Don't buy it, subscibe or whatever.

Because you will find yourself in an ackward position. Basically, Foundry doesn't see Steam customers as Their customers at all.

I'v posted a question via customer service on their site and waited for a day just to get this:


Quote:
... Please note that this Email Address (support@thefoundry.co.uk) is for Commercial Customers Only. Support for Modo Indie is provided via the Steam Forum which can be found ...


Thats it, its basically a FY message.

I've used many products over the years, 3ds Max, Maya, Blender, and now Modo Indie 901.

I think modeling overall is pretty fast and is what most people talk about when you think of modo.

However, the problems arise when you start to get into creating a skeleton and binding it to the mesh.
I have never worked with software that is so painful to use in this area. Whole features that don't work such as
mirroring a set of bones over. or in the case that you did get symmetry to work it only works during creation. When you have to change the bones later symmetry no longer works.

Bascially Bone creation becomes a very 'Eye-balled' process where you can't even guarantee that the bones are symmetrical.

When you start weighting all this, Half the menu's that are in the documentation dont even match what you are seeing. You are left trying to figure out why you can't see a menu, or get access to something that is supposed to be there.
It becomes a very 'Eye-balled' process once again.

For a payed program there seems to be less documentation than that of Blender.

I can't realistically see using this to create any game for production. Too many core features that were 'Put' into the app as 'Working' and effectively don't work at all.

If your on a tight budget, just start learning Blender since its free.
If money is not an issue, 3ds Max would be my recommendation.
If you're somewhere in between Maya LT is a very good option for indies.

I believe all those options are far better than Modo indie 901.

I've already sunk money into the original Modo indie and the expansion 901. At this point I'm giving up on this software

As PC users, we're very used to seeing the word "unplayable" thrown around in Steam reviews. More often than not, this is a far cry from the truth, with users simply being picky and spoiled. This is not the case with MODO Indie 10.

Oh my god, the bugs. From "You have no undos left", despite my prefs being set to 100 undos, and not having used a single one of them, to broken symmetry, double polys, and the like. It is broken on PC. It is broken on OSX. More time is spent correcting the program than actually modelling in it.

It crashes, it hangs, it freezes. It UNINSTALLS ITSELF. "Save early, save often" is not enough here. You're left having to choose to save after every move, knowing full well that if you save, there is a very real chance that it may just crash and corrupt the file during the process.

"Contact support!" I hear you say! As other users have pointed out, MODO does not see Steam users as actual customers. You'll get a generic email back telling you to check the forums. If you find anything in the forums related to your problem, more often than not, it's just other users saying "Same problem here, please fix."

As a student at KCAD, our entire class is required to use this program, as the local Underbite Games insists that it is the industry standard. Again, this is absolutely not the case. If you're a student, get Maya for free. If you're anybody else, get Blender for free. There are so many superior options to this broken, rudimentary program.

UPDATE: After saving after every major move, the program glitched out, undo stopped working, so I tried reloading to my last major change. I loaded it to find out that the program had not, in fact, actually saved since my initial project save. Hours of work, lost. The save dialog would open, and the overwrite dialog would pop up, but it has not saved since I had barely started on the project.

Concerning crashes - I might be wrong, but I heard that there are some serious problems with MODO running on Windows 10, and also there is a fix for this coming in a few weeks. I have been using the other version - the plain MODO indie on Windows 8, and it NEVER crashes - I don't even know what a MODO crash looks like. So hold your horses and don't panic - the choppa is on the way.

This is the most amazing modeling software I have ever seen - even for a newbie / anti-talent like me - normally, I can barely draw a circle (I'm a games programmer). After a few hours, seeing some very good tutorials available on the official and third party sites, I am confident I can do anything - from models and mechanical structures to environments.

My first day in MODO - my first 2 hours actually - following a tutorial I messed something up, and I had to redo everything all over again, and I was able to retrace my steps in a few minutes !!! It goes so fast that it never crosses your mind to give up, because everything you do is a huge waste of time, and the results are riddled with errors and asymmetries anyway – useless for any decent commercial project. How many times did you get that feeling, trying to use a new software, and seeing the modest results of your best efforts?

