Cycles for Softimage
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Sycles 2.4.1 V 2.4.1 released August 2026 —
This is a full integration of the Blender Cycles renderer into XSI. Version 2.4 is compiled with Cycles 5.3 (state of July 2026). The second generation of the addon (since 2.0) is a complete rewrite and works with Softimage 2015 SP2.
New since version 2.1.3 (from the github release notes): 2.4.1: fixed incorrect transforms of instances when the master model has rotation or scale, repacked with missing DLLs 2.4: Cycles 5.3. New Alpha parameter for the ImageTexture node, Sky Texture with Single and Multiple Scattering models, Thin Film for Metallic and Glass BSDF, new Raycast and Scene Time nodes, OSL custom camera, Linear 3D curve shape (also as per-object override), Geometry Approximation mode for NURBS surfaces, Render Time pass (CPU), texture optimisation (resolution, limit, tx texture cache) and a detailed scene export timing log 2.4: renders MaterialX shader trees from the MaterialXSI addon (converted to OSL). Note: OSL shading works on CPU render devices only 2.3.x: Cycles 4.5, OSL support is back, new Metallic BSDF and Set Normal nodes, phase function for Scatter Volume, Diffuse Roughness for Principled BSDF, more Noise Texture types, subdivision with motion deform, per-frame texture images, rendering of NURBS surfaces and curves (via custom properties), tile rendering, fixed shadow catcher, vector input ports for OSL shaders 2.2.x: nodes of Blender 4.3 (Ray Portal BSDF, Sheen BSDF, Gabor Texture, redesigned Principled BSDF), current Blender OCIO color profiles, custom velocity grids for VDB primitives, Particle Info node fed by ICE attributes, denoising of the final passes with OIDN or OptiX
Supported Softimage features (quoted from the download page):
Polygon meshes and hair geometry Texture coordinates Vertex colors Shaderball preview. For materials, shader nodes and texture nodes Basic limited support of the following built-in Softimage shader nodes: Phong, Lambert, Hair Shading, Image, converters between vector, color and scalar Ambience global environment light Limited support of built-in Softimage light sources Model instances ICE strands geometry ICE pointcloud instances ICE geometry attributes (vector, color and scalar) with context per-point and per-object Volume rendering. In particular supports emFluid, Explosia FX and openVDB for Softimage volumes Special VDB Primitive for rendering vdbs without ICE Output multilayered exr file with all rendered passes Rendermaps
The following features from Cycles itself are supported: CPU and GPU rendering. In particular multidevices are supported. This allows you to use cpu and gpu simultaneously. The libraries for GPU rendering are included in the package. All Cycles shader nodes OSL shaders OpenColorIO profiles (Blender profile included) All Cycles output passes (Combined, Depth, Normal and so on) Color and value shader AOVs Lightgroups Cycles camera properties, in particular all panorama modes Cycles light sources Denoising by using Open Image Denoise and OptiX denoiser
For more information, full documentation and a list of the available Cycles nodes see the download page linked below. There is no local backup because the addon is still frequently updated - the plugin can be downloaded on Shekn's github releases. The source code is available on github there as well.
This is a full integration of the Blender Cycles renderer into XSI. Version 2.4 is compiled with Cycles 5.3 (state of July 2026). The second generation of the addon (since 2.0) is a complete rewrite and works with Softimage 2015 SP2.
