SunPosition update for 2010

Updated for Autodesk Softimage v2010 (8.0.201.0).

Download it from here.

SunPosition 2010 demonstration from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

Colorspace/Physically correct colours in Softimage

I've noticed two blogs recently post tips on how to get physically correct texture colours when rendering indirect illumination (and using physical sky/sun shaders)

http://harrybardak.co.uk/sRGB.htm
http://kobayashystips.blogspot.com/2009/09/linear-workflow-in-softimage.html

Further discussion, etc about here:
http://community.softimage.com/forum/autodesk-softimage/rendering/softimage-gamma/page-1/
http://www.aversis.be/tutorials/vray/essential_gamma_01.htm

Isolating individual scene objects per pass

This is a pass setup I came up with to address a question posted here.

Basically, the query was how to remove individual elements from a pass but still have their reflection appear on other objects. So, in the image above the blue sphere is rendered in the reflections of the grey sphere, but is invisible in the pass.

Basic Setup: All the materials in scene should have a raytype switch plugging into the material node and the rest of the material tree plugging into all ports of the raytype node.

Then in your new pass partition you add an overide property and add the material-Ray_Type-eye parameter to it.

Press 7 with the overide selected and plug a constant shader with 0 for everything including Alpha into the overide node.

You can then drag and drop any objects you like into the "hide" partition and have them not rendered in primary but still appearing in reflections without having to tweak all their rendertrees seperately.

RENDERCHANNNEL alternative

Of course, this still leaves the guy who asked the question with 70 individual passes, so a setup using renderchannels must be preferable:

For every single material you can add a Store Color in channel node between the material node and the material tree and create a new render channel with a name like "blue". Then in the render region pick the channel.

In render manager > pass > Output - add all the new channels to the Render Channels Output list. The advantage is, of course that each individual renderchannel image gets rendered during a single pass.

With a combination of both methods you can break down the scene into its seperate parts by rendering a single multi-channel pass and then create passes as needed to isolate and re-render material changes as required.

dxf importer 2010

I've recompiled the dxfimporter 23 & 3d for Softimage 2010.
Get them from the usual place, here.

Bot Walk 2

Slightly different take on the bot walk. From scratch again, this time I tried to match the rig motion with foot motion, so it travels forwards and the feet sit on the ground. Again, only 29 frames...

Bot Walk 1

My second go at creating a walk cycle using a premade, free to use character rig from www.creativecrash.com (formerly known as highend3d.com)

Architectural modeling tools

Archtools for Softimage demostration from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

V2 released

-Cameras-
Fixed Polygon Cam (new) - create a view perpendicular to an arbitary polygon

-primitives-
Draw and size Cube, Box, Cylinder, Sphere, Cone, etc standard primitives in viewport

-transform tools-
4 point rotate
2 point transform
3 point scale
mirror about 2 points (new)
align objects by 2 polygons (new)
align object - polygon to edge (new)
aligh object to polygon (new)

Limitations: these do not work correctly on enveloped meshes unfortunately.

-measuring property-
Apply to scene root and measure distances - automatically converted to scales like mm, cm.

Download from here

New Archviz Website

Just set up a new Archviz website. I've tried to keep it simple.

You can find it here.

New IES Light plugin

wombat778 is currently letting people test his new IES light plugin for Softimage at xsibase here.

I've not tried it yet but it looks promising.

New Softimage Community Forum

Since Autodesk's "The Area" took over from the SI community website, it seems that people are pretty unhappy about using the site - it is, afterall, pretty horrible to look at and a nightmare to navigate.

Anyway, while I think it was initially established as a backlash to "The Area", a new Softimage Community forum is now thriving. It's simple and easy to use (like the old one) and it can be found here: http://www.si-community.com/community/index.php

It seems to be thriving already. Sign up! It needs the support!

I've posted my dxf importer plug-in here for download in the Download > Plugins area:

http://www.si-community.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=49

 

dxf importer plugin now at The Area

Due to the sad assimilation of community.softimage into the Autodesk discussion boards, I've re- uploaded the dxf importer addons to their downloads section here.

Environment Art Portfolio site now up!

I've got my game art portfolio up online now - check it out here: link

I have extensive experience using Valve's source engine and some experience using the cryengine2 and unreal3 engines  (the image above is taken from the cryengine2 sandbox editor).

