Why hasn't 3d printing bankrupted Games Workshop yet?
Because you touch yourself.
>>48076216
Because a 3d printer that makes minis of equal quality to GW's costs several thousand dollars.
Plus, it's not like you can just print assets from Dawn of War and expect them to turn out as tabletop-quality minis. Video game models don't have nearly the poly count needed for that.
Because the machines which are good enough to produce miniatures to GW's standards are extremely expensive, so there's no saving to be made.
Also GW have the convenience of an actual retail arm and produce a lot of stuff in plastic which many people like significantly better than the stuff 3D printers work in.
...and there are probably some people who feel bad about pirating a company's IP. Film studios still make big profits even though stealing their product is much easier.
how long till good 3d printers become affordable and common place anyway?
>>48076448
Depends on the demand for such products. Since the technology faded from hot new memory, it seems nobody is really interested in a consumer 3D printer. Without the rampant consumerism pushing the need for high detail 3D printers, it will probably take a lot longer since only production companies, who already have better and more familiar methods of making miniatures available to them, will push the demand. So in other words...Depends on the setting, Anon
>>48076448
When people want them more
You can always make a DIY 3D printer, that is what they largely were before Stratasys and the like decided to commercialize them for households.
The best thing you can do is just buy Chinese knock offs or play a better(And cheaper) game from some other company.
>>48076448
>how long till good 3d printers become affordable and common place anyway?
they will problably be banned before that
>urr durr muh guys making guns with it
>>48076216
Have you ever used a 3d printer? Those things take hours to make minis of any quality.
>>48079949
We got printers that'll do that shit in minutes now flim famalam, only issue is waiting for them to trickle down from industrial producers to consumers
>>48076216
You can't play with 3D printed minis inside a Games workshop store and(in the UK at least) the Games Workshop stores are the most common entry level place to play.
Not to mention there's plenty of shitlords who won't play with you if you don't have the same kind of plastic they spent thousands of pounds on.
>>48076216
Are you stupid? "Why haven't printers bankrupted publishers" "Why haven't home soda machines bankrupted big soda" "Why haven't kit cars bankrupted the auto industry"
>>48080399
Those won't become a thing until we've seen a low cost piece of shit model that normies pick up. Normies will be happy with hour long print times cause they'll use it maybe once a month and that's probably where it will settle initially.
Otherwise companies will just keep printing the shitty expensive printers we've got right now because there's no real alternative and huge potential for market growth. Everyone wants to be the next Kodak. We'll need to see the casual market become saturated before specialist, high quality products appear.
>>48079946
God I hope not, I'd love to make a wargame with a business model based around digitally distributing 3d models to be printed(then charging out the balls for "reskins" that anyone who's not an utter casual will be able to trivially make at home)
>>48076216
Read up on Economies of Scale. Pro tip:they never will.
The way it was explained to me was
>not enough demand
>the key issues with 3d printing aren't fixable with Moore's Law--that is, processing power won't help it get any better, and it therefore will never explode like a smart phone or something
>>48079946
>they will problably be banned before that
Only if you live in a non-free zone that wishes to ignore the next evolution of manufacturing and crash its economy.
Its coming, there is already a company that is printing figures to order.
https://www.heroforge.com/
Here Enjoy the character creator for figures.
P.S. They are adding new options all the time, and considering going into full army printing.
>>48076216
It has, haven't you seen their financial statements?
>>48081132
>>48081132
This service is great, my friends and I have been playing a shadowrun game for about a year and half now, on my birthday game, Im going to give them all mini's of their characters.
Also just considering letting them make their own.
>>48081132
My party have all bought minis from HeroForge and while I can 100% recommend the shit out of it- I do advise picking a sturdy material because the default cheapest plastic is very brittle and hard to glue back on.
![heroforge-social-banner-1200[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/zKc1XkD.jpg "heroforge-social-banner-1200[1].jpg")
>>48081132
>>48081133
Don't let the smoothness of the CG models mislead you
>>48080970
>post picture of US flag
But that's one of the least free countries
>>48084763
As opposed to...
>>48076311
>...and there are probably some people who feel bad about pirating a company's IP. Film studios still make big profits even though stealing their product is much easier.
I mean, I just like to see a movie on a big screen if I'm excited for it. Sorry for not destroying Hollywood with my pitiful few bucks per year?
>>48084719
They have unveiled a more expensive type with a much tighter granularity, but it's still far from clean.
>>48076311
Why does it have to be piracy? They can just be generic fantasy miniatures and that would still cut into their market a lot.
>>48084763
>but that's one of the least free countries.
