Softimage XSI 5.0

#41 Rock on Matt! Are you going to be making any announcements at IGC ? ;-)

#42 Matt, when are you planning on releasing the XSI exporters?

#43 @Alex: Yes, the new Max 7 pro exporter and XSI exporters were announced at IGC. :o)

Beta 1 of the XSI exporters should hit testers as early next week, look for an updated .plan in the next few days.

#44 I own gameSpace and am very curious about the new version SoftImage XSI. Does anyone have experience with both? What can you tell me about the differences and what your preferences are?

How is SoftImage for doing low poly work and exporting to .x format?

#45 @Tricky, I own Truespace 6.6 (which is the big brother of Gamespace). After I started learning XSI, I never wanted to use Truespace again. There is no comparison really. Check out these articles posted up above, for a "tour"

www.softimage.com/Products/Xsi/v5/nfvt/default.asp
www.edharriss.com/xsi/version5.htm

#46 You can export to .x format from XSI using a plugin. There's also a .fx plugin for exporting shaders for DirectX. You can download a fully functional demo that works for 30 days.

#47 The only 'negative' comment I have heard about XSI, is the customer service...apparently it isn't too good(unless someone just had a bad day). Apparently you can't get your money back when purchasing Foundation (in the fine print); but I'm not sure why you would try to get your money back...if you down;oaded the demo and it worked fine on your computer. Anyways, just a few items from the grapevine.

I myself plan to download the demo (V. 5), and have a look. Though we can't afford it now, I have included XSI in my list of Modelers to shop for.

-Keith

#48 Actually there is NO customer service [edit: no tech support, that is] unless you buy a support contract ;-). But check out xsibase.com forums ; that's where I go with all my weird questions. For customer service; I called Softimage once, they answer the phone in French but they do speak good English. They were able to answer my credit card/billing question no problem.

The XSI documentation is totally awesome. It's got to be the best software tech writing I've ever seen. I also really recommend the Softimage Production Series 5 DVD training kit. It's worth the $.

But about the Foundation Licenses- I read that it is non-transferrable also; it's a named-user license.

But it's not uncommon for software purchases to be non-refundable - especially retail buys.

#49 The Training series DID look top-notch. Yes, I get most of my questions answered in the forums; or books/videos. It just seems that they should be a bit more helpful. I imagine the quality of service increases with the purchase of Essentials, or Advanced?:)

Although from the comparison charts, most of what us 'Game artists' need can be found in Foundation. The Zbrush importer really caught my eye; I had wanted to do some Non-Game animation sequences with some stuff created in Zbrush. I downloaded XSI 4.2 a while ago, but was moving at the time, so I hadn't had a chance to really sit down with it. Have to do that this time.

-Keith

#50 Maintenance for Essentials costs $729 /yr. I'm sure you can expect good support for that price.

#51 Wow, for that price we'd better get good service!

#52 Matt Summers
Will the exporters work with XSI foundation, essentials, and advanced

#53 Matt
I'm trying to make an expoertr for a program I have. What prgram should I use and are there any books that can help me do this.

#54 Matt
I'm trying to make an exporter for a program I have. What prgram should I use and are there any books that can help me do this.

#55 Yes, all flavors of XSI are supported for both 4.x & 5.0 versions.

#56 Matt
The exporter I'm working on is not XSI. Its for Real Flow.

#57 Maurice go do what Matt did and dig through the existing exporter code that you have access to on CVS (such as DSTPlus) and then make a plugin for your tool. There is no easy way to do this aside from using the resources that you have available to you and a lot of hard work.

#58 Maurice,
Since Realflow supports XSI; once Matt's exporter is released, you should be able to import your scenes into XSI, then export them to dts.
Concerning programs and books, you really just need to be comfortable enough with C++, OOP, data structures (DAGs, trees), and 3d graphics code to understand the code in DTSSDK, DTSSDKPlus, and the exporters, and to then write something similar to them using your own application's plugin architecture. Even if you don't know C++ that well, its worth browsing through them just for the educational experience!

#59 Will the I ba able to use the Showtool pro with the XSI

#60 Thats a silly question... :) of coarse you can use showtool pro with DTS files exported from XSI. The exporter wouldn't be very useful if you couldnt. :P