New since version 2.1.3 (from the github release notes): 2.4.1: fixed incorrect transforms of instances when the master model has rotation or scale, repacked with missing DLLs 2.4: Cycles 5.3. New Alpha parameter for the ImageTexture node, Sky Texture with Single and Multiple Scattering models, Thin Film for Metallic and Glass BSDF, new Raycast and Scene Time nodes, OSL custom camera, Linear 3D curve shape (also as per-object override), Geometry Approximation mode for NURBS surfaces, Render Time pass (CPU), texture optimisation (resolution, limit, tx texture cache) and a detailed scene export timing log 2.4: renders MaterialX shader trees from the MaterialXSI addon (converted to OSL). Note: OSL shading works on CPU render devices only 2.3.x: Cycles 4.5, OSL support is back, new Metallic BSDF and Set Normal nodes, phase function for Scatter Volume, Diffuse Roughness for Principled BSDF, more Noise Texture types, subdivision with motion deform, per-frame texture images, rendering of NURBS surfaces and curves (via custom properties), tile rendering, fixed shadow catcher, vector input ports for OSL shaders 2.2.x: nodes of Blender 4.3 (Ray Portal BSDF, Sheen BSDF, Gabor Texture, redesigned Principled BSDF), current Blender OCIO color profiles, custom velocity grids for VDB primitives, Particle Info node fed by ICE attributes, denoising of the final passes with OIDN or OptiX
Supported Softimage features (quoted from the download page):
Polygon meshes and hair geometry Texture coordinates Vertex colors Shaderball preview. For materials, shader nodes and texture nodes Basic limited support of the following built-in Softimage shader nodes: Phong, Lambert, Hair Shading, Image, converters between vector, color and scalar Ambience global environment light Limited support of built-in Softimage light sources Model instances ICE strands geometry ICE pointcloud instances ICE geometry attributes (vector, color and scalar) with context per-point and per-object Volume rendering. In particular supports emFluid, Explosia FX and openVDB for Softimage volumes Special VDB Primitive for rendering vdbs without ICE Output multilayered exr file with all rendered passes Rendermaps
The following features from Cycles itself are supported: CPU and GPU rendering. In particular multidevices are supported. This allows you to use cpu and gpu simultaneously. The libraries for GPU rendering are included in the package. All Cycles shader nodes OSL shaders OpenColorIO profiles (Blender profile included) All Cycles output passes (Combined, Depth, Normal and so on) Color and value shader AOVs Lightgroups Cycles camera properties, in particular all panorama modes Cycles light sources Denoising by using Open Image Denoise and OptiX denoiser
For more information, full documentation and a list of the available Cycles nodes see the download page linked below. There is no local backup because the addon is still frequently updated - the plugin can be downloaded on Shekn's github releases. The source code is available on github there as well.
download page: https://ssoftadd.github.io/syclesSecondGenPage.html / wiki with tutorials / all of Shekn's plugins / author on vimeo / si-community thread
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Draise
- Posts: 894
- Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 18:48
- Skype: ondraise
- Location: Colombia
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I am getting crashes when I have Log Render Time activated.
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Draise, Rray and Funky75, is it right, that the previous version (1.3.1) works correctly without crashes and other similar bags? I don't know why it happens and can't reproduce it in other machines. Crash with LogRenderTime enabled is very strange, because when this parameter disabled the actual render time is calculated whatever. The only difference that in this case the value is not logged to the Softimage console. About rray's bug: I will try to compile new version of Cycles and will build the addon with it. May be this will fix the bug.
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rray
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- Location: Bonn, Germany
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I only could find Sycles 1.2 - which works fine!
On my home pc (i7-980x with gtx980ti), Sycles 1.4 crashes when starting the render with default options (crash in cyclesRenderer.dll trying to access memory position 0x000000010) both GPU and CPU mode.
**edit1** found 1.3.1 (sort of - replaced the 1.4 cyclesRenderer.dll with the dll you posted earlier) - doesn't crash and doesn't show stripes either.
**edit2** after uninstalling and reinstalling 1.4 it doesn't crash any more but renders everything black
On my home pc (i7-980x with gtx980ti), Sycles 1.4 crashes when starting the render with default options (crash in cyclesRenderer.dll trying to access memory position 0x000000010) both GPU and CPU mode.
**edit1** found 1.3.1 (sort of - replaced the 1.4 cyclesRenderer.dll with the dll you posted earlier) - doesn't crash and doesn't show stripes either.
**edit2** after uninstalling and reinstalling 1.4 it doesn't crash any more but renders everything black
Last edited by rray on 06 Oct 2017, 21:45, edited 1 time in total.
softimage resources section updated Sep 26th 2026
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Draise
- Posts: 894
- Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 18:48
- Skype: ondraise
- Location: Colombia
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Yeah, scratch what I just said. I will try troubleshoot what I was doing and test out 1.3 too. To be honest I hadn't tried both and was just excited on the concept.
