Does anyone else use Softimage XSI

[Marko_JJ]

Seems everyone in these forums either uses 3D max, maya, or arch3d or something like that. I use Softimage, is there anyone else that does? I think it works pretty well and i've heard it has the best rendering. But that could have just a been a rep trying to pump XSI's tires. Anyone know more about this, or if I should think about crossing over to another program?

 

Mark Julien

[AJLynn]

I've tried the demo but never really used it. I got a good impression from the way it integrated mental ray - if you want to use mr, XSI does a bit better job of it than Max, and it has a more complete shader implementation. That, and the base package is very affordable - moving to Max is a $4000 investment. If you're comfortable with XSI and mental ray I don't think there's really a reason to change.

 

I'm partial to Cinema4D myself - there's just so much that it does well in fewer steps than Max, the object heirarchy system is great and FinalRender2 gives me the kind of renders I like with minimal work.

[lambros]

I have bought XSI fundamentals, at $499 it seemed like a great value for money. I spent some time trying to get along with it, and it did work out quite well. Problem is that mental ray is a bit awkward to set up, and Viz with Vray seemed like a much easier alternative. So, I haven't used it in production at all, just playing around with it from time to time. Animation controls are as good as max's and with vray porting over it will be a very good option indeed. It seems that the maxwell XSI plugin is abandoned or postponed, but vray will rock!

It all gets down to what you are used to, or what works for you!

[Marko_JJ]

Well I was trained with XSI so i'll probably stick with it. I have only worked with mental ray rendering, using final gathering, global illumination, and caustics... im not sure if those terms are the same as in other programs but sometimes it can get abit confusing. Sooner or later I want to try out the maxwell plugin for xsi. Thanks for your input... keeper coming if anyone has something to say on the subject.

[Spacelord]

Hi,

I use Softimage XSI for all my ARCH VIS work.

You can have a look at my website http://www.shazzamstudios.com.

I've come from a 3Dsmax background, coming to terms with XSI

has been a bitch . I brought it because it was cheaper and was

ment to have the best Mental Ray connection. That I wouldn't need

VRAY. Well you can do most things in XSI but its a bitch.

I'd go back to 3Dsmax in a flash, mind you this is just for ARCH VIS.

When you add up the extra licenses of Mental Ray you need for

rendering fly throughs the price adds up. Its like US$1200 for 2 cpu licenses.

If you brought Max you have unlimited render nodes of Mental Ray.

Though I'd buy Vray, its so much easier to setup.

Mental Ray all the freakin' time tweakin' to get where Vray would get me in a flash.

So you buy 5 mental ray universal batch licenses 5 x $1200 = 6000.00

Max costs around : US$3495 buy vray as well and your set !!

Max has better importing options, Theres always problems with importing

obj's or 3DS files in XSI. Maybe XSI 5.1 has fixed some of these issues.

If you plan to use XSI for Arch Vis and charactor animation then XSI might

be worth it.

Max has so many plugins, trees, RCP, etc,, plugins I wish XSI had.

XSI doens't even have a decent measuring system or metric system, they don't seem to care about adding one either, users have been hounding them for years.

XSI doesn't give 2 hoots about Arch Vis !!! there business is charactor animation for Games and film.

[RyanSpaulding]

Hey XSI guys,

 

Where do you find tuts for this app? Are there any key sites to check out? I dl'ed the demo because I'm looking for a new modeler and dont know where to look...

[manta]

XSI doesn't have unlimited rendering with MR yet ??

Thats pretty sad, considering its the default renderer...

By the time Max got unlimited rendering with MR, everybody had already switched to something else, How about Maya, does it have unlimted MR ??