Upcoming CS5 will be 64 bit, no port to 32 bit Plugins (Customer Service Comments)

[Todd Kopriva]

I recommend that you have this conversation with Michael Coleman himself. He’s the product manager for After Effects.

Here’s a link to his blog post about the 64-bit version of After Effects:
https://blogs.adobe.com/keyframes/2009/10/our_next_release_64-bit_native.html

In Michael’s responses to comments on that post, he addresses some of the concerns that you’ve stated here.

FWIW, I daily see many instances of the After Effects team working hard to do what’s right for you, the After Effects customer. I hope that when you read Michael’s blog post and responses, you’ll see that the goal is to make something that will help you the most to get your work done as effectively as possible.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
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[Alan Lloyd]

How many of these plugins are Adobe products? Realistically, how can they take responsibility for supporting someone else’s product?

Third-party plugins are the responsibility of their developers.

[Itamar Kool]

Now this is a strange statement. Who’s talking responsibility here? The only question raised is whether Adobe is operating in a ‘client-friendly’ way and if a big part of the customers of Adobe is using third party plug ins, that is a very legitimate question.

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[Martin Jordan]

Todd,

Ya know, I told my partner when I made this post this morning that Adobe would defend their position and this post could start a fire storm.

We all understand the benefits of 64 bit. But let me elaborate more.

It’s my guess that you don’t shoot or edit video. To produce professional video it takes a lot of capital. Camera’s, lenses, lights, hardware, RAID drives, cards, cables, P2 cards and on & on I could go. And then there is all the tools to edit, output and so on. 10’s of thousands of dollars to create a smooth, professional workflow. And then the hassle, research and working out all the bugs to make it all work right.

AE is obviously a main component concerning editing for most of us. Thousands of dollars are spent for ONE workstation to equip it with all the extra tools to create what our clients want. Then Adobe comes along and says, “oh, by the way, your tools (32 bit plugins) will now no longer work with our new version because we didn’t want to take the time or resources in development to port to it. We could have…but we didn’t. So now we want all of you to take the time, your resources, your money and retool.

You probably won’t like this example but…
That would be like I own a construction company and equip my van with thousands of dollars worth the tools and then new laws & restrictions come down the pike and it says I can’t use those kinda tools anymore. I have to buy a whole new van full of new tools.

I remember several years ago QuarkXpress ruled the roost when it came to Page layout programs. They had a HUGE market share in that area. Quark got very cocky about that, made upgrades that were very pricey and basically had the attitude of, “hey you don’t like it, go somewhere else.” Of course there was no other place to go. Adobe’s “Pagemaker” was the only kid on the block and was a joke and they knew it.

So Adobe took a long time AND a lot of resources to develop what is now known as “InDesign’ to take Quark head on. They made sure that moving over to InDesign would be as seamless and as painless as possible to Quark Loyalists. They did a remarkable job and literally put Quark on their heels. Quark has since gotten off their high horse believe me.

So, yes 64 bit is great, processing power and RAM and all that…but it forces loyal Adobe & AE users to make a decision. Do I stay with AE, do I pay for all the upgrades of my plugins (or some of my favorites that will not be upgraded at all) and go through all the bugs & fixes and other compatibility issues that will certainly be there.

Customer Service in my view is not throwing your clients under the bus or making their lives more complicated. Adobe choosing not to “take the time OR use resources” to make the transition to CS5 easy for 32 bit plugins…like the way they did to make it easy for Quark Loyalist to switch to InDesign is a sign to me that their growth, their long range vision of where they want to be is more important than making their current LARGE base of clients life less complicated.

We’ve been a design firm now for 20 years and we’ve spent a fortune over the years in keeping up with technology and equipping our studio with some of the best stuff that’s out there. So I have a little experience knowing what I’m talking about. It’s not just about the money even though it includes that. It’s all the hassle of what it took to get where we are and now this. Another thing that we have to jack with, pay for, maybe do without, work out the bugs etc, etc.