Update: Tried 1.3, it rendered all fine. Did basic setup. Now will switch to 1.4
Test scene: grid with Glossy, torus with Diffuse, one Sun Lamp, setting all on default (other than *.png file change and put Scene Renderer to Cycles)
Update: Tried 1.3, it rendered all fine. Did basic setup. Now will switch to 1.4
Test scene: grid with Glossy, torus with Diffuse, one Sun Lamp, setting all on default (other than *.png file change and put Scene Renderer to Cycles)
Last edited by Draise on 06 Oct 2017, 22:31, edited 1 time in total.
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Draise
- Posts: 894
- Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 18:48
- Skype: ondraise
- Location: Colombia
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Setup: i7 2600K 3.4ghz, GTX 1060 Xtreme edition, 16 DDR3 ram, Softimage 2015 SP2
Variables = Changed Scene Renderer to Cycles. Changed scene file output to *.png
Ok, 1.4 renders on CPU, default everything else, test scene: grid with Glossy, torus with Diffuse, one Sun lamp. 32x32 tilesize per default = Black render.
GPU renders, changed tilesize 512x512 tiles (bigger for GPU, the better), other settings on default = Black render.
GPU renders with same settings + denoiser = Softimage crash
Variables = Changed Scene Renderer to Cycles. Changed scene file output to *.png
Ok, 1.4 renders on CPU, default everything else, test scene: grid with Glossy, torus with Diffuse, one Sun lamp. 32x32 tilesize per default = Black render.
GPU renders, changed tilesize 512x512 tiles (bigger for GPU, the better), other settings on default = Black render.
GPU renders with same settings + denoiser = Softimage crash
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thank you for reports. I will try to understand why it happens.
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Bennyhase
- Posts: 31
- Joined: 05 Jul 2013, 15:41
- Location: Munich
Re: Cycles for Softimage
So, tried this evening this awesome project. But i´ve also same problems like Draise except GPU, both modes CPU and GPU will work without crashes, but i´ve the same weird results. Had disconnected all other plugins or workgroups, but will not work. Any news ? WOuld be nice to experiment with Cycles...
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Draise
- Posts: 894
- Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 18:48
- Skype: ondraise
- Location: Colombia
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I would donate to paypal to help develop this if you need some... extra time to do it?
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Hirazi Blue
- Administrator
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rray
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- Location: Bonn, Germany
Re: Cycles for Softimage
you can still find it on git https://github.com/ssoftadd/SSoftAdd.gi ... r/download
softimage resources section updated Sep 26th 2026
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Hirazi Blue
- Administrator
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- Joined: 04 Jun 2009, 10:15
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Aha. Thanks! 
Edit: why does the wink-smilie not work anymore?
Edit: why does the wink-smilie not work anymore?
Stay safe, sane & healthy!
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rray
- Moderator
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- Joined: 26 Sep 2009, 13:51
- Location: Bonn, Germany
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Ow! that's not right. Added to my todo list.
__
I think it's fixed issue was that ; ) is substring of ; ; ) which is 
which I just changed into 9 ) 
__
I think it's fixed issue was that
; ) is substring of ; ; ) which is which I just changed into 9 ) softimage resources section updated Sep 26th 2026
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jonmoore
- Posts: 153
- Joined: 30 Jul 2016, 16:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Has 1.4 been fixed yet or is it best to install 1.3?
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I need more time to fix 1.4. Use 1.3 if it works correctly. Direct link: https://ssoftadd.github.io/download/Syc ... 1.xsiaddon
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jonmoore
- Posts: 153
- Joined: 30 Jul 2016, 16:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thanks for info. I'll probably wait for the fix as I already use Redshift and I was specifically looking to compare the GPU capabilities of Cycles (I've had a play with the C4D version and it's particularly useful with particles; which was to be expected, seeing as it's a partner product to X-Particles, but the engine is still Cycles).Shekn wrote: 12 Oct 2017, 13:59 I need more time to fix 1.4. Use 1.3 if it works correctly. Direct link: https://ssoftadd.github.io/download/Syc ... 1.xsiaddon
Fantastic work so far. Pretty certain you've brought a fresh boost of inspiration to a number of XSI artists.
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Draise
- Posts: 894
- Joined: 09 Oct 2012, 18:48
- Skype: ondraise
- Location: Colombia
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thanks for doing this. You should be able to take all the time you need.Shekn wrote: 12 Oct 2017, 13:59 I need more time to fix 1.4. Use 1.3 if it works correctly. Direct link: https://ssoftadd.github.io/download/Syc ... 1.xsiaddon