SI2011 - Your first impressions?

[Hirazi Blue]

To liven things up around here a little, my question to you would be: now that you've had a chance to work (a little) with the new Softimage 2011, what's your first impression? Are you happy with it or not so much?

Please respond...

[Hirazi Blue]

I was hoping for slightly more responses than zero...

[wireframex]

SI2011 is not free .... 1400 Euros here to go from 2010 to 2011

[redmotion]

SI2011 is not free .... 1400 Euros here to go from 2010 to 2011

= IMHO, not worth it.

Anyway 2011, what do I think? TBH I'm a little disappointed. I do understand that AD wanted to get the release dates of all its products synchronised to be just before the end of the financial year from here on, which means, on a positive note, we will see SI2012 around the same time next year: giving them a whole year to do their stuff. I just don't know why we're all stuck paying gold subscription prices for half an upgrade this time around.

So, some things I like and don't like:-

Like (that I've had a chance to look at):
- Kinematics is finally in there working how it should. Which is sweet.
- Mental ray shaders don't need spdls and new shaders can just be dropped in (apparently). How do you do it though? Where do you put them?
- An IES light shader added.
- I actually love the fact that X close window icon has been enlarged. (sad, huh?!)
- Still very stable (for me with 64bit at least)
- MR 3.8

Don't Like:-
- Kinematics, right now, has hardly anything whatsoever to show off its potential. Softimage almost always fail to create enough buzz for things that are (sometimes) revolutionary. (I'm talking industry buzz not just community buzz.) Right now there is a severe lack of cool compounds, videos/demos, demo-scenes, a new rig builder (basically the lack of just an ICE-based biped rig made from the biped guide is an oversight IMO.) Please don't make us wait to v2012 to have it all fleshed out...
- The Kinematics workgroup compounds aren't supported and therefore not documented. (I'd like to have a play but don't where to begin)
- The implicit bone isn't properly implemented to work with existing rigging commands (like mirror rig).
- Most of the other ICE compounds now included are already available, they just have documentation.
- Next to nothing was implemented from MR 3.8 and now we have to wait for the community (as usual) to make some geo-shaders to expose them...
- Infinite lights don't seem to do ray traced soft shadows even though the PPG seems to offer the option.

That's my thoughts...

[Bellsey]

I agree, there are things that we need to better and we are trying to sort some things out.

There should more ICE compounds and presets and also better demo data, but honestly, it just comes down to time and resource, and no strange AD conspiracy, like some seem to think.
It has been a tough job for all the M&E products to align themselves with this new releases schedule, but to the best of my knowledge the SI roadmap is pretty much stayed in place. Also the 2011 products were not aligned for the end of the fiscal year, kinda opposite in fact.

I know what you mean about MR3.8, although there is still quite alot in there. SI has not got an extra 100+ mi shaders for example. But also some things that didn't make it, for Soft, Max and Maya. Also we have synced the the Mental Ray version across all the main 3 apps and there is also only one version of Mental Ray Standalone now. This was no small task and we also have to try and maintain as much stability as possible.

Personally I think 2011 is damn good release, but we can do things better. We have already spoken to many customers about this and Chinny is looking at how we can hopefully address peoples concerns and requests. Going forward, Softimage is great shape.

[grahamef]

- The Kinematics workgroup compounds aren't supported and therefore not documented. (I'd like to have a play but don't where to begin)

Reference info for those compounds should be available on the wiki fairly soon. In the meantime you can see how many of those compounds are used in the ICE subfolder of the XSI_SAMPLES project (XSI_SAMPLES\Scenes\ICE\Kinematics_*).

[redmotion]

Thanks Graham, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. It's good to know things are progressing.

[grahamef]

Here's the docs for the ICE Kinematics workgroup compounds so far. Still in progress.

http://softimage.wiki.softimage.com/ind ... _Compounds

[wacom]

Sorry, still too early. I will say the licensing setup seems to be a step in the right direction, and it's nice to be able to use mr shaders more easily. It also seems at least as stable, if not more so than 2010, but it's still early days.

Wish mr 3.8 features were included even if at a "use at your own risk" level. Still the crafty community is filling in the gaps (thank you mr heads!).

[scottsch]

My impression is very good... best experience I've had with a new version of Softimage. So many new lighting features... everything is enabled for lighting tasks, soft shadows are GREAT. A much more mature version all-around with lots of nice small improvements. 2011 is basically my favorite version since 5.11.

Very stable, also. Mental ray freaks out once in a while but much much less than 2010.

1400 euros for an upgrade is, wow, a lot.