(If you can't view the portfolio site for any reason, please let me know. Thanks.)

Cloudwright plug-in Open Alpha

This great new plug-in has arrived as an open alpha from http://www.simul.co.uk/. You can download the installer from here: http://www.simul.co.uk/cloudwright/plugins.

What's really cool is the realtime preview from the standalone app is available in the XSI viewport by choosing the Cloudwright_directx 9 option from viewport "realtime shaders" menu. This makes previewing the overal look of the final effect amazingly fast, allowing instant feedback on most of the cloud generation parameters.

dxf importer and sun position plugins updated for Softimage v7.5

Yep, to celebrate the release of Autodesk Softimage 7.5 (I still can't believe I'm writing those words :( ) I've recompiled the famous dxf import and sunpath plugins for AD's newly acquired 3d package. (Eggh!) I will continue to update this plugin until AD add these features to the program or make Softimage to expensive to upgrade - I'll release the source code in that case.

You can get the dxf importer (plus most other versions) here.

You can currently get the new sunpath plugin here. At time of writing, nothing has changed except compatability with v7.5.

Black Mesa Official Trailer

Yep. It finally came out today and the reception has been pretty good so far. 

Many thanks to monkey junkie for recording inside the source engine and editing the trailer so brilliantly.

Downloadable versions:

rapidshare

http://games.rapidshare.com/gamesnew/detai...&rubrik=trailer

http://www.blackmesasource.com

2009 is gonna be a busy one.

Enjoy!

Articles/News:

http://digg.com/

http://kotaku.com/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/

http://www.joystiq.com/

http://www.ausgamers.com/

http://www.hlportal.de/

http://darkdiamond.net/

http://www.n4g.com/

http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/

http://www.fz.se/

http://www.pcgames.de/

http://www.gamestar.de/

Happy 10th! Black Mesa Media Release Nov'08

First things first - happy 10th birthday Half Life!

Been a pretty heated 3 weeks working towards this media release, although there wasn't much need for new prop art for these shots, just some UV mapping and skinning. Some of my own work goes public for the first time in these shots.

It's been a pretty successful release and we've received a lot of attention on forums and on a couple of websites, Kotaku being the most notable -  Google "black mesa media release 12".

http://kotaku.com/5093811/unofficial-half%20life-remake-looking-prettier-by-the-year

And PC Games, Germany : http://www.pcgames.de/aid,667633/Bildergal...ue_Screenshots/

Prop Art by me appeared in these Nov'08 media release shots:-

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a5_release12_001.jpg

Cactus furthest away (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a1_release12_001.jpg

Green Electric Equipment behind fencing to left (remake of CS:S prop) (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c0a0_release12_002.jpg

Electric Transformers beneath tram platform (texturing - two diffuse maps - one visible)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_001.jpg

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_003.jpg

Impeller pumps in area beneath rocks directly left of the tower (torus shaped items) (texturing - 3 diffuse maps/one normal map, minor modelling tweaks to fit in with other props)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_002.jpg

Rusty Pipes (top centre - some modelling and texturing)

Dxf importer for XSI v6 & v7

Here is the permanent link at SI NET for my dxf import plugin for XSI 6 & 7:

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=208

As far as I'm aware they should work with x32 and x64 systems. I'd like to thank all the people that helped with general testing of the dlls at the SI NET thread:

http://community.softimage.com/showthread.php?t=2473

Please use this thread or the comments box on the download page to post any issues you have regarding the plugin and I will do my best to answer them.

New ICE compounds

There seems to be a nice momentum building with v7 now.

A couple of interesting free ICE compounds have been announced recently:

Eric Moootz's emNewton

http://www.mootzoid.de/html/XsiCorner/emNewton.html

He also assures me that he is currently working on an ICE node for his emFluids

plugin. I think he will get a much better take up with this.

Guillaume Laforge's Procedural fluid flow

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=207

http://frenchdog.wordpress.com/ <-link to video

Thiago's Function graph node

http://thiagocosta.net/?p=157

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=200

And the first commercial one I've seen: Gerstner Waves

http://www.xsi-blog.com/0001-purchase

Pigeon Impossible

...is a short animated film directed by Lucas Martell. You can see the website here , his excellent blog here or subscribe to the podcast (all full of good advanced animation/character rigging/animation tips for XSI) here.

