Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/612975
n o v e m b e r . d e c e m b e r 2 0 1 5 c g w 5 S P O T L I G H T AUTODESK ILLUMINATES FLAME NEWS Autodesk is blazing new pathways for its Flame product with new Desktop Subscription pricing starting at $750 per month or accessed annually for as low as $500 per month. The company also announced Flame support for OS X as part of the Autodesk Flame Extension 2 release, available in late November 2015. Autodesk Flare and Autodesk Flame Assist soware are now available as standalone products with monthly subscription prices, starting at $400. New monthly, quarterly, and annual Sub- scription options extend to Flame, Flare, Flame Assist, and Lustre. Customers have the unrestricted ability to purchase Flare and Flame Assist licenses with no requirement to own Flame soware already. In addition, customers may source their own qualified Linux hardware for the Flame Family of products. Autodesk plans to continue to sell perpetual licenses of Flame Family. By early next year, though, sales of Flame as a turnkey system will discontinue. Flame will be available as a soware- only product. The upcoming Flame Family 2016 Extension 2 release, which became available in November, brings new format support and performance gains. HOUDINI 15 ARRIVES Just nine months aer artists first got their hands on Houdini 14, Side Effects Soware has announced the release of Houdini 15. This new version en- hances modeling, rendering, and animation with VFX tools that are faster, more scalable, and more efficient at handling big data. With Houdini 15, modelers can increase efficiency with a new tweak edit workflow, edge sliding, and new tools such as Poly- Bridge, PolyExtrude, and PolyExpand 2D. The new version also contains improvements to shader building, material overrides, and support for RenderMan 20. Moreover, onion skinning, a pose library panel, and improvements to the dope sheet make it easier to pose and keyframe characters within Houdini. New simple male and simple female rigs provide sample characters so users can explore the animation tools. Ragdoll dynamics have been added to the Houdini 15 crowd tools, along with limb detachment, fuzzy logic, and better crowd behavior. It is now easier to set up material and geom- etry variations, and tools have been added to set up explicit target locations. Users can also make bigger, more dynamic VFX in terms of sim- ulations and collisions. New viscous fluids tools, such as Lava, Melt Object, and Emit Steam, give artists quick access to a number of typical effects. GAMING NOTEBOOK SALES TAKE A BREATHER The global PC gaming hardware market is forecast to slightly recede in 2015, albeit less than the overall PC market, and then resume growth in 2016. However, all reces- sion and growth within the market is not equal. Jon Peddie Research (JPR) believes that notebooks bought for gaming have entered a challenging sales environment, as PC gamers gear up for the forthcoming mass-market 4 k/UHD development. Ted Pollak, senior analyst, points out, "This cycle, unlike any for the past 15 years, will inspire gamers to upgrade their displays. Twenty-seven-inch and larger 4 k/ UHD displays are reaching mass-market pricing levels and producing an incredible experience, allowing much wider field of view and greater detail. The financial outlay for these display upgrades alone is billions of dollars over the coming years." Jon Peddie, president of JPR, adds that in addition to the cost of the new display technology, gamers are going to need the computing muscle to drive Triple-A game engines at over 60 frames per second. "And that horsepower comes at a premium," he says. "Sixty frames per second is consid- ered the gold standard in PC gaming, and many prefer even faster speeds – at least twice that number if VR is involved." The gaming notebook and desktop market is especially challenged in the mainstream sector, as many casual players opt for tablets and TV gaming options to satisfy their needs. However a new wave of TV-optimized PCs from Alienware, iBuyPower, and other companies could buck the trend. Additionally, the PC gaming peripherals market, projected to weigh in at $3.6 billion in 2015, serves as a market buffer, as gamers who go through mice, keyboards, and head- sets easily justify their replacement. The PC gaming hardware market is very diverse among its different segments. The high-end Enthusiast segment is very per- formance- and style-oriented, much like sports car owners. Meanwhile, the low end just wants to play games on something, and this is why the segment is under threat from cheaper gaming solutions. "The Worldwide PC Gaming Hard- ware Market" report series by Jon Peddie Research covers 33 countries, notebooks, desktops, DIY, and accessories, and ad- dresses a wide range of issues pertaining to this market segment.