waht is the biggest XSI Forum?

[Signal2Noise]

Other than Softimage's own forum then try XSIBase or Highend3D. But the folks here at CgT are very helpful and insightful as well.

You'll find that the SI community on the whole is a bit smaller than other app specific forums. I'd say it's due to the fact that Soft is a fairly expensive product compared to other CG apps and therefore only the lucky few have it. The way XSI is going though I think that will soon change.

[Atyss]

Well, without wanting to sound pedantic, I can humbly say that XSI Base (www.xsibase.com) is currently the most visited XSI forum. Highend3d used to be quite busy, but for some reason (maybe since the creation of XSI Base) it's pretty dead now (although I still visit every day). CG Talk is a pretty good place too :beer:


Cheers
Bernard

[vmpre]

I would also have to say that XSIBASE.com is the best XSI forum today.

HighEnd3D, which I still read everyday, at this point, is pretty much a Maya website. Very dedicated and helpfully Maya users are there. Not much for XSI.

I think it should be changed to MayaEnd3D. ;)

Vmpre

[lildragon]

Originally posted by bjoern
because it seems to me a little bit confusing that a basic tool
like cinema

First I would hardly call C4D basic, it's very versatile. Second CGTalk and Highend are probably close in comparison with XSI, but XSIBase was made solely to support the users of XSI so it will be bigger. Great job by Raffael and Will over there.

salud

[gmask]

Is it just me or is xsibase kindof slow interface wise?

[ray]

bjoern since you're from germany you might be also interested in this (rather small) german language forum

www.xsihome.de

gruß

[ThirdEye]

Originally posted by bjoern
waht is the biggest XSI Forum?
CGTALK ?? i don't think so.
because it seems to me a little bit confusing that a basic tool
like cinema has so much more treads than XSI.....


1) What C4D version did you try??? I'm really curious...

2) XSI costs much more than C4D, obviously you won't find so many users.

3) XSIbase.com is the best for Si users imo.

[Atyss]

Originally posted by gmask
Is it just me or is xsibase kindof slow interface wise?

As fast as most sites I visit, no bandwith problems there.


Cheers
Bernard

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
As fast as most sites I visit, no bandwith problems there.


Cheers
Bernard

Hmm..

It's definately slower on my end than cgtalk or highend.

[plug3]

I don't think it's a bandwith problem. I think XSI base is a great community/content/ressources but I do find the interface a bit frustrating. I spend a lot of time trying to pick the threads where I left them, you always start at the begining of each thread. Also you need to click a button to mark thoses thread as read and if you don't go there for a while all the threads are unread again.:surprised

[JDex]

XSI base loads up kinda slow too... I'm on a broadband, usually running at 900kbps downstream, but it usually takes 6-8 seconds for their hole page to load... but for the most part, it's worth the wait. :)

[fhdatlist]

Is it just me or is xsibase kindof slow interface wise?


god me too.., after the core coding change for XSIBASE
the forum had been so much sloww..

i should PM Raffel for that soon.

[bjoern]

ssss blub....
Good mornig, damm night :-)

about cinema, i must defin it more.
At last i have try version 8.

End what i have see is more Plugins and more Features rippt from Apps like Maya
and Soft.

Why it is so Basic?
It has no red line! just plugins and a good
renderer.

It is so fare away from NLA.

to Ray: Cool thanks

>>because it seems to me a little bit confusing that a basic tool
like cinema has so much more treads than XSI.....<<

It is very simple to start in to it. What firstly
looks good. But when you go in deep.........

[Atyss]

Originally posted by _d1
I spend a lot of time trying to pick the threads where I left them, you always start at the begining of each thread. Also you need to click a button to mark thoses thread as read and if you don't go there for a while all the threads are unread again.:surprised

First, if you click on the blue "new" button next to the title of the thread, you'll be brought to the first unread post.

Second, it is fixed with the new php code.


To all who have bandwidth problems you should contact Raffael (webmaster@xsibase.com). The funny thing is that it was slow when I was using IE 5.0, but once I upgraded to 5.5 and later, then it was fast. I never had such problem since then...


