Xsi 4 wishlist

[bramley1]

Maybe you should elaberate on what you want. What primitives, what surface tools.


I think ALL objects should be setup as transimitters and recievers for GI and caustics from the start

[arvid]

>Ability to make primitives with any starting point and drag to any size.

no thanks ;)

>Fluid dynamics
sure why not, but id rather have some more regular dynamics first..

>Surface tools
you mean nurbs tools? yea that would be great..

>more extensive primitive library
ehm, teapots? no thanks ;)

[arvid]

Originally posted by bramley1
Maybe you should elaberate on what you want. What primitives, what surface tools.


I think ALL objects should be setup as transimitters and recievers for GI and caustics from the start

for optimizations sake you dont always want all objects to be used for GI, but just SelectAll and click Selection|Display Icon and enable GI in that multiple-items-ppg to make all your objects transmit and recieve GI :)

[BiTMAP]

being able to weld more then one point at a time, easier to devide poly's, and being able to model by building polys (ala Litewave?) would be nice too.

[Lunatique]

Errr, Rigid Body Dynamics.

[Dr-spline]

Well I ment surface tools as in the ones in max, I think digimations made the origional plugin. What kind of dynamics do you have in mind? WHy wouldnt you want to have the option to make primitives with any starting point and drag to any size?

[Rudity]

Originally posted by Dr-spline
Well I ment surface tools as in the ones in max, I think digimations made the origional plugin. What kind of dynamics do you have in mind? WHy wouldnt you want to have the option to make primitives with any starting point and drag to any size?

When I want a cube, I WANT IT NOW!!.. hehe

[arvid]

Originally posted by Dr-spline
Well I ment surface tools as in the ones in max, I think digimations made the origional plugin. What kind of dynamics do you have in mind? WHy wouldnt you want to have the option to make primitives with any starting point and drag to any size?

I dont think its a good workflow and it doesnt go with the way I work and have been working for years since Softimage|3D and now in Softimage|XSI, in the softimage world you always work from origo to keep the order of things, and it will probably not be saving you many steps, you cant draw in 3 axis at once and you still have to set resolution of the mesh.

Dynamics, well rigidbody simulations and a kaboom+ equivalient

[BiTMAP]

the workflow in XSI beats max (i'm an old max user, still use it for some stuff ) but I dislike not being able to get down and dirty with the polys sometimes.

[rock]

at least half-price should be a feature.

[visualboo]

haha, this thread cracks me up. 3 just came out.

To add to it tho ;)
I completely agree with Dr-spline. Opacity, that feature is ALL about workflow. It is fast. I want it.

oh yeah, did I mention that you can start an object creation based on a normal of a poly. If you have an object rotated 29 on Z, 74 on Y you can create a new primitive perfectly aligned right off the bat during creation.

When I want a cube, I WANT IT NOW!!.. hehe
See, you still have to go through menu's to get it AND more importantly move it into position. In max I can have my camera (or vp) already zoned in on whatever I'm working on and make it in the correct size and position. One click. Possibly two or three depending on primitive.

>more extensive primitive library
See, now your just not making sence. Would it really hurt you if they were there. At least if you needed them they would be there.

I've got a pretty big list but here's a couple that I would like to see.
1) Rigid body dynamics
2) better line tools
3) half the amount of bad ass scripts that are available for max.

Sorry Soft, I'm with rock also. Half price should be on the new feature list.

[edit]
you cant draw in 3 axis at once
Sure you can... well maybe not exactly at once but pretty close. Just click and hold your mouse button, drag to set X and Z. Release the MB and drag to set the Y axis. Ultra fast, oh and in position ;)

[alphatron]

-3D texture paint tool within the veiwports (heck, even 2D paint would be a bonus).

-Shader previews spheres within the render tree (with a toggle on/off feature for those who don't want it).

-Combustion/Shake-like 2D matchmover and motion tracker for the FXtree.

-Rigid body dynamics.

[wmendez]

Im with Opacity

>Dynamics, well rigidbody simulations and a kaboom+ equivalient

FrameBuffer output from FX tree would be good as well

[Dr-spline]

Id like to see a footstep maker where, when you have a fully modeled and rigged character you can automaticly generate footsteps and then edit them to your needs

[Vic3k]

Id like to see a footstep maker where, when you have a fully modeled and rigged character you can automaticly generate footsteps and then edit them to your needs

as far as i remember from reading or listening to a demo artist, you can do footsteps in xsi3.0. i don't use 3.0 so i can't confurm

2d painting with many futures.
3d painting, could be good too.

speed up renderer alot! in a scene with 1000s of objects and each textured, with just a few pointlights, it takes a while to render. mental ray is sure powerful but it needs a speed boost.

more poly tools.
all possible edge looping stuff integrated, rather than using RCT (thanks for that tho).

more uv editing tools

locking atributes like in maya (when you select say a z rotation and lock it, and whatever you do it wouldn't rotate on z)
yes there is transform setup property but it doesn't do the same thing but close

soft ray traced shadows, no, not area lights. the kind of soft raytraced shadows you can do in maya.

huge optimization to scenes with lots of textures. sometimes big textures like 3kx3k wouldn't display and be substituted by a grid or even worse, would render out as default noicon among other 100s of textures and objects.

well, sure i guess some dynamics stuff wouldn't hurt but i'm not into simulations much anyway.

definitly a bom (crappy max version), kaboom+ (si3d) to blow up chunks of geometry and having it compute other sides of the chunks so objects are objects not planes.

how hard is it to put bump input into Blinn?

much more optimized blured reflections

video editor like "video post" in max. like a mini version of premere for quick jobs.

motion tracking could be nice too so i could maybe start learning the concepts of it.

plz, scroll down bar when listing clips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ability to check/uncheck (in preferences) numbering of clips upon loading a texture. most of the time i don't want to make any modifications to the texture but as each gets assigned to a different objects, more and more of the same clips are created and it becomes a mess and momory consumptive.

