LW to Softimage???

[9192]

I too got XSI becasue of the new price. It take me a while to cross the curve in XSI. Well, it was the same when I move to LW from FormZ two years ago. My intension is to use XSI for character animation, but ofcause, I need to learn all aspects for now. Personally, I stil prefer to model in LW(espaceilly, I am an architecture visualization) because LW have options for unit and more compatiblt with DWG format. Also, I just used to it. However, both programs are a great tools, as someone told me you can make the same result from either one, but LW might goes faster in some aspect but might slow and painfil in some. XSI too might work great in some area but doesn't mean all.
Last, XSi Foundation is not upgradable. You will need to both the full price of the next version when it comes out, but at $500 it is the same price as upgrading LW.

[SevenString]

Last, XSi Foundation is not upgradable.
not true: you can upgrade from Foundation to Essentials or Advanced, where the original purchase price of Foundation IS subtracted.

One big advantage of XSI is that once you are used to XSI's core workflows, they are consistent throughout the program.

I came from Lightwave, and although Lightwave is a great app, XSI feels more cohesive to me. It also seems to work the way that I think. In other words, XSI is "my" 3D app that fits ME.

[Finkster]

Hello,

2. Has anyone done a render performance test in comparing a similar scene in LW vs.
Softimage? This scene would need to be a somewhat photorealistic scene where
Mental Ray was used. (We do alot of photorealistic work) I'm just trying to get an idea
as to whether or not Mental ray is a more efficient render than LW.
2)I've heard that mental ray isn't the most memory efficient renderer in the world. However, I've been able to render scenes of several million polygons without a hiccup nor any memory problems. This being without making use of instancing or other tricks. Similar scenes would have brought LW to its knees fairly quickly.

[panadar]

I just wanted to say 'Thank you' for responding to my post. I have just downloaded the evaluation version of Softimage. I look forward to trying it outt this weekend.

[lots]

I'm also coming from Lightwave [8]. I've found that I like alot of XSI's modelling tools alot more than I do LW's, and the interface as a whole isn't really that big of a difference from Lightwave, at least for me. The 5 disk DVD tutorials deal (that came with my EDU version fo XSI) are also a real bonus. I feel like I can get around much faster in XSI and it just fits me better than LW did. Not hat LW is a bad program mind you :) I did use it for several years..

[MixedNut]

I'm also an ex-lightwaver, but I still hold on to it, just in case I ever need something with fur/hair. I prefer XSI to Lightwave because it seems more taut in its workflow and, unlike Lightwave, I felt instantly at home with it. And after three years of using Lightwave, to my horror, I actually find I prefer modeling in XSI, too. Like SevenString, I feel that this program fits me.

In short - if a good, not overly expensive fur/hair plugin for Foundation (or even Essentials) comes along, my Lightwave is gone shortly after.. :D

[ThomasHelzle]

Mostly the same here.
After some hours of using XSI, I already knew that I will not touch LW Modeler much anymore and my interest for modo has gone to NIL. Since those first impressions, this feeling has grown even stronger - the more I learn about modeling in XSI the more I love it. It is at least as fast as LW and much more powerful if you spent some time with it. A perfect snapping function, temporary pivot, instancing and the render region make it very fast and nice to work with...

I haven't entered the field of effects and animation in real depth yet, but it also feels much better to me than LW. At least the principles and the way they work together are superior. -> Bend an object very easily (that is a pain in LW IMO). Then do the same with a particle cloud - amazing... And now use a Lattice for particles - FUN :bounce:

The only part I am not too keen on yet is the rendertree. I love node based stuff and I just finished writing some advanced procedural shaders for messiah:studio ("The Art of Noise" (http://www.screendream.de/AoN_studio.htm)), but the node based material editor in m:s is so much easier to use and needs way less nodes to get complex stuff. The huge amount of similar nodes in XSI and all that converting from color to vector to scalar and back is quite annoying if you are used to messiah that does all that automatically without bothering the user too much. While you are able to do very advanced stuff with the rendertree, I think it could be improved a lot with some more clever design of the nodes.

Renderspeed looks similar to LW to me so far. Some areas are faster and much better, others are the same or slower. The only thing that I found _very_ slow is bumpmapping.
But since there is more room for optimization in XSI, speed may depend a lot on the one in front of it :)

My conclusion so far: XSI is my LW <{9}> update delivered today :thumbsup:

Cheers

[RuiFeliciano]

It's great to see so many ex. LWers like myself around...make yourself comfortable...it's nice in here :)

[jorgevaldes]

The only thing that I found _very_ slow is bumpmapping.


I haven't even began to touch the rendertree, BUT I read somewhere that that's Mental Ray misconception #1. It is slow bump mapping only if you set it up incorrectly.
Do a search here or on XSI base to get more info on this.

I have no personal experience with this, only what I read on the internet. So take it with a grain of salt.

[ThomasHelzle]

jorgevaldes:
I followed the official XSI DVDs so I don't know how it should be that wrong. It is not only slow, but also the most complicated way to use a procedural bumpmap that I've seen in all my 3D life :)
But I already think about porting my own shaders to XSI if I find the time and if I do, I will look into making that part as fast and easy as possible. There must be something better than this mess :)
This thread shows that it is possible - I just don't have the mayabase.dll to give it a try:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=123028&page=2&pp=20

Cheers,

[RuiFeliciano]

Thomas,

I may be able to help you on that...shoot me an email at ruifeliciano at isisds dot com

[Sil3]

My conclusion so far: XSI is my LW <{9}> update delivered today :thumbsup:

Cheers
9 or 19? :scream:

[Cman]

I'm glad to see so many cgtalk LW'ers here.
I haven't pulled the trigger, but I'm aiming up on some XSI.
I've been messing with the demo and really like it so far.

I look forward to learning from all the peeps.

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