Nevercenter announced that it will soon release version 2 of its 3D modeling application, Silo, as an open beta for registered users - Version 2, which first announced during Siggraph last year, introduces brush-based displacement painting fully integrated into a traditional modeling environment, LSCM UV unwrapping, and major improvements in the areas of interface, speed, workflow and toolset.
"We chose to rewrite Silo's core because we saw a unique opportunity to provide artists with a truly innovative toolset," said Tom Plewe, President of Nevercenter. "Displacement painting is a great way to add detail to existing models. Silo's displacement painting speed is competitive with other high-end displacement solutions, but has the added ability to let you cut and extrude and change your model while preserving existing displacement, so you can freely mix modeling tools with displacement tools."
UV unwrapping is a similar area of growth for Silo, with the popular LSCM algorithm offering relief from issues surrounding traditional unwrapping. The focus for both the displacement painting and UV unwrapping implementations has been complete integration with Silo's core modeling capabilities. In this new version, Nevercenter has also tweaked many of the existing modeling tools in Silo to work better in different contexts and with numerical input, and has completely rewritten the interface. Nearly every aspect of Silo has been improved or extended, with new inclusions such as a scene editor, sticky keys, and enhanced re-topologizing tools.
The company has confirmed that a Windows beta of Silo 2.0 will be released to all registered users in the coming weeks, with a Mac beta to follow. The final release will occur once it is deemed stable and production-ready by the users. Anyone who purchases Silo 1.42 prior to the release of 2.0, including those who purchased on or after July 1st 2005, will receive a free upgrade to 2.0 as well as access to the beta. All future 2.x upgrades will be free to registered 2.0 users.
