Lively by Google

david_h

Stupid music video with "Bratz"-type avatars:

So this is what SketchUp was destined for, all along? To be a content-producer for a virtual world of prepubescent, hydrocephalic twits with bad taste in electronic music? Time to call my stockbroker and tell him to dump my Google shares! Whatever happened to the Snowcrashbusiness-plan?

THIS IS AWESOME!!!! I was a afraid the world was running our of ways for Tween-age girls and get all "texty" and "What-EVAH" with eachother! Humnaity is saved! I have always wanted to Have an avatar that portrayed my inner Pouty Mange Speed Racer with Spikey hair persona.

on second thought. . .I wanna be one of those POKEMONs!

david_h

@kwistenbiebel said:

[Starting the music]:Now let us all sing the 'Google song'.... .

%(#FF0040)[Google! Google! Googl-i- Goo!
We'll own the World, so We'll own you!]

Sorry, . .. that's the one they taught me in school. . .

Mike Lucey

Now I have to go over the Boot Camp to see this ..... is it
worth the effort?

Stu

Dont bother Mike.....you, and a lot of us, have missed the targeted demographic by at least 30 years

Google.....youve done it again!!!

Mike Lucey

Hey Stu .... speak for yourself ..... I'm still young at
heart ...... but that's about all ..... the rest is falling
apart I'm afraid

otb designworks

Where is the shoot myself in the head smilie?

It's a good thing obscenity isn't appreciated here, because I've got a whole string coming out here in my office.

As Lewis said, this is what Google intended for SU all along?!?!

I hesitate to ask if this could get any worse, but could it?

You guys may as well throw out your Layouts Glad I never bothered with that half assed 1 1/2 year old beta....

lewiswadsworth

I've noticed a great many of the Google team looking at this thread.

Do you get the message, guys?

As I wrote in another thread, I think I will be jumping ship shortly for a real 3D modeler, now that SU has been relegated to being a toy for teeny-boppers. Way to go.

david_h

this is heartbreaking. Years ago, before Google became the Wal-mart of Cyberspace, and there wre all of these other engines out there. . .Alta Vista, Excite, etc. I htought they were really cool and innovative. Then came the IPO which alas, I didn't get in on but that's beside the point. . .now the shareholders and and the board are pushing this thing and when they bought @Last I knew things were not going to go well for SU. I am totally d'accord with the Biebel--if SU isn't going to develop further go OpenSource (yeah. . like I know what I'm talking about ) or I may have to bite the bullet and go to 3D Max.

dale

I'm not so sure that the intention is not just a marketing model that the cigarette industry nailed down. That is hook your next target market group while their young.

kwistenbiebel

The funny thing is that EVERY ARCHITECT I know uses Sketchup Pro in some way in their workflow.
Isn't that proof enough that Sketchup has something 'special' the others just don't have?

The number of users is still growing by the day....
Time to wake up now.

Mike Lucey

Guys,

Don't loose heart, let's see what V7 brings. I'm sure
we will all be pleasantly surprised

Mike

Alan Fraser

This is called Lively, right....not SketchUp?
Methinks there is a degree of hyperbole and extrapolation going on here that isn't altogether healthy. What's Lively got to do with SU other than the fact that they both involve 3D?
The difference between Lively and Second Life is that it can be accessed from any browser, or even embedded in a website or blog...just like YouTube. It doesn't involve any installed software other than a small thingumajig to enable access. Any modelling or 3D editing is done online without the stuff ever leaving the server. How does this relate to SU?

kwistenbiebel

True.
We need to be patient, but i also think people should speak up for their needs.

Let us wait for what SU7 will bring.
As you say, maybe we will be positively surprised.

If only Google would provide us with a little clue on the development of the Pro version.

kwistenbiebel

Point taken, Alan.
We shouldn't jump to conclusions too soon about the future of SU.
On the other hand, some sort of official newsletter about SU development wouldn't harm...
Information is everything.

