Hi..

I have sent numerous emails to the above “subject” address, but I have never
received a reply, can someone please tell me if the address is valid or not. I really cannot
believe that the support email address on the site is wrong, I really think SideFX need
to update their site if that is the case, I have gripped about this for too long now, from
invalid resellers to invalid support emails, PLEASE, UPDATE IT. I am based
in the UK and as there is no longer a UK reseller (I wonder why..) I need valid
contact information ie. email addresses, having received no documentation with
my purchase I must relly totally on information posted on the site,
so PLEASE, “Support” here.

Regards
Tom

not only I think SideFx should update their website but also they should update the tutorial section. And the help documents as well. I just want more people use Houdini!

I tried sales at sidefx email address and got no answer too!
seems to be a bad way of drumming up business IMHO

Living in the UK sucks! I live there also. Let's team up and become an authorised reseller

Hmmm, this might be a recent problem. They did just move here in Toronto. However, I sent an email yesterday to the support address mentioned and got two responses back within 10 minutes! It's a silly question, but I assume you're on support, right mook? That email addy is only for customers with support.

The sales comment is quite valid - should always be active. I'm not sure how long you waited, but anything over a few business days wouldn't be good. Leaving cold emails in sales accounts of software companies has netted me responses from anywhere within a few hours to a few weeks, depending on the company!

There is always the(inlikely) possibility that there's something you standardly attach to your emails that triggers a spam filter.

Cheers,

J.C.

Hi..

Glad to see someone has responded, unfortunately none of you are from SideFX, which
makes me really wonder what they do for support.
Anyway..
I purchased my copy a few months ago and it included 1 years support, so I don't have
have a problem there, funny, my query is based on license transfer and extension,
if they don't want to respond to these kind of support querries what future do they
have when it comes to customer loyalty..

As for living in the UK, well, a few weeks ago I complained about their link to Techimage,
who they claimed were resellers, I had purchased my copy from Techimage and
they told me they were going to drop Houdini from January, so when I mentioned
this fact in a new topic, a week or so later the link was up…I was also sent an email
from Claire requesting information on what kind of training material I would be
interest me, I responded and never heard from her again, she also indicated
to me in that same personal email that there was going to be a UK SideFX event,
that event never materialised..Well, not in this universe as far I know.

I got the feeling someone wanted that topic to die….and die fast.

Well, life goes on…but not for us in the UK, I would love to continue investing in
SideFX, but if I cannot even contact them how can I honestly do so…

As for becomming a reseller, I would love to do so with a passion, but I get the
feeling Techimage may have suffered the same fate… “NO SUPPORT” or
“TOO MANY BAD USER EXPERIENCES”.

Companies like Alias, Newtek,, etc… have an active and responsive support
service, no matter where in the world you live…
I was even contacted by a senior exec a few years ago after I email support
requesting an update on my new license, that's what I call support.

I wonder what the process is to become a reseller, I wonder if you have to
contact SideFX….

Regards
Tom

Hi Thomas,

This is Zubin from sidefx, we have touched based earlier on a few issues with phil (techimage… I know it's been a while ) . The support@sidefx.com address is very much active and we usually reply to all email within a 24 hr window (that's latest ) . I'm not sure why your emails haven't been coming through, please feel free to mail me at zubin@sidefx.com (and cc support just to check what's going on). We are checking at our end too if everything is ok with our server and all, as we recently moved office (thanks john ) .
Please direct any sales related issue to me directly and I'll direct them to the appropriate people.

Regards
–Zubin

Thanks Zubin.

I'll resend my email again..

Regards
Tom

Not a problem, once sent if you don't hear back (atleast a confirmation ) within 24 hrs please mail back on this thread.

Cheers!
–Zubin

First to address Thomas's issue with accessing support. It turns out you were sending mail to suport@sidefx.comNote the incorrect spelling. Zubin noticed this when responding to you directly. You must have been receiving bounced messages, no? What made this very confusing for me was you typed the mail alias correctly in this thread.

I speak for all of us here at Side Effects Support in that we rarely let an email go for longer than a day. We put ourselves out every day, answering questions and providing feedback on topics that other Software Support departments wouldn't and couldn't touch with a 10 Metre pole!

After a quick browse, the links on our external web site correctly identify the support email alias as support@sidefx.com. Where on the Side Effects web site did you get the address for support as the incorrectly spelled suport@sidefx.com? We need to correct this to avoid future confusion.

As for the sales@sidefx.com alias, it was receiving far too much spam so we temporarilly turned it off until a decision can be made as to how to deal with this situation. Sorry if this offended you. It is just the reality of email today that we had to take this measure. You can always send support@sidefx.com your sales enquiaries.

As for the UK, support is still very actively engaging customers on a daily basis through email and phone. Even further than that, Side Effects representatives make frequent visits to the UK now, hosting excellent events (Sony last month) and as always gleaning great advice and tips for current and future releases. Over the past few years, I have been off to London at least twice a year. I don't see this changing. London is a fantastic place to visit. Soho is wonderful and so are the people. I have lost count over the number of features implemented based on direct conversations with users in the UK.

I have the greatest of faith in our team to provide UK customers all the support for Houdini and it's offerings in production.


