Nvil or Silo. A lot of text ahead!!

Hi!

I'm choosing between Silo and Nvil right now. I've done a lot of research, but I still have so many questions, so I hope you can help me!

1. I need modeling focused tool for creating both static and organic 3d models. Can Nvil do organic stuff? I'm asking, because I can't find examples of organic models made by Nvil (accept the creepy doll on the steam page). While Milo and its users showcase a lot of nice creatures and humans models.

2. I heard Silo has good unwrapping tool, how about Nvil? Of course it's not a deal breaker, as I could always use blender or road kill for UV, but still...

3. Nvil documentation is rather poor. I don't see tutorials like "make a human or complex room from scratch". I went only briefly through Samardac's Nvil YouTube videos, and while they do cover tools and basic modeling, I would love to know how to utilize dozens of the great tools to their fullest potential on examples. Is there more in-depth tutorials or preferably the whole course in any plans? And there is zero documentation on using sculpting brushes, as I recall.

4. Nvil seems to be more advanced and has more tools in disposal. Do you think it's true?

In general, what's your opinion on those two? Silo started updating recently, so it's not "out of development" any more. However, I tested Silo free trial, VoidWorld and Rocket3f. I much more prefer Milo's interface and UI feel, but when I was testing FBX exporters, Milo failed miserably, while Rocket3f showed great. Even so Silo did FBX update just few days ago.
To my surprise, I could not find a single negative feedback about Nvil, while Silo is surrounded by negative and salty reviews, even in 2017. So it's plus to Nvil for sure!

In conclusion: I real want to like Silo with its sexy UI and hundreds of video tutorials, but it failed with my FBX importing, it has a lot of negative reviews, has a bad reputation of being slowly updated, while Nvil seem to have more advanced tools. BUT there is a lot of nice organic models made by Silo, while I struggle to find at least one great example of creature/human model made with Nvil. What should I choose???

P.S.: sorry for my poor English

 

Hi Anton,

I think you'll find Nvil to be a more powerful modelling tool than Silo and Nvil is being actively developed. Almost every week new tools and functionality is being added and bugs squashed.

1. Yes it can do both no problems.

2. Nvil is not so good in the uv department. I use blender or 3D coat for this work.

3. Not a lot of tutorials due to the small user base. But if you have modeled in other applications you'll quickly pick up Nvils tools. I recommend using rocket 3F for new users as the interface has the most commonly used modelling tools readily available and layed out in a very well thought out way and also gives you a more modern interface than default Nvil.

4. Yes

There is nothing wrong with Silo or blender but Nvil is a great modelling tool. It takes time to learn it but the thing I like most about Nvil is you can easily customise it to suit your needs and you get a really efficient workflow going. The modelling tools in Nvil are outstanding whether it be modelling with splines, polys or retopology. If you have 3D coat there is a link to that application which can be used for uvs, texture painting and still renders.

Hi,

I was using Silo over 8 years, but then switched mostly to Nvil. It has the same advantage of silo with hotkeys assignment, but has much better and advance modelling tools. I use Nvil for Character modelling in a pipeline with other tools.

Nvil:
+ more and advanced modelling tools
+ very stable
+ better view port performance
- Uv editing

Silo:
+ better UV editing ( but not so good as Unfold3d)
- very unstable ( you have to learn what you should avoid to do in silo otherwise it crashes a lot)

Both tools are useful in:

- Base mesh modeling for organic meshes
- Props modelling like (for example equipment)
- Hard surface modelling ( for example robots)
- Retopology

Hope it helps 

Back in the day I also used Silo and at that time it was quite good. Well, Nvil has surpassed Silo in terms of functionality and streamlining years ago. Of course, Silo wasn't developed for years, so there's that. And in that time, from what I've had read on CGSociety, support was also non-existent.
In the years I've had my eyes on Voidworld/Nvil it was constantly developed. I think there're 3 people behind Silo, whereas there's one programmer behind Nvil.
The UI isn't that great, but you won't need it much anyway, once you got your streamline tools set up to your liking. That's one of the few downsides to Nvil: it will take time to get to know it better. Options and settings feel like they are all over the place and there's a lot of them. The other one is the UV-mapping.