I wish him all the luck in the world in making the project a success.

XSI 7 shipping! Redmotion plugins do not work in v7 yet

XSI 7 shipped last week. (There is currently a 'do not disturb' sign on my door)

I've evaluated all the current redmotion compiled plugins. None of which actually load into v7. I will upgrade to v7 very soon and update all the plugins at some point. The best workaround currently is to continue to import dxf files into XSI 6 and then open the saved scene file in v7.

Fluids with Ice? (XSI 7)

metaball animation XSI v6 from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

People keep asking whether fluids will be possible with ICE in XSI 7. I think they will, but perhaps not right away. Why? Because stuff like this (video above) is already possible. This is half the battle. The other half is getting the particles to behave correctly. This is sure to be an ICE compound sooner or later.

Morgan Cheetham Chair Visuals

These images are based on a furniture design by a work colleague of mine, Sam Cocker. You can find more info at his website - http://www.morgancheetham.co.uk/. Its been something bubbling under for a few months but I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out so far.(HDRI added to all objects with environment node, FG, AO shader on camera, architectural shaders, XSI 6.02 FND - rendertimes about 15 and 20mins at 2000x1500pixels).

EDIT : 30-04-08 - updated to show correct rear feet.

Redmotion plugin development update

red_Dxfimporter goes 3d (again)
Finally got around to redoing my old vbscript as a C# dll (something long overdue). This time there will be more useful import options plus each dxf layer will be assigned a seperate, appropriately named material. (Image below shows 8000+ individual polygon cubes on five seperate layers imported in about a minute.). I've noticed that there are memory issues in importing huge DXF scenes (my computer crashed out after reaching the 2 gb limit) using the dotXSI format and I'm looking at some work arounds (each layer is loaded as a seperate dotXSI file).

I'm mulling over some improvements for the 2d plugin as well.



red_Archtools
Been developing quite a few new extras for the Archtools plugin including some tweaks to the existing toolset (all these are hacks are possible using sequences of existing XSI commands but the procedures are scripted to speed things up):

Primitive > Camera > Fixed Polygon Camera ( creates a standard orthographic camera locked exactly perpendicular/parallel to a selected polygon - helps with the accurate and fast trimming of meshes.)

Trim trim away.. (Use the knife tool to cut polygons accurately \/ )


Get > Property > Measure (this is a modification of Isner's original measuring tool but it gives you the option to copy-paste a measurement to another place (perhaps the windows calculator) and also to set a scale (SI units to mm) so that the readout can be displayed in equivalent units (like mm,  cm, etc.) Its applied to the scene root as a property.


Transform > Transform by 2 points (move a object by snapping two points: start position and end point only. No need to go through the whole moving centre routine everytime.)
Transform > Scale by 3 points (unchanged)
Transform > Align to Polygon (align an object (position and rotation) to the centre of a polygon witha few clicks)

Transform > Mirror by 2 points (this is a classic cad tool. It  mirrors an object over an arbitary line)
Transform > Rotate by 4 points (precision rotation of multiple objects - same as before)
Transform > Align to edge (similar to Align to polygon but moves and rotates an object to an edge)
Edit > Instances on a curve  (Will include this - its handy - see post below)

(May tweak these commands listed below)
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Box
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cone
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cube
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cylinder
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Sphere

red_SunPosition

I'm in process of TRYING to update the plugin to read a text file into which you can place cities, locations of your choice and select them through the sunpath interface to get the correct longitude, latitude, timezone, etc. I've tried this before and but have had technical problems with the combobox.

Sunpath tutorial video

This is a quick video to demostrate the Sun Position plugin in use. Download from here.

Instance on a curve (XSI)

This is command primarily for doing balustrades quickly. Although, I guess it could have other uses...

1. Create a model from the baluster item you wish to use.

2. Run the command with: Right hand EDIT > Instances on curve

3. Select the model and then the curve.

4. An options dialogue will appear. The number of instances evenly placed on the curve is determined with a slider and their tangency by checking one or more checkboxes. (eg: how they relate to the curve)

In the image, "X" tangent was used.

