Cycles for Softimage

[Maximus]

for some reason when i install the addon the render doesnt appear in the scene render dropdown list. Everything is installed, shaders, and i can use the shaders within the render tree, but i can not select the scene render as Cycles
i've installed the vc redistributable 2019, does it need the 32bit version? i've installed the x64bit

under the plugin manager > sycles (addon) i have a red icon mark on cyclesRenderer.dll

[wireframex]

Hey Maximus,

Just installed the last Cycles addon. Don't have any pb you mention.
Phil

[opoppopopp]

for some reason when i install the addon the render doesnt appear in the scene render dropdown list. Everything is installed, shaders, and i can use the shaders within the render tree, but i can not select the scene render as Cycles
i've installed the vc redistributable 2019, does it need the 32bit version? i've installed the x64bit

under the plugin manager > sycles (addon) i have a red icon mark on cyclesRenderer.dll

I don't think VC redistributable is forward compatible. maybe you ALSO need earlier version, like 2012 etc.

[Maximus]

i fixed it, i had a conflict with another addon, btw anyone knows how to render caustic with this engine within softimage? are they all enabled by default?

[opoppopopp]

i fixed it, i had a conflict with another addon, btw anyone knows how to render caustic with this engine within softimage? are they all enabled by default?

"Caustics in Cycles" is a big topic, with a lot of pros and cons, but all of them are on the Cycles side.

Since this add-on is a very good 1:1 port of Cycles. All the knowledge will translate to XSI very easy.

seek some blender tutorials instead.

[avalon_70]

Great! Thanks so much!

Small update. Version 1.10.2. Download here: https://ssoftadd.github.io/syclesPage.html

What's new:
1. Add adaptive subdivision mode. It controls the density of polygons with respect to camera view. If polygons in some area becomes too small, then it stops subdivide process inside this area and continue in areas, where it needs. Example in the first attached picture. Adaptive mode is faster, but it produce not very accurate result. Example in the second attached picture. Artefacts appears on hard edges. In adaptive mode all normals of polygon corners incident to the same vertex are the same. This produce smooth shading even on hard edges. So, in most cases adaptive mode is works fine, but in some special cases it should be disabled.

2. Add support of the default image shader node. Example in the third attached picture. The renderer recognize only selected settings of this node: the name of uv-coordinates, tiling and different alternate modes. All other settings are ignored.

3. In previous versions, if the shader needs different uv-coordinates of the mesh, then it can access it by using names uv0, uv1 and so on in the node cycUVMap. Now these names are the same as in Softimage (by default Texture_Projection, Texture_Projection1 and so on).

4. Primitive for reading vdb-files (VDBPrimitive) now can read files with respect to current frame. The method is the same as in OpenVDB for Softimage addon. In particular in allows to render animated vdb-s. Details on the tutorial 24 in the manual (https://github.com/ssoftadd/SSoftAdd.gi ... 3_2021.pdf).

5. If the parameter Performance - Logging - Log Statistics in the render settings is ON, then some additional information about rendering process outuput to the console. Use this option carefully, because getting this statistically data in some cases may crash the Softimage (and I don't konw why it happens).

6. I hope that optiX render device should works more stable. In my tests all works fine, but my GPU does not actual rtx-card. At first render with selected optiX device it may start compile some binaries. After that the render works as usual.

7. Now the renderer needs vc redistributable 2019. This is an additional package, which can be downloaded from Microsoft site. This package should be installed to the system. But in most cases it already installed.

Remind, that if someone will use the addon and find any error (bag, crash, wrong result or something similar) - please, write me to PM. Of course, I test the functionality, but errors can occur in any unexpected place.

[Maximus]

by the way i was having some issues with latest nvidia drivers having 2x nvidia 1080 set them in SLI.
i had to disable SLI and the boost in speed using GPU was massive, i think nvidia fucked up something with SLI when you connect the cards in SLI mode.