-jeff

good one…

-cpb

Thank you so much for that Jeff..
I do appologise for my error…

Maybe you can look into finding a manual for me, or directing me towards one..
I think Zubin will soon get sick of my emails asking him what SOPs, CHOPs, etc..
I should actualy have inside of Hescape, as I'm sure he has better sup(p)ort tasks
to do.

I hope I have not offended you and I hope you can understand my point, as I'm sure you
have realised, my typing skills are greatly lacking, especially when typing email addresses…
:roll:

Thanks ALL…

thomaskinga
Thank you so much for that Jeff..
I do appologise for my error…

Maybe you can look into finding a manual for me, or directing me towards one..
I think Zubin will soon get sick of my emails asking him what SOPs, CHOPs, etc..
I should actualy have inside of Hescape, as I'm sure he has better sup(p)ort tasks
to do.

I hope I have not offended you and I hope you can understand my point, as I'm sure you
have realised, my typing skills are greatly lacking, especially when typing email addresses…
:roll:

Thanks ALL…

You won't get a manual. They don't even ship one when you buy houdini. The program was created by Navaho indians who only communicate by work of mouth and thier entire staff is becoming more and more dumb (pun inteneded). Any information that was good to have and available has either dissapeared or has been replaced by substandard info. Any SESI tutorial that I have tried to follow has turned out to be bogus in the fact that expressions don't work, bone rigs don't work or other things like that. Heck, I even have SESI's email address in my Yahoo address book and don't recieve any notifications on replies in the forum. I think the reason why they don't write a book or manual on houdini is because they are too busy making each new version as foreign to the last version as they possibly can and telling us it's a good thing. Sorry to get this attitude.

harlequin, I would've advised you to stock up some patience - thus you'll be able to get over the first few initial steps into the world of Houdini (yes, they may seem tough). The learning curve may seem tough at first - but then it'll be becoming easier and easier every single day you learn.

Trust me. You can do it.

As for your attitude… you'll know soon that you are not quite right.

harlequin,

When I first started Houdini, much of the wonderful features that we have today wasn't even available back then. When you try to do organic modeling, good luck, as most of the stuff were done directly in the network/parameters.

Now, granted that the comprehensive manual is probably something left to be desired and certain things are only known through word of mouth, but honestly, most stuff have at least some documentation. And if I am not clear about it, I can generally ask. Even after all these times, I still have much to learn.

SESI is NOT trying to make a software that is cryptic, otherwise, the user base would be gone fast like a vapor.

Granted that Houdini has no canned fx button, Houdini is a toolbox to which you can assemble your work with great possibilities, flexibilities – knowing that this software will not limit you to do whatever you can imagine. As I often tell people that the reason I like Houdini is because I am not a programmer, and I don't want a software to limit me.


So, hang in there. If the current manul doesn't fully answer your question, you can still find the answer via the forums. So I personally don't see much to gripe about. But then again, I am often the odd ball.

Cheers,
A

Thanks guys..

You are right…
I seem to learn something everyday.
I seem to be able to build networks almost at will without thinking about it now,
I have even started writing SOPs, building sprite shaders and manipulating
geometry in ways I never thought possible, I never thought I would get this far.
The initial learning curve is astronomical and I was close to
giving up, instead I decided to buy a copy of Hescape.

As for all my gripes, no one ever improved without getting criticism, praise simply
encourages one to continue doing what one is doing, criticism allows for new growth
and development….
SO.. If you really enjoy using Houdini and want it to get better.. Criticise what you feel
should be improved or considered… If the USERS don't who will… :twisted:


Regards
Tom

You know, we aren't stupid. Most posting users here are professionals, not kids in their parent's basements and don't need to be told that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I think it's more an issue of tone over content that rubbed *me*, at least, the wrong way.

There's been a flurry of some seriously ranting floods here lately from 2 or three people. Personally I could do without them, but then I'm just a user and don't run the board. Kudos to SESI for not deleting anything. If something seems wrong, yes, bring it up, of course. There's a lot of issues, like documentation, that are positviely worth pointing out, but IMHO it would be nice if newer users dropped the assumption that SESI is all about screwing around their customers. Apart from the awesome software, the one big thing I'll give them is they've given amazing support over the years. *Light years* better than Alias ever did - that's one of the big reasons I stopped using their software.

J.C.

I'm with John on this one…it's not really the ‘content’ of a gripe - it's the tone that is unwelcome…
there are things that SESI can be doing better - and I know that they all know it and are working very hard to get things like the documentation/learning materials up to date.

Thanks…
I understand where you guys are coming from.

I guess I can get a little too passionate about my gripes…
So, lets end this one with a

Over And Out

It is hard to keep the “spirit” of a gripe light when I run into things like this:
I went home last night and looked at the UVPelt tutorial. It said to hit Ctrl-6 to bring up the UV window. After playing around (not having a manual to look at) I found that you have to hit space-cntrl-rmb and chose UV from the menu that comes up.
Now, I ask you again, do the people at SESI actually proof-read or perform the tutorials before they put them out?
There are many more errors such as the “realistic arm” tutorial.
When SESI takes away copyright permision from Sydney Vis Lab which causes them to make the online manual “Local only” I absolutely stand by the spirit of my gripe. Actions like that could mean nothing BUT the fact that they are trying to be cryptic about the whole thing. Granted, the manual is old, but it is all we have in PDF form.

and add to that repetition…:roll:

Heard you the first time.

JC