[peanut]

Originally Posted by BiTMAP

the workflow in XSI beats max (i'm an old max user, still use it for some stuff ) but I dislike not being able to get down and dirty with the polys sometimes.

Can you elaborate a little more on this, i personally find the workflow of Max a little better than XSI ( you also dont Have a stupid 20 yard window interface even when your screen is set at 1600 x 1024 )

[Atyss]

@@@@
speed up renderer alot! in a scene with 1000s of objects and each textured, with just a few pointlights, it takes a while to render. mental ray is sure powerful but it needs a speed boost.
@@@@

That's because you don't know how to optimize rendering. Toying with BSP, raytraced depth, shadow maps, elliptical filtering, .map files, broadcast toggled on, and so on, can dramatically decrease rendering time.

@@@@
more uv editing tools
@@@@

Like what?


@@@@
locking atributes like in maya (when you select say a z rotation and lock it, and whatever you do it wouldn't rotate on z)
yes there is transform setup property but it doesn't do the same thing but close
@@@@

Use transform setups or marking sets. Effective and easy to setup.


@@@@
huge optimization to scenes with lots of textures. sometimes big textures like 3kx3k wouldn't display and be substituted by a grid or even worse, would render out as default noicon among other 100s of textures and objects.
@@@@

You might be doing something wrong. Never experienced that. Use the broadcast function in the clip properties.


@@@@
how hard is it to put bump input into Blinn?
@@@@

Not a problem. Use the material node instead. I never use bump in a surface shader.


@@@@
much more optimized blured reflections
@@@@

What do you mean by "optimized"? Don't forget that raytraced depth and BSP can have a big impact on rendering time of such things.


@@@@
video editor like "video post" in max. like a mini version of premere for quick jobs.
@@@@

You're talking about the FX Tree?


@@@@
plz, scroll down bar when listing clips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@@@

Can you elaborate?


@@@@
ability to check/uncheck (in preferences) numbering of clips upon loading a texture. most of the time i don't want to make any modifications to the texture but as each gets assigned to a different objects, more and more of the same clips are created and it becomes a mess and momory consumptive.
@@@@

Use the Clip menu in the Render Tree.



Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[BiTMAP]

I WOULD like some controls for poly edition like in max, There close but sometimes they could be faster, like being able to cut a surface would be nice.

[Leftover]

>@@@@
>locking atributes like in maya (when you select say a z rotation >and lock it, and whatever you do it wouldn't rotate on z)
>yes there is transform setup property but it doesn't do the >same thing but close
>@@@@

>Use transform setups or marking sets. Effective and easy to >setup.

just simple per node attribute locking... what could be more simple than one click? and no setup needed :)

[Atyss]

@@@@
just simple per node attribute locking... what could be more simple than one click? and no setup needed :)
@@@@

What was I thinking?!
If you go in the local kinematics ppg of the object, Rotation Limits tab, there you can set any kind of limitation you want to the transformations of the object. :cool:


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[lfcg]

the blur note for procedure texture in render tree.

[lfcg]

Rigid body dynamics.

cloth such as SYFLEX_CLOTH_SIMULATOR_FOR_MAYA

roll tools can be set key

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Dr-spline]

ratate around center
fading shaders progressivly through the animation

[wurp]

ratate around center

What? Press the "COG" button and it'll rorate around the center of the selection, also, there is a command to move the pivot/center to the center of a selected objects boundingbox.




fading shaders progressivly through the animation

What do you mean? You can animate any parameter in xsi, even shaders.

[BiTMAP]

Definatly reinstate, a Cut or devide face tool would be most needed.

[Dr-spline]

Originally posted by wurp


What do you mean? You can animate any parameter in xsi, even shaders.

I mean having one shader at frame one turn progressivly into another shader at frame 10

[Atyss]

Originally posted by Dr-spline
I mean having one shader at frame one turn progressivly into another shader at frame 10

Just connect both shaders in a Mix2_colors node and animate the Weight color.


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[visualboo]

I want shader previews damnit :p

[wurp]

I want shader previews damnit :p


No, you dont! Shaderballs is just an old concept used by too many applications. In the beginning it might have been good, but now when you're working on more complex models, shaderballs have played out their role.

[alphatron]

Wurp,

An option to toggle them on or off would not hurt. There's been many a time I've wished for them in XSI, and just about every second suggestion in similar XSI wishlists seem to share this idea.

[wurp]

people share that idea because they dont know better, or because they are so used to it from other applications. I thought it would be good to have them as well, but now I changed my opinion.

[alphatron]

And it's just your opinion. Everyone is speaking for themselves in this thread, and if they suggest a feature, it's probably because they would find it useful. I know personally for me shader previews would be a time saver in certain situations. Especailly when the render region is very slow. It would cut out a lot of steps in terms of optimization.

[Dr-spline]

I wouldnt mind having that option of shader balls

[Markus]

Shaderballs definately wouldn't hurt. I don't know a single artist who doesn't use shaderballs when they are available. They might be old, but still a good method to create materials quickly. Creating materials in XSI with a complex light setup is extremely time consuming. Nobody is forced to use shaderballs, but they should be there for those who want them.
I like XSI very much, but I don't like the whole material management.

