2011.5 - First Contact?

[Hirazi Blue]

It's been almost two weeks since the release of the Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack. Now I was wondering, what your first impressions were. I myself haven't been able really to dig into the new features, but I'm guessing some of you most definitively will have found the time to play with them.
My own meager but positive impressions:

• I like the new "grand unified" Dual layout
  Importing all old preferences and the like from a previous version actually seems to work for once

Now I just hope I find enough time to dig into the true new features of SI2011.5 before SI2012 arrives.
But that's obviously my own problem, not one directly related to Softimage.
(...who can blame them for providing so many new toys to play with...)

So, what are your first impressions of SI2011.5?
(This is not intended as a bug thread, bug threads (if any) should be opened in our "General & Troubleshooting" Area.)

[rray]

Yes, about time to get some buzz going!
Got a really great impression so far.
In Lagoa, most of all tried to figure out what parameters to adjust so a low-res resolution sim looks about the same in high-res (still working on that). Also some tests using the Tension compound to tear an advected mesh (->make it transparent where mesh tension increases)
Then of course been customizing the viewcube
So far working with Lagoa in ICE in super stable, not a single crash (except some hangs when rendering). Can't report much more since I also only get to play with it in the evenings, and checking out Zbrush 4 in parallel.
Not even started Matchmover or Composite yet.
I think I'll start a Lagoa tests thread soon.

[Gabba]

Lagoa seems pretty good but I have some video driver problems so i don't have the ability to stop the simulation if it become too heavy (the viewport freeze). It's half fun in this way (too long to wait if I see that something is not going like the way it should be).
I tried the composite and it's not so user friendly (for what I used it) but I have to say that it do his job.
The new ICE toolbar is good, it connect some nodes for you if you don't know how to do simple tasks and let you spare few seconds.
What else?

[origin]

Gabba: this is 'normal', by design, one of those things that makes you wanna smash your PC.

About Lagoa.
You will have superior results by changing your framerate instead of pumping substeps.

And increasing FPS is necessary for moving collision objects.
I'm doing a little breaking wine glass test, and with default 24fps no matter how high substeps are, liquid is unstable. But increasing FPS (24-->400) solved problems. I can keep substeps low that way.

Dunno If this is lagoa fault (I remember old SPH had same issue) or SI fault (no subframe mechanism in SI)

[Gabba]

Gabba: this is 'normal', by design, one of those things that makes you wanna smash your PC.

About Lagoa.
You will have superior results by changing your framerate instead of pumping substeps.

And increasing FPS is necessary for moving collision objects.
I'm doing a little breaking wine glass test, and with default 24fps no matter how high substeps are, liquid is unstable. But increasing FPS (24-->400) solved problems. I can keep substeps low that way.

Dunno If this is lagoa fault (I remember old SPH had same issue) or SI fault (no subframe mechanism in SI)

Off topic
Yes, I know ;)
I have to format the hard drive and have a nice and clean instanll, then I will be sure to get nice results again ;)

[rconover]

Dunno If this is lagoa fault (I remember old SPH had same issue) or SI fault (no subframe mechanism in SI)

Yup need a subframe mechanism in xsi to do this properly. Then Lagoa could use it. For now higher fps is the way around it.

[dwigfor]

I finally had a moment to install it last night, but only got around to setting up workgroups and such. Had to install my emPolygonizer 2 to get my vertex colors! Thanks for the tip of increasing fps.

I saw this video, which I believe is new feature "ICE Flow" - sending data back and forth with Maya.


Pretty cool!

[origin]

Dunno If this is lagoa fault (I remember old SPH had same issue) or SI fault (no subframe mechanism in SI)

Yup need a subframe mechanism in xsi to do this properly. Then Lagoa could use it. For now higher fps is the way around it.

by the way, same goes with Momentum. You will be amazed how much your sim can get in stability/look by simply increasing fps (even 24-->72 have big impact)

[Hirazi Blue]

Just noticed the thread title was "201.5 - First Contact" and corrected it.
Someone could have pointed that out... ;)

[Bellsey]

I posted about those ICE flow videos on my blog. They are on the Autodesk Maya YouTube learning channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/MayaHowTos

Now, I know this a Maya YouTube channel so before anyone jumps asks why there isn't a Softimage one, well there is going to be one. I've been told its been sorted out and they're working on stuff now.

Regarding ICE flow, if anyone registered and went to the recent Autodesk Digital Entertainment Conferences, then I did the Softimage video that was On demand and I showed some ICE flow stuff in there as well. Though I think the ones above are slightly better.
http://med.experience.autodesk.com

[kshep92]

Now, I know this a Maya YouTube channel so before anyone jumps asks why there isn't a Softimage one, well there is going to be one. I've been told its been sorted out and they're working on stuff now.

YAY!!!