Is the forum dead? What about Shade v17?

[adamkuczek]

No new posts for quite a while. Nobody uses Shade anymore?

Also, no news about release of Shade v17 in English. I keep asking about it on Shade's Facebook, Twitter and via official website but didn't get any answer whatsoever. Not exactly a way to treat users. What's the point of releasing a couple of English versions if then you decide to axe it?

[ibr_remote]

I am just using Shade 3D as I type this...

[adamkuczek]

That's good to know I wonder why there are no topics at all, some cool tricks, techniques, etc. It would be good to make this forum alive again.

BTW, I finally got answer from Shade3D Co. - they are preparing English version of v17 eventually but no release date yet. It's a relief they didn't abandon it

[achilles]

I think the problems are: it seems that Shade 3d is a japanese program for Japan people, like other very good programs made in Japan, they find difficult to internationalise their softwares finding hard to understand that international language now is English (i'm italian). For me it's important they begin to make programs, plugins and tutorials in English before all. Second: for me the price they sell Shade is too high, they have to lower it and make offers for loyal customers, considering that there are so many 3d programs in the market that cost more but offer  lot more than Shade 3d.
If they will do that i'll renew my license now at ver. 15 pro.

[adamkuczek]

Yes, their marketing is, unfortunately, very flawed. They don't pay any attention to international users or make any effort to make the software more user-friendly in terms of thorough tutorials or plug-ins.

[Stefan]

That's good to know I wonder why there are no topics at all, some cool tricks, techniques, etc. It would be good to make this forum alive again.

From all 3D communities i know, the Shade community is/was always the laziest! So no wonder why you see nothing. I was very active a couple of years ago at Shader's Cafe (which still exits and it was the largest english speaking community for Shade) and also at other Shade communities. You can simple forget the majority of it's english speaking users. Larry and Juan Manuel where also very active a couple of years ago, but probably they are now addicted to Social Media sites.

Regards
Stefan

[Stefan]

I forgot to add a few things, regarding the english speaking Shade community...

First, i forgot to mention my good old (online) friend (beside Larry and Juan Manuel)
Jean-Paul, from France. He was also a very active member at Shaders Cafe.

One thing i like also to mention is, when Mirye, the English Distributer (starting from
Shade 9 till shade3d.co.jp took over) was in business with Shade, we had also every
couple of weeks free online video/chat meetings with staff from Mirye and the japanese
Dev. team. The presenter at that time was (the now famous book author) Taiyo-san
who did live tutorials and Q/A with Sunny and others. Those meetings where also
announced, so that everybody could attend, plus they where (or are still?) available
at youtube.com.

Now, do you think that many Shade users attended those...? Of course, not!

Another example. When the fantastic Shade City was created (by Shade Master
Ikeda-san) for the free Blue Mars Online platform, it was also announced (by me,
for example), do you think that english speaking users visited it...? I have never
seen one non-japanese user there, expect after another announcement and then it was
only one person, the Chief of Mirye Software... Blue Mars is afaik still online and very
well worth a visit, if you can use the Windows client software.

So, you see people who bought a license of Shade are not much interested, if at
all, in community things.

That's also one reason for me to no longer spend time with the Shade community.

To bad Adam that you entered the community a bit late (which of course is not your
fault) because you do very good stuff with Shade and are a helpful person, with also
providing tutorials.

I hope also that shade3d.co.jp will find soon people who do the english support on this
site, to give Shade 3D another chance, outside of Japan.

Best regards
Stefan

[adamkuczek]

Yeah, it seemed to me I was too late to the party. I found old forums and things you mentioned, too bad I wasn't around earlier. Hopefully, they keep English version alive and gradually find new users. However, without any visible effort it will be rather difficult.

[Stefan]

Yes, hard to tell what the future will bring. I also checked today if artistside.com is still online, the largest Shade community for japanese users and successor of e-frontier's Shade Online forum. But artistside is unfortunately gone too and they have only now a little info page on Twitter. Those two resources where pretty good to get in touch with japanese Shade users and Shade Masters.

Maybe i should also take a closer look here at this site, to get an overview of the japanese Shade community...

It would be also interesting who steps in now for Sunny and Laurie, because i think with Sunny, as former head of the Dev. Team, Shade was always connected to the non-japanese community...

It would be really bad if Shade would disappear, because with each iteration it's getting better and better, like now with NURBS support in Shade 17 Pro.

Well, let's wait and see...

Regards
Stefan

[mperdue]

Is there any news about an English v17 release?

[adamkuczek]

I asked about it repeatedly and they confirmed it's in development but... that was a long time ago and it seems they just said it to keep English users a bit longer. After all, how long would it take to translate a couple of new features into English? Day? Two? That's all they would need, considering v16 is in English already.

Seems to me they just don't give a crap anymore. Sad.

[achilles]

I asked them the same things and, if possible, to send their newsletter in english too, but never answered me!
Mah.
Achille

[sunny]

Hi guys,

You may say this forum is dead. As I'm no longer working with Shade3D, so I can't answer the question that most of you would like to know. I feel sorry about the current situation with English version and the English community.

Cheers,
Sunny

[lauri]

So do I , so do I ...

[lauri]

I asked about it repeatedly and they confirmed it's in development but... that was a long time ago and it seems they just said it to keep English users a bit longer. After all, how long would it take to translate a couple of new features into English? Day? Two? That's all they would need, considering v16 is in English already.

Seems to me they just don't give a crap anymore. Sad.

Well it’s a bit more complicated than that.