Cheers
Bernard

[GavinG]

Since the change over at the bas eit has been running much smoother. IMO its a great place for XSIers, and i have no problems with it at all.


Gav

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
The funny thing is that it was slow when I was using IE 5.0, but once I upgraded to 5.5 and later, then it was fast.

I'm using 5.5 and I just tried IE 6 and there appears to be no major difference. I did nottice that the domain server is in Switzerland so I guess it's not too surprising that there might be some delays.

I did a traceroute and from my machine it took 19 hops and the last 4 hops where taking about 175ms a hop. Where are you dialing in from?

[JDex]

Well I've been running IE6 since it came out and I'm on the east coast (US)... I just gave it a test open and counted 11-one thousand (11sec) before it loaded all the way... I then tried 3dbuzz... that was a 3-count (3sec) and CGTalk was a 2 sec load... it is probably a routing issue but that's a pretty big delay...

though again it is worth the wait.

[Atyss]

Originally posted by gmask
I did a traceroute and from my machine it took 19 hops and the last 4 hops where taking about 175ms a hop. Where are you dialing in from?

I'm in Montreal. Also note that for most people I know in the Montreal area, Highend as always been slow as hell. But for some reason it's as fast as most sites for me. Perhaps I'm a special network that I don't know of... :xtreme:


Cheers
Bernard

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
I'm in Montreal. Also note that for most people I know in the Montreal area, Highend as always been slow as hell. But for some reason it's as fast as most sites for me. Perhaps I'm a special network that I don't know of... :xtreme:


Maybe your service provider is a first tier network.. The lower the tier the more hops you'll have to make. I think that's how it works.. When I did my traceroute to xsibase it had to go through many sbc links to get to it but when I do highend3d it only needs 9 hops and only a fe wof them are sbcglobal.

Are the people you know on major service providers or are they using local service providers in comparison to you?

[Atyss]

Originally posted by gmask
Are the people you know on major service providers or are they using local service providers in comparison to you?

Most are on the same service, as there aren't many overhere. Most are with Videotron (like me, wich is the big cable service provider), and many are with Sympatico (the big ADSL provider).

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
Most are on the same service, as there aren't many overhere. Most are with Videotron (like me, wich is the big cable service provider), and many are with Sympatico (the big ADSL provider).


If you are windows try doing a `tracert xsibase.com` at the commandline.. I'd be curious to know how many hops it makes for you.

[Atyss]

Originally posted by gmask
If you are windows try doing a `tracert xsibase.com` at the commandline.. I'd be curious to know how many hops it makes for you.

I got 16 hops. Sorry I'm not network pro.... what does this result means?

Thanks
Bernard

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
I got 16 hops. Sorry I'm not network pro.... what does this result means?

Thanks
Bernard

That's not much less than my results.. The delay between reading seperate posts is where I notice it the most.



Traceroute - what do the results mean?

Each address on the right hand side is a router or server that your request needs to pass through in order to reach the destination. This is where the analogy, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, comes into effect. If your request passes through a particularly busy router (indicated by a high ms value), or a router in the usual chain is down, this can produce the effect of a slow service, or worse no service. As the Internet is created using many network providers it is often likely that your request will be sent in a different direction.


From my end of things.. the following servers are the weakest links.

16 187 ms 172 ms 172 ms TIX-gw20.ZRH.CH.net.DTAG.DE [62.154.5.74]
17 172 ms 172 ms 187 ms 62.156.138.134
18 188 ms 172 ms 187 ms customer.pipeline.ch [195.134.128.57]


Do they show up in your tracert?

[Atyss]

Okay here's the full result of my traceroute.