Get it here.

Archtools for XSI

This is a plugin with a number of little tools for modelling with more precision:

Draw Box, Draw Cone, Draw Cube, Draw Cylinder and Draw Sphere enable the user to pick 2-3 points to define the size, position (and rotation in some cases) of the standard polygon primitives. Draw box requires 3 points (corner point, length, width) , the others two (centrepoint then size).

The two transform tools mimic common cad tools: the 3 point rotate and the 3 point scale.

1. Select an object or or number of them.

(Use CTRL to snap to elements, Left-click to select all points.)

2. Pick the origin about which the scale or rotation will be done.

3. Pick the reference point (usually on the object to be transformed) that will be used for scaling/rotation

4. In the case of the rotation, pick a point which defines the axis of rotation.

5. Finally, pick the new position for the reference point. Right-click to exit when finished.

Click on this thumbnail to see 4 point rotate in action.

EDIT: (link updated. - download and replace file from .txt to .xsiddon) here.

Black Mesa: Source

At the mo' I'm just pushing forwards with some prop skins for Black Mesa: Source. Thought I'd link to this image at moddb which shows my DNA texture sitting in the foreground.

Sunpath plugin - alternative download

If you are having trouble getting sunpath plugin to run you can get a non-xsiaddon version from the link below. It also contains instructions on how to install the plugins manually and usage tips.

http://files-upload.com/333993/SunPosition-beta0.2-26-06-07.zip.html

IES Lights in XSI

This is something I posted at XSIbase on June 8, 2007, I'm putting it here for ease of finding:

I started playing around with the IES plugin for Softimage XSI from Ctrl studio called ctrl.light profile and wanted to establish a workflow that yealded some good results. (see link to original post for download: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=24&t=300617&page=1&pp=15)

Anyway, Ctrl.light profile does seem to display a reasonably accurate visual appearence of a luminaire, if used correctly:-

To get a hold on how to use the plugin do the following:-

1. Firstly: find a light fitting that you know about, it helps to have
photographs of it installed and working. I chose some uplighters from Erco;
(Erco are good because provide both 3d meshes and IES data for all their
products as well as comprehensive brochures.)

2. Then: Get > Primitive > Geoshader and add the plugin to the
Geoshader.

3. Import the appropriate IES data into the IES filename section.

4. Create a point light. Important: Reduce the intensity of the point light
you are going to use as an IES to 0 or you will not get a correct result - you'll end up getting light from the pointlight as well as the IES shader (which is extra bad if you are using GI or/and FG.)

5. In the light part of the plugins ppg attach the new point light.

6. Now do a test render of the light positioned near a surface and go
forward from there.

7. Important: DON'T rotate the point light. After all, there is no logical reason to. IES data for an uplighter will automatically cast light upwards, a downlighter will always cast light downwards. Just placing the pointlight above or below a specific light (depending on the type) is all you need to do.

Finally, if you need more than one light of the same type, use Instances. Create a model from the light mesh object (if used), point light and geoshader, then instance them around the scene - Works well.

3rd place - T-Gen Competition Entry

I was very pleased to get third place with this entry into the T-Gen competition:

Redmotion XSI plugins - now packaged addons

I've decided to package all my plugins as .xsiaddons. This should now allow them to be installed in a workgroup and easier to uninstall.

2d Dxf importer for XSI v6 - here
(No Change)
3d Dxf importer for XSI v5/6 - here
(No Change)
Sun Position plugin - here
(Now features Primitive > Light > Sun and Property > SunPosition menu items. The Sun primitive features a "distance" parameter for moving the light clear of the scene.)
Four point rotate - here (Post coming soon about how to use this plugin - it's a CAD style precise rotation tool.)

Something revolutionary is coming!

Softimage have been developing a new extension for their existing software, Softimage XSI. To quote a post (perhaps the most exciting one i've ever read there) at XSIbase :-

(It) will do for particles, custom ops, and tools, etc what the render tree has done for custom look development. That is, open it up to many more people and increase the rate of development.

Basically, it seems as if you will be able to add your own complex features based around existing operations perhaps without any coding experience.

Entrance Interior

1hr 20mins rendering, FG about 50mins- Mental Ray, Photoshop, Softimage XSI 6.02

Sun position for XSI 6 - beta

Please download this plugin for XSI 6+ from here.