Markus

[Dr-spline]

I hated the whole material setup until opacity explained to me the reason they are they way they are. Why do you think lights are hard to set up?

[Atyss]

Originally posted by Dr-spline
Why do you think lights are hard to set up?

...why?

[Dr-spline]

I just re-read the message but thats hard in any app, I think xsi makes it easier than most because it alows so many options

[SheepFactory]

i would love the ability to look through the light like in maya. Its much easier to position lights that way.

[BiTMAP]

you can just set the target and its easier...

[wurp]

You can look through a spotlight in XSI too!
Go to camera->spot lights->spotlightname

[visualboo]

no no no.... i WANT shaderballs! Just because they don't work for you doesn't mean they shouldn't be there. u for undo? each his own. I don't want to lose the current way of making shaders but I want this in addition to.

I want a way to prieview procedurals 2d style also. In max I can see exactly what it looks like before it gets applied to any objects. Very handy imo.

Small flash file showing what I mean. Stoopidly simple ;)
right click and save as (http://www.visualboo.com/misc/shaders.swf)

[Ezz]

shaderballs are a thing from the past....Render-region rocks!!!!!


:buttrock:

[Atyss]

Can a moderator delete this message? sorry for the inconvenience. :arteest:

[Atyss]

Originally posted by visualboo
no no no.... i WANT shaderballs! Just because they don't work for you doesn't mean they shouldn't be there. u for undo? each his own. I don't want to lose the current way of making shaders but I want this in addition to.

I want a way to prieview procedurals 2d style also. In max I can see exactly what it looks like before it gets applied to any objects. Very handy imo.

Small flash file showing what I mean. Stoopidly simple ;)
right click and save as (http://www.visualboo.com/misc/shaders.swf)

I agree that it has some usefulness (I'm also a max user), but it's prettry limited. The reason is that as soon as you add some complexity to the shader, the ball is no longer adequate and you end up doing test renders. Also, the scale of the pattern you see on the ball is not representative of the real scale, once applied on the object. As a result, you still need to do a lot of test renders.

Although I don't want to argue that a render region is better than shader balls, I found that shader balls are extremely limited and I found myself oftenly frustrated because I couldn't see what I was doing because of their small scale in the interface. Of course, you can increase the size of the ball or even open a much bigger one into a floating window, but doing this comes with a big performance price, that is not very useful. So in the end I do more test renders.

However, something I oftenly do is that if I have problems tweaking a procedural shader on a moderately to highly dense or complicated object, I create a nurbs sphere, hide the object, and apply the shader on the sphere and use it tweak the shader. When I'm happy with the results, I copy the parameters to the original object. Combined with low-quality rendering, render selection only toggled on, plus only one light being turned on, it becomes very fast to edit the shader.

I mainly use this approach to tweak procedural shaders and specular properties.

One may say that it is a lot of setup to do that, but you can do that extremely quickly by using layers or passes, or even simply hiding and unhiding models in branch mode.


Just my 2 cents
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[daniforever]

I want Metaballs back, much more flexible and powerful. This could speed up organic modelling.

Don't kill me for asking for this feature :)

[ggg]

this wishlist post wins the award for the most requests for features that already exist and perhaps have not been looked for. :)

[Dr-spline]

I want the abillity to put a shader on a mesh. ;)


Id like to thank (your name here) for this award

[ggg]

thank you for your sense of humour :)

[piajartist]

A topless babe to visually and physically educate me about the new things in XSI 4, even give me an interactive tour!:bounce: :drool: :love: :beer: :applause: :thumbsup: :applause:

[visualboo]

Nice responce Atyss. Thanks. I agree about the scale issue and having to do a lot of test renders anyway. I guess the part about not having the max setup is that I don't really have a material library. You can sort of do it in xsi but it's a pain for something that should be automatic. I find myself constantly mumbling to myself about how much easier that could be.

[arvid]

Shaderballs probably have a hard time approximating how the shading will look in the scene, while the renderregion is completely ultimate, it's WYSIWYG :) Although some type of visualisation of procedural textures would be nice, doesnt even have to be on a ball, just a little square showing what the "rock" or "fractal" looks like without havning to render it in 3D

[visualboo]

But it wouldn't hurt to have it as an option. I still want the render region way. I guess my whole thing with the shaderballs is that I want a better faster shader management system.
Although some type of visualisation of procedural textures would be nice, doesnt even have to be on a ball, just a little square showing what the "rock" or "fractal" looks like without havning to render it in 3D
exactly.

[Ezz]

Maybe you could make a little shader-ball script...Just an idea??

Erik

[withanar]

Originally posted by visualboo
But it wouldn't hurt to have it as an option. I still want the render region way. I guess my whole thing with the shaderballs is that I want a better faster shader management system.

exactly.

There's a neat feature built into XSI that many users don't knowabout, and it makes building a shader library an easier task.

Set a render region on your object with a shader you like, then open the object's material PPG. Save out the shader to your shader library from the PPG, there'll be an option to use the render region as an icon for the shader. When the render region is on, this option is on by default.

When you next browse to the library of shaders, switch the browsing option to show icons and you'll see thumbnails of all your shaders.


The only caveat about storing shader libraries in XSI is related to the same reasons why shaderballs aren't necessarily efficient. Texture spaces can vary tremendously from one shader to the next. They can vary in scale, in distribution, and in distortion over your surfaces.

Fact is, it's the ability to blend effects using multiple, custom, texture spaces on an object that makes the render tree so powerful in XSI. Yet this is also the very reason it may take longer to build simple shaders, and why shader balls won't be very helpful. I'd gladly sacrifice the simple quick stuff in order to have the power to build the nasty, complex stuff that used to require shader programmers. After all, the simple stuff doesn't pass for acceptable to most of our clients anymore.