1 <10 ms 47 ms <10 ms
2 16 ms <10 ms 16 ms modemcable.mtl.mc.videotron.ca []
3 <10 ms 16 ms 16 ms 10.154.0.35
4 16 ms 31 ms <10 ms ia-cduc-bb02-ge3-0.vtl.net [207.96.163.9]
5 15 ms 16 ms 31 ms iar1-so-2-3-0.Toronto.cw.net [208.175.169.21]
6 16 ms 15 ms 32 ms bcr2-so-3-0-0.Toronto.cw.net [208.175.169.141]
7 32 ms 31 ms 31 ms acr1-so-2-1-0.Chicago.cw.net [208.175.169.134]
8 63 ms 31 ms 31 ms agr3-loopback.Chicago.cw.net [208.172.2.103]
9 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms dcr1-so-0-2-0.Chicago.cw.net [208.175.10.9]
10 63 ms 47 ms 47 ms dcr2-loopback.Washington.cw.net [206.24.226.100]
11 63 ms 47 ms 47 ms bhr1-pos-10-0.Sterling1dc2.cw.net [206.24.238.166]
12 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms 216.32.173.138
13 141 ms 140 ms 125 ms TIX-gw20.ZRH.CH.net.DTAG.DE [62.154.5.74]
14 141 ms 125 ms 140 ms 62.156.138.134
15 140 ms 172 ms 141 ms customer.pipeline.ch [195.134.128.57]
16 125 ms 141 ms 140 ms 195.134.143.171

So I guess my weakest links are from #13 to 16.


Cheers
Bernard

[raffael3d]

actually we have at xsibase.com a very fast server. since it is hosted in central Europe it might be a little slow for people from overseas. But if it is slow it has something to oo with the connection your provider is chosing and nothing with the server. It may also depend if you have quite a cheap provider, they are often selling more than they can devlier.

interesteing to compare: highend3d here is very very slow. XSI base is here almost as fast as google!

[gmask]

Originally posted by raffael3d
actually we have at xsibase.com a very fast server. since it is hosted in central Europe it might be a little slow for people from overseas. But if it is slow it has something to oo with the connection your provider is chosing and nothing with the server. It may also depend if you have quite a cheap provider, they are often selling more than they can devlier.

interesteing to compare: highend3d here is very very slow. XSI base is here almost as fast as google!

The interesting thing is that it does have more to do wiuth routing some times than geographic location. Although for example pretty much any website in italy seems super slow but I have allways hear dphone service there is screwed up in general.

[plug3]

Champagne for XSI Base ! :beer:

"First, if you click on the blue "new" button next to the title of the thread, you'll be brought to the first unread post. "

[raffael3d]

Originally posted by gmask
The interesting thing is that it does have more to do wiuth routing some times than geographic location. Although for example pretty much any website in italy seems super slow but I have allways hear dphone service there is screwed up in general.

exactly. you know it's very common that people think if a page is slow it must be the server. Well often this might be true, but not always. I can savely say we have a very fast server.
if it is very slow for you you may try to use the netview version www.xsibase.om/netview

it was designed to be used from within XSI, but it is also used by people who have a slow connection.

[wmendez]

Thanks for the Comments Tito:thumbsup: While Raffael and I do the majority of Marketing and Relations we have Atyss, Skypyhr,Soulhunter, and the XSI Resource king Ed Harriss that make the team complete. Lets not forget our users as well.

Gmask, the # of hops would depend on your location and location of the sever as you have mentioned as well as how the providors routers and services are set up. I'm in Ottawa, Canada and get 14 hops to xsibase and 18 hops to Highend3d. We have recently done a revamping of our servers, service, and programming which improved the connection from what it was before. I hope that regardless of speed you will find the infomation available helpful.

[jamination]

xsibase moderators however, are little quick at deleting posts they "feel" don't merit posting.

phil harbath
jamination

[raffael3d]

....where in the end you benefit a lot from it because the forum is clean....

[jamination]

that's is one way to think it. perhaps there might be another though.

[raffael3d]

yes I agree a few posts have been removed but in most cases for very good reasons. We definitely don't remove posts for nothing.

[jamination]

there just seems to be an attitude among the moderators that anything bad sad about the program is not tolerated. i think the idea of support goes beyond just how do i do this or that. if a user has issues with a certain part of the program (and of course he could be wrong) that thread needs to be seen (perhaps the user wants to be proved wrong). i really don't like the idea of a post living or dying based on one moderators opinion (that seems a bit fascist to me), and because my post was deleted within an hour of its posting i never got an answer to my problem.
freedom of speech just seems like a really good idea.

phil harbath
jamination

[GavinG]

Hey,

What exactly did your post say?

