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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opoppopopp
- Posts: 213
- Joined: 16 Jun 2009, 04:23
Re: Cycles for Softimage
But I doubt some of the changes will happen only on the Blender side, not the Cycle API...
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gaboraa
- Posts: 317
- Joined: 16 Apr 2010, 21:14
Re: Cycles for Softimage
It seems Sycles does not count user normals when rendering a mesh or am I missing something?
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I3D
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
Honestly Shekn I don't like this product and I demand a refund! Shame on you 
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I3D
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- Skype: ironic3d
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Ohh and it rendered in 2 minutes at 1920x1080 on my laptop with GeForce GTX 1650. Awful, just awful!
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I3D
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
For those who want to play with the scene, here it is: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjPoVqFSeGUDiqYy48u ... Q?e=kfOW2s
You'll need to download OCIO ACES from https://github.com/colour-science/OpenColorIO-Configs. Backup the whole Filmic folder from "C:\Users\xxx\Autodesk\Softimage_xxx\Addons\Sycles\Data\ColorManagement" replace the folder with the content of "aces_1.2" from the repo. Setup your color management for ACES and view to sRGB
You'll need to download OCIO ACES from https://github.com/colour-science/OpenColorIO-Configs. Backup the whole Filmic folder from "C:\Users\xxx\Autodesk\Softimage_xxx\Addons\Sycles\Data\ColorManagement" replace the folder with the content of "aces_1.2" from the repo. Setup your color management for ACES and view to sRGB
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gaboraa
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
Ok, found out how to take normals into account when rendering billboards: cycTextureCoordinate > Normals > Leaf Shader or whatever node you need to usegaboraa wrote: 13 May 2021, 18:38 It seems Sycles does not count user normals when rendering a mesh or am I missing something?
Last edited by gaboraa on 14 May 2021, 06:48, edited 2 times in total.
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gaboraa
- Posts: 317
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
Wow, looks insane!I3D wrote: 14 May 2021, 00:57 Honestly Shekn I don't like this product and I demand a refund! Shame on you
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Maximus
- Posts: 1121
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
make sure you use also your cpu with the gpu, it speeds up the rendering process, also change the bucket size to 128, not 32. Default bucket size for maximum performance with GPU rendering is 128.
it rendered in 1 min and 15s on my 5950x with 2x 1080.
it rendered in 1 min and 15s on my 5950x with 2x 1080.
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SPJ
- Posts: 75
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
This is dead slick!I3D wrote: 14 May 2021, 00:57 Honestly Shekn I don't like this product and I demand a refund! Shame on you
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SPJ
- Posts: 75
- Joined: 14 Jun 2014, 13:38
Re: Cycles for Softimage
This is a fantastic tip. The scene I am currently working on went from 1m 29s @ 32x32 to 49s @ 128x128. This will save me a lot of time. I'm using a 1050 Ti and CPU rendering.Maximus wrote: 14 May 2021, 08:18 make sure you use also your cpu with the gpu, it speeds up the rendering process, also change the bucket size to 128, not 32. Default bucket size for maximum performance with GPU rendering is 128.
it rendered in 1 min and 15s on my 5950x with 2x 1080.
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SPJ
- Posts: 75
- Joined: 14 Jun 2014, 13:38
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I'm having a problem with accessing ICE attributes when rendering with Sycles. Perhaps I am setting it up incorrectly, but when trying to access the particles color it is rendering out as black. It's like the color value is not reaching the shader or the renderer. I'm using an emission material so that should rule out lighting problems. Anyone got any ideas or seen this before?
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I3D
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thanks Maximus, I wasn't aware that you could mix both modes!
Maximus wrote: 14 May 2021, 08:18 make sure you use also your cpu with the gpu, it speeds up the rendering process, also change the bucket size to 128, not 32. Default bucket size for maximum performance with GPU rendering is 128.
it rendered in 1 min and 15s on my 5950x with 2x 1080.
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I3D
- Posts: 122
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- Skype: ironic3d
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Hey SPJ
Navigate to page 29 from this thread, you'll see a post by me asking about this and two posts down there is an example from Shekn with an explanation on how it is done.
