Softimage Creative (SIC) Survey and next meetup

[Fer]

Just saw this on Twitter:

http://www.softimagecreatives.com/siclo ... age_id=955

The people at SIC are taking a survey on Softimage future development, the result will be forwarded to the dev team.

This as close as we can get to make AD hear our concerns. The survey is a form of preliminary questionnaire to gauge the priorities of Softimage's future
(another survey will take place based on this one, as I understand it.).

It's good also to discuss it here, so when you finish the survey, head back here and comment on your choice please,
it will helps others who are not yet decided on theirs.

[rray]

Thanks for the heads up.. and to the survey makers

my take... probably forgot about the really important stuff...

Arnold (one can always hope)
Lagoa update
Formula render tree/ICE node ("y=sin(x)+2*sin(r+pi/2)+15") to avoid messy trees
C++ ICE node with compiler
Open up Syflex ICE, for strands too
modeling update (no retopo stuff tho)

[Tekano]

What are the top 5 things that you would add, fix, or change in Softimage?

(add) GPU processing option to speed up SPH & Lagoa calculations
(add) ICE Volumes (in viewport, ICE & rendering)
(add) more ICE modelling examples
(fix) Sack the Autodesk M & E Marketing team
(change) one central place for all ICE compounds (** with pictures)

** and no disrespect to rray.de/xsi either! without this stellar site there would be no place on the internets to get uptodate ICE compounds

[druitre]

filled out:

Don't forget to keep it a complete package, not a sidekick for Maya or Max.
Better (OGL) viewports (not stuff like shadows/reflections/AO, I just mean lights casting light where they should, textures, gradients etc)
Modeling tools interactive (L/M/RMB-operated, besides the PPG-oriented current workflow)
Replace Mental Ray - I want reliable flickerfree GI without all the hassle. Basically I want a renderer without hassle. A good IPR too. (Arnold, Maxwell are good examples)
bugs re. selecting (rays being cast through geometry, picking up unwanted points)

Good to see the survey! Hope lots of people take part and make AD listen up. Oh damn, just now realize I should've put 'change pricing policy' on nr 1.

[Maximus]

1- Trash mental ray, replace this dinosaur with something more modern, or if its impossible at least (sigh) give us the updated version. Waiting 1 year cycle to not even have the full updated feature wise engine is just dumb. Either integrate it fully with competent people, either remove it. The situation atm is beyond the disaster. Arnold? Vray? Maxwell? Anything is better than MR. Even Blender got a better render engine with perfect GI.

2- Fix the damn Framebuffer that doesnt update from geometry shader, fix the preview/render window that lock itself when the pixel dimension exceed ur monitor. I want to see my render when its going at full pixels, i wonder who had this brilliant idea to scale it down.

3- Add more ICE modeling presets with decent UI. Ok ICE is cool, but it could be even more cool if there would be more "out of the box" presets and tools with an actual UI, not a massive amount of nodes where you have to dig to change parameters. I still feel ICE is oriented more to TD than artists. I also find a bit disappointing that to have a simple shatter or a decent mesher or a simple flocking system you got to rely into a plugin and spend more money. (still respect to people who develop those plugins). But havin a system like ICE and not having those things out of the box is imo a bit absurd.

4- An update to the FXTree wouldnt be a bad idea. There is always hope.

5- Implement some GPU calculation for heavy things, either geometry handling, either particle effects, either simulation. The tech is there, the hardware is there, why dont just take advantage of it?

[mattmos]

The pricing policy has been changed already (at least for UK subscription users, its a bit more reasonable).

I'm feeling quite basic right now, so:

Ascii scene file format and a more open platform overall.

Total revamp of inbuilt rigs, allowing more modular building, and ICE Kinematics version would be sweet.

Major shape tools updates, making shape manager reliable and ICE backended, and including useful tools such as the GEAR shape toolset.

Hair update, to make it easier to create, simulate and render. Working with volumes?

Cloth improvements, bring syflex up to scratch and more accessable per point data etc, and easier to attach/blend with rigged meshes.

[gustavoeb]

Here it is then:

FIX
Make reference system work perfectly, flawlessly, reliably with all features in the software. Until perfection is reached, make sure the user knows what he is doing is unsuported before corrupting the file.

ADD
Optimizations to the way we simulate in ICE. Using GPU processing (where possible), making sure EVERYTHING is multithreaded (where possible), enable the slicing and distribution of simulations (where possible).

ADD
Integration of all simulation envoiroments. Particles and objects simulated together in one happy world.