>Thinking you can objectively measure freedom
>>48076216
I wouldn't print models with it, mainly because there's not a lot of schematics for WH40K models on Thingiverse, and the ones you buy from a store will always be smother. What I do is print terrain.
>>48079946
Why haven't most countries banned the internet yet? After all, you can find instructions for bombs and child pornography on it.
>>48086219
They are actually trying to do that right now.
Heck, everyone here should be familiar with the Great Chinese Firewall.
>>48086165
t. Amerilard
t. New Zealander (aka citizen of the country with the highest level of freedom)
>>48086244
>most countries
>>48086165
You have the biggest incarceration rate in the world. But that just means the people have the freedom to choose to be criminals right?
>>48086700
Uh, yeah. That is an accurate statement. We have a high incarceration rate because more of our population chooses to glorify criminality. It isn't as if it's difficult to find a job in the United States, else we wouldn't have an immigrant crisis.
The problem is there is a sub-culture that glorifies violence and criminality and engenders those values into certain sectors of our population from a very young age.
>>48085056
> Why does it have to be piracy?
Because it's the best tool to shut down competition if you have money.
It's not like GW will just sit on their asses if you "cut into their market a lot". You'll get sued by some troll firm for copyright infringement (if GW doesn't do it themselves, because someone said "you can use those minis in Warhammer"), for hazardous materials (regardless of the plastic you use), for overly lewd minis (because feminism is a racket), and god knows what else.
And then you will run out of money for lawyers.
>>48076448
> how long till good 3d printers become affordable and common place anyway?
First you need good 3d printers (modern are kinda crappy). That would be 20 years.
Then you need to make them affordable. Add 10 years to the list.
Finally, politicians need to accept that world has moved on and people can have unrestricted access to printers. That would benever.
ITT: Lots of people talking shit about shit as though they alone hold the truth to the shit and understand all of the depth and complexity to emerging markets, geopolitics, and/or other assorted shit. Ahhh /tg/, never change.
>>48086700
It means his country's only worth 0.41 bald eagles. Plus or minus standard dev.
>>48086791
Or maybe there is a problem where your whole prison business is just a business and it has enough leverage to keep the numbers of incarcerated high enough to keep the slave work running?
>>48087471
No, I'm pretty sure that anon is right.
>>48087838
>hurr durr
I'm pretty sure you suck cocks.
Not that that's a "BAD" thing ...
OT:
Citadel models are just Wound counters; the community is about gaming. If someone wanted to put GW out of business, they'd sell a machine that printed decent gaming rules, not miniature ziggurats.
forgeworld have been using it to make its masters for a while now.. its cheaper to cast it in resin and forgeworld owns the ip and is better at 3d modelling than you. plus I think they send them off to a shop that has a very nice 3d printer. (I think) like possibly even CNC.
>>48090074
and yes even forgeworlds models that use this method about half or more have lines left on them often if its too detailed to "clean up"
>>48076216
people are too lazy to make the files, spend hours upon hours tweaking them, do test batches, realized they fucked up, tweak even more, finally get the models printed at a painstakingly slow pace, then realize they have even more hours to go assembling them, cleaning them, and then painting them like a normal mini except it looks worse.
Its cheaper to do recasts or used models, and easier than those to just buy new or troll swap forums. 3D printing will not sufficiently threaten GW until we get to the point where 3D printers are truly everywhere, much like how many homes own a printer now.
>>48076311
>and there are probably some people who feel bad about pirating a company's IP
Yes, we call those people faggots
>>48086165
>>Thinking you can objectively measure freedom
>>48086255
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2016
How come 2D Printers haven't bankrupt George RR Martin?
>>48090349
he writes his books on a DOS computer. Isn't that a good sign that it has?
Well it takes about 3-4 seconds to make a box of 10 space marines, how long will it take with 3d printer? Couple hours for one mini?
>>48090849
Unless you're intending to sell them, the time to print isn't really an issue.
>>48080905
Not really applicable. Theoretically, printing your own models just costs you the price of the materials, whereas GW have a lot more costs than just that. They have employees and rent to pay. While GW might pay less for their plastic than you do, the price they charge is inflated by many other factors, factors that don't apply to someone printing their own models.
>>48076448
shouldn't be so long, DLP is just a projector and a single axis and IMO that's the only viable route for these miniature making home printers.
Problem is you'll get resin minis instead of your fantastic High Impact Polystyrene plastic ones.
So yeah, at best it's probably (eventually) going to be a more automated much slower version of home Resin Casting and still hardly likely to wipe GW out.
I'm interested in whether small 3d Printed Injection Moulds can become viable - so that short run Injection Moulding can become more sophisticated at a hobby level.