Some people build their jobs around Sketchup.
No need to say those people would be happy with a little official info.

kwistenbiebel

I am not willing to give up on Sketchup Pro yet.
It is too god damn special !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lewiswadsworth

Alan, if you go through the Lively sites you can start to recognize the models from the 3D Warehouse. What do you think it was for? For years people have been talking about a Google "Second Life" competitor...I always assumed it wouldn't be retarded, though.

Do you know I get scolding mail from various architects suggesting I am a fraud because I teach SketchUp to architecture students? From random stranger-architects who find my class sites? I've had to add a couple of particularly obnoxious ones to my spam list. Who has the time to do things like that?

And I actually lost (or rather, was forcibly removed from) one particular teaching position, a studio, because I was willing to let my design students use SketchUp for their work. They fired me in the middle of the semester!

Geez, maybe my antagonists were right though. I always suspected I was a fraud for different reasons, but maybe SketchUp isjust a dead end.

We should start a final "alternative modeler" thread: "Now that SU is a toy, what application should we port our projects to?"

david_h

All the points mentioned above are excellent--We have no idea what is in Google's Central Aortic chamber (heart? One thing you do have to give them is that they are flush with Cash and whatever they have in mind for SU they can certainly accomplish. I teach SU to design students as well and they all love it so the community grows and grows. I introduced it to my office here in SLC and now we are using it extensively as part of our work flow. It's a great tool.

Lewis . . .what kind of regime were you working under? that is unbelievable. you would think .. you would HOPE that design people would be the most open-minded and innovative thinkers and would realize the no matter what tools one uses. .. .SU, Max, Pencil and Paper of CHisel and Stone. . .DEsign is design is design.> What difference could it make. What a gang of thugs those guys must be.

kwistenbiebel

Exactly David.
Sketchup is growing and still gaining more and more attention in pro environments.
I know architecture firms with over 60 architects in service that use sketchup trhoughout their whole workflow.

While Autodesk is screwing things up with over expensive yearly renewable licenses and everyone starts to realise that Sketchup just is 10 times faster and more productive than the dinosaur packages, the enormous potential of Sketchup should motivate Google to push SU a lot further.

solo

Just over a year ago I made a prediction over on the Podium forum about Google getting into virtual worlds, I believe I thought that MTv would also get involved in a big way.
I am not surprised by this nor inflamed, I actually just hope they do a good job at it and not half arsed like Second life.

You have to see it from the Google point of business, it makes sense and it is a huge avenue for advertising, now if SU is the vehicle that helps these 'Tweens' to build their virtual pads then be it, remember that the emphasis is on social networking not modeling.

Sketchup is too big and powerful (thanks to our coders) to be relegated to the Lego of the building industry, it is far too convenient and user friendly to be lost to frivolity.

I actually see an opportunity here, as if this does indeed grow to something that is huge I want a virtual store of cool architecture, props and vehicles that I can sell to the discerning user.

Alan Fraser

Let's hope that in V7 some credible amount of work has been put into distancing SU Free and SU Pro. I have seen some evidence of this. I'm not at all sure about the truckloads of cash. I believe that SU is still largely required to stand on its own two feet within Google...so they are still very dependent on the sales of SU Pro for their funding. Clearly, if that situation...and SU itself...is going to continue then moves have to be made to address the situations you describe, Lewis.

If SU does nose-dive in credibility amongst the professions, then SU Pro will fail and SU Free will follow...or at least will cease further development which amounts to the same thing. For that reason, common sense would dictate that a clear demarcation be made between the two versions.

I think the first big mistake was to allow SU Free to carry on the name and for commercial users to start having to use the name SU Pro. It ought to have been the other way around. We still ought to be using SketchUp and the free community ought to be using SU Lite, at best...if not something with a completely different name. There's no such confusion between 3DS Max and GMax.

Like Pete, I see possibilities in Lively. I don't think it's juvenile stage will last very long.