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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I3D
- Posts: 122
- Joined: 12 Aug 2009, 16:15
- Skype: ironic3d
Re: Cycles for Softimage
3080 RTX working, thank you Shekn 🙏
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wireframex
- Posts: 425
- Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 21:02
- Location: France
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Works for me
Thanks a lot Shekn
"without mastery, power is nothing" - Softimage Addict User
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thanks for all the work you are doing Shekn. 
Testing the new version I realized one thing, the "image" nodes premultiply the alpha channel by default, among other things without the possibility of choice.
An option to choose whether to use alpha or not would be handy.
Testing the new version I realized one thing, the "image" nodes premultiply the alpha channel by default, among other things without the possibility of choice.
An option to choose whether to use alpha or not would be handy.
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59
Re: Cycles for Softimage
I found a bug.
I'm famous for this, my fellow programmers hated me for it..
By internally linking the image node in a compound, Sycles crashes.
Even doing the same test in a normal texture crashed the whole computer.
I'm famous for this, my fellow programmers hated me for it..
By internally linking the image node in a compound, Sycles crashes.
Even doing the same test in a normal texture crashed the whole computer.
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Maximus
- Posts: 1121
- Joined: 09 Jun 2009, 13:45
Re: Cycles for Softimage
i've noticed that there are quite some parameters missing, i dont know if they also got removed from the blender cycles but, the progressive render option isnt there anymore, and so the cache geometry option which was handy
everytime i use a render region it takes a bit to load because it probably calculate all geometry in the scene everytime
everytime i use a render region it takes a bit to load because it probably calculate all geometry in the scene everytime
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wireframex
- Posts: 425
- Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 21:02
- Location: France
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Hi Shekn
it seems HDRMaster doesn't work anymore with the last sycles plugin
Phil
it seems HDRMaster doesn't work anymore with the last sycles plugin
Phil
"without mastery, power is nothing" - Softimage Addict User
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
avalon_70: thank you very much. Both your notes are accepted. I will fix it.
Maximus: about progressive mode. By default the render always use progressive mode. In fact there are no other modes in Cycles. But there is some secondary parameter, which allows to mimic the tiling render mode. In Blender you can activate Performance - Memory - Use Tiling and set small tile size (32 or 64). In this case it will render each separate small tile instead of the whole image. Under the hood it store intermediate render results in separate exr-file in the system temp directory (user don't know about it, but this file is created and destroyed after render ends). In Sycles there are some problems with these temporary files, so, this tiling mode is hidden from the UI.
About geometry cache. It does not needed anymore. Sycles use internal Softimage caching system and in some cases it update scene changes without recreating internal render scene from scratch. But in some cases it should do this (recreate the scene). It happens when you create or delete a new object, hide or unhide something, change hierarhy or add property to the object. In all these cases it's more easy and clear to create the new scene for the renderer instead of use the scene from the previous render call. Of course, for heavy scenes it takes some additional time. But if you change materials, camera position, object positions, light sources parameters, then it should only update these changes, and render should start very fast.
wireframex: HDRMaster does not work, because ImageTexture node is changed. This addon should be updated, and it's quite easy. May be when I found some additional time.
Maximus: about progressive mode. By default the render always use progressive mode. In fact there are no other modes in Cycles. But there is some secondary parameter, which allows to mimic the tiling render mode. In Blender you can activate Performance - Memory - Use Tiling and set small tile size (32 or 64). In this case it will render each separate small tile instead of the whole image. Under the hood it store intermediate render results in separate exr-file in the system temp directory (user don't know about it, but this file is created and destroyed after render ends). In Sycles there are some problems with these temporary files, so, this tiling mode is hidden from the UI.
About geometry cache. It does not needed anymore. Sycles use internal Softimage caching system and in some cases it update scene changes without recreating internal render scene from scratch. But in some cases it should do this (recreate the scene). It happens when you create or delete a new object, hide or unhide something, change hierarhy or add property to the object. In all these cases it's more easy and clear to create the new scene for the renderer instead of use the scene from the previous render call. Of course, for heavy scenes it takes some additional time. But if you change materials, camera position, object positions, light sources parameters, then it should only update these changes, and render should start very fast.
wireframex: HDRMaster does not work, because ImageTexture node is changed. This addon should be updated, and it's quite easy. May be when I found some additional time.