CHANGE
Change the way rendering is approached to a more modern one. Nowadays everybody is going for a more phisically correct approach, but the default workflows of Softimage push the user in a oposite direction. Some examples:
*Linear-workflow comes OFF by default
*Ambience value coms ON by default
*Default shaders (Phong, Blinn, etc... are not energy conservative, and have non phisical controls)
*Photon-Mapping should be used for caustis only, as it sucks for anything else

Besides that the workflow in Softimage relies too heavily on the Pass system. Which ok, is great, but there is a very lacking support of Frameburffers (aka Rendere Channels, aka AOVs). If one wants to store a information arbitraly in some AOV they should add a Store in Channel Node in each material, which sucks. I want to have extra options for my AOV and be able to hook nodes in it through the Render-Tree.

ADD
Sound and Images input, context and output through ICE.

[Bellsey]

Definitely some good suggestions coming and get as many people as possible to complete this initial survey. More data the better.
Some did ask me what my 5 would be, well...in no particular order...

Change - MOTOR, retire it and add HIK instead. Ensure SDK/ICE (Kinematics?) access as well. Should help spring clean the Biped Guide at the same time and give better interop to Maya/Mobu

Fix - Referencing, definately needs an overhaul.

Add - More ICE presets for anything, help people get started easier. Extension of this is perhaps repository for ICE compounds, tuts, scripts etc. Netview style interface maybe similar to the Mudbox Community.

Add - Better volume rendering.

Add - More viewport stuff, should be hot on the heels of Maya's VP2.0

A sneaky 6th one - Fix Face Robot - maybe still keep it in Soft, but also have it standalone as before (for Suites) and allow better interop between Maya/Max/Mobu. Ideal world, would love to see FR as an Autodesk Gameware solution as well.

[Hirazi Blue]

Your "sneaky 6th one" definitively makes sense, I always wondered why they didn't keep it as a cheaper standalone when the original price didn't seem viable anymore. At the risk of sounding too pessimistic (again!) the only problem I as a Softimage-only user see is that making it a standalone (even if you keep it within SI as well) would potentially take away one of the current selling points (or at least a very enticing feature) from Softimage (but I admittedly haven't got a clue how large of a selling point FR actually is).
;)

[mattmos]

Sneaky 6th: mute option for icetrees!!

[ActionArt]

Add - Better volume rendering.

Yes, PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE! The current system is a good start but it needs more realistic shape control and it needs to be less scale sensitive (scene scale independent would be nice). Right now if I spend a bunch of time setting up an effect in one scene, then try to use it in another even at a slightly different scale I might as well start from scratch!

GPU acceleration of this is probably the only way to get your results in the same year as well. I think this would be a great selling point if it was done well.

One more very simple request: Can we get a "replace model" option? It's so annoying to have to make a model a reference, go change the reference and then reload the scene just to replace a model with a different model. Never ever made sense to me.

[ace63]

I don't want any new features, I just want fixes:

- Referencing complete overhaul
- Custom primitives in the SDK
- Speed improvements (especially when duplicating and working with many objects)
- The ability to connect a node to multiple materials at once (like in Maya)
- ICE tree speed improvement (gets VERY slow after a certain number of nodes)

[woodengun]

Yes, volume rendering would be a HUGE help. ICE is so amazing but you can't do too much with particles/Lagoa unless you export it out to a different package to render. I don't think the answer lies within Mental Ray, although I know there are twenty or so people out there that are hanging on to it.

I've worked at some large studios and SI is still a tool people use for modeling/anim but when it comes to rendering its usually with Arnold now. If a studio doesn't have it then its time to get your scene in another package to render it in vray/renderman etc... Why doesn't Autodesk make their own engine? or at least one for XSI? I know that people have made their own raytracers in ICE. Sometimes it feels like there were some deals and promises made with mental images / nvidia that KEEP MR in all the Autodesk packages but it seems like most people in the SI community are looking for a new, fun, easy to use renderer! Like modo, or the upcoming Clarrise.

[Bellsey]

Incidentally I should be at the London meeting tomorrow night, if anyone wants to see/chat to me.

[gaboraa]

More modeling tools such as a re-topology tool, surface deformer with mesh support (not just Nurbs), create strip polygon tool, cut a mesh with curve tool which can cut with a given curve, default properties box like Maya's all tools have
Better Nurbs modeling tools, Ice Nurbs creation and modeling tools with GUI integration which can ease the hair creation process.
Overall speedup. Dupliacte and deleting lots of objects can be pain in the axx. Speed-up when working with lots of objects in the scene.
Modern GUI like Maya has
Gear integration or Ice kinematics with a modular approach for artists and Integration into GUI

[bottleofram]

1 - HumanIK full integration and better interoperability with Motion Builder.

2 - Modeling needs a complete overhaul.

3 - Add Tab Menu node creation to ICE Tree and Render Tree.

4 - Add ICE based production ready hair solution.

5 - Add essential preview options to Render Preview: channels, buffers, histogram, color correction, information (time, path, pass...), etc.