Ok, my take on this is still the same as I have always said, we can't discuss product roadmaps. And though it appears that Max and Maya have, in fact they haven't. There are no specifics around features, workflows, when they will appear and also release dates.Clappy wrote: 2) No transparency - Autodesk could quell this suspicion quite easily by openly discussing the roadmap for Softimages future like they have done with 3DS Max and XBR, or project Skyline and Maya. Instead, they default to "we can't legally discuss our plans". So why than is the Max team allowed? They are careful not to discuss "features", but they are completely open about their plans in broad areas. So clearly, ADSK is allowed to discuss the roadmap for a product, so long as they operate within some legal boundaries. Yet another reason to be frustrated.
XBR was/is basically an intention, an initiative, but there's nothing specific and guaranteed about when things will be done, and if they will be done, apart from the fact they were thinking of doing something. So everything is all very loose and very light on details , but even then they tread a fine line and there's many disclaimers in place.
I know it sounds easy to say Max does it, so why don't the others, but it's a tricky balancing act. We've all seen how easy, even with a simple 'please dont read too much into it', people inevitably do. So maybe the other teams are perhaps abit cautious on how things might be read? As for why Max do it, I don't know. It's not that they're 'allowed' to do it, and others aren't, maybe they feel they have to?. I basically follow the product guys on this, if they feel the need to be more open on the products I specialise in, then I follow their lead.
Regarding Skyline specifically, that's an internal project, and that's all it is right now. It's not a product and it could even change dramatically before it maybe appears on the market.
As for Maya's Node Editor, well it's early days and it's a long way before it becomes ICE, if it becomes ICE. It doesn't even have quite the same functionality as Maya's Hypershade & Hypergraph yet, so I wonder if those areas might be a good place to start first. At present I see it as a better Connection Editor.
And the whole thing about Softimage devs working on it, well Chinny did explain all that on the list, but if you're looking at incorporating a node-based workflow, which package would you look at?