Incidentally, I've been using XSI since it's early alpha days. It's been interesting to watch and track the suggestions and requests of the XSI neophytes as they switch over from whatever other applications they'd been using. Almost everyone goes through the same progression: At first they're really adamant about having shaderballs, and somewhat insultory towards Softimage wondering how they could release XSI and consider it a "high end" app without including shaderballs, a feature that every other 3D app, including SI|3D has had for years. :annoyed:

Then, after about a year or so of production experience, trials and tribulations, and finally wrapping their head around the render region, render tree, and render pass workflow, they become really adamant about NOT needing shaderballs! :eek: The sentiment does a complete flip. The attitude switches over to insultory towards the other major 3D apps and why they don't have a feature like the render region. :)

[Atyss]

Just to add a quickie: Using Preview Node function also speeds up a lot shader tweaking.... though at the expanse of stability. I guess nothing can be perfect in this world :shrug:


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[jamesd]

renderregion, with render selection only (even better, hide the polys / objects your not using) and things like area lights etc turned off is incredibly quick. shaderballs....bah! :)

perhaps a small option with renderregion that when you choose render selection only, there are two, fast and full. fast just disables shadows / drops the photon accuracy etc ?

as far as features i'd love to see...

a smear / blend option for rendermap / rendervertex.
another 300% increase in sub'd speed (hell, they did it last time! :))
solid nurbs importing, (notable Rhino in this case)
...or a solid nurbs set...so I wouldnt need Rhino.
come to think of it, isnt Soft licencing some nice Cad nurbs mathset? anyhoo...
ability to have two view managers...not a major one now with object view in 3.0
an edge direction display mode. (a guy at avid japan wrote some nice realtime shaders to view stripping, which have been handy however)
Menu items should benifit from the middle-mouse repeat command function. (ive had to litter my display with numous scripts becuase of this :/) thats okay tho...viewswitchs are handy.)
Drop points! like old Soft3.X (I havent put a great deal of time into this, but im sure I could script it up)
a simple paint tool. like soft3d's texture editor. was very handy at times (not anything serious, just for marking textures)
some better cleanup tools....ive had meshes brought in with unmerged vert seams, that ive had to take back to soft3d to fix (Cleanup and GC_Merge+ were great)

thats all I can think of off the top of my head, just general stability improvements....more stable, more work gets done of course (although, 3.01 is very stable)

James


James Dc
Artists
Infogrames Melbourne House

[rotaryman]

From a modelling standpoint I think XSI is the best there is minus the lack of Nurbs tools.

So here are some ideas I was thinking for a release.

-Raycasting option for the move tool.

-Repeat tool, much like the "g" key in maya

-A slice plane or "knife tool" would be nice but not necessary.

-Some stenciling functions like the Drill tool in LW would be cool.

-More options for the paint push tool, like maya's

-I agree with having some form of 3d paint tool integrated.

-Layer Support for Adobe PSD files. Allowing the user to map UV coordinates to a particular layer within the PSD File. THis would allow you to maximize the space used for each UV island, plus you can have all your maps (color, dirt bump, displace, specular,etc..) all in one file so your project folder will not get cluttered with hundreds of image files.

-subdivision option for bridge polygon/edge tool.

-welding multiple verticies would be cool

-maybe an unweld verticies tool too!

-and of course all the nurbs tools that we are being deprived of

[HapZungLam]

i want get->primitive-> walk cycle.

hum... wait, if it has get->primitive->demo reel. that will be even better.:bounce: :bounce:

[visgoth]

One thing I'd like to see is a smooth or "relax mesh" operator that can be driven by weightmaps. Either that, or just an exact copy of Maya's sculpt polygons tool that artisan provides :)

Also, I want much, much faster hair dynamics simulation (although that's probably a VERY tall order :P )

Pressure sensitivity support when using a wacom tablet in paint weights mode would also be nice.

-=edit=-

http://www.cgcharacter.com

I want THAT above anything else actually!

[jamesd]

I think layer support for PSD would be difficult to manage, if your like me, I have mutliple adjustment layers, ontop of a heap of tweaks (everytime I do somthing, i make a new layer). so you would have to keep merging and flattening your psd...

also, what do you mean, 'Raycast for the move tool'?

Visgoth, paint weights it is pressure sensitive. as well as paint verticies.

Hair I think could be a lot faster, but i dont think its something thats high on the to-do list,

[ggg]

Layer support for PSD would be VERY VERY easy to implement. Writing a script for it would not take long or be very complicated, or as an integrated feature I'm not sure why Softimage hasn't added this already and just offers layer selection ATM.

Layer support for PSD would as said require some foresight by the user to set up the layers for XSI.

If wanting the layers to interact the same it would be more complicated to match XSIs mixing modes and image fx to Photoshops blend modes and filters applied.


Also, the pressure sensitivty and response in XSI is still not good and yes would be nice if hair were faster, I have avoided using it much.

[jamesd]

implement yes, manage...(for me) no.

I know some people here that use 90 or so layers (we keep hitting the ps 5.5 limit)

its just as easy to save out a tga (set up an action, actions are great for this) that way you wont lose anything.

Aftereffects can use PSD layers...but how often do you throw a heap of things into a PSD for Ae? (I do sometimes, for tricky text effects etc....but thats hardly ever)

pressure sensitivty is not good? how good do you want it? if its too sensitive, drop the opacity. even with my intous2, I still only use the airbrush in photoshop at 10% or so :)

[visgoth]

Wow, I didn't know that xsi had pressure sensitivity... can it control radius as well as opacity?

