XSI 6 is coming...

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3844&referer=cgnews

http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/whats_new/default.aspx



I was going to buy XSI for home too, but I think I'll do that when 6 is out. Price has not gone up (foundation would be enough for me), but feature-wise it's better than ever. Plus 6.xx upgrades are free I think, so buying 5 now would be waste of money.

What's great from your point of view about XSI?

My major gripe with 3d modelling software is that you have to make your own stuff.

Why don't all these companies like Discreet, etc just sell us all the animated stuff we could ever need?

Would make my life easier.

@puki - if only more people were like you :p
One content pack would be enough for the whole gaming world - why have diversion? :p

We use XSI 5.11 at work and after years of Lightwave (and Max) experience it's fresh breath of air. Everything just works and it has all the features you need for effective work; workarounds might work but cost time and time is money. Better to have tool set that can do the things you want straight away. XSI has been very stable and fast even with scenes that have millions of polygons, something that would have crashed Lightwave or freezed it to useless at least...

I have done only modeling and texturing so far with XSI but the tools for those tasks are amazing. Not that Max or Lightwave are bad either; XSI is just so much better. And since it's cheapest too there's really little competition IMO. Learning the "right way" to do things in XSI took a little time even if I already knew other big packages well but that's the case usually I guess when you switch your main tool.

I've watched the testemonial video and they make you jealous and dreaming...

Wow, imagine that the developers of a certain software you use would ask you what you would need to enhance the software. Not the other way around where you have to request or almost beg for certain features/improvements.

I really like XSI and as a die hard max freak I really want to make the move to XSI but lack the time to learn it.

how does XSI foundation compare to Max 8 in the movie making department in your mind, Mustang?
Im doing lots of shorts for my 3D film class, and I would like to use a less bug-prone application that *works*.

XSI is a great app and modelor, the main problem with it is its next to impossible to export anything other than a static mesh in a game format.

I have absolutely no clue about that... I'm a 101% real-time man, I hadly ever render even single frame these days. It's all modeling, baking & exporting... :)



Bull :) XSI has (since 5.11) COLLADA 1.4 support built-in:

http://www.khronos.org/collada/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COLLADA



COLLADA importer for Blitz3D/MAX would absolutely rock...

Yay for Collada, now try exporting a skinned mesh so that it can be loaded into 3dsmax, and watch it turn to shit.

hi, 3dmax should have a dotxsi parser (i remember it was freely availbale somewhere). Thing is, i have never done this myself, and as i don't need to use 3dmax, don't know what works and what doesn't.

Output for non realtime animation xsi is very nice, given that you learn how to tweak parameters for mental ray. There isn't a vray renderer for xsi.

Animation-wise, I haven't seen a workflow close to xsi (without some serious scripting done by ta's).

Re-read XSI's page, they now have 3DSMAX exporters and some for other packages as well.

So far no convertor i've tried will accept the animation from an xsi scene. My uni has both xsi and 3dmax but the 3dmax export doesnt work either....3dmax crashes every time.

IS there a list of the new features that will be present in FOudation? I had a wee look but being a half blind, senile old fart I got confoosed and ran away and hid under the covers.

Cheers

Garion