Vewy vewy quiet

We are sorry things are very quiet on the Aladdin 4D front as of late. We are working hard to resolve some things and hopefully will have some news for you later this year. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to leave us a message on the Aladdin 4D forums. If you want to buy the current Amiga version of Aladdin 4D feel free to contact our sales department.

The Microsoft Cabinet of Caligari

Todays announcement that Microsoft purchased Caligari Corporation and their 3D animation package Truespace gave us an old feeling of Deja Vu. This is not the first time Microsoft has purchased a 3D company, they tried this in 1996 when they acquired SoftImage. Blame it on the French if you want but that marriage only lasted for two years before Microsoft sold SoftImage at a loss.

Like a silent movie remake who knows if this latest release will be good or bad for the industry. Last time around SGI was so afraid of the SoftImage purchase that they bought Alias and Wavefront and merged them into what later became Maya. Life has a funny way of doing unexpected things like that. How will this affect Aladdin 4D? It won't, we will keep pushing forward and yes the Windows version will still be lowest on our list. But like a old horror movie you will not know the end of this story until we are further into the plot.

Google News Link

Amiga Nowhere?

A customer asked us today if there will be a version of Aladdin 4D for Amiga Anywhere 2. Rumor has it this is available now for select developers. We are not really pro or anti Amiga Inc, instead we are pro results. Amiga Incorporated has a long track record of promising big but delivering little. It has harmed the Amiga brand and the Amiga market. In fact we got a good deal on Aladdin 4D because of the harm they have done to Nova Design's market. The key to Amiga Anywhere going anywhere but nowhere is 3rd party developers like DiscreetFX.

The classic Amiga's installed base of customers is huge compared to Amiga Anywheres installed base. If Amiga Inc. want Aladdin 4D on AA2 they will have to provide us with a real SDK. Don't wait for us to sign up or come calling Amiga Inc. because it will not happen. If you pay for Aladdin 4D to be ported to AA2 and if you beg it might happen. We will not be holding our breath or waiting by the phone for your call. Soon you will have owned Amiga as long as Commodore. Commodore went out of business but they did do something with Amiga that you have never done. They sold millions and millions of them. This created a vibrant 3rd party developer community. Without a vibrant 3rd party developer community for Amiga Anywhere 2 it is already dead. Amiga Inc. should be busting its ass trying to create this now, but we fear the odds of this happening is about the same as the Easter Bunny (Oschter Haws) being real. We will not be waiting for the Easter Bunny's call either but we would expect it before Amiga Inc's call.

Screwmiga

We bring up the Amiga from time to time in this Blog since that is the platform that Aladdin 4D runs on at the moment. It is important to mention that when we discuss Amiga we are taking about the Amiga in a classic sense and not Amiga Inc. the current company in charge. Time will prove if what they are doing works out or not but it is not the Amiga even if it is called Amiga Anywhere.


The Amiga community and Amiga Inc. have had some disagreements in the past over this old vs new ideology. If Amiga Inc. expects the platform to succeed under their leadership they should respect the community that has grown up around the Amiga over the years. The Classic Amiga sold millions of machines, the current Amiga Inc. has never sold millions of Amiga Anywhere solutions. Until they do it would be best if they looked to the Amiga's past for wisdom since that is what made the Amiga brand successful.

Certain Death Avoided

Because DiscreetFX grabbed the remnants of Aladdin 4D and its related IP and source code it got to avoid a common phenomenon in the Amiga software marketplace, certain death. Usually what happens is a developer goes out of business taking its 3D animation product with it, this happened with Tornado 3D and Expert 3D. Or a developer runs from the Amiga marketplace and all of its drama never to return, like Cinema 4D and Calagari TrueSpace.

Since everyone at DiscreetFX is Amiga/MorphOS/AROS fans we would like to avoid both grim circumstances. The return of Aladdin 4D is in process but fans of Amiga and this classic 3D package can help. If there are features you would like to see please let us know. If you always wanted to buy the program but never did please take the plunge. If there are things about the package that you don't like or never liked we want to know that too. Reincarnation can be a tricky business and if you can help please do.

Shades of Grey

Aladdin 4D's current interface supports 24 bit displays but the interface itself is mostly greyscale. This of course betrays its origins as an Amiga 3D animation application. You would never know it by looking at the current versions of LightWave, Cinema 4D & Truespace but they also had greyscale interfaces at one time. Aladdin 4D will too abandon its grey look and will become more modern. We will touch base with its installed userbase as this progresses and have example images of the new interface on this blog for all to review.

The tool bar will also get a face lift and be more exciting. We are looking for an artist in fact to paint those icons in a new modern glory. The fun has just started Aladdin 4D fans!

Hand in the Cookie Jar

What hurt Aladdin 4D before the DiscreetFX acquisition was "Hand in the Cookie Jar Syndrome". What this means is that cookies or money kept flowing out of the jar but were never put back in (R&D). This lack of research and development can work wonders for profits in the short run but can be a call of death to a software package long term. We are not dumb asses and know modernizing Aladdin 4D will take a lot of work.

Because of this fact we vow that for the first 18 months of the Aladdin 4D take over we will take zero profits from all sales. All money flowing in will go towards development, modernization, interface upgrades, advertising and paying Aladdin 4D's bills. To be totally honest the current state of affairs for the package when we took over were pretty bleak. We have yet to even sell one copy of Aladdin 4D ourselves which did surprise us a little. We thought that maybe a few Amiga fans would support us since we saved one of their software packages from certain death.

We are fine with the current state of affairs though since we are on this roller coaster ride for the long term. If you like Aladdin 4D though and are excited what the future will bring don't be a stranger.