Adobe has acquired Allegorithmic

Adobe Acquires Allegorithmic, the Leader in 3D Editing and Authoring for Gaming and Entertainment

"Our goal with Creative Cloud is to provide creators with all the tools they need for whatever story they choose to tell. Increasingly, stories are being told with 3D content. That’s why I’m excited to announce that today Adobe has acquired Allegorithmic, the industry standard in tools for 3D material and texture creation for gaming and entertainment."
- Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President for Creative Cloud

Well that came unexpected.

 

Well F***, this sucks. Adobe has been a nightmare to deal with as an end user ever since they switched to a subscription model.

 

this could be great for consumers, except given adobes history, its likely to be terrible for consumers.

 

Adobe products tend to end up as subscription nightmare.

 

Adobe has no track record in this industry. Hope this doesn't end up like mixamo. Sucks.

 

I'm still bitter over Adobe's handling of Flash. Not a fan of Adobe. I have no faith in their acquisitions. They purchase a software company, and spoil their software platform. I didn't use Allegorithmic software, so it doesn't affect me as much, but it's still sad to see them get Adobied.

 

This is the worst that could have happened. The programs are so good and IMHO essential for game devs with a fair subscription model. Adobe on the other hand is the representation of not evolve and make you pay forever.
This makes me really sad
I will get a perpetual license asap

 

NOOOOOOOO!!! I was going to wait till the next major update to update my perpetual license but I guess I'm going to have to do it now.

 

I don't like this at all. Some of us have annual subscriptions active but it will end at some point and when the substance products will be integrated to the creative cloud packages in the future the costs will become unbearable. Allegorithmic has a very friendly licensing and upgrade paths but those will most likely disappear. I guess it's time to prepare to transition to something else and stick with an older version till it stops working.

I have terrible experiences with Adobe acquisitions, eg. Dollar Photo Club acquisition and migration to Adobe Stock was a nightmare and basically rendered all DPC licensed/purchased images to be kinda illegal as it was pretty hard/impossible to prove you actually had a x type license to image y. Adobe Stock did not of course have the same images. Mixamo was also kinda ruined as any kind progress and communications seemed to completely halt few months later(?). After a quick check Adobe Fuse for example is still marked as beta after all these years?

RIP

 

I just read the first paragraph of this post by the CEO. He is seriously comparing the sale of Substance to becoming director of lord of the rings...I had to stop reading.

https://medium.com/@sebastien.deguy...en-deguy-my-peter-jackson-moment-7dd64ba1d1f1

 

You should have continue to read, he does not compare the sale to that. He became the lead of 3D development inside Adobe. He compares that.

--

Either Adobe or Autodesk. I think Adobe is a good choice, since more tight integration with their products is good. I like the idea that it landed in the hands of a professional. Also since it has subscription model for a long time, it won't be that big of a deal when they integrate into the suite.

 

Cool. I'm always wishing substance painter and photoshop would get together and make a baby. THe brushes in painter suck.

edit: just learned about adobe's reputation. Maybe it's bad.

 

Except it will essentially cost 3-4x more to use the same tools based on the current creative cloud cost. Adobe only offers a single pick or full set subscriptions.

 

Will see. I will get the pitchfork and torch if it happens, until then I like this decision. And I don't want to enter into the guessing game how much it will cost in the future, which we don't know anything about.

 

Substance monthly indie subscription is $20. Adobe cloud single app subscription is $20...

 

Well I still don't get the comparison. Adobe has no track record in game dev. Not sure how taking over 3d at a company with no 3d compares to taking over one of the greatest fantasy properties of all time other than the fantasy part

 

you don't get the comparison cause you didn't read the article.

 

WTF?

I think the majority of the graphics designers and I guess the majority of the 2D artists would contradict you.
Because it's like Photoshop isn't the quasi industry standard in the game industry, right?
Especially given that Allegorithmic isn't just a 3D company, their main strength is textures and materials and the creation of them. Which, surprise, also Adobe's main strength. Wow, who would expect it.

Also just because you hate Adobe, and you don't know anything about them it does not make you magically right:
- Adobe Dimensions
- Adobe Fuse
- Adobe Animate

 

https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/plans.html

Peek at existing pricing for individuals. Currently I use mostly open or free alternatives like the excellent paint.net for shoppery and the ultra cheap asprite for pixel fun.

For things like substance or painter, it's not a real benefit for customers to be on a sub because we don't really need new features for years, basically. You could get away with upgrading once every 2-3 years. But obviously the company needs cash to keep developing so everyone's gone sub.

This means they'll split substance designer apart from painter so they'll be 20 bucks each instead of 20 bucks all in. Because That's what Adobe prefers, to push you toward the 50 bucks combined sub. See pricing link above.

So people that use both will end up eventually, paying 30 more. Pretty sure. Eventually

 

Substance's indie subscriptions came with the benefit that they became perpetual after twelve months. If for some reason you decided to cancel before the twelve months was up you could pay a small fee of $49 to receive a perpetual license.

I'm seriously tempted to pick up a perpetual license for Substance Painter just in case Adobe discontinues it.

https://www.allegorithmic.com/faq-substance

 

I don't use Allegorithmic so I don't really care, stopped using Adobe altogether can't stand them as company.

Still as far products they've got AfterEffects is still pretty good compared to the competition, but the other products they've got sit in some niche fields where there isn't much competition, others sit in lead positions where the competition is garbage and those Adobe products generally don't improve at all, and then they've got a few that used to be good but under the hands of stagnation go no where.. it's all a bit of a mess and they don't improve the products that really should be improved.

Photoshop being a big case in not really improving anything should be improved .. to the point alternatives like krita and now... https://photopea.com (I'm blown away by it) just take care of most the things you could ever want to do.

