SPOILER ALERT - general Softimage 2013 description

[ActionArt]

I really feel that Softimage needs some basic sculpting brushes ala modo, while I model in modo I do the shape modeling in Softimage, and would love to see a smooth, pinch and push brush.

Yes indeed. Actually it would be really nice if they just integrated Mudbox completely. Having it as one tool would be pretty nice.

[Chris_TC]

And just for the sake of the universe, why would someone use XSI for arch/viz when clearly there're other better solutions for this.

I have a copy of 3ds 2012 at work, but I use Softimage for just about anything. We do a lot of arch viz.

[McNistor]

As I said, I expected people to disagree and that's fine, we can't agree on everything, it would be counter productive I think.
You can use XSI for whatever you want, that is obvious. What is also obvious is that XSI was never and it still isn't a 3d app oriented towards archviz and frankly I don't want it to be. Anyway, what I or you want is often irrelevant to... umm... I'll stop here I think.

[IslandDreamer]

Somewhat off topic, but in keeping with "the grass is always greener" conversations: I decided to give Modo 601 a serious look and it has already crashed on me a half dozen times while following the basic "building and rendering a coffee mug" tutorial. Blech!

[Nizar]

Somewhat off topic, but in keeping with "the grass is always greener" conversations: I decided to give Modo 601 a serious look and it has already crashed on me a half dozen times while following the basic "building and rendering a coffee mug" tutorial. Blech!

OT: I did three work with modo, from start to finish (modelling, uvmap, rendering and paint (+photoshop), only one crash, and after the crash when launched again modo, the software successful recuperated the crashed scene. Modo is really sensible at your ram (a single memory error make it in a total panic). Also, ATI drivers (not updated) make he really crazy. I can affirm it is stable for work, more stable than maya in my experience, only for my purpose, need a more strong viewport and less crazy/overcomplicated snapping feature.

I'll wait to test this softimage release. Don't need at all crowd, but want play with it. Hope external plugin can fit some my others desired (and I think improved SDK make this more simple)

[IslandDreamer]

@Nizar Were you working with 601? And your pc has an ATI card? Maybe the issue is the Nvidia driver.

[Mathaeus]

Somewhat off topic, but in keeping with "the grass is always greener" conversations: I decided to give Modo 601 a serious look and it has already crashed on me a half dozen times while following the basic "building and rendering a coffee mug" tutorial. Blech!

each 3d app has a weak moments. If you're using it for a while, having positive approach, you just learn to avoid problems. After some time, you don't even know how many 'avoiding behaviors' you have... That's something to discover again when trying teach someone.
Even ICE compounds. Many times I've looked with *fear*, how someone used my ICE stuff, in a way I wouldn't even dare to try And it worked, somehow.

Back to topic, for me, that crowd FX stuff in SI 2013 is really appealing, something soooo Softimage like... Would be nice to see close-up of these motion blends, for me this is more interesting than huge numbers. And of course I've always been a fan of mr. Laforge products

[j3st3r]

Someone from Softimage could confirm if I can use the bone primitive properly for building chains? Can I remove sucha bone from a chain? To me one of the biggest problems is the fact, that I had to rebuild the chain if I wanted to remove a bone.

Though I was expecting more low level updates, like
UV Editor - proportional transforms doesn't affect neighboring UV islands; Symmetry Editing; displaying mirrored UV islands; seamlessly integrated Unfold (like no need to have Unfold operator)
Modeling - Symmetry modeling; more precise bevel; inset
Normal maps, specular maps on viewport for game authoring
Better (way better) ultimapper; cage support


I think it'll be a good release, and not everyone can be satisfied, it's impossible. I'm waiting the 12 of April !

[Firebird]

grahamef
Yes, you can manipulate a mesh, etc., in HQ mode.

And just to clarify, you don't need to connect RT shaders. The standard shaders have been adapted to work automatically. For custom or third-party shaders, you would need a corresponding MetaSL block to emulate their functionality.

Thanks for the info.

And yes I know that you dont need to connect RT shaders for the HQV I meant something different in my post but maybe it wasnt clear enough because Im not nativ english speaking so sometimes its not so easy to explain it short but clear.(You might reread my post with that in mind to understand it )

But anyway not so important as the topic moved on already.

[EricTRocks]

Someone from Softimage could confirm if I can use the bone primitive properly for building chains? Can I remove sucha bone from a chain? To me one of the biggest problems is the fact, that I had to rebuild the chain if I wanted to remove a bone.

Using the Draw Bones menu option allows you to draw bone primitive objects that are parented to each other. The IK is not added to it and is simple an FK hierarchy. You can translate them and they pull apart. It is up to you to do an ICE graph to get any proper behavior out of it other than the simple FK setup.

[Kzin]

the most interesting part of the new viewport ist the metasl thing.
metasl shaders can render directly in mr or iray or realtime.
the future looks like this, you create your metasl shader in rendertree (integrated mental mill is required) and you can use this shader without conversion in the viewport and also in final render. vray will also support metasl, so good news for all vray fans.
mental mill shader can also be exported, so you can use them in max or maya. the question is how long will it take for ad to implement these features feature complete. ;)

[EricTRocks]

I say down with Mental Ray! I want Arnold as a choice for standard renderer!

[ace63]

There is so much choice out there I guess no one should have to care about mental ray anymore.
VRay is actually pretty good aswell.

[Hirazi Blue]

While it is obviously true there is more choice around, which just as obviously is a good thing, nVidia/Autodesk/Softimage shouldn't be able to use this as an excuse not to take care of the built-in renderer anymore/enough. The "a third-party does this already/better" defense should IMHO not be applicable anyhow, but especially not with something as essential as rendering. I pay enough for Softimage as it is and sadly I cannot afford VRay or Arnold. But this is not about me, Autodesk/Softimage could switch to another on-board renderer or they could speed up further/better development of Mental Ray along. I dare say, Autodesk represents a decent amount of seats, they should have some clout.
;)

[bottleofram]

re viewport enhancements:
It is true they were high in demand, but you have to keep in mind that different people mean different things by that. I do various things but mostly modeling and animation. I value viewport performance over quality any day of the week - thats one of the things that drew me over to softimage. So, when someone like me says a "better viewport", thats exactly what he means - a better one, not a new one. Viewing layered textures, approximated shadows and AO, normal maps and anti-aliased objects/wireframes etc. in an existing viewport while keeping it blazing fast is what some of us would appreciate far more than a near-accurate render representation with choppy orbiting and navigation. On top of that, we've seen the troubles of VP2.0 and Nitrous developments - im still not sure they are ready for extensive usage...

Of course its arrogant to suggest HQV is useless. Maybe we just aren't able to judge how much work was put into it, so the fact that some of our personal problems (after years of ICE focus there are many, trust me) weren't addressed, bothers us too much.

That quote from AREA about softimage being a "sophisticated visual effects" tool while max and maya are "3D animation, modeling, visual effects, motion graphics, and rendering" packages doesn't help either. Yeah... we're all sick of it!

[Firebird]

Yep thats exactly what I meant about the viewport. I still like the Idea of HQV and it makes sense to me and is a nice feature, but also would like to see a bit love for the current "standard" viewports.(again if even possible)

And for the last part..
I also dislike it when Softimage never gets mention to be able to /model/texture/render.
But I don't think this marketing scheme will change anytime soon... sadly.