I'm sure there was reason to why it got deleted, to call the mods fascist seems a bit extreme. Remember, even "freedom of speech" has its limits.


Gav

[jamination]

>to call the mods fascist seems a bit extreme

i don't believe i was calling anyone fascist. the "idea" of one person having the power to delete posts without discussing it with another moderator does seem to be.

i just really hate the idea of posts being deleted. i think that's worse than the board being a bit cluttered. i didn't insult anyone, i just stated a frustation i was having with the program (so i guess they felt i insulted the program). i do believe these posts have merit too. you will not see any posts that needlessly praise xsi be deleted.

phil harbath
jamination

[GavinG]

I don't know, i didn't see the post (obviously) Maybe they just thought that you were just venting and nothing more, that nothing educational was coming from it, that is was merely a complaint. If nothing constructive could be said about it then maybe it wast worth keeping, also i think that a few threads got lost during the switch over...maybe yours was one of them?

Again, I don't really know what your message contained. Has this happened more than once?


Gav

[jamination]

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57223

it was very similar to the 3rd response(by jacobo) in the above thread (but it was about rendering). i don't want to go into great detail about the post because i don't think the post is the point. what might not have been considered useful to the moderator who deleted it, might have helped me if a few people had gotten the chance to see it and reply. maybe the moderator could have left it a bit to see if it had merit, if the thread went in the wrong direction then kill it. in my experiences with other webboards they only keep political stuff off the board. the only webboard i saw get out of hand was the finalrender webboard, and even then it took a while before the threads were deleted.
the post was deleted after the change over.

[skyPhyr]

I guess I should field this one as I was responsible for the removal of this post. I felt it did not contribute any information to a thread which was quite informative - it was purely blowing off steam.

I supplied Phil with the reason for it's removal at the time. I apologise for having to have stated this publicly, however, I would have expected Phil to do us the courtesy of addressing concerns with us directly. Publicly stating a reason for it's removal which was not the one given has left me with little choice but to respond in this forum.

I can assure all users that no culling will occur for posts which fall within the rules agreed to upon registering with XSI Base.

Discussions of personal opinions are welcome on XSI Base - however they need to be kept in the appropriate forum, which this was not. Once again I apologise to Phil for having to remove this post, but as a moderator I have to look at the big picture and decide whether conduct falls within the base's standards.

Thanks to all, especially the CG Talk team, for your support of XSI Base. I hope this has not dampened your enthusiasm for interacting with the XSI Base community.

Regards,

Alan.

[jamination]

>Discussions of personal opinions are welcome on XSI Base - >however they need to be kept in the appropriate forum, which >this was not.

in that opinion was also a network rendering problem. work case, you could have moved the post if you feel it was wrongly placed.

phil harbath

[Atyss]

Originally posted by jamination
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57223

it was very similar to the 3rd response(by jacobo) in the above thread (but it was about rendering).

That's a very good example. Such post on XSI Base would have been removed. Why? Because this is ranting/ whining/ complaining, and you now know it's not tolerated there. Not because it's about XSI, because it's non-constructive ranting. If we were a Maya or 3ds max forum it would be the same. Ranting doesn't offer any solutions to the problem at hand, and this is what XSI Base is about.

Some people think they can go anywhere they want and say whatever they want because of the freedom of speech and the fact it is on the internet. But what they don't understand is that even on the internet there are ethics to follow in order to keep the communities united and clean. We have no problem with frustration, we have problems when people come to XSI Base to spit out their crap about it. The fact is that on XSI Base standards are very high, and this isn't just for some vague ego reasons: we prefer to keep the place as clean as possible and have pros post there rather than a free-for-all place with no pros. It is our place, we decide how things should not be done, and we'll keep it until it stops being successful. We're not fools and we listen to the users. Many times we have changed features on the site to please the users. It's just that for now we don't make compromises with the ranting stuff.