Read the instructions in the readme file for installation and usage.

Residential Building 1 (reprise)

Yep. Rendered in Mental Ray in just under two hours at 2000 pix wide and tweaked in Photoshop comes my redo of the Residential Building 1 image:

Both images can be found at my portfolio at CGTalk - http://jasonio.cgsociety.org/gallery/

T-Gen for Softimage XSI - public beta

This is a plug in I've been lucky enough to have been a beta tester on for the last week or two.

What is it? To quote the T-Gen website:

T-Gen is the first tree and plant generator plugin fully integrated into XSI architecture. Over 100 appearance and distribution parameters, full utilization of XSI curves and node-based hierarchy ensures great flexibility and huge possibilities while creating your own trees and plants. You can use almost all XSI tools to additionally edit materials, geometry, hierarchy of all T-Gen objects. With powerful optimization tools you can create low-poly trees and plants for your games. Almost all parameters of T-Gen are animatable, so you can create animations of growing trees and plants.

Auto-rendermap script (XSI)

Here is a short script for automating the UV-mapping and rendermapping of any polymesh objects you have selected. Change the parts highlighted in red if you want better resolution textures to be generated (eg:512 to 1024). You can also add further rendermap options here like to render illumination only. The line in green is where the UVs are applied. This can be amended to suit various situations.

All rendermaps are automatically saved out to your project/Rendermaps directory.

Once rendermapping is complete, constant shaders are then applied to all the objects and the textures are reattached to the correct objects automatically.

Switch to textured decal in the viewport to see the result.

(Save a copy of the scene before continuing and use at your own risk)

'Make a rendermap on every selected object in scene

'completed between 10 & 11-06-07
'By Jason Wells aka Redmotion

dim name, imfile, oClip

set list = GetValue( "SelectionList" )
if list.count = 0 then
MsgBox "Please select at least one polymesh object first!!"
else

'start rendermap make routine - depending on scene size and object complexity this could take a while... :)
for each item in list
logmessage item.name
name = item.name
if item.type = "polymsh" then
SelectObj name, , True
'set up unique UVs with name starting with RM_
oUVs = GenerateUniqueUVs (, "RM_" & name)

AddProp "RenderMap"
SetValue name & ".RenderMap.imagefilepath", "Render_Pictures\RM_" & name & ".pic"
SetInstanceDataValue , name & ".RenderMap.uvprop", "RM_" & name

SetValue name & ".polymsh.cls.Texture_Coordinates_AUTO.RM_"& name &".PolyPackUV.targresv", 512
SetValue name & ".polymsh.cls.Texture_Coordinates_AUTO.RM_"& name &".PolyPackUV.targresu", 512
SetValue name & ".RenderMap.resolutionx", "512"
SetValue name & ".RenderMap.squaretex", True

logmessage "RENDERMAP generation starts for: " & item.name & " - please wait"
RegenerateMaps name & ".RenderMap"
logmessage "RENDERMAP generation complete!"
end if
next

'change the shaders for selected objects to constants and add RM_image
for each item in list
name = item.name
if item.type = "polymsh" then
SelectObj name, , True

'bring in all rendermap clips
imfile = "Render_Pictures\RM_" & name & ".pic"

oClip = "Clips.RM_" & name & "_pic"

ApplyShader "Material\Constant", , , , siLetLocalMaterialsOverlap
CopyPaste , imfile, "TransientObjectContainer", 1
SIConnectShaderToCnxPoint oClip, ".material.Constant.color", False
SetInstanceDataValue , ".material.Constant.Image.tspace_id", "RM_" & name
end if
next
DeselectAll

end if

Exporting directx files to Dark Basic Pro from XSI

Exporting environments as direct x files to Dark Basic Pro from Softimage XSI isn't that straightforward. But perfect results are possible:-

1. Make your scene, texture and lightmap as required.
2. Save the scene before continuing. Now flip the entire scene as follows:-
- create a primitive > polygon > cube
- make the cube the parent of all polygon scene elements
- scale the cubes Local Z scaling to -1 (flipping the scene) (EDIT: changed from X to Z)
- in explorer, drag all the scene objects back to the scene root
- delete the cube
- select all the scene objects and freeze all transforms