 

That moment your profile pic reflects your actual facial expression
<<<

One word: Spewing.

 

Now all we need is Adobe to buy a decent 3D modelling package, and all of my art needs will be sorted in a single subscription.

 

'Now all we need is Autodesk to buy Adobe.'

...

...

 

So, how is Quixel doing these days? I see DDO and NDO are no longer around, is the "Mixer" the replacement?

 

And shortly after that Microsoft to buy Autodesk... So everything goes to the Microsoft Store only!

 

Quote from the allegorithmic guy https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2669241/#Comment_2669241

Adobe simply is simply nothing in 3D space and listing mixamo fuse, another great indie company that adobe bought and ruined doesn't make it so.

 

Almost 30 pages of mostly outrage over at allegorithmic forums

https://forum.allegorithmic.com/index.php/topic,27494.0.html

 

I love when people over-dramatize everything. (No.)

 

It seems like Adobe wants an in, in the 3D software landscape and Allegorithmic's products seem to be the required sacrifice.

Seeing how Adobe has handled other acquisitions (is anyone that ever used Cool Edit Pro, happy with how Audition turned out?), plus Adobe's licensing being a nightmare, Allegorithmic's products are as good as dead.

 

I would say "good thing I have a perpetual license for Painter" but I also had one for Fuse and they still killed it.

 

My concern is that this is somehow leading to Adobe buying Unity.

I subscribe to Adobe’s full plan and have used their software for 20 years so I have a lot of experience with their products.

Their illustration, design and print products are great. But they haven’t shown much industry moving innovation In a long time.

I loved Fireworks. They bought it and killed it. I loved freehand. They bought it and killed it. Flash. Killed it. ( In fact, i wrote a semi popular blog post years ago about how a young upstart called Unity was going to take Flash’s crown). Fuse showed promise and Mixamo was (and still is) incredibly helpful. But both are frozen development right now.

Adobe is a fine enough company that maintains some great products. But based on their track record, including in 3D, I think the negative reaction many posters are having on redddit and polycount and allegorithmic is understandable, and I don’t think it’s realistic to expect otherwise.

 

I've always found Adobe's subscription pricing pretty darn good. Just photoshop for around $20, or everything for under $80 a month.

Plus you get access to a bunch of cool little cloud services, e.g. I've found adobe Spark to be fantastic for creating quick pitch or explainer videos.

 

DDO and NDO are still available: https://shop.quixel.se/

 

Yeah, but it feels like they are second class citizens though (they aren't mentioned on the main website anywhere).

Plus they are still dependent on Photoshop and I want to free myself of Adobe products, so I was kinda of hoping that Mixer was a successor.

 

It's mentioned as "Suite" under "Tools" in the footer, at the bottom of the Quixel main website. But yeah, it does seem like the development has halted.

 

This post tells about why the Photoshop plugin development was slowed.
https://old.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/aj0vkn/adobe_acquires_allegorithmic/eeswsdq/

 

Even though (as someone where there's an Adobe site-license) this will probably ultimately mean far more seats of SP/SD for 'us', I dont have much hope for a good long-term outcome from this, and I dont really feel that many of Allegorithmics' customers would ever have wanted this to happen. (Also, those site licenses arent for personal/commercial use, and Adobe dont do 'Indie' pricing)

Im also kinda pessimistic about what Adobe might do regarding the embedded Substance engine in the 3D and game engine applications, from untenable license fees to deprecation of support for direct competitors to their own products.
Im even concerned as to how Apple might react; they're really not keen on Adobe, and any excuse for a new proprietary standard is good enough for them.

 

CryEngine is the logical choice here. Where the cost of Unity would be in the billions of dollars, the cost of CryEngine would only be in the millions of dollars.

 

Quixel made the mistake to stick with a particular 2D tool like Photoshop, while they could have made their plugin more adaptable to other 2D painting software like Gimp or Krita, it was announced but they did not made it.
Anyway Quixel is a great tool, i would like to see a new version usable in other 2D software that are not Photoshop.

 

I figured that Adobe was going to do this when they acquired Fuse. It was a little weird that they would purchase Fuse with all of the texturing reliant on Substances from Allegorithmic.

Adobe appears to be trying to get into the 3D space with Photoshop offering more 3D features but it still feels kind of disjointed and not very useful (at least last I looked). I'm guessing that they have a 3D modeling company in their sites right now.

Photoshop is only $10 and it comes with Lightroom.

 

You'd think with all the money they get they would just make a proper 3d application, but having seen how they attempt 3d in photoshop ...yeh maybe not.

 

This is horseshit. Allegorithmic may as well be dead now

 

Just keep your pitchforks at the ready.

 

thank god i have 3dcoat

 

This is a terrible development and nothing good will come from it for consumers. A sad event for the world of 3D as a whole.

Did you do it? I think I will. Their tools are great, but if they ever turn into sub-only like all the Adobe crap they are dead to me.

 

I haven't yet. I wanted to look into alternatives but it looks like painter is the most affordable. I'm not an artist but I do like having the ability to paint meshes on hand for very simple models.

 

99% of what I use Substance Painter for is procedural texturing. It is much easier to use for that than Substance Designer, even though Substance Designer is more powerfull if you have deep knowledge of it. So even if you don't want to do much hand-painting, Substance Painter will serve you well.

 

Allegorithmic needed Adobe, otherwise there was no asquisition if they did not want.

I'm disappointed about substance Painter, i have a good PC , but it is too slow when working with 4K textures and some layers. Mari 3D is better for big textures work.

 

Getting bought up generally means a suitcase of cash is involved. While it's possible that Allegorithmic needed to be bought up by Adobe, it's far more likely that the owners of the company saw the cash and decided to go for an early retirement.