Navigate to page 29 from this thread, you'll see a post by me asking about this and two posts down there is an example from Shekn with an explanation on how it is done.
SPJ wrote: 18 May 2021, 10:12 I'm having a problem with accessing ICE attributes when rendering with Sycles. Perhaps I am setting it up incorrectly, but when trying to access the particles color it is rendering out as black. It's like the color value is not reaching the shader or the renderer. I'm using an emission material so that should rule out lighting problems. Anyone got any ideas or seen this before?
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SPJ
- Posts: 75
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
That did the trick to fix it, thank you.I3D wrote: 19 May 2021, 01:44 Hey SPJ
Navigate to page 29 from this thread, you'll see a post by me asking about this and two posts down there is an example from Shekn with an explanation on how it is done.
SPJ wrote: 18 May 2021, 10:12 I'm having a problem with accessing ICE attributes when rendering with Sycles. Perhaps I am setting it up incorrectly, but when trying to access the particles color it is rendering out as black. It's like the color value is not reaching the shader or the renderer. I'm using an emission material so that should rule out lighting problems. Anyone got any ideas or seen this before?
I've been trying to render a scene with 26,000 particles, each with their own random colour. With the option "Use Pointcloud Attributes for Instances" unticked, the scene renders pretty much right away, albeit with all particles black. When I tick the option, on each frame there is a long process before Cycles begins to render, and sometimes it just hangs and never renders the frame at all. I guess this pause is when all the ICE attributes are passed to Cycles?
Sometimes it would render a few frames before the hang, sometimes it will do 10-20 frames before hanging. I wondered if it is a memory issue, but I don't run out of system RAM, using around 3GB at peak. I've tried altering the tile size between 128x128 -> 32x32. I've tried both CPU+GPU, CPU only and GPU only. I haven't noticed a definitive pattern to the instability. If I get past the period of pre-processing and get to rendering any frames, I would say that GPU only rendering seems to soldier on for longer before an eventual hang during the pre-processing of a subsequent frame.
I've tried halving the point count and still get instability. it's a drastic enough drop in the point count that I think it rules out my memory running out, but I don't really know what conclusion to draw in all honesty.
So it's been a bit of a limp more than a sprint. I've managed to sheppard XSI through all the frames I need by sitting with the render and just restarting it from the last frame that came out when it hangs. But that's not how I really want to be working.
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I3D
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Re: Cycles for Softimage
Sadly there is not much anyone can do to resolve the shortcomings with XSI anymore. Shekn did a monumental work to get Cycles ported to XSI. But stuff like the particles will require testing and to get to all situations. Perhaps you can message him or raise an issue on his github repo with this issue and provide him with a sample scene file for him to test. A scene with 1M+ polygons will be better than than 26K particles in this case.
Like you said, it is limping rather than sprinting.
Like you said, it is limping rather than sprinting.
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Short answer: you can get particle color by using cycObjectInfo node. For particles this attribute contains actual particle color. Look at the screen.
More details. When turn ON the parameter "Use Pointcloud Attributes for Instances", then all spheres for particles converted to individual objects, but not instances of one sphere object. So, many particles equals to many individual meshes, and that's why the render may crash (or prepare at very long time). Some times ago developers of the Cycles implement the support of individual colors for instances. And now you can render instances of one mesh with different colors. Default cycAttribute node allows to obtain attributes of the mesh. For different instances the value of these attributes are the same. But the node cycObjectInfo return some special attributes for individual objects (even if these objects are instances of the same mesh).
More details. When turn ON the parameter "Use Pointcloud Attributes for Instances", then all spheres for particles converted to individual objects, but not instances of one sphere object. So, many particles equals to many individual meshes, and that's why the render may crash (or prepare at very long time). Some times ago developers of the Cycles implement the support of individual colors for instances. And now you can render instances of one mesh with different colors. Default cycAttribute node allows to obtain attributes of the mesh. For different instances the value of these attributes are the same. But the node cycObjectInfo return some special attributes for individual objects (even if these objects are instances of the same mesh).
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