#SOFTIMAGE 3D OPENGL CARD SOFTWARE#

Displacement mapping has also been expanded so that it is multi-directional. The results render quickly and are excellent. Displacement mapping has been changed to implement 'microtriangle' displacement, which is similar to RenderMan's displacement mapping. The standard renderer included is Mental Ray 3.1, but Softimage has added a number of enhancements to it. Rendering has had many significant improvements as well. One nice new feature is called Mixer Ghosting, which shows ghosted views of your clips and allows you to see what all the clips in the animation mixer would look like if they were not blended. Those who like to model their own characters can get a good start with Character Designer.Īnimators should also be happy with the new Animation Mixer, which is faster and better able to handle complex scenes. Character Designer has been upgraded to include more controls that allow you to rough out a character by defining everything from height and musculature to the size and shape of facial features. These include film- and game-style setups, Quaternion splines, arm and leg roll controls, and deformation controls for the skinning of complex joint areas.Ĭreating a character mesh is also fairly easy. The rigs can be either biped or quadruped and can have dozens of options.

#SOFTIMAGE 3D OPENGL CARD SOFTWARE#

The software comes with pre-built rigs that can be created with a few mouse clicks. This is great when manipulating a model, as you will see the final tessellation in the viewport.Ĭharacter animators will enjoy many of XSI's new features. There is a new display mode for subdivision surfaces that makes a model look like a NURBS surface. And subdivision surfaces has been reworked for speed. Extrusions and lathes have also been updated. Those who still use NURBS will find support for features such as NURBS trims. I was able to manipulate a subdivided model with practically no lag time on my humble dual-processor 1.4ghz Pentium III. Most CPU-hungry tasks such as loading, shape animation, and subdivision surfaces show significant improvement. Speed has also been increased substantially. Click on a character, and a rendered version of that character will quickly appear in the browser, making it easy to distinguish between objects in your scene. New to Version 3.0 is the XSI Explorer, which offers a tree-like view of your scene as well as a graphic window. The package is accessible and easy to use, with many of the features employing a browser-like interface. Softimage has been continually refining the interface since Version 1.0, and workflow is now excellent. Image courtesy Softimage and Avid Technology.

Softimage|XSI Version 3.0 includes features that make it easier to create complex quadrupeds. Version 3 greatly expands the feature set and usability. Since the software debuted a few years ago, it has been playing catch-up with many of the other high-end packages. Softimage|XSI Version 3.0 is the release in which XSI comes into its own as a leading-edge package.

Softimage 3d opengl card