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opoppopopp
- Posts: 213
- Joined: 16 Jun 2009, 04:23
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Can we have a toggle in UI, to force this mode?Shekn wrote: 19 Jan 2023, 07:49 ...But if you change materials, camera position, object positions, light sources parameters, then it should only update these changes, and render should start very fast...
(Force NOT to update geometry, but ONLY "materials, camera position, object positions" etc.)
To eliminate any unnecessary scene re-export, in case something dirty the scene wrongly, and trigger that export.
BTW. maybe it sounds useless, but for my daily Sycles experience, it really help me to avoid unnecessary update
Hard to explain its difference than set render region update to manually which I currently rely on.
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Hi Shekn, I can't find the "background" tab in the render panel.
Was it moved somewhere else?
In the "Denoising" tab there is only the "OpenImage" entry, but I'm testing it with a GTX 1070, is that the reason?
Was it moved somewhere else?
In the "Denoising" tab there is only the "OpenImage" entry, but I'm testing it with a GTX 1070, is that the reason?
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Shekn
- Posts: 254
- Joined: 30 Dec 2016, 19:18
Re: Cycles for Softimage
opoppopopp: I will try to think, is t possible to implement something like "non-accurate update" mode. In this mode we should update only items which should and can be updated, and ignore all other items. As I understand this is exactly you mean.
avalon_70: Background tab is now called World (as in Blender). Background color can be defined by built-in Softimage Ambience parameter.
About OptiX denoising. At the start the addon use built-in Cycles render function to detect what render devices are allowed. If there is some OptiX device, then it show OptiX denoiser in the list of denoisers. But if by some reasons OptiX device is not allowed, then it shows only OIDN denoiser. I don't fully understand how Cycles render detects available devices.
avalon_70: Background tab is now called World (as in Blender). Background color can be defined by built-in Softimage Ambience parameter.
About OptiX denoising. At the start the addon use built-in Cycles render function to detect what render devices are allowed. If there is some OptiX device, then it show OptiX denoiser in the list of denoisers. But if by some reasons OptiX device is not allowed, then it shows only OIDN denoiser. I don't fully understand how Cycles render detects available devices.
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opoppopopp
- Posts: 213
- Joined: 16 Jun 2009, 04:23
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Yes.Shekn wrote: 20 Jan 2023, 07:43 "non-accurate update" mode. In this mode we should update only items which should and can be updated, and ignore all other items.
"non-accurate, so that its guaranteed a faster region update"
Because for heavy scenes, in my experiences, many trivial touch here and there, will often trigger a full scene re-export...
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wireframex
- Posts: 425
- Joined: 08 Jun 2009, 21:02
- Location: France
Re: Cycles for Softimage
When you have an OptiX GPU compatible you will get this :avalon_70 wrote: 19 Jan 2023, 13:32 In the "Denoising" tab there is only the "OpenImage" entry, but I'm testing it with a GTX 1070, is that the reason?
"without mastery, power is nothing" - Softimage Addict User
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
CPU 3990x 128 Threads / 2 x 3090 RTX - 24 Go / 96 Go memory
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Ah, I understand. However, the transparency parameters are missing:Shekn wrote: 20 Jan 2023, 07:43
avalon_70: Background tab is now called World (as in Blender). Background color can be defined by built-in Softimage Ambience parameter.
About OptiX denoising. At the start the addon use built-in Cycles render function to detect what render devices are allowed. If there is some OptiX device, then it show OptiX denoiser in the list of denoisers. But if by some reasons OptiX device is not allowed, then it shows only OIDN denoiser. I don't fully understand how Cycles render detects available devices.
I tried on my laptop which has the RTX 3060, and optix is present (but I had to update the drivers first!)
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59
Re: Cycles for Softimage
Thank youwireframex wrote: 20 Jan 2023, 18:53When you have an OptiX GPU compatible you will get this :avalon_70 wrote: 19 Jan 2023, 13:32 In the "Denoising" tab there is only the "OpenImage" entry, but I'm testing it with a GTX 1070, is that the reason?
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I3D
- Posts: 122
- Joined: 12 Aug 2009, 16:15
- Skype: ironic3d
Re: Cycles for Softimage
It's actually in the film tab, just like in Sycles.avalon_70 wrote: 21 Jan 2023, 05:51 Ah, I understand. However, the transparency parameters are missing:
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avalon_70
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 09 Jan 2021, 13:59