As softimage not appear on the Autodesk Index,is it still worth to jump into it?
ICE is so powerful, I interested to build a new pipline by it. But we dont have enought development ability here, do you masters know the softimage development schedule in the future?
no one knows AD’s development plans towards Softimage, Maya or 3DSMax.
There’s a ton of stuff you can do in ICE with some looking into the docs and factory nodes.
There’s also a lot of trainign around by now.
So get the trial and dive in 
If you do not have enough development ability, Softimage is definitely a better choice than Maya (which can do next to nothing without a ton of scripting/plugins etc).
Autodesk only just now finally added official bug reporting, so there is a little bit more appearance of soft on the Autodesk site:
http://xsisupport.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/report-a-softimage-bug/
There was also a very nice move by Chris Chia (from the Softimage team) on xsibase where he called for bug submissions.
Unfortunately, there is no official roadmap by Autodesk (they aren’t allowed to tell), but I am optimistic for future development.
thanks for your reply.
I noticed that SI don’t have a fine Fluid solve yet (shaded smoke, fire, fluid driven etc.)
so any suggestions?
For fluids check these 2 options:
http://www.exocortex.com/plugins/slipstreamvx
http://www.mootzoid.com/wb/pages/softimagexsi/emfluid4.php
Autodesk is a giant corporation. For the most part it appears as if the management at the top haven’t got a clue what Softimage even is, so don’t ever expect it to be treated as much more than a plug-in to Maya.
However, the actual team of people behind Softimage and the community is great. 3rd party ICE compounds come out all the time and can be just amazing.
But Autodesk the corporation seems to exist to simply squeeze every penny they can out of software without really trying to innovate much. They remind me a lot of Microsoft in the late 80’s and early 90’s…
-Paul
The fact that Softimage is buried so far in the Autodesk site is more indicative of their heads buried in their own butts, than it is any shortcoming of Softimage.
Softimage is the best 3D package they have.
Softimage is going to be around for a long time…maybe longer!
And to be fair, when I goto www.autodesk.com it takes me to usa.autodesk.com.
Other than a few headlines and their “top” offerings (Max, Maya, Autocad, Inventor, sketchbook), there are lots of flagship products missing from there.
To name a few that are still big earners: smoke, flame, buzzsaw, and vault are exceptional products, but they don’t require the web-facing attention or marketing. You can still find the product or just google it.
I think Softimage and Houdini have the best marketing tool ever, artists and devs with big smirky knowing grins on their faces. They don’t really converse with each other, just slowly nod and smile.
Also, What adrencg said.
This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.
you told very well , thanks!