New XSI Mod Tool Questions

#1

If you have questions about the new Mod Tool, or are using the Mod Tool and have questions about how something works… please post to this thread.

The community will do it’s best, as always to help, but please be aware that all XSI users that frequent this community have only had the opportunity to use this new version of XSI as long as you, and many, if not most use the non-free version - so we may not have the answer already.

I’ll be testing this tool out over the next few months, and will try to answer Mod Tool questions where I can.

#2

Hello JDex, i’m working for some time in a project for a realtime application, and our pipeline is basicly XSI---->XNA . So far i never gave 2cents to mod tool, but since i saw the new version features, specially the integration with xna, i’m really interested to know more about it. i think it could accelerate our pipeline a lot!
The mod tool link in softimage is very cool, ,but in the videos section there’s still nothing related to xna or in Noesis webpage … do u have any idea where can i find any videos or info about xna and mod tool? i could only found some interesting info, in the help file of mod tool…
I hope u can help me out, ty in advance!

#3

If you check there are some tutorial about the mod tool ( bomb modeling ) and other interesting stuff, just for beginners.
After you’ve installed Mod tool, open it and you’ll find a window with the tutorials and features of Mod tool.

About modeling with Mod tool is very similar with modeling with XSI 6, but some features are missing…basically if you know XSI 6 you know Mod Tool very well!

About XNA I found a lot of website with a lot of tutorial ( for windows and Xbox360 ).
Try this
http://www.xnaresources.com/
and check the links, there are a lot of website with a lot of resources and videotutorial…
I’ve downloaded the resource about the racing car and is really cool, you can modify anything you want with XNA! Check out the tutorial and the XNA guide ( F1 of course ), very interesting stuff in there…

#4

I was just wondering. Is Mod tool very similar to say, XSI advanced/essentials/foundation?

Since i don’t have too much time to play around with the 30 day trial (It’ll run out by the time i get anyway.:p)
So i was wondering if this could be considered an unlimited trial kind of thing for XSI?

Great application! I’m a Maya user (I love maya, and i’m really liking some features XSI has.)

#5

I’m pretty much in the same boat and I downloaded it for that reason.
Seems it can switch between MOD mode and XSI mode and can save upto 64k-ish poly models.

I’m just sitting down watching the intro vids for now.

#6

It has some of the features of ESS/ADV and it could be looked at as an updated, no time restriction but limited version of the full app, but there are features that are custom to the Mod Tool (that apparently will be offered as an addon to full app users) and certainly features not included in the Mod tool.

The site gives a pretty good idea of what’s there.

#7

Thanks for taking time out to answer our questions. I’m playing around with the mod tool for the superior high quality realtime display (as advertised at least), but I’m having trouble setting it up…

How do I go about displaying my diffuse, specular, and normal maps in a DX viewport?

#8

If you are using your viewport as DirectX, and if the Mod Tool system is anything like FND, ESS or ADV, then you will need to use only nodes found in the ‘RealTime DirectX’ secion in the render tree…

So to start, you would need to plug a ‘DXDraw’ node to the RealTime aspect of the material just to be able to see your mesh in the viewport. Plugging a ‘DXShade’ node into the ‘DXDraw’ node enables specular / lighting shading effects on your mesh.

To add an actual texture, you will need to add ‘DXTexture’ node into the ‘DXShade’ node. This should help get you started IF this mod tool system is just like the other versions with respect to DirectX viewport modes and its shaders.

Try using XSI Guide (F1? Does Mod tool have this?) and search for ‘directx’… there should be gobs of info on this listed as many sub-topics.

Hope this helps…

Cheers,

NRG

#9

I just downloaded this Mod tool out of curiosity to check it out…( I already have XSI advanced .)

I was rather amazed to find that by switching to pro mode, it’s basically XSI essentials!.
I know it has limitations in terms of what you can export etc, but I still managed to get a full Rigid body dynamics simulation from XSI back into Lightwave via point oven…
Surely that’s not right is it?
Is all this stuff really available or is it somehow detecting I have a licence?

#10

Thanks NRG, that’s the process I’ve been following from the help files. Mod Tool’s been crashing a lot whenever I play around in the render tree, so I thought I might have been doing something wrong…and I came here looking for the idiot proof solution.

Your instructions become vague at the same point the manual does -> specifically setting up normal and specular maps. Only the show up fine… Anyway I’ll fiddle with it some more, and hopefully it works out.

#11

Hehe, I’ve been reading that same type of reaction from other XSI users. Yes it seems I’ve got a stripped down Essentials, and I have no other installs of XSI.

#12

Ok,
Go one then Pooby, give us a tutorial Mate. :deal:

I got through the second tutorial last night, going to have to do it again as got confused over the whole texture ‘item’ being a separate item which didn’t clone so I must of missed a step as the texture ended up stretched over the whole group of cloned objects.

The ‘restrictions’ mentions only certain texture types are allowed and the renderer is limited, can anyone expand on what that means in “real terms” as I am not familiar with the terminology for XSI anyways.

#13

I’ve just downloaded the Mod-Tool, to see how different it is from my copy of Essentials, and if the Mode is set to “XSI Default” (which is recommended if you are assessing with a view to buy), it if very similar.

Being a content creation tool, it looks as though there is very little provision for rendering, and although the texture nodes all seem to be there, a lot don’t appear in the Render Region (preview window), including apparently reflection values.

All in all, it looks as though the Mod-Tool is a great chance to assess XSI until you are thourghly confident in it, except for rendering and advanced materials. Then for these extra areas you can download the 30 day trial of Foundation to find if you want to commit to a purchase.

#14

Go one then Pooby, give us a tutorial Mate. :deal:

It’s not exactly a tutorial, but heres a vid of how to set up a rigid body sim and get it into LW
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/oP457324444/rigidbody.rar.html

#15

Am I understanding this right ? So I can use things like GATOR, MOTOR, Rigid Body Sims in the mod tool and export everything to XSI FND 5.11 to render !!! I hope I’m right! Downloading now…

Thanks,

Felipe

#16

this all sounds rather cool!
rig and animate…send to lw or maya, max
rigid body sims…send to lw…

seems softimage are really going after new/existing 3d app users…free…couldn’t BE cheaper!
i think they’ll get quite a few ‘wanna be’ animators from lightwave over here
to try this out.

#17

Thanks Paul, 'preciate it! :slight_smile:

#18

Yup, cannae argue with that price. :wink:
Great way to attract attention, heck, worked for me. :slight_smile:

#19

The Mod Tool isn’t available for Linux or am I just blind?

#20

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/oP457324444/rigidbody.rar.html

my mod tool has greyed out rigid body buttons…looks like your essentials/advanced liecence
makes that part work in the mod tool…i’ve updated to latest version of mod tool btw.

can someone check it’s not just my install of the mod tool?