NT beats SGI????
In doing research on SGI I came across this post in a Softimage users
group.
My own impression was that the new 02 handily beats equivalent
intel based products.
This guy seems to think the opposite. Although he is using a pretty flimsy basis to make the claim.
Any comments?
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To: 3D@softimage.co.uk Subject: Re: soft vs alias From: jrowe@powerup.com.au (John Rowe) Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 00:41:51 GMT Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <328A1A5E.4505@rtassoc.com> Reply-To: 3D@softimage.co.uk
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On Wed, 13 Nov 1996 10:58:38 -0800, kevint@rtassoc.com (Kevin Tudish)
wrote:
>i spent yesterday afternoon watching a demo of alias and its 3D paint
>system. from a spectator's point of view alias makes softimage look like
>such a dog program (having used softimage for the last 3 years and never
>having used alias).
>
>if you guys wouldn't mind contributing an opinion:
>
>there seems to be (judging from the content of this list) a large
>migration to softimage. why? especially in light of the fact that you can
>now get an O2 bundled with alias and its paint program for substantially
>less than a windows machine bundled with soft (and no paint program).
This is not my experience at all.
I'll quote Australian prices since that's what I know. For any
Aussies I'll make them all extax too.
An O2 is $9,990 and comes with 180Mhz R5000 pc (no secondary cache)
32MB RAM, 1GB harddrive. One developer I spoke too here in Aus. rated
its speed as 40% faster than a 150Mhz R4400. He formed that
impression based on his new O2 and his old indy running the same
software side by side.
The SGI operating system uses 32MB just to get going so you'll have to
buy more RAM - at $2270 per 32MBs. The O2's spec sheet indicates that
it will do in the vicinity of 300,000 gourad shader textured polygons
per second.
An O2 bundled with PowerAnimator base (doesn't include Advanced
Animation and doesn't include Alias Studio Paint) but does have 128MB
of RAM and will set you back approx $45,000.
A 200Mhz PentiumPro clone with 128 MB RAM and a Glint 500TX/Delta
based OpenGL card will set you back around $8,000 - $10,000. Such an
OpenGL card will do around 500,000 gourad shader textured polygons per
second. 32MB SIMMS are around the $400 mark now I think - anyway
they're a lot less than SGI's $2270 32 MB SIMMS.
SoftImage 3D NT Base is $13,000, extreme is $23,000.
As a user of both Alias and Soft I would advise against comparing
Alias Animator with Soft Base. Animator is a seriously crippled
version of PowerAnimator. Obviously it depends on what you want to
create but in terms of utility I don't think you can compare Alias
PowerAnimator Base with Soft Base either. Soft Base has lots of
animation stuff that PowerAnimator base can't touch. A more accurate
comparison is PowerAnimator + Advanced Animation with Soft Extreme
PowerAnimator
PowerAnimator+Advanced Animation $40,000
SoftImage 3D NT Extreme $23,500
So the O2 + PowerAnimator Base Bundle is $45,000
A 200Mhz PentiumPro + SoftImage 3D NT Extreme is $33,500
As to the speed of the 2 platforms Colin
Green<collin@spacelab.net>posted the following render times test back
in September:
}We have encountered the following render times from the
}various systems at PLF - These are for renderings with
}the display active, so the graphics cards in the NT's
}may be affecting the speeds. Anyhow -
}
}150 Mhz R4400 Indy - 31 seconds/frame
}250 Mhz R4400 Solid Impact 21 seconds/frame
}266 Mhz DEC Alpha 266 XL 17 seconds/frame
}200 Mhz Intergraph TDZ300 11 seconds/frame
}333 Mhz DEC Alphastation 500 8 seconds/frame
This would still put the performance of a 200Mhz Pentium Pro (like the
one in the TDZ300) slightly higher than the O2 - 11 sec/frame compared
to 40% faster than a 150Mhz R4400 = 31/1.4 = 22 sec/frame.
Of course this is just an estimate maybe someone with an O2 could post
a more accurate test.
For me the issues on the hardware side are:
1. Cost of initial hardware purchase
2. Cost of upgrade
3. Rate at which the fruits of technical advancement trickle down to
consumer level prices (in other words how quickly you'll get more bang
for the same buck over time)
4. Bottom line speed of productivity
On these issues I think there is no comparison. In the under $50,000
market I think the NT platform wipes the floor with SGI, and that it
will continue to do so by a bigger and bigger margin.
I also have no doubt that SGI make the fastest most kick-ass machines
on the planet but they'll cost you the thick end of half a million
dollars.
As to Soft Vs Alias...
I used Alias PowerAnimator with Advanced Animation for 2 years up
until May this year. I used to love it. I did lots of complicated
animation with it. I think I got to know it pretty well. But working
with Alias is like trying to defuse a bomb. You never know when that
next mouse click is going to make the software do something wildly,
insanely unpredictable and there is NO UNDO. This does not do much
for your creativity. I think the Alias software treats its user like
Pavlov treated his dogs - sometimes he'd ring the bell and feed them,
sometimes he'd ring the bell and not feed them, sometimes he'd feed
them without ringing the bell. There was no consistency and the dogs
went mad. For me when I followed its rules and asked it to do
something Alias rang the bell alot but often didn't come up with the
goods and trying to figure out ways around its little idiosyncracies
was incredibly time consuming, frustrating and maddening.
My experience with Soft however is different. I've only been using it
for 4 months but I don't find it anywhere near as frustratingly
unpredictable as Alias. Compared to Alias I find it a liberating
piece of software indeed.
In my opinion Alias may be a slightly better modeller, and much better
texturer but it couldn't duplicate the animation effects Soft can
create with one hand tied behind its back in a pink fit. And I have
been amazed at the eaze with which Soft creates those effects.
I think you can work with the modelling and you can get around the
texturing but if you don't have the animation tools to do the job
you're stuffed.
Anyway, that's my 2 cent worth. :-)
Best Regards from Down Under,
John Rowe
Multivisuals, Brisbane, AUSTRALIA.
3D Animator / Programmer, Alias / SoftImage 3D NT Extreme / 3D Studio MAX
Specialist on Silicon Graphics, NT and PC Systems
email: jrowe@powerup.com.au
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