So if anyone is finding speed issues on GPU try to disable SLI, this engine is as fast as redshift in gpu mode. rlly impressive.

[wireframex]

Hey Maximus

For the most 3D application you need to remove the SLI bridge

here 3 x 2080 GPU

[Maximus]

hey anyone have any idea why these reflections appear in the liquid? i've turn everything off except transmission. it looks like enabling transmission gives you automatically reflections which i do not want.
The liquid should not have reflections but be just a transparent look with scatter volume more like a diffused color.

is this normal behaviour of this engine, or is it a bug?

[Shekn]

It's normal behaviour. At least in Blender the result looks the same (with reflections). But if you set IOR = 1.0, then all reflections will disappear.

[SPJ]

Just dropping a note to say that I've finished a job recently where Mental Ray was just cripplingly slow to the point I thought maybe that would be the straw that broke the camels back and I might have to move on to a new DCC.

I'm so glad to have looked again in the forum after being away for quite a while to see the Sycles port to XSI. I've installed it successfully and I'm now learning how to implement the renderer in my workflow.

Shekn, I think your not inconsiderable efforts here are providing incredible longevity to XSI and should seriously be applauded. I've spent well over an hour pouring through this whole thread from page 1-31 and I'm impressed by how dedicated you are to Sycles.

I don't know if you have a Patreon or something but I have a feeling as I develop my understanding of the Sycles workflow and ultimately decide to move to this renderer as others have, I'd be willing to make a one-off or monthly contribution to you as a way of thanking you and supporting your work.

I have a question for those of you that have made the jump to Sycles. If I have an existing scene with Mental Ray shaders / materials and SI lights. Is it going to be a manual process of switching all the materials and lights to Sycles to get the scene working or is there a clever way to make this more automatic?

[Maximus]

Yo shekn can you drop us some paypal or something so we can contribute?

SPJ, i dont think there is any fast way to convert a whole mental ray scene to cycles, im afraid you have to do it manually.

on another note the only little annoying thing i've found so far on this engine is that when you draw a render region it doesnt start rendering straight away, its like it caches the geometry which is fine, but it starts again after you change non-geometry type like a color in a shader or a light value or anything non related to geometry. While other engines start the render right away, i dont know if im missing some settings but there is a delay sometimes over 5 seconds up to 10 before the render starts.

[xsisoft]

maybe someone will record an extended video course - (paid) or (free) for example - how it was done in the classical mental ray and how to do it in cycles

[xsisoft]

or you can create a channel on YouTube - write a program of interesting questions on (and who understands this - and who has free time - writes lessons) (paid or free)

p.s. the question with video lessons periodically arose - and faded away with the answer - that you are watching the lessons with Blender and cycles- and that it is identical
(but there was no paid motivation yet)

it would be interesting to build such a conveyor ...
transfer (automatically of a scene to a blender and render in EEVEE (and the fact that due to restrictions cannot be rendered in EEVEE (you will have to render in cycles)

[Shekn]

There is only one way to convert MentalRay materials to Cycles - done it by hand. It can not be done automatically, because the logic of MR and Cycles shaders are different. There are no one-to-one correspondence between them.

About some delay between drawing render region and actual rendering. Any external render engine has this delay. More or less, but it should exists. The reasons in the way how custom render engine can be implemented inside the Softimage. I try to reduce this delay as much as possible. There are some ways to improve it even more. May be in incoming updates. At present time, if user change shader parameter, then the system does not update any geometry, it simply re-recognize the shader. In this case the render process should starts much faster. One exception - when the shader contains displacement. In this case the system re-export geometry, because there is a bug (already fixed) on the Cycles side. Of course, if the changed material is very complex, then updating can take some time.

[SPJ]

Huh, well converting the scenes is going to be a slow process... Thanks though, at least I know I'm not missing a short cut. I better get to work! Hoping to see a big improvement in my render times