[jamesd]

i dont think you can change radius by pressure, but a simple middle click (setup the pen, works well) and drag will change the radius.

[ggg]

yes I know what you mean about lots of psd layers but for skin and some craft etc textures it seems like a good idea

i want the tablet sensivity to be as good as it is in maya, i have tried adjusting all aspects of both the tablet and in xsi (and houdini) without much satisfactory results. a few other xsi users have mentioned that they feel it is not that great as well.

[ggg]

radius and opacity *can* be changed by pressure in xsi

[visualboo]

Ah, feel the love.

Over all that I have previously said... I want soft to keep growing and maturing. I love this community. :beer:

[jamesd]

Originally posted by ggg
radius and opacity *can* be changed by pressure in xsi

sorry my mistake, so yes you can, its not in the weight panel, you need to bring up the brush properties page to turn it on.

i havent seen it mentioned on the xsi list about the pressure sensitivity, I havent looked out for it though

[rotaryman]

Let me clerify what I meant with using a photoshop PSD image file. I did not mean to be used with the texture map that is a WIP, but simply something to act as a stacked set of texture maps all in one file. So when you lay out your UVs, you can maximize the amount of space that each projection uses. In a sense you can assign your UV projections to it's own layer, the head can be on layer one, the upper body can be on layer two etc etc.. in essence, instead of the head taking up oh a quarter of your UV space it can use all the space, same for the upper body just that they are treating each layer as a seperate image. Bump Maps, Displacement maps, and all your B\W texture maps will be assigned to their own layer as well. I am just thinking for organization reasons and asset portablility, it seems more logical to have all your maps bundled into one file.

[jamesd]

interestinc concept, but if you had to tweak a layer, you would need to go back to the orig file, flatten and copy back into the other psd (maintaing the filename) perhaps a photoshop plugin could take care of all that however.

[ggg]

Originally posted by jamesd
sorry my mistake, so yes you can, its not in the weight panel, you need to bring up the brush properties page to turn it on.

i havent seen it mentioned on the xsi list about the pressure sensitivity, I havent looked out for it though
sorry jamesd, by *can* I meant in an *not great* way. might be nice if the radius icon resized with pressure and the steps between levels seems too drastic.

Not what rotaryman is looking for but I may restart the 'PSD layers to shader layers' script and 'PSD layers to FXTree layers' script again, shouldn't be too hard keeping same layer names etc, just time. Adding the other stuff like matching the blend modes etc might be not worth effort.

[jamesd]

yeah, I understand about the icon not resizing, tis a bit of a pain :/

what i would like to see, is a realtime fileout layer in photoshop, you place it, with perhaps either fileout or connection to xsi, anywhere in your photoshop layers, and it pumps out whatever layers are under it, perhaps even grouping, so you can multiple fileouts in the one doc (for the same sort of image id understand, bump, spec, diff etc)

better yet, Avid should chat to Adobe about a ps intergration (without all the web crap) painting in the texture editor would be great (just like soft3d, except with good tools :)) no more uv stamping etc

bleh, dreams.

[rotaryman]

PS integration or some form of incarnation would be awsome. That way you could get realtime feedback when working on your files. And better yet you could have it where you could either paint in the texture editor as a 2d paint format or you can paint in any of the ortho or perspective viewports as a 3d painter using the same tools. But I definately agree that an integrated texture painting solution would boost XSI's desireability. I'll put that on my wish list!!!

[visgoth]

Alright, here's one I think we all would love:

A user defineable defaults file that changes what the initial settings for every tool, shader, light and so on are.

I'm tired of always having to go in and set ambience to black, set the viewport mode to mixed, enable the headlight with 0 elevation and azimuth... and so on. I'd like to just set this stuff once and tell xsi to save that off to a custom defaults file.

[HapZungLam]

oh i just thought of one. i am not sure does anyone has been mention it already.

i want XSI has free camera like MAX has. free cam is way ezier to control. like a real handheld cam.

[Markus]

Originally posted by visgoth
Alright, here's one I think we all would love:

A user defineable defaults file that changes what the initial settings for every tool, shader, light and so on are.

I'm tired of always having to go in and set ambience to black, set the viewport mode to mixed, enable the headlight with 0 elevation and azimuth... and so on. I'd like to just set this stuff once and tell xsi to save that off to a custom defaults file.

There are at least two methods to load your own defaults:
1. Save an empty scene with all your settings and make a desktop shortcut for it.
2. Make all your settings, go to your script editor where all the commands are recorded and save it as a script. Assign a hotkey to this script or make a button in a toolbar.

Hope this helps,
Markus

[visgoth]

want XSI has free camera like MAX has. free cam is way ezier to control. like a real handheld cam.

You could probably just delete the camera target, then use rotate and move to animate the camera.


There are at least two methods to load your own defaults:
1. Save an empty scene with all your settings and make a desktop shortcut for it.
2. Make all your settings, go to your script editor where all the commands are recorded and save it as a script. Assign a hotkey to this script or make a button in a toolbar.

Hope this helps,
Markus

Ahh, nice ideas... I'll try that, thanks!

[rotaryman]

I thought of some other interesting tidbits I think would drastically improve workflow for native softies and immigrating users from other packages. v4 should allow users to map the "Alt" button as a camera control a la "s" key. One of the most common things I hear from other students is that they love XSI a lot but wish that they could use the Alt key instead of the "s" key. I find this to make sense since most of the other package use the alt key plus because of location on the keyboard it easier to acces then the "s" key, which can be a pain if you accidentally hit "d" instead and duplicated what ever it was you were working on.