If you're a beginner to modelling, then Silo is fine, but know that you wouldn't stick to it for the long run anymore. I can't recommend Silo for precision hard surface modelling, it just doesn't have the tools for that. You'll notice quickly, if you've used Nvil for a little while.
The reason why Nvil is still an underdog, even though it's such a great tool, is because it's all about development (in spare time, I presume) and no marketing. And with new functions, options and tools still coming in every few weeks, the documentation lacks behind. Autodesk, for example, updates their products about once a year and still their documentation isn't covering every aspect of their software.

You see, my obvious recommendation is Nvil, but since we're on a Nvil forum, so is probably everyone else's.

3. Nvil documentation is rather poor. I don't see tutorials like "make a human or complex room from scratch". I went only briefly through Samardac's Nvil YouTube videos, and while they do cover tools and basic modeling, I would love to know how to utilize dozens of the great tools to their fullest potential on examples. Is there more in-depth tutorials or preferably the whole course in any plans? And there is zero documentation on using sculpting brushes, as I recall.

I had an idea of a community-driven docs based on Sphinx. I'll be putting it on GitHub after I'm finally released from the clutches of "The Mighty Crunch"... 

Wow, thank you all for great answers!!! Sorry for a bit late reply.
For now I'm convinced, Nvil + 3D Coat + Akeytsu is the best way for me to go to create and animate game objects in a fast and simple way.
Though I still want to explore other software like MODO Indie, Maya LT + Mudbox. Do you have any opinion on this apps in terms of speed modeling and modeling tools??

I started using Maya professionally in 2005, it constantly crashed then, and it does so up until this day. Okay, maybe my 4 year old laptop isn't cut out to run Maya 2018, but just to warn you: These crashes are annoying as hell. Mudbox hasn't really seen any development in the past years. I think even Blender may be up to par. But if there's a feature in Mudbox you would need, let's say, for example, vector displacement maps, it's only 10$/month or 80$/year. You can't cut holes, and I think there's still no dynamic mesh topology. But I'm not sculpting, so I can't say for sure. It seems like all professionals are using ZBrush for good reasons, but you'd need deeper pockets to acquire a license.

Modo Indie is dead. Don't buy it!

I'm another former Silo user. Don't get me wrong Silo is quite capable. NVill, though, takes what Silo can do and takes it to the huge next level.

That's why I use NVill now.

Long-time Silo user myself. Silo was awesome back in the day and it still may have a few tricks up it's sleeve, but Modo and Nvil are far more superior in the modeling department. For example, Silo lacks custom work planes that both Modo and Nvil have. What made modeling in Silo very Zen like were the nice keyboard shortcuts. But it's great to see that RubberDuck designed some .xml files that approximates Silo fairly closely. I'm also a long-time Modo/Lightwave user as well.   3DCoat is great in the painting and sculpting department. Although I tend to use Modo for retopology. I use both Modo and Headus UVLayout for UV mapping.

...Although I tend to use Modo for retopology...

Sounds like Modo's retopology tool is better than Nvil's DrawMesh tool. If so, I would like to know more.

I found two threads of interest in Modo forum
https://community.foundry.com/discuss/topic/138108/draw-mesh
https://community.foundry.com/discuss/topic/131728/modo-12-wishlist-what-do-you-want-to-see?page=9

It's just that I'm more familiar with Modo's retopology toolset. I haven't had a chance to play with Nvil's DrawMesh toolset just yet, but it looks very powerful from the videos I've seen. I'll start digging into Nvil more, so I can compare.

Please let me know your verdict.

For starters, I would say it is much easier, by default, to see in NVil than in Modo's retopology room. Here's a post I made some years ago. I'm testing the latest version of Modo (V12) and it's still the same - no updates in that area. Although, Topogun has not been updated since 2012, it still is much easier to see the geometry.

https://community.foundry.com/discuss/topic/74082/retopology-opengl-view-of-edges-faint?show=retopo,opengl