Hi everyone, I'm writing an article on software upgrades looking at the differences between the various programs and what people think of them.

I'd really appreciate it if you could give your opinion on what do you think of the software you use by filling in the following quick questionnaire (I promise it's quick - 60 seconds, time yourself!)

I'll post the article studying the results after the survey has been collated.

Click here to answer the survey [cgenie.com]

Many thanks,
Katie

How are you dealing with the difference upgrade models? Houdini has a new incremental release almost always daily. Maya is what, couple times a year? The first question(“Each upgrade gives me lots of new features and capabilities”), off the bat, would have wildly different results depending on the package. It's apples and oranges.

Cheers,

J.C.

Hi JColdrick - good question,

As you say the actual upgrade process is very much apples and oranges between the various software companies, however the focus of the survey (and the article I'm building from it) is around user perception of this process and the point you mention will be very interesting to examine if there is a difference in user ‘feelings’ around upgrades depending on whether they get small updates frequently or big upgrades infrequently…

As you say Houdini release iterative patches very frequently indeed and I'm assuming (though trying not to influence any results!) that may have an interesting impact on user perception compared to Autodesk who may make their users wait for six months for a fix…

Had better stop before I share any preconceived notions, but very good question and one that I'm confident will answer itself in the results!

OK, prior to this line of work I had background specifically to IT survey work, so I'm very sensitive. Our attitude was that the question is more important than the responses, in that no matter what data you get back, if the question is improperly phrased, well, you know the rest…

Cheers,

J.C.

Heh - sounds like it was a scarring experience!

Well to clarify the question - looking at the upgrades that you've had from Houdini over the last year, how much have sidefx been focusing on introducing new features and how much on fixing bugs. Note I'm not looking for technical quantities - it's absolutely about your gut instincts on this.

Do you feel SideFX are spending their time fixing bugs or adding new features?

Katie-CGenie
Do you feel SideFX are spending their time fixing bugs or adding new features?

Yes.

Correct!

oleg

Katie-CGenie
Do you feel SideFX are spending their time fixing bugs or adding new features?

Yes.

*LOL* looking at your signature I would not have expected THIS answer ! )

I would say, it depends also on the status of the customer. If you are an endorsed customer, the one featured in an “xy VFX studios use our package” article, you surely just need to cough and the bug is fixed, whereas if you are a “prosumer” with one licence and your work is close to fail because of a bug, you'll have to wait. Whoever is your provider.

Katie, You should check for this also in your survey! This really affects the perception how good the customer care is. Some companies surely have one or two “embedded” developers with their 10k+ licence customer I'd guess.

Great point WhoDjini - something I should have included (something like ‘how many licences does your organisation hold’) - fortunately a lot of that detail is already coming out through user comments, but very interesting point nonetheless!

Your survey asks about “upgrades”, which is already a biased term. “release” would be more appropriate, and then we can talk about major, minor, and incremental releases. Most vendors have some aspect of their release process that fits in one of those three sizes. E.g. Windows has a major release every what, 2-3 years? Minor releases might be service packs. Incrementals? So unfortunately with this survey, I'm not sure if the question is about major, minor, or incremental releases.

Antoine - take your point, though as I mentioned to JColdrick, I'm not wanting to know what you think about the incremental development policy at SideFX or the major release cycles at Autodesk - rather simply the opinions of users about the general upgrading of their software.

ie are you happy with how SideFX upgrade/develop Houdini? Not do prefer the minor,major,incremental etc. As you point out yourself, you very quickly get into difficulties in defining what these are themselves, let alone inter-company differences (eg is a point release for Autodesk the same as for SideFX).

The responses in themselves from this forum are interesting in themselves (might mention you guys in my article!) - the survey's been posted in dozens of different company forums/news pages and whilst I've had masses of responses to the survey, only you guys have analysed the explicit nature of the meanings (and that's certainly not meant to be a criticism, rather a compliment if anything!).

