Some of you may recall that we ran into stability issues in the iClone 1.5, which I’m thankful to report seems to have vanished in the new iClone 2.0 version. This new version doesn’t exhibit any of the stability issues we reported in the past, instead showcasing rock solid behavior and export. Additionally, Reallusion has improved the rendering speed of the software, which noticeably shortened wait times for exporting videos, even on the new HD 720p and 1080p sizes that iClone 2.0 supports.
The actual behavior and performance of both the iClone Motion Editor program and the new 3DXchange programs work quite well. Although, as I mentioned before, I would like to see some additional touch up options in 3DXchange for files that end up having texture disconnection issues.
Despite all the good things in iClone 2.0, there are still some issues.
For example, you still can’t use most of the Windows-type shortcuts in iClone itself. (Oddly enough, you can use them in iClone’s Motion Editor and 3DXchange, which has a traditional Windows layout and menus, but not in iClone itself.). Not only are there no Windows-style shortcuts, but the functionality we rely on in Windows is not there. This is most noticeable in the lack of an Undo command of any sort. This really needs implementing to simplify experimenting with different looks and effects. While all choices can be removed after you apply them, this usually requires you to flip through two or three menus and either turn off or delete something, which slows down your workflow substantially.
As for Mac users, you are still plumb out of luck if you want to use iClone. It is PC only, with no idea of when it might be available on the Mac platform. Until Reallusion makes it a priority to correct this issue, they won’t be able to compete with cross-platform competitors like Poser.
Finally, the activation issue (which has plagued all of the Reallusion products) continues to be a problem. If you haven’t read our other Reallusion reviews, the issue being cited is that no arrangements have been made for folks who wish to use this program on offline machines. While I understand that Reallusion wishes to discourage piracy, the fact that there is no activation code that can be phoned in or activated from a separate computer is a big issue. Especially considering that almost every other major software company –from Adobe to E-Frontier to Innovative—uses activation codes.
For us at Microfilmmaker, this meant we could not use our editing and effects computer to test this software, as it is kept offline for safety and stability reasons. And because the increased power requirements necessary to run iClone 2 are substantially higher than they were in iClone 1.5, we could not test the software on the internet computers we had used for iClone 1.5. This resulted in Reallusion needing to send us a tester laptop with the software pre-installed for us to test this software. While I appreciate John C. Martin at Reallusion for being willing to do this for us, I really wish the company would allow non-internet computers to use their software so it wouldn’t have been necessary. Reallusion is still making very consumeristic software, but they are trying to gain traction with filmmakers and animators, many of whom do their editing work offline. Until this problem becomes an important issue for Reallusion, then it will remain another thing which prevents them from competing in the world of low-budget animation, in the way they would like.
While these performance issues may not be a problem for all of our readers, they affect enough of us to the extent that it would be nice to see them addressed and resolved in iClone 2.5.