- export using the settings in the image below:


Tip1: Always export to the game directory. XSI will copy and convert all textures in the scene and place them here.
Tip2: Unless there are animated objects in the scene, uncheck export animation otherwise it will crash (and vice versa).
Tip3: Animation Type: Matrix Keys are bone based animation
Tip4: Animation Type: SRT are scale/rotate/transform animations (good for platforms)
Tip5: Complex character rigs will cause crashes. Use the simplest possible rigs for exporting.
Tip6: You can choose shrink textures or choose alternative formats.
3. You will now have a directx file and a series of .jpeg textures in your game directory.
4. Go to your art program (Photoshop or Gimp, whatever) and load up, flip horizontally and save all the scene textures.
5. Go to DBPro and run your model loader code:

Residential 1

Experiment with instances, architectural materials, low/fast FG settings, physical sky & sun shaders.

Posted at the XSI base forum and consequently made the front page. :)

Faster 2d .Dxf importer for XSI 6+ only

Download a new plugin for importing 2d dxf info into Softimage XSI v6+ from here: download.

Posted this on XSI base on April 6th 2007. So far there hasn't been much interest so development hasn't progressed much further.

Before using: Please note that all data to be imported should be FLAT 2D CAD data. For files with line information or DXF polymeshes that are in 3 dimensions, please use the previous importer for v5. See link on the right.

VERSION NOTES:

0.1 - new compiled c# based plugin for XSI version 6+ only - imports lines, arcs and circles

Tips for workflow: XSI struggles with displaying a lot of curves on screen (I have Radeon 9800 pro), so try to reduce the curve count as much as possible. Work with snap switched on. Holding down snap (ctrl) on the keyboard results in terrible lag with big curvelists.

**Please note** - this plugin does not run in a workgroup over a network - please install on local harddrive.

POSSIBLE ADDITIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION:
- block importing (to remove the need to explode everything in a CAD program)
- seperate layer data into seperate objects
- more elements
- rewrite 3d importer in C# to evaluate performance

FG & Architectural materials

This is a quick post of an arch-viz test render using Softimage XSI v6.01 and mental ray 3.5. It features hi-res textures from Arroway, the mental ray Architectural materials, zbump, physical sky and physical sun shaders and the new FG mode, multiframe (30 rays, 50 points, 0 max radius). Render time was around 20 mins with a image size of 1000x675. Some of the shadows still remain blotchy in places at these low FG settings, but it is a huge leap forward from the previous version (3.4) in terms of set up time. A little bit of post-processing was done in photoshop.

Softimage have now released a bug-fix release of XSI v6 - v6.01. It seems more stable but i've only been using it for a few hours.

News on a new Dxf importer for XSI 6

Ok. It's been a while since I posted, but the good news is that I'm
re-doing the dxf importer(for the last time) and possibly the sunpath for
XSI 6. They will only work in XSI 6 and above and will be written in C#
- a welcome new feature for XSI 6.

C# is a dream (yes microsoft can do something right!) . I've been tinkering on VS C# Express since the beginning of January and I've discovered a way to get dxf data into XSI in less time than the current script manages it.

We're talking an increase (based on a single test file) from one minute plus, down to less than 1 second!!
I've only got lines working currently, so all other elements are skipped. Expect the final version to be a little slower... Well, maybe a couple of seconds slower... :)

For a start, I've dropped the dotXSI format and opted for a conversion to EPS; the XSI EPS import option is faster and brings in curvebased drawings as a single entity. This speeds up importing AND displays in the viewport much faster that 10,000 seperate curves.

There are no import options now, just file selection. If you want to change the scale, just select the curvelist and type a new scale into the SRT.

If you need to import 3d, use the old plugin, as it isn't too slow with polymesh.

Investigating Softimage XSI 6 - Part 1

RENDERING

XSI version 6 is finally with us and it's a dream to use. The changes to the rendering set up are brilliant and although many of the changes seem like small things, they really help a lot with workflow. It is now much easier to work with procedural textures and shader networks as they can be previewed in the nodes and you can follow the transformations from one node to the next, all the way to the final result. I've wanted this for ages!