[jamination]

i guess we have completely different idea of what a support forum is. enough said. i am just glad that i have this forum to be able to speak my mind.

phil harbath
jamination

[withanar]

I agree with Bernard on this one. For a user-based community like XSIbase to thrive, it's necessary to have good balance between students, new users, and hardened industry veterans. The latter group is the most valuable, but also most difficult to get participation from because they're usually the busiest. The students and industry neophytes are important too because they re-introduce the excitement and fun that's often lost when you've been doing something for a long time.

For the most part, posts that come off as insultory or whiny about features, bugs, or desires aren't coming from the industry pros. Too much of that kind of tone will quickly drive them away, I've seen it happen to a number of industry forums over the last 10 years.

[ggg]

jihad airobot (http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=5384) post on XSIbase :surprised

[GavinG]

No! I thought i escaped this horrid at the base....
:cry:


Gav

[gmask]

Originally posted by ggg
jihad airobot (http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=5384) post on XSIbase :surprised

Yeah that post is disturbing.. should it be left up for all to laugh at or gotten rid of because it is so embarrasing to think that somebody might actually have the guts or simple naiveness to post such an awful image.

[JDex]

Holy freakin sh!t... that is rediculous... this is the first time I ever actually roflmao... That Jihad Airbot rules...

[jamination]

perhaps they need a "take5" area.

phil harbath

[GavinG]

For the sake of all our sanity and anything holy to the 3D world..lets just pretend that piece never happened ;)

Gav

[Atyss]

Originally posted by gmask
Yeah that post is disturbing.. should it be left up for all to laugh at or gotten rid of because it is so embarrasing to think that somebody might actually have the guts or simple naiveness to post such an awful image.

Well you are quite right there. How to react to this is a big dilemma, especially that when I firstt locked the thread, this discussion
http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=5400
was started by the plane thread starter.

On one hand I'm tempted to laugh because we got completely fool, on the other hand the havoc it brought is unacceptable!

Anyway why bother anymore? The month is over, so is the contest, and tomorrow all the threads will be removed :twisted:


Cheers
Bernard

[JDex]

Damn Bernard... looks like you had a rough day... jeez, I had no idea all that went on in the background... that little sh!t really did reak some havoc. Part of me hopes you revoked his membership, but really - part of me has to laugh.

Cheers... have a beer and a good day tommorrow.

[gmask]

Originally posted by Atyss
On one hand I'm tempted to laugh because we got completely fool, on the other hand the havoc it brought is unacceptable!

Anyway why bother anymore? The month is over, so is the contest, and tomorrow all the threads will be removed :twisted:


I didn't see that thread before but ..personally I feel that that was the whole point was to put up the flag and make some political statement (one with no real meaning).. if it were up to me I'd delete it no matter what flag it has on it because it is piece of crap and ban the user.

Have you ever noticed that in international sporting events that no matter what country and contestant comes from they are professionakl and have the same rang eof talent as the competition. If a entry for formula one showed up in a box car they'd be disqualified and ejected.


Anywya.. this is not the kin dof thing that whoever was complaining about as it really has nothign to do with people's opinion's about XSI. Too many posts like aerbot though and it will bring down the quality of the site.

[Atyss]

Yep, at the next wrong step, the guy is no longer there :wip:

You have no idea how much stuff we remove overthere. Some people even went to XSI Base to announce a release of mental ray for Maya, ask questions about Cinema4D and Maya, and even ask for XSI cracks (it is very clear in the rules that anything regarding cracks is a taboo). Hell, I even removed some of my own posts because they were too off-topic or unfair!

But don't worry. That thread was the exception. We keep a close on the forum.

Btw, May 16th will be our first anniversary! :beer:



Cheers
Bernard

[KEKS]

I just want to say that I am really happy member of the Base and I can tell you all its the best place for XSI.
Bernard keeps everything under control and at a professional level. I personally try hard to keep it clean but that doesnt mean we dont have fun at the base.

Its better to spend time to answer some serious posts or try to solve a problem then discussing about the stupid posts. I just say remove them and go on :)

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