Another thing I think would work is if the Mouse buttons were mappable. you could have access to three tools from one hot-key and it would be fully customizable to suit the users needs.

just a thought.

[Gatsu]

Here's my wishlist:


-more open gl capabilities like procedural textures visibility in viewports, tilings txt visibility, displacement maps a la lightwave, dof and motion blur.

-Cubic mapping added in txt projections menù, and make it more stable and powerful.

-Metaball

-a simple 3d paint like in soft3d

-a good polygon reductor like GCpolygon reduction

-a complete set of nurbs tools

-bolean more stable and usable, capabilities to make booleans with nurbs

-bezier curves

-better dynamics, better cloth and maybe rigid body ; )

- capabilities to drag an image in fx viewer without using resize and 3d transorm. LIke in after fx where i can scale and drag without problem.

[BiTMAP]

Being able to see a projected plane 2d image with a wireframe infront... so basicly some way to rotoscope but being able to pan around the actual image and zoom in and such, so that its like having a plane with a constant on it.

[beatoperator]

gatsu, cheers...
at last someone mentioned Bezier Curves!!
great feature... :applause:

... and maybe a feature to show procedurals (checkerboards, fractals, etc.) in viewports and texture editors... ?
[don't know if someone mentioned this]

:cool:

[Gatsu]

i agree...bezier is one of the features that i want to see in the next version.

I had used it a lot in softimage 3d :)

[jamesd]

Originally posted by BiTMAP
Being able to see a projected plane 2d image with a wireframe infront... so basicly some way to rotoscope but being able to pan around the actual image and zoom in and such, so that its like having a plane with a constant on it.

huh? do you mean just locking the roto image down? there is a little magnifing glass icon next to the XYZ icons in the viewmanager bar for that viewport.

if thats what you mean, then manuals go a long way :)

[Atyss]

Originally posted by BiTMAP
Being able to see a projected plane 2d image with a wireframe infront... so basicly some way to rotoscope but being able to pan around the actual image and zoom in and such, so that its like having a plane with a constant on it.

Set the display property of your object to Wireframe and turn off Override Object Properties in the viewport. Use ortho camera.


Hope this helps
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[BiTMAP]

thanks I don't read most manuals becuase I get distracted and Annoyed by tech terms.

[zen]

OMG you guys ive never seen a wishlist made up of so much stuff that is already there!!!!!
Why dont you try reading the manuals and learning the platform before looking like morons in discussions like this.

Im sorry, but really...
Saving layouts, remapping keys, locking down the roto image, creating a shader library. I mean common!!! this isnt expert-level xsi stuff!!!?!!?!?

One guy even said hed like soft shadows!!! The shadow map option is right there in every light property window!!! It was there in xsi 1.0 ! it was there in soft|3D!!! its not even an icon its written in plain english!!! s-h-a-d-o-w m-a-p. Its written right there as soon as you create a light!

Im sorry but 90% of this whole thread is ignorance.

[wurp]

I second that zen!
Thats what I thought when I first opened up XSI, wow, this package seems to have everything. After using it for about 1 year, Im still amazed about how much things there are to learn about it.

[doremon313]

i saw a demo on non-liner dynamic....i would love to see that in xsi
i wish they have all the facy particles that combustion have
redo last is great
more flexibility on modifying the interface without going into scripting
i really like the loft too from max, very efficient
more polygone editing tool....compare to max, xsi has nothing
i dont know about 3.0....but please make 4.0 not crash so often
i would really like to see them adding all of the tools from softimage|3d back into xsi
i would like to be able to right click on the layer name and get a menu....instead of making it a current layer, than going to layer menu
hope they would make modeling completely procedural like in houdini

thats it for now

[zen]

please explain non-linear dynamics...sounds interesting.

and the loft function is in xsi btw. Unless a loft is something different in max. Maybe your referring to the bridge function.

as for Combustion's Illusion Particle system. Yes they are nice! but they are 2d. You cant do with them what you can do with xsi 3d particle clouds. But you can do illusion-style fx with xsi's particles. Dont confuse ease-of-use with power.
No there's no automatic blue sparks or fireworks presets button, but xsi's particle system, being a high end package, has to be geared majorly towards skilled users who know how to create these or any type of effects from scratch.

[Apoclypse]

dammit i just want some dynamics and some kick ass particle system. I would love to see GL render back in the render dialog ( yes I know you use screen capture and stuff but it should stiill be done through the render dialog) For particles like in maya witht hardware render buffer except that shadows and such would be handled and all that other crap that maya doesn't do but you know XSi should.

Ho about a decent cloth solution being that polys is XSi's strength i think something like Syflex would be a good idea.

[wurp]

I think non-linear dynamics is then you can see how an object will fall in realtime. For example if you would have a ball bounce on the floor and into a hole, with normal rigid dynamics ud have to do LOTs of test. With non-linear dynamics you'll see the balls path all in realtime. So when you change something at frame 1 you'll automatically see how that affects for example the last frame.


Also, what polygons tools is it that you have in max but not xsi?

[alphatron]

Reactor for Max does non-linear dynamics, saw it demoed at the max 5 launch and was THOROUGHLY impressed :thumbsup:

[zen]

Originally posted by Apoclypse
it should stiill be done through the render dialog


Why....??? Capture is so many million times more flexible.