The new Render manager and Material Managers are infinitely faster than previous versions and can now be considered a genuine replacement for opening up explorer and the render tree in seperate windows.

FG has now changed drastically and gives an almost instant indirect illumination render of any scene by just turning it on - well, almost...

Setting up render channels isn't something I use right now, but it will be. It seems like it will be possible to render every single object in a view seperately, and then comp it all together. The offshoot of this will be altering a material could be done by rendering a small number of the overall buffers rather than the entire scene again.

MR & the render region is faster at rendering, can be done in multiple viewports simultaneously, you can render different render channels, and you can use a slider to compare between two different shader settings and revert to the preferred settings.

Now for some info on the pics:

These are from a quick animation I made using the new Physical Sky environment shader, new physical sun light shader, the new MR Architectural material shaders, ctrl_occlusion for sampling the environment colour for the "sculpture" - faster than using FG, the legacy day shader was mapped onto a sphere and made transparent to create an overlay of clouds, to add a little more interest to the sky. Finally, I used the simple tone mapping lens shader to balance the lighting out across the image.

Finally, expect a new version of the Sunpath plugin that works nicely with Physical sky and sun, sometime in the new year.

Adventures in Final Gathering

After two weeks of experimentation, I've finally got a result I am reasonably happy with. (See above). I've been looking for standard setup that will get me a high resolution print quality image rendered overnight, even at 3000 pixels wide (and on my clapped out old dual Athlon MP) . Originally, I hoped to solve this completely with just the right FG settings alone, but raising the accuracy and lowering the FG radius values resulted in either splotchy shadows or horrendously long rendertimes.

In the end, I settled for the FG settings returned by Automatic Compute (see below), an accuracy of 200, presampling density of 1 (the default - after trying everything from 0.1 to 0.9) and good anti-aliasing settings - this gave a very smooth shadow shading over large areas but missed out smaller details.

So to rectify this I used an Ambient Occlusion shader and Toon_Ink_Lens shader for the camera shader to get the detail missing from the FG solution. (If I render this again I'll use a seperate AO pass for better control.):-

acc 200
min 30 max 100 (rounded up from auto-compute result)
bounce 1
pre-sampling 1
filter 1
multiplier 1.5 1.5 1.5
trace depth 4 4 8
4:38:19.28 for rendering - 3000 x 2256 pixels
1:03:40.40 for computing finalgather points
AA= min 0 max 3 (mitchell) (0.101 0.101 0.101)

I used Photoshop 6.0 to bring back some of the contrast, and stick a little glow on the spots.

2 point perspective in Softimage XSI

I'd thought that this wasn't possible. But on sunday morning, I had the urge to post a request for info about 2-point perspective using XSI. Then I changed my mind and decided to see if I could work it out myself. Within about 20 mins I had the solution. I've posted it at XSI base.

Ctrl.Buffers

Ctrl studio are at it again. They tweaked and updated their Ctrl.buffers plugin which features, among other things, "tone mapping".
This technique easily brings Mental Ray into the same quality of lighting as other renderers like V-ray and Maxwell. (The attached image was created in Softimage XSI - but NOT by me, I hasten to add. :) )
You can find the v2.0 beta shaders at Softimage.ru along with some brilliant videos detailing how to use it. It's not exactly new news but I only just found it, so here it is...

Physical Sky addon released for Softimage XSI

A physical sky shader, originally developed for Maya has been ported over to Softimage XSI. Initial impressions are promising. Especially if I can fix the problems with the Sunpath XSI addon, I think these two addons would complement each other nicely.

Get it here.

4th Place for The Grand Machines

The Grand Machines demo wins 4th place in the Ageia Physx/Dark Physics software compo.
Download the demo here.

Dxf Importer for Softimage XSI 5.11

I'm pleased to announce that, as of today, the redmotion dxf import plugin is now finally available. It gives you the ability to load dxf files, either polymesh or basic vector information, straight into XSI.

I will be posting the announcement at XSIbase later on today.

EDIT: Download the .xsiaddon file from here.

The Grand Machines - development footnote

When I started the TGC Competition 2006, I was a bit worried about the deadline being far too short to make any sort of decent game (that I could think of). But early on, I found some alternative ways - to 100% hard coding - to make a reasonably slick camera and control