Can any of you explain that one? Are Houdini artists more scientifically/analytically astute than a Maya artist perchance?

:wink:

something I should have included (something like ‘how many licences does your organisation hold’)

:roll:

Houdini provide the Apprentice licensing. This great for learning. ANYone can take free license and play with all Houdini features. And if you are “apprentice” user, you can send the bug reports direct to support, and receive the very fast feedback from support team. And you can see all changes in “tomorrow build” for windows, linux (32 and 64 bit), Mac OS X.

Houdini have a gold support, instead of many other packages. All users can send reports and see fixes in “tomorrow” builds.

You must include the question about support the “non commercial” users.

Houdini have this option.

p.s. Our studio have the “ancient M*ya” licenses. I`m remember some deadlines and silent from AD support, and feedback was received 2 weeks later.

live-fx - actually already approached from the other side on this. Think SideFX may have set a bit of a benchmark for this, have noticed a few other companies starting to shift their support style in this direction (eg the recent Lightwave CORE announcement).

However certain companies I think stand out by going the extra mile as you describe Houdini does with the apprentice licencing - but I'm confident (well actually I know as I've sneak-peeked the survey results!) this'll be shown out in user feedback about the company - I want to manually gather the upgrade process on each software platform, then compare that with the quantitative feedback from users. And this is where there'll be interesting correlations.

Companies that treat their customers right, consider them all important and develop an upgrade schedule around them unsurprisingly have the happiest customers, who more importantly ‘buy-in’ to upgrade prices etc more than customers who have been shunned.

Which is I guess why your Maya licences are ancient… :wink:

Katie-CGenie
Can any of you explain that one? Are Houdini artists more scientifically/analytically astute than a Maya artist perchance?

I think.. Houdini users just want to have the full control of process.
Instead of other, who controlled by package possibilities..

Heh, so because SideFX let you be in charge of development of their software you think you can redesign my survey!

Very interesting point - no doubt if I had let you, it'd been a more precisely defined survey!

Well I can tell you from the results that even with any apparent confusion over the intricate terminology of the survey, the results are very clear for SideFX and I think they may well prove a shining example for others.

Does anyone know who's a good guy to contact in SideFX? I'd like to ask a few interview questions for the survey, hopefully they won't mind.

I promised myself that i'd stay out of this thread, but I just can't resist.

I STRONGLY disagree that SideFX lets users control the development of the software as live_fx seems to suggest.

I *DO* feel that as a software company, they have, on occassion, consulted (and in fact, continue to consult) their customers with regards to the direction they are taking – but it's important that credit is given where it is due. SESI is making the decisions at the end of the day. Not the users. In fact, I would imagine that had SESI done a less kick-ass job balancing a long-term vision with today customer demands, we'd have a lesser platform to work on today.

As a customer, it pains me to say this, but i'm not always right (just don't quote me on that).

G

keyframe
i'm not always right.

G

:twisted:


Katie-CGenie:

A good contact at Side Effects Software for Marketing related topics would be Robert Magee -> rmagee@sidefx.com

Many thanks Allegro!

Keyframe - thank you for not obeying your own promises! Has given a valuable balance to the development!

And sorry, but your quote is so good… I may just need to quote you on that literally! :?

keyframe
I STRONGLY disagree that SideFX lets users control the development of the software as live_fx seems to suggest.

I mean the working process.
Not the package development.

keyframe
As a customer, it pains me to say this, but i'm not always right (just don't quote me on that).

I personally feel this is not a “right-vs-wrong” thing. A great majority of customer demands I see on this forum are very valid and most of the time extremely useful to implement.

However, I think no amount of customer feature requests, no matter how useful, can substitute for a viable, planned long-term strategy. So to me, these are just two different aspects of the same problem, both necessary, but mixed in correct proportions. Kind of like ying and yang, a little.

By the way, this is me talking as a person, not as a SESI developer. Ignore my sig for this post.