Softimage XSI 3.5

[roger]

WOW - this is fun! :applause:
First Maya5 and now XSI 3.5!!

[wmendez]

Feature List Here (http://www.softimage.com/products/Xsi/v3/new_v35/default.asp#render) :beer:

[alphatron]

Some ok improvements, but seems more like a 3.2 release than a .5. A little underwhelming considering what Maya 5 is offering for its .5 release.

I was really hoping for a full-blown new feature such as rigid bodies, or some small improvements like procedural texture previews, etc..

[Jockomo]

Just curious... how much does it cost?
I checked out the "XSI Packaging & Pricing Page" only to find no prices.

Kinda reminds me of those expensive resturants where you don't see any prices on the menu and the paramedics are on hand for when you get the bill. :D

[nuke]

The SoftImage|XSI v.3.5 nonlinear 3-D production environment, which supports Windows and Linux operating systems, is currently in beta testing and will be available in June 2003. Suggested retail pricing starts at $6,750 USMSRP. For a limited time until June 23, 2003, existing SoftImage|XSI customers can upgrade to version 3.5 of SoftImage|XSI for as little as $1,495 USMSRP. Additionally, until June 23, 2003, SoftImage is offering attractive trade-in credits for old 3-D software toward the purchase of the SoftImage|XSI environment. By trading-in their Alias|Wavefront Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited, discreet 3ds max, NewTek Lightwave or Side Effects Houdini 3-D software, companies can save up to $6,500 off the price of the SoftImage|XSI software, the industry’s leading 3-D nonlinear production environment: Visit SoftImage at www.SoftImage.com or call 1-800-576-3846 for more information on the SoftImage|XSI software and other SoftImage products.

[Lukashi]

any word on xsi 3.5 exp :) ?

[[DSmod]Tweak]

The big lebowsky is the best movie of all times =D

hahaha oh man i have it and have watched it over 50 times.. so hilarious..

hahaha i love when he rolls out of the car and the uzi starts firing! HAHAHA

[Zaphod1]

kuhl. like it a looot :bounce:

[DigitalOmega]

i have a question:
what does softimage do with the old licenses?
maybe they are going to donate them for poor students like me-
lol---

[Array]

i was hoping softimage would release a cheaper version of XSI for all of the freelancers out there......maybe next time?

[HapZungLam]

nonono, they won't, they want to make MONEY:drool:

[Signal2Noise]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this news...:shrug:


I was about ready to buy a new SUV but now....dilemma.:eek:

[Tellerve]

hehe, seriously, they have some not so cheap prices. *shrugs* Ya get what you pay for..right?

Tellerve

[Stimpy]

Originally posted by alphatron
Some ok improvements, but seems more like a 3.2 release than a .5. A little underwhelming considering what Maya 5 is offering for its .5 release.

I was really hoping for a full-blown new feature such as rigid bodies, or some small improvements like procedural texture previews, etc..

looking at the feature list i can see that they put in a LOT of small improvements, lots of stuff people have been asking for on the mailing list.

so i think it will make quite a lot of peeps happy.

[Cikala]

Now we just need Lightwave 8 :P

[Maximillion]

I'm all over the improvements! Once again Softimage ahs decided to improve the over all functionality of the package rather then throwing in new features they don't have time to flesh out properly. I'd WAY rather have a texture editor that works even better then rigid bodies that are half a$$ed.

Plus they actually listened to what users had to say and solved a number of the issues that were brought up.

Solid improvements based off user feedback. Could you ask for more? I'm happy.:bounce:

plus the 3.5 means we're that much closer to 4.0:thumbsup:

[arvid]

Originally posted by alphatron
Some ok improvements, but seems more like a 3.2 release than a .5. A little underwhelming considering what Maya 5 is offering for its .5 release.

I was really hoping for a full-blown new feature such as rigid bodies, or some small improvements like procedural texture previews, etc..

Funny, my impression is that Softimage goes ahead and releases yet another full-version-number-worty release, but calls it a .5, while maya releases a .01-worty-release but calls it a full-version-number, yet again :p

[JDex]

Just curiously impatient, but I thought someone here might know if I can upgrade the XSI3.0 Student Version (I just dropped $$$ on a few weeks ago) to 3.5 Student when it comes out.

Anybody... Anybody...

:)

[Angelus26]

Hmmm, seems like you get more bang for you buck with Maya, I'll take the SUV thanks;)

[ghempton]

Originally posted by opacity
Funny, my impression is that Softimage goes ahead and releases yet another full-version-number-worty release, but calls it a .5, while maya releases a .01-worty-release but calls it a full-version-number, yet again :p

Are you kidding me? The advancements in Maya 5 dwarf those of softimage 3.5. It is also hard for me to imagine people who already use softimage to pay an extra 1.5 k for these few petty features added in this update.

[Iysun]

lots of new features or not, personly i cant help but get all extited when new versions of software i love to use comes out:beer:

w00t!

[ribok7]

I can quikly see an xsi vs maya war developing......:shame:

[ambient-whisper]

Originally posted by ribok7
I can quikly see an xsi vs maya war developing......:shame:
indeed. if this goes further ill have to close it :) just giving an early heads up :beer:

[Ariel]

What exactly are the "Contextual SRT Manipulators" available in 3.5? I'm hoping it is a way to control transformations similar to Maya and Max, by directly grabbing handles instead of relying on the Left, Middle and Right Mouse buttons to control the X, Y and Z axis. Also, a center handle would be nice so that we're able to transform in view mode without having to go to the menu on the right and switch from Global, Local and View modes.

[vmpre]

Originally posted by Ariel
What exactly are the "Contextual SRT Manipulators" available in 3.5? I'm hoping it is a way to control transformations similar to Maya and Max, by directly grabbing handles instead of relying on the Left, Middle and Right Mouse buttons to control the X, Y and Z axis. Also, a center handle would be nice so that we're able to transform in view mode without having to go to the menu on the right and switch from Global, Local and View modes.

