Isadora 3 Release: No Later than May 31st

mark

Dear All,

I hope this finds you well. This post is to make it official: we will release Isadora 3 no later than May 31st. The depth map camera plugins we've promised for Kinect 1 + 2, Orbec Astra, and Intel Realsense will be released two to four weeks later.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, and whom have seen my occasional rants, you know that this has been both a marathon and an odyssey for me. I've never worked so hard in my life, yet we are still far later than I would have hoped. I could go on and on about the specifics of why, but I'll save that for a "Mark's Blog" entry when there is more time to write it. (No rest for the wicked you know; we're not done yet.)

I will say this much: the transition to 64 bit and updating the entire program to use the most up-to-date media playback systems (AVFoundation on MacOS, Windows Media Foundation on Windows) along with updating the user interface system code to the latest and greatest, took much longer than I thought. Putting the "media engine" into a totally separate "thread" that cannot be slowed down by the user interface was also fraught with peril. But these two time consuming features (which you can't even see immediately on the surface of the program!) were essential steps solidify Isadora's long term well-being into the future.

Honestly, I probably would have released a buggy version too soon because I was so damn sick of working 15 hours a day. But (thankfully) my incredible team of primary testers (@DusX @Woland and @mc_monte) told me releasing was a "no go" until they felt confident we were going to give the community something truly strong, reliable and thoroughly tested. I am grateful for their tireless work and attention to all the little details. I also need to mention here TroikaTronix's company manager, Xenia Leydel, who kept things running smoothly even though we repeatedly delayed the release. Without her help and willingness to accept the chaos that is software development, we simply wouldn't have made it.

At this writing, there are 15 known crashes and 45 failures (i.e., things that don't work as expected but don't crash.) Before we release the known crashes will be zero, and the failure list very small if not gone entirely. (Some of the latter are truly minor issues.)

You'll also be seeing a face-lift to the front page of the website, and something else we're very excited about: a new area where you will be able to share and download User Actors, additional plugins (like the Depth Map plugins mentioned above), awesome patches and the like. Users have wanted this for ages. It's ready and we'll unveil it soon. (@Michel was the lead on this, and I am also grateful for his hard work preparing this incredibly useful tool for us all.)

Finally, I'll just say that the past year of programming has meant I've barely been on the forum at all. I miss that.... I miss seeing what you are all doing, and the surprising works of art that you create with my now twenty-year old "daughter." Being able to be here with you more is something I look forward to once we put Isadora 3 out into the world.

And now, back to fixing bugs. ;-)

Warm Wishes,
Mark

kdobbe

Bravo you to Mark! And the whole team. We are all looking forward to creating with the fruits of your hard labor. Thank you!

D1gits

Thanks a lot for all your effort, in creating this next Gen. tool for us! I'm so much looking forward to upgrade to Isadora 3.0 and all the new possibilities that comes with it! Keep up the good work.

All the best from Stockholm. Erik

RIL

Thank you Mark and the whole Team !! The wait is worth it

Best,

bonemap

@mark

That is an amazing announcement! Let us keep the faith that from your world of software development pain bright, energetic and astonishing works of art emerge from the darkness into light.

Best wishes

Russell

goodboy

Amazing work Mark and crew! Well worth the wait, bravo!

Joe

Bill Cottman

🏋🏾‍♂️ excellent news!

Armando

@mark We are with you my friend! Thanks a thousand times for the word you are providing. Isadora IS a work of art for me. And the love and work you put in are rewarded with people's attachement to izzy (and we all hope some prosperity for the team too. Thanks to all the testers and friends on the verge of this major release.

Cheers

ppp586

Hi，Mark

Thank you and the whole team for all effort.

I'm so much looking forward to upgrade to Isadora 3.0 and I will write a book about how to using Isadora 3 for my students.

Best.

jfg

Very good news. Thank for all the team working on it. I can't wait to work with the new version.

best

topherbb

Thank you to your incredible team!

RenegadeBoy

Like everyone else, a big thank you to all involved for the effort that's being put in to release a well tested product.

looking forward to hours of creativity 😎

ian

toi, toi, toi

postl

Great news! Thank you for all the hard work. I look forward to experimenting with v3!

IP_Trinity_Laban

I love the new video on the front page! Good work!

Salimelo

Looking forward... thank you for the effort