the learning curve is high, and they could work on making
lingo easier to comprehend.
I don't know, I could be wrong, and have a copy of it in a couple of years.
Won't I look I the idiot. It wouldn't be the first time I stuck my foot
in my mouth.
--
_chris_
Loc Dao
In article <83211409...@imsc.demon.co.uk>, gyi.xenon.net says...
>There is - the new GLpro for Windows - it FAR outperforms Director
>and is currently being used to develop CD-ROMs for Compaq, Creative
>Labs and CompuServe amongst others - big companies with very high
>demands.
>
>We'll upload a FULL preview version now to this newsgroup.
>
>Regards
>Jason
Hi Jason,
Your e-mail address doesn't work so where is your web site.
Where can we take a look at your preview?
-Loc Dao
RandomLink Productions
Shashank Parasnis
In article <cvanbus-1505...@news.tcs.tulane.edu>,
cva...@tcs.tulane.edu (_chris_) wrote:
> In article <4n9v3d$3c...@ns1-1.CC.Lehigh.EDU>, pj...@Lehigh.EDU wrote:
>
> > In article <shashank-130...@l27.mfactory.com>,
> shas...@mfactory.com (
> > Shashank Parasnis) writes:
> > >In article <cvanbus-1005...@news.tcs.tulane.edu>,
> > >cva...@tcs.tulane.edu (_chris_) wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >>
> > >> OK...OK...Parodox...we get it. You don't have to keep bad mouthing
> > >> macromedia. mtropolis probably does have a furture. However,
> > >> I'm not going to lay out 5 grand for program with bugs. The
> > >> save button doesn't even work right. For 5 g's, save better
> > >> work.
> > >
>
>
> I stand corrected on the free download, which is completely useless(no
> saving). I didn't state the fact that the doucmentation that mtropolis
> send is
> as useless as their demo. I know the product is in its infancy, but
> untill it has more support and better literature why would anyone
> fork out 5 grand. Mind you the product does have its major bugs.
Such as? Please elaborate. I'd really like to make sure we are aware of
all _major_ bugs.
> Hey, do you know for sure they will be around in a year or two.
> Then your stuck.
>
> I defended macormedia, because of their support and workable products
> and demos. mtropolis does not sell to education institutes at resonable
> prices.
There is a 50% discount for academic institutions and affiliated members.
(Staff and students). Of course, the cost still comes out to $2500 so it's
not a wild savings.
>Director delivers a lot of power, and its is 4 grand cheaper.
> Ofcourse the learning curve is high, and they could work on making
> lingo easier to comprehend.
>
> I don't know, I could be wrong, and have a copy of it in a couple of years.
> Won't I look I the idiot. It wouldn't be the first time I stuck my foot
> in my mouth.
>
> --
> _chris_
By the way, here's a repost from a mTropolis mailing list from Patrick
Milligan, the author of the MacUser Review:
> The July issue of MacUser (US edition) will contain a short, one page
> review of mTropolis 1.0. This article has been posted on the online
> version of MacUser, at
> http://www.zdnet.com/macuser/mu_0796/reviews/review04.html.
>
> I wrote this review in collaboration with MacUser editor Jim Shatz-Akin.
> Our attempts to squeeze down the article to fit the word count seem to have
> introduced a major factual error:
>
> The last 2 sentences before "The Bottom Line" read:
>
> ...mFactory acknowledges these flaws and has slated them for correction in
> release 1.1, which may be available by the time you read this. The update
> also promises several new features, including real-time 3-D, support for
> QuickTime VR, and the ability to generate programs that support multiple
> users over the Internet.
>
> This is not correct. Only QuickTime VR is included in the 1.1 release.
> The other features (3-D and Internet support) are slated for releases
> beyond 1.1...
>
> It is too late to correct the print version, but a correction or errata to
> the online version is a possibility.
>
> The bottom line: I gave version 1.0 of mTropolis 3.5 mice. If the review
> had been of bug-free version 1.1
He had a beta version of v1.1.
>, it would have gotten at least 4 mice (out
> of a possible 5 mice).
>
> --Patrick Milligan
> mTropolis convert
>
>
> Oakleaf Designs phone: 408-257-1547
> 10018 Oakleaf Place fax: 408-996-9432
> Cupertino, CA 95014 email: pat...@oakleaf.com
>
> Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler...
So I suppose he found a way to save :)
_chris_
In article <shashank-160...@l27.mfactory.com>,
shas...@mfactory.com (Shashank Parasnis) wrote:
> There is a 50% discount for academic institutions and affiliated members.
> (Staff and students). Of course, the cost still comes out to $2500 so it's
> not a wild savings.
I know someone who sent mail several times, and never got a return
message. It also doesn't have academic pricing at your site. This
is news to everyone.
>
> >Director delivers a lot of power, and its is 4 grand cheaper.
> > Ofcourse the learning curve is high, and they could work on making
> > lingo easier to comprehend.
> >
> > I don't know, I could be wrong, and have a copy of it in a couple of years.
> > Won't I look I the idiot. It wouldn't be the first time I stuck my foot
> > in my mouth.
> >
> > --
> > _chris_
--
_chris_
Rob McMurtry
In article <shashank-130...@l27.mfactory.com>,
shas...@mfactory.com (Shashank Parasnis) wrote:
> Right...Right...and of course the fact that we just doubled in size is a
> sure sign of a company which makes no money.....
Just to play devil's advocate, it's not unusual for a high-tech company to
double in size without making any money. My former employer went from 12
people to 140+ in four years and only made a profit in one quarter.
Revenue does not mean making money!
mTropolis is a cool environment and I hope mFactory continues to grow.
However, I find the cost prohibitive, especially considering mTropolis
doesn't provide content creation tools or integration with third-party
apps. While I know a serious author isn't going to create all their art in
Director's paint window, it is _very_ useful for tweaks, etc.
I've found myself thinking of mTropolis as more of an API than a
"creative" environment the way I think of Director. In Director you can
prototype an idea quickly be whipping up some art and recording a few
sounds all in one shot, so it's very impulsive. mTropolis would require a
more thoughtful, methodical approach. That might not be a bad thing, since
many multimedia projects could use a whole bunch more planning! 8-)
r...@vic.sanctuary.com, who speaks only for himself
* Disney Interactive Victoria *
* Address changing soon *
Choong Chong Yew
>We'll upload a FULL preview version now to this newsgroup.
DON'T!