I just feel that this is a big blunder by Adobe and the impact of what it does to so many people & companies. They need to consider that a whole lot more in my opinion when they roll out new stuff.
Is this going to cause a sunami to those who chose us to be their partner in production or just some small ripples IN THEIR CLIENT’S LIVES.

All they had to do is port to 32 bit also and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

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[Alan Lloyd]

And the question is legitimately asked of the third-party developers. They know there is a 64-bit only version coming down the road. Why are people saying Adobe is leaving them in the lurch when they did not develop the outside plugins? How is it Adobe’s problem?

[Bj Ahlen]

Third party developers are always behind.

Just look at the belated support for Snow Leopard, FCP7, as well as all the versions before that.

Even Adobe, when they are a third party developer, is taking years to put support for new ProRes versions into AE for example.

Adobe made a brilliant move when they added support for FCP import into Premiere Pro/Encore, because it made it easier to justify a buying decision (for those who needed to author full BD media).

If Adobe wants to save money by not implementing support for existing 32-bit plug-ins, they have to weigh that against the lost revenues from users who won’t upgrade to CS5 for this reason until the plug-ins have caught up some time in 2011.

CS4 didn’t exactly take the world by storm, and now they will make it difficult to justify getting CS5?

Wouldn’t seem to be real smart. Should this be brought up at their next shareholder’s meeting? :O)

My plug-ins are as important for my work as the applications they are plugged into. If Adobe thinks otherwise, they will see another lean CS4-like year, with far fewer users upgrading than in years past.

I certainly can’t upgrade to AE CS5 until the plug-ins that I use have been working for others for at least a few months, and that will in most cases be a lot of moons after CS5 is released, especially considering the issues that will arise in going from a 32-bit architecture to 64-bit.

Caveat editor.

[Paulo Jan]

When Apple decided to switch to Intel years ago, people blamed Adobe and other third-party software houses for not having Intel versions of their software right out of the gate.

Now Adobe decides to switch to 64-bit only, and people are blaming Adobe, instead of third-party plugin vendors.

I’d say that what Adobe needs is a reality distortion field.

[Joe Moya]

This is what happens when companies get so big. They forget how they got there. Adobe has made some big strides in the past few years. We all know their strengths…but their weaknesses are beginning to show. Being more interested in what the cost would be to them, “instead of the cost it would be to their customers”.

Excellent observation… the total disregard for a 32bit and 64bit compatibility is representative of your statement.

It seems, if anything strikes a cord with Adobe is when someone brings up this 32 to 64bit compatibility issue. Costs related to this are being transferred to the customer and/or the third party venders who produce plug-ins. If anything, this weakness is where the competitors could capitalize significantly on Adobe’s market share IF they had the fortitude to explote the plug-in 32/64 bit incompatibility issue.

[Todd Kopriva]

> Ya know, I told my partner when I made this post this morning that Adobe would defend their position and this post could start a fire storm.

My response was not intended to be a defense or any part of a firestorm. I was just trying to direct you to a place where the conversation would be more productive: the blog of the product manager—the person who actually makes the decisions and who is already having this conversation on that blog.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Jimmy Brunger]

Yes, but when Apple switched to Intel they still kept Rosetta, so PPC apps could carry on being used on new hardware (albeit slowly and inefficiently) until all the software developers could finish fully Intel versions. THAT is thinking ahead and serving the customer well.

What is being talked about with Adobe (of course assuming this is all true!) is that there will be no ‘halfway house’. It will be “if you’re not 64-bit yet then tough”. This will mean all us customers will pay a premium to upgrade AE and then pay again to upgrade ALL our plugins (and gone knows when in the future after CS5 is released)

All that said, I am sure that all the plugin manufacturers will have already had this conversation with Adobe long ago, so imagine it’s already being worked out somehow!…..

…I hope!

Another thing to mention is the increasing support of OFX plugins (64 and 32bit) in many other vfx/compositing apps. Notably Nuke, Fusion and Toxik (now May Composite) Will Adobe be developing any OFX support for CS5?

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