BrianKitts

I've always been a fan of Onyx, but since it really hasn't changed in four years and you have to purchase the new plugin with every release of max, I'm considering abandoning onyx & treestorm.

The other benefit I see to changing plugins is opening up to new libraries for different standard species. I'll keep the onyx stand alone apps for making custom trees, but I'm considering moving to another package as my direct plugin to max. So my question is this....

Is there anyone who's left onyx for other tree plugins, and what is your opinion, as a former onyx user do you like something else better or do you feel that onyx is still the best choice?

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Brian Kitts
ANSHEN + ALLEN

Brian Cassil

hmmm... interesting. I was thinking of starting to use ONYX. Right now we use the Xfrog libraries but they aren't really usefull because they are soooo high res.

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"writing notes is quieter."

prodham

that is a big issue, isn't it ? i was surprised when i figured that out myself after updating MAX.

they really should do more for existing customers, but it doesn't seem to be their way of doing things.

Claudio Branch

This is new and disturbing information to me. I just had Max 2009 installed!

tayrona

I was in the same situation when I changed to max 2009, and tried xfrog, and was not usefull (lot of crashing and slow operations)... and I did not find any other solution, so I got a new license of onyx....

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Tayrona
http://www.gaestudio.com/

philip kelly

ya i agree, i am a little fed up with having to update all the time.
They must have been delighted when autodesk sub scription came out.
Our budget is all for updates of plug ins every year now.

If you find a better solution please let me know.

thank you phil

Billabong

Quoted for agreement

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www.billa1.com

Claudio Branch

I suppose I will just suck it up and take it then. I have had nothing but success with Onyx. I'm not interested in changing anytime soon.

Hell, I can just use Max 9 and proxie-out whatever I need or just use the tree generators and export to 3ds files.

I probably don't even need TreeStorm. V-Ray proxies now support animated geometry and I use Advanced Painter for tree placement anyways.

There are almost always work-arounds for any CG challenge...

jkletzien

Wow, Brian...are you gonna ask them to take your work off their website too....It'd free up a lot of space on their server, as you're work has always been featured prominently.

I don't really mind paying for the updates, they actually make a good base product that no one has really improved upon in ten years - which is unbelievable - and if MAX's architecture demands that they update their plugin than they have no other source of income...since they aren't soaking us with a dubious update annually on their base product (aka autodesk).

But I am saddened by the predicament, I like supporting a small software developer...even if they have a monopoly...but their small staff just isn't up to the task of supporting their users, updating its functionality, and everything else that we've come to expect in this day and age. Plus the loss of the replace leaf feature in their latest plugin build is a bad sign for any software maker in my mind....removing functionality instead of fixing it?

The argument I think has generally been moot as it doesn't seem like anyone has had a reasonable replacement...but I think that that new Exlevel plugin is really gonna give Onyx a run for its money. And I think that for the first time, folks at Onyx are gonna need to decide if developing software is really what they want to do, they want to sell to Autodesk, or they want to just hold on as long as possible.

So, I'm sticking with it for now, but I see some obstacles for them coming up. And I am definitely looking at that Exlevel product as a possible replacement.

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Jon Kletzien
StudioAMD Inc.
Website

RyanSpaulding

I'd say, learn to live w/o Treestorm, and you'll save yourself some money.