“What a long strange trip it’s been“. Flashback to the Amiga 1000 boxed up under my stairway. Prehistoric ray-tracing software that took days to render a simple reflecting sphere. Amiga World Magazine printed an article that included screen shots of Caligari, a program that might allow one to recreate the world (1993?). I bought my first PC about 5 years later, found a copy of trueSpace SE on a retail rack, and that’s when my relationship with trueSpace began. With web 1.oh just beginning to percolate, the trueSpace mailing list (tsml) was the means of communication and learning. Before forum software was available, these were exciting times on dial-up. A lot of us created web sites and dug into a creative digital world. 10 years ago? Seems like much longer ago now. The community of trueSpace users in 1998 were artists obsessed with a freely editable medium that was affordable and fascinating for its evolving technicality.
Caligari has always been a lean close knit organization that appreciates it’s users and testers. I was fortunate to be included in one of the initial One Man Show presentations (behold the cheesy imagery of the day). Roman Ormandy keeps his company interesting by dreaming and exploring niches as he pursues a life long vision. One such diversion was iSpace, an attempt to create a true 3D workspace for web page authors. I began beta testing for Caligari at that time and remember well the shock of early versions where the actual interface was part of the 3D scene being manipulated. Absolutely unique. I contributed some sample pages (1)(2) and a button library. Very primitive stuff now, but it did allow me to gain entry to the trueSpace beta team and a real high point, Siggraph 2000, the last big appearance by Caligari at the annual computer graphics convention and exhibition.
I’ve been active in the trueSpace world from trueSpace5.5 to present (though much less recently). There were more diversions from the main program such as a Flash plug in, as well as 3rd party additions to test, such as Dark Tree shaders and Primitive Itch plug ins, and Viewpoint Media. Caligari even released a specialty version of trueSpace for jewelers. Caligari has succeeded in selling training courses, hiring users as authors (my NURBS course among them).
But the very biggest development has been the rewrite of core code that has become half of trueSpace7+. It’s not been without controversy. Long in development, Caligari elected to bridge the older well-established version to preserve many tools and plug ins that haven’t been ported to the new code. It was perhaps the most ambitious development cycle. It added an incomplete version of the VRay renderer and included implementation of real time online collaboration that has yet to be fully fleshed out and exploited. It has a heavy emphasis on scripting capabilities through a Link Editor interface that is hard for many artists to grasp. But this new side of trueSpace is likely what’s led to the news… Microsoft acquires Caligari. Caligari customers are wondering whether there will be a new notch on the timeline or will trueSpace be absorbed and forgotten. Speculation is that Microsoft is desperate to be competitive with Google Earth, and intends to use trueSpace similarly to Google’s acquisition and use of Sketchup.
Caligari has always had a knack for staying alive in a market dominated by big dollar competition. Other “consumer” 3D companies have long since been absorbed, re branded, or disappeared, but Roman Ormandy has guided Caligari to adapt and persevere through the years. Sometimes bits and pieces of incompatibility have been left bobbing in the wake, such as the many add on “paks” that support a variety of trueSpace versions, but Caligari has a well deserved reputation for treating it’s customers right.
My opinion? The artistic heart of trueSpace has suffered in recent years. It’s been replaced by a colder more technical side that meshes well with Microsoft. Roman and company will come out of this acquisition very well. But I believe that the artistic heart must be repaired back to health if Microsoft Virtual Earth and trueSpace are to have a chance to compete with Google Earth. This is an opportunity for trueSpace to increase its user base and community dramatically, to move beyond the stereotype of VRML/Virtual/eStuff by attracting artists to technology again. The trueSpace tool set is large and varied. As real time displays continue to develop as alternatives to off-line render engines, as games begin to merge with useful purpose, artists will embrace the right tool for the right end result. The make or break in this competition is the corporate vision of that end result. What’s meaningful to users goes far beyond virtual stereotypes and gimmicks. We embrace that which brings beauty to usefulness, even when usefulness is simply beauty itself. Apple and Google come to mind, physical and digital interfaces exhibiting pleasurable usability with purpose. Think iPod Touch and iPhone with live traffic status within Google Maps as a simplistic example. It’s entirely possible for trueSpace to thrive in a new home as a result of the Microsoft buyout. Roman is still in charge, developers and beta team remain active. What remains to be seen is the Microsoft vision of the fit w/Caligari.
Your comments are welcome…
But I dream…