How many times have you seen presentations about how great and easy to use a program is, only to hit a brick wall after you got it, and realize that you will have to pour weeks and months of hard work into it before you get some half decent result that, as a first attempt, will have to be remade anyway from scratch, while you are wondering if you have what it takes - a perfect memory, some rare talent that only some goblins have, and an impossibly steady hand that allows you to move and place everything with the accuracy of an industrial robot?

Well, MODO is nothing like that - the interface is simple, intuitive, everything is automated, processed directly with numeric values, and with a few simple commands you can create things that are incredibly detailed. So far I have been building the inner workings of a car – steering, transmission, suspension, things that are rather industrial-design oriented – isn't details and devices that appear to work what everybody wants? Now that I think of it, some degree of realism must exist - many components really need to work since game engines are physics simulations, and if you just attach 4 wheels to a tin barrel, instead of a car you will end up with a shopping cart moving really fast – good luck trying to stay on the road and steer it properly.

MODO proved to be everything I hoped it would be. The Foundry has all the best movies you have seen in recent years in their portfolio, and if their software is not enough for you to succeed, then nothing is. We are lucky that they gave us, the little guys, the slightest chance to even touch their software.

So non, je ne regrette rien, and neither should you.

If you are just getting started in 3d design / development, this is a great tool to learn on. However, you will soon realize that there are strict limitations on what you can accomplish with modo indie.

My main pain point is the 100K polycount limit. You can save your high poly model in .lxf format, however, you cannot export into obj/fbx unless you are under the 100k limit. In most cases, you can isolate sections and work on smaller chunks, but this becomes a major hassle when trying to work in a greybox environment. The sad thing is, I can do most of my professional work within this limitation, but it's my personal work that suffers as I want to expand on my abilities, hitting this brick wall every single time.

Aside from this limitation, I would highly recommend this software. but I have to vote nay until this limitation is removed as I feel I've hit too many dead ends, which feels like wasted time and energy.

Modo devs : Please remove the polycount limit.

Great tool, crashing is way less, modeling tools , Mesh Fushion is amazing... My only complaint, is I wish they would give us atleats limited scripting support if this is for games..Then we need some...My advice is give us to access to like 2-3 scripts at a time, and cant make custom ones, we have to use popular ones made already or something... Give us a bone...

Some of us plan to buy the full version, but we need to make money from our games first...I use this daily, but I find my self, moving to Maya or Blender alot to do simple tasks..Its killing me.... For the love of God, that won't kill you to do what I suggested.. Stop already, more people would buy Modo, Indie, and when they make money some will buy full, win, win for you.....

Usable for personal hobby interests only. Files are locked to the steam account so a team (with multiple MODO indie 10 installs) cannot share or edit others files. Regrettably did not find this out until after 2 hours of use and thus was denied a refund (but thankfully before buying additional licenses for other team members). Buyer beware.

Awesome piece of software with tremendous amount of functionality for its price, but export is limited to 100k polygons. I have to export high-poly models piece by piece to Blender for assembly. Then another export from Blender to Substance Painter/Designer for baking. Unnecessary, counterproductive limitation.

I thought about switching to this from Rhino, hoping that I would enjoy the more full featured animation and painting areas and be able to put up with the modeling interface. I put in about 80 hours training on it and found that it was just too buggy. I should have read the reviews -- "Crashes way less now" and "Works well on Windows 8" aren't actually positive recommendations.
Judging by forum traffic it seems usual for experienced Modo users to see frequent crashes and malfunctions, and as a new user I certainly saw this. Most areas of the program have vague bugs floating around that wedge or crash it, and painting was so faulty it wasn't usable. I'm sure there are legit fans, who go back with this program, and work around all this without thinking about it much, and manage to do great work. But I'll never be one of them.
Overall the Steam version served its purpose: it allowed me to find this out without paying $1600 for a full license, and I'm grateful for that.

For the price it is fair you get a decent software that has some limits. But in a World where Blender 2.8 exists this software just can not keep up. I like a fev things more in this software than blender but mostly it is a bit underwhelming. Also it crashes a bit more than it should in some cases.