[HapZungLam]

Originally posted by visgoth
You could probably just delete the camera target, then use rotate and move to animate the camera.

oh really? thx rich

[Apoclypse]

yes but iv'e been tooping for quite a while ( since 1.5 or so ) for particles that are more like mayas or at least like rendermans ( points and lines primitives, which I think Mray doesn't have at least the point anyway). Why do you ask, because that crappy volume shader that they put on the particles sucks balls and is nowhere near as fast as in maya. So I figured if they have GL render back like in Softimage 3d there could be slew of options and stuff ( plus mybe it could be renamed and have Directx used as a renderer) like shadowmaps ( which there is an option for Mray to use your card ) and stuff to save on processing and to renderer multi-pass effects from one dialog.

[zen]

It IS a GL render. The only difference is that your "slew of options" are your display setting, either on your viewport or individually per object as a display property. You can GL render everything in texture decal and have your particles in wireframe or bounding box. You can apply different display properties to objects, particles, groups, layers, models. Excellent for mixed display gl rendering.
And they dont make tools so that you can take the default shader and complain how it looks like ass. I think it is assumed that you will learn the tools and make something yourself. Or at least tweak the default a bit.

[zen]

and by the way, put your mouse in your viewport, press shift-s. go to the attributes tab and your particle points, lines and ID's are there.

[Fluckrat]

Originally posted by zen
and by the way, put your mouse in your viewport, press shift-s. go to the attributes tab and your particle points, lines and ID's are there.

Hi Zen, I think you are missing what Apoclypse is saying by a long stretch.......... :)

and what he is saying is right, BTW........ ;)

[rotaryman]

Originally posted by doremon313

more polygone editing tool....compare to max, xsi has nothing


Huh??? Uh that is odd, Because XSI has the most complete Poly/SubD tool set out of the 5 major packages. With the exception of Houdini I am well versed in LW, Max, Maya, and XSI and believe me the tools in XSI are far superior than the other packages. Softimage was smart by keeping its toolset simple but effective. The problem with other packages is you have a plethora of tools that only do one thing. A matter of fact most of the tools in other packages could be cutdown and merged inito a more dynamic toolset. This is what softimage did with xsi, granted there are some tools that are not there, but these are lazyman's complaints, there are effortless workarounds to achieve the same desired effect. Besides I wouldn't want to see XSI's interface get cluttered like max. UI is what makes XSI golden.

Now why would you want procedural modeling toolset, those take the art out of modeling, you'll get sterile looking models from that. Personally I want my models to have style and character. I doubt procedural will give you that.

[Curry]

NODE-based architecture and associativity

Softimage is NOT TOP 3D animation software any more..........

I am so despond..............:(

I want to a powerful,deeply and extensible 3D package

XSI should RECODE everything

That is extremely important

[ggg]

Originally posted by rotaryman
Huh??? Uh that is odd, Because XSI has the most complete Poly/SubD tool set out of the 5 major packages. With the exception of Houdini I am well versed in LW, Max, Maya, and XSI and believe me the tools in XSI are far superior than the other packages. Softimage was smart by keeping its toolset simple but effective.
I agree with XSI being simple and some missing tools out of laziness, but not most complete, Houdini has many more polytools and the other apps mentioned have more as well.
Originally posted by rotaryman

Now why would you want procedural modeling toolset, those take the art out of modeling, you'll get sterile looking models from that. Personally I want my models to have style and character. I doubt procedural will give you that.
??? on the contrary, proceduralism allows for more experimentaion and Non-linear adjustment. I don't have time to try to answer that, but sure using only the procedural node PPGs would likely give you sterile looking models, but people don't just work like that, unless they don't know what they are doing. Houidni and others procedural tools are becoming more interactive in the 3D viewport. Some procedural apps are far more direct with their procedural toolsets than XSI eg in XSI you go to a PPG to adjust extrude paramter whereas in another app you just pull on the primitive normal inthe 3D viewport.

added: the gui is simple and friendly but having to leave the 3d view all the time fro a tool or PPG parameter adjustment slows one down and although SI has tried to make access to tools and paramter adjustments easier like the swift menu and transform box, they are not yet done well.

[Atyss]

Originally posted by Curry
NODE-based architecture and associativity

Softimage is NOT TOP 3D animation software any more..........

I am so despond..............:(

I want to a powerful,deeply and extensible 3D package

XSI should RECODE everything

That is extremely important

Very spiritual. Can you elaborate?


Bernard Lebel

[BiTMAP]

I would like to be able to turn edges ala max, and have a BIT more polygone control like in Litewave..... Maybe its there but i can't seem to find it..

[wurp]

Curry, dont even bother writing anything more here, obviously you're just after creating flamewars. Ohh, by whe way, XSI is the program, not the developer :P

[rotaryman]

Originally posted by BiTMAP
I would like to be able to turn edges ala max, and have a BIT more polygone control like in Litewave..... Maybe its there but i can't seem to find it..

I have heard a lot of people ask for the turn edge tool, that would be cool for games and stuff, but it's really only useful when your working with tri's and you have a strict poly budget, those may be a thing of the past after Nvidia releases the GeforceFX card. I can see it made as a script but, I doubt it is worth implementing, I could be wrong though.

It's been a while since I have used LW, I only got to play with 7 a little bit, I am curious what tools you have in mind that LW has that XSI should have, I'd like to see a drill/stencil tool migrate over, I see that as a useful tool, what else? Please elaborate which tools you are refering to.

