(Addendum at end)

So, I was alerted to this ([link]) from people on the Daz3D forums, although it's not something directly relevant to Daz products, just for 3D artists in general.

It seems that a little less than a year after releasing it for free, Microsoft has concluded that Caligari trueSpace is not viable. The program will no longer be supported. It will not be receiving updates. There is a patch that has been in development that is apparently more stable than the current version, and members of the Caligari forum are trying to persuade the developers to release it before everything gets shut down. I hope they're successful, as it'd be nice to have the best version of trueSpace available, but either way, it's the end of the line for the program.

While it's only a tool, it's somewhat sad and aggravating for me. I was introduced to trueSpace my senior year in high school -- 1997, fully twelve years ago. While I have used Daz|Studio for posing and rendering, I have not used any modeler than trueSpace except in very small doses. The user interface, which I found highly intuitive, is different from most modelers, and so I have become accustomed to it, and starting with another modeler will require re-learning how to do a lot of things. But sooner or later, that's what I'll have to do, as spending time to become adept at a software package that is dead in the water does not make as much sense as spending that time to become adept in one that is still viable.

Since version 7 (it is currently on 7.6), trueSpace has existed in an "in-between" state, where it was transitioning between the old way of doing things, and the new way. It literally has two different modes: a "Modeler" mode, which is really the "classic" way of doing things; and a newer, shinier "Workspace" mode. There were new features in Workspace that had never been developed for Modeler. There were older features in Modeler that had not yet been converted to Workspace, including render engines. The plan was for ts7 to serve as a transition state, and for ts8 to be fully integrated and do away with the "bridge" between versions. Now... that will never happen. trueSpace will forever be a split application. No new features will be added to Workspace. No old features will be redesigned for Workspace. I've used version 7.X for about two years, and while it has been serviceable, and functional, it hasn't ever quite felt "whole"; and now it never will be.

The forum community, understandably, seems rather depressed about it, but the members are still supporting the software. After all, it's not like the existing software is suddenly going to stop working. Even if it turns out it doesn't work well with Windows 7 or Windows 8 or 9 or whatever, that's a ways off yet. For now, we can use the software we have been using, and the people who have been developing plugins say that they will continue to do so. So while the software no longer has official support, it's not completely dead yet.

But I suspect it's only a matter of time. It was never one of the big packages to begin with, though it had the potential to be. So now its little niche is going to become that much smaller over time, as it gradually becomes forgotten. I'll keep using it for now... but as said above, it's probably time for me to start considering other options. I can't afford to spend money on such right now, though, so that leaves what I've got, and what's free. Blender is free, but I never liked the interface; perhaps in October when the new version with a new UI is released I'll give it a shot. And I have the "express" version of Carrera 6 lying around my hard drive somewhere, from a time when it was offered especially cheaply. Perhaps it's time to give that a look.


Looks like the forumites were successful in getting the last patch released. The download page is here [link] and includes 7.61, a workspace-only version of 7.61, the SDK, and a few other things. Glad to see that; at least we'll be able to use the most recent version while looking for a software package that has a future.