At first I wasnt sure about this either

But if you look closely at the Property Page in this image: http://www.softimage.com/products/Xsi/v3/new_v35/media/L03_img_scrnSRT.jpg

You will see at the top a check box for "Use 3D Manipulators"

Makes me think that you will be able too use it like Maya and Max.

Once again proving that Softimage listens to their customers.

Vmpre

[skello]

:xtreme: :xtreme: :xtreme: :xtreme: :drool: :drool: :drool:

[EdHarriss]

Originally posted by Ariel
I'm hoping it is a way to control transformations similar to Maya and Max, by directly grabbing handles instead of relying on the Left, Middle and Right Mouse buttons to control the X, Y and Z axis.


There are already draggable manipulators in the current version of XSI. Select an object and press the "B" key on your keyboard. Click the spheres to scale, the edges to rotate and the sides to translate. Use Shift, ctrl and alt to do special movement constraints.

You may like the "B" key, you may not... Obviously this method is not "loved by all" or else we would not see new any manipulators in XSI 3.5. But try it and see.

[dur23]

real-time shadow maps! normal-maps! flatten-uv's!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!111!!!11!!

[iMag]

heh I know how you feel dur. Ed for the 3d manipulators currently you can only do that per object or multiple objects, but not really in vertex selection or polygone mode. unless I am mistaken.

Just wait until closer to release or just after release people. then we should be able to see the huge number of minor fixes and additions. just look at the additions and fixes done for 3.0 and 3.01 and every other single XSI release I know of. Fact of the matter is XSI gives what their customers ask for. Sur rigid bodies isn't implemented just yet. once implemented thoughit will be one of the best implementations available. alot of what people are asking/begging for is probably either under development or at the very least consideration.

Last point for those complaining. Remember XSI is still fairly new. since late 2001 they've gone from 2 all the way to 3 with 3.5 just around the corner. if I didn't know better they are sitting in the fast lane quickly running down the competition. :)

[santiago]

LOCO :buttrock:
I love the modelling enhancements

1. New symmetrized polygons.
2. Extended functionality for multi-resolution Referenced Models.
3. Quadrangulate triangulated objects

poeple are still getting over how fast sub'ds are in XSI
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: three thumbs up, i just grew an extra thumb

[SheepFactory]

Great release as always , I wonder if they'll update EXP version to 3.5

[iMag]

Sheep Factory: no doubt they will, but don't expect it until a month or so after the release.

[SheepFactory]

Thats great , I am dying to try out the normal mapping thats one amazing feature.

[Stimpy]

you can already, thanks to the rendertree...

http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=995;start=0

[Oktavian]

Is it a wrong thougt or did all companies speed up their release periods?
Anyway it seems to be a great release with good improvements, wish I could purchase XSI.

[arvid]

Originally posted by ghempton
Are you kidding me? The advancements in Maya 5 dwarf those of softimage 3.5. It is also hard for me to imagine people who already use softimage to pay an extra 1.5 k for these few petty features added in this update.

I think both you and me should study exactly what is new before we start talking too much, package-bias play a big role in ones first impression :D

[alphatron]

package-bias play a big role in ones first impression

That's what I was thinking when I read your response opacity ;)

[arvid]

hehe

[alphatron]

I'm just about 90% migrated from Maya to XSI (still use Maya for the rigids, fluids, and pfx), so I'd like to think the bias is kept to a minimum. I've read both "What's New" PDF documents and stated my opinion.

[kamil_w]

If you take out mr 3.2...

...there is more to PaintFX alone in Maya 5.0 than whole XSI v3.5.

and it is not far from truth.

Remember also that there is more in Maya 5.0 than AW lists on their web site.

[arvid]

Originally posted by kamil_w
If you take out mr 3.2...

...there is more to PaintFX alone in Maya 5.0 than whole XSI v3.5.

and it is not far from truth.

Remember also that there is more in Maya 5.0 than AW lists on their web site.

sure it is ;) and you're using... which package?

[Ariel]

I keep hearing the term 'normal mapping' and people excited over it. I'm sure I'll be excited too when I find out exactly what it is.

I asume it has to do a bit with the now popular polybump technology used in games like Doom 3 where a low poly model uses the 'appearance', for lack of a better term, of a higher res model and you only really notice the difference when looking at the silhouette.

If I'm completely wrong, then what is normal mapping?

[ambient-whisper]

thats exactly what it is.
:)

and for high poly modelers.. theres something like that too. where you can mix both displacements and normal maps.

or just displacements if you use subdees.

heres more info on it.


http://www.drone.org/

http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=581

http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=9&page=0


cheers. http://pchan.cgworks.com/stuff/tea02.gif

[Ariel]

Thanks MK. I'm loving XSI more and more each time I hear about these features. I got a question though. You said:

"and for high poly modelers.. theres something like that too. where you can mix both displacements and normal maps."

Are you refering to XSI 3.5 having support to extract displacement map information from a dense mesh, that can be applied to a lo res model at render time? If so this makes it even better.

[ambient-whisper]

not sure about xsi. im being rather general when i mention the concepts. but some people over at spiraloid are trying to make an app that extracts the difference information between your high rez and low rez models and makes a displacement map for you to use back in whatever application you use.

works great with renderman compliant renderers.

i think somewhere on that site theres info on how to get it working with mental ray too. havent looked at it in a while.

[raffael3d]

sounds interesting....where can you see it?

[ambient-whisper]

follow this thread here. most the info on extraction/viewers is here.

http://cube.phlatt.net/forums/spiraloid/viewtopic.php?TopicID=9&page=2

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