[wmendez]

Transparent Sliders
Knife
HyperVoxels
OpenGL Motion Blur

[rotaryman]

yeah a knife tool would be nice, "]"+mmb is quick and fast but you have no angular control over the tool, that was one tool I did find myself using quite often and made my transition over to XSI rocky, but I did make do with the add and split edge tools. Yes XSI needs a knife tool or better yet one that can do more than a straight line cut, rather you can draw the cut and have your own curve, that would be sick!!!:applause:

I was thinking a hatch poly would be an interesting tool. It would act like the bevel tool where you could pick an edge and grow a poly from that edge. the only difference with bevel is that it wouldn't split the adjacent edges into a "Y" split but rather a "V" split.

pitch control for beveling corner edges would be cool!

[robert east]

my two cents would be :_

sort out the units in xsi , so you can build things to scale ie if your building in mm , you can see mm in ppg , and your 3d space recognises this. it would make life so much easier !

alter the gid to any size (unit value ) meters,mm , inches etc

built in left,back,bottom views, so no messing around

small things i know , but handy ,

also of note softimage could do with producing some advanced dvds in depth looks at areas in xsi , just like AW does and Gnomon , that way people could get a handle on the more advanced techniques .

regards rob

[rotaryman]

Originally posted by robert east

built in left,back,bottom views, so no messing around
regards rob

In 3.0 just right click on the x,y,or z of buttons located in each viewport to get the corrisponding left, bottom, or back view.

[Atyss]

Originally posted by rotaryman
In 3.0 just right click on the x,y,or z of buttons located in each viewport to get the corrisponding left, bottom, or back view.

You might get better results if you click with middle-mouse button.... :p


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[rotaryman]

Originally posted by Atyss
You might get better results if you click with middle-mouse button.... :p


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

Doesn't really matter, MMB and RMB do the same thing.

[Markus]

Originally posted by Atyss
You might get better results if you click with middle-mouse button.... :p


Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

No, MMB shows the opposite side.

Markus

[Atyss]

Originally posted by Markus
No, MMB shows the opposite side.

Markus

Look, left mouse button will show the scene from a positive axis (top, right, front). Middle-mouse will show it from a negative axis (botton, left, back).

Bernard

[Markus]

Sorry Atyss, that's what I meant, but I accidentally quoted your message instaed of rotaryman's.

Markus

[rotaryman]

Arrrghh! RMB does the same thing as MMB, I am not saying it "isn't" MMB, what I am saying is that it is an "either or " situation that both MMB and RMB will give you the negative axis display, I've tried it and it works.

Anyways since this is a wishlist thread lets get back on track. A user from another thread brought up bevel profile option, I think this would be cool tool if you wanted to do either a convex or concave rounded bevel and it would automatically apply the necessary amount of subdivistions to achieve the bevel. that would be cool if it allowed you to use a curve to customize the bevel profile.

What do you guys think? is it a useful tool or gimmicky tool only good for picture frames?

[rotaryman]

I just thought of something that would be really useful and not hard to implement. The move tool in XSI is really handy because you can pick a point and translate it without having to select that point. so it gives the user increased workflow. However it is still limited, the user must operate at the vertex level. Now I realized after working with textures, that the move components tool is virtually the same, but when you click on the all button in texture editor, the tool becomes much more powerful. You can pick all three components without switching modes or selecting the components. Now imagine that functionality applied to the move tool when modeling, instead of just pulling points, you can click on face and move the face, or click on an edge an move the edge. Why it was incorperated in the texture editor but the rest of XSI is beyond me, I think Softimage should seriously consider this in there next upgrade, besides, as I said ealier in this thread the move tool needs raycast badly, and the tool would need raycast to work efficiently.

So if there are any softimage SEs reading this thread,
PLEASE, give the move tool the option to work on all three components types at the same time like the move component tool in the texture editor

Thank you!

[piajartist]

after seeing all of these posts, I am not as pleased when i am thinking of what I wish one could have. lol, no I still love my XSI 3.

[Shinova]

- Better nurbs tools. I want nurbs boolean.

- Better polygon tools. Ability to merge lots of vertices within certain distance tolerance would be good. And something like a good polygon reduction function maybe.

- Fix some crash bugs, like that render region problem.:banghead:


Can't think of much else, except the obvious rigid body. There's an actual version 4.0 feature list around here somewhere, isn't there?

[rohand]

I would really like a fully interactive scatter tool in XSI , like the one in MAX. with all of the max functionalities. Escpecially a different viewport display and render display ability.

Also make the particle system workflow a bit like Particle Flow from Max. I am quite sure the xsi Particle are a lot more powerful but the interface makes them really difficult to understand , make them Node-Based like Particle Flow.

[RmachucaA]

all kinds of physics gizmos (springs\engines\rope\elastic bands..etc...)

[Renderman_XSI]

funniest thread i ever seen.

maybe pointless to add anything to the wishlist, but i'll do it anyway.

-Drill or Stencil tool: drills or cuts custom patterns into a polygon,without tesselation the mesh. Basically a cookie cutter :D

-More control over Tool(Polygons,NURBS,Sub) for architects and industrail designer alike.

- Ability to move point on the SubD mesh

- handle types(beizer,corner,etc) on Subd points and NURBS surface,even when drawing CV curves and any curve for that matter

- Better and more percise NURBS tools ala StudioTools

- 3D Alignment in Viewports: for fast and interactive alignment of multiple objects in the scene. Align tools in XSI are OK, but not the same as Maya's align tools in the viewports.

- Booleans that dont tesselate the mesh ;) make them more stable too.

- more options for bevel tool(concave and convex bevels) maybe control over the bevel angle.

- Some sort of 2D and 3D paint tool intergrated into XSI



thats about it :D Im looking forward to XSI 4.0. Merry Christmas to all the Softimage employees! :bounce:

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