Major New Product Annoucement

[AntonyF]

Yes, send me a crate of vodka - I'll forward all my newsletters directly to you.. (if I'm still sober) LOL.

For a crate of vodka I'd leak it from Xara HQ early.

[Logo Kid]

Save undos? Hmm...interesting, but not likely to be a massive demand for this.

I guess you've never done work on some text by maybe contouring it and then broken the shapes to move them about re-opened the file and forgot what the font name was. I think the fact that there is massive undo's in xara is great but sometimes I save some work and lose the fact I can go back. I end up saving multiple copies or having a 'Crap But Keep' Layer so that I have the 'Unshaped' things still there. Either way I think it's a genius idea and no other Illustration application has it ... another first for Xara!

Mesh fill seems completely unecessary - any object of any shape can be feathered to emulate an airbrushed tone and even blended with any other shape (feathered or not), so why the need for time consuming mesh-fills?

I guess you've not drawn too many faces then ... that's my main thing at the moment ... and I would find this really useful to get the highlights and shadows in just the right places and nicely gradiated. Blends and even lots of ellipical transparencies just dont cut it!

I don't know what you mean by vector live plugins, but I'm always interested in learning about new tools.

At the moment if you do a live plugin to any shape it creates a bitmap of that vector, it doesn't change the vector (the nodes) in any way shape or form. There's some nice things you can do with the other tools like Freehand or Illustrator - like spiral the shape, fratalise the shape, ever round the corners of any shape not just retangles like in xara. And the vector itself changes and then I guess if you actually convert the liveVectorplugin to shape it would change the actual nodes with some nice mathmetic algorythms.

This to me was my biggest dissappointment with Xtreme when it came out, the fact that they didn't have live Vector plugins - it create nice shapes for logos I have to rely on the spray, LV tools and the randomisation of brushes to get nice natural feels to simple shapes.

Oh and finally on thing that I missed off my list was macro's like photoshop actions. To be honest I use Ctrl + Shift + A - so much it's untrue ... if I could just have a few steps to that my daily productivity would jump up tremediously and I could spend more time in bed!

[Daniel]

Either way I think it's a genius idea and no other Illustration application has it ... another first for Xara!

Maybe they could have the First and Second prize... pretty sure Artworks on the Acorn saved its undo didn't it?

[MarkMyWords]

Logo, please don't think I was attacking your suggestions, far from it, I was just giving my assessment of the likelyhood that they will be implimented and my reasoning behind that.

Eliptical tranparencies, why just Elipses? LOL! I guess there are as many ways of working as there are Xara users.

Actually drawing figures and faces is my bread and butter, but airbrushing in Photoshop is far faster (for me) than trying to use Xara for such jobs, much as I love the output Xara gives, tight deadlines keep me using Photoshop.

I also have been suggesting an actions palette/gallery, with that (and the resultant increase in productivity it would give) I could complete the majority of my work in Xara, but without it I tend to only use Xara for line-work.

[remi]

... and I would find this really useful to get the highlights and shadows in just the right places and nicely gradiated. Blends and even lots of ellipical transparencies just dont cut it!

I agree completely with you!
I know, that the Mesh fill Tool in Adobe Illustrator isn't the best one from the view of usability, but we need such a tool in Xtreme - definitely.

There's some nice things you can do with the other tools like Freehand or Illustrator - like spiral the shape, fratalise the shape, ever round the corners of any shape not just retangles like in xara. And the vector itself changes and then I guess if you actually convert the liveVectorplugin to shape it would change the actual nodes with some nice mathmetic algorythms.

Yes, there are some advanced vector functions in other vector graphic editors available. Xara has created a great application. But one shouldn't sit to long in the sun to enjoy his success...

Oh and finally on thing that I missed off my list was macro's like photoshop actions. To be honest I use Ctrl + Shift + A - so much it's untrue ... if I could just have a few steps to that my daily productivity would jump up tremediously and I could spend more time in bed!

Third agreement. But not only macros like photoshop actions - a real scripting engine is better (the presence of a scripting engine is the main reason, why software packages like Flash are so succesful).

Remi

[Nostaw]

If this major update is really going to be another menumaker (which i think it was ment as a joke), I really lost my faith in Xara's future.

Don't get me wrong, Xtreme is good for what it is, but some tasks are getting easier and timesaving in other apps while we are talking. I'm not sure if Xara can keep it up so much longer. Software is a never ending evolution, not a state. What about some 'small update' like supporting 3rd party Illustrator plugins for example - ANY sign of life and evolution of Xtreme?

There are some small things here and there which could be added in Xtreme, but instead - nothing ever happens. I don't see any evolution whatsoever in Xtreme (and the live tool is not a major update), nor any interest by Xara LTD to keep it alive.

Are there any programmers left at xara who worked on X1/Xtreme, or did they all leave?

[Logo Kid]

If this major update is really going to be another menumaker (which i think it was ment as a joke), I really lost my faith in Xara's future.

Don't get me wrong, Xtreme is good for what it is, but some tasks are getting easier and timesaving in other apps while we are talking. I'm not sure if Xara can keep it up so much longer. Software is a never ending evolution, not a state. What about some 'small update' like supporting 3rd party Illustrator plugins for example - ANY sign of life and evolution of Xtreme?

There are some small things here and there which could be added in Xtreme, but instead - nothing ever happens. I don't see any evolution whatsoever in Xtreme (and the live tool is not a major update), nor any interest by Xara LTD to keep it alive.

Are there any programmers left at xara who worked on X1/Xtreme, or did they all leave?

BRAVO!!!!! If I had said that I would have been shot down in flames, as it is here ... honesty is lacking. But you're pretty much right. They know it, the intelligent amongst boarders know it ... all the rest walk around with rose tinted glasses.

The open source thing was well intentioned but a little naive in my opinion ... so you're gonna get coders adding to Xara for free in the Linus version and then they'd port over the version to PC and sell it ... erm, so people are going to give up there skill and time and give up the IP (interlectual property) for company to sell it on the PC version. Sweet, cute, lovely idea but a year down the line what do the paying customers have for this grand gesture ... erm something that's not really changed since X1.

Contours still default to 4,
that's a metaphor.

[pauland]

Well, given something is happening, it's probably best to wait until it does happen. Then we can moan about what it isn't rather than guess what it is..

[Nostaw]

BRAVO!!!!! If I had said that I would have been shot down in flames, as it is here ... honesty is lacking. But you're pretty much right. They know it, the intelligent amongst boarders know it ... all the rest walk around with rose tinted glasses.

The open source thing was well intentioned but a little naive in my opinion ... so you're gonna get coders adding to Xara for free in the Linus version and then they'd port over the version to PC and sell it ... erm, so people are going to give up there skill and time and give up the IP (interlectual property) for company to sell it on the PC version. Sweet, cute, lovely idea but a year down the line what do the paying customers have for this grand gesture ... erm something that's not really changed since X1.

Contours still default to 4,
that's a metaphor.

I'm not gonna agree with you for the sake of agreeing, rather than realising that obviously most of us have the same thoughts and are frusttrated because we don't seem to be heard and ignored.

This is not a war and I certainly don't want to piss anyone off, i'd like to help if possible, i'm not a tightass either and if its about money which lacks to do further development on xara i'm sure there would be some solutions. I simply don't know why nothing ever happens and why everyone with ideas (or bug reports) gets ignored.

Let me throw this just quick-made-up-idea to 'save XaraXtreme':
I'd be happy to pay a 3 months membership fee for 80 USD (or whatever amount) to access this forum or anything else as long the money goes into further xara development - i'm sure most of us would do the same to support xara. You'll get a discount then on the final product if you have joined. Ideas like this are not even an option for whatever reason, they just puff away into nothing. I don't even know why xara is only $79 instead of $149 - it's worth with all the tutorials, textures and fonts it comes with.
So all this leads to my conclusion that its not about the money. I'm desperate to learn and hear from your opinion what you think, or what's really going on.

About Xara open source: I never got this idea either, it can only go down the hill from there on. See Gimp or other open source projects - most of them are useless because no one really cares and the software just stays buggy, must be great to learn programming though if you're into this stuff. Imagine Photoshop goes Open Source - good bye and good luck.

I'll be damned if the announced news are anything related to XaraXtreme, wanna bet? I'm more than happy to loose!

[Xhris]

I hope santa brings an implemented mesh tool feature in to xara xtreme, make my life a lot easier!! PLease Xaranta Clause!

There'll be rejoicing in England too, if they put nested layer support into Xtreme..

1. Enable save undos
2. Mesh Fill
3. Extrude
4. Vector Live plugins
5. Better brush variable

That's all I want

While knowledge of something new is something Xara always releases earlier to forum members etc, I’ve never thought it a wise move to release or hint at it too early. Too early for me would be more than a few days ahead of an official launch. If the fuse is long, there's more time to encourage people’s imagination and expectations to get carried away with them, leading ultimately to disappointment that they aren’t met. It happens in other disciplines as well – computer games for example. Developers release info far before completion and sometimes if the game is a popular sequel, the hype becomes un-meet-able and everyone’s disappointed.

Just look at what happened when Xtreme was announced early. Everyone was expecting this, that and the other, and when it was released, there was outrage that 99% of what people were expecting wasn’t there, leading to some almost hate-like threads (admittedly from people who were ultimately banned from the forums if I remember correctly).

Whatever the new product turns out to be, I would only expect small changes or additions, with most things remaining as they are now. Xara X1 was version 1.1 of Xara, Xtreme was version 2.0, so a logical extrapolation would suggest a new product (if it’s a new Xara version, which my bets are on seeing as that it’s the flagship product), will be near version 3, not version 30. It’s only been a few months since Xtreme was released anyway, and with a development team the size that Xara has, you can’t expect an overly massive amount of progress to be made. My realistic estimation for what to expect would be, bug fixes, one large or maybe 2 smaller new main features, and a peppering of small incidental additions based on what users have demanded the most. I certainly won’t be expecting full 3D support with new mesh tool features and a completely enhanced toolset.

Don’t forget that Xara’s objective at the moment also seems to be appealing to as large an audience it can so to increase its user base (Live Effects anyone?), and so I’d expect any changes to comply with this as well.

All-in-all, I’d recommend not letting your imagination get too carried away. Expect very little, and stay happy; you leave some room for surprise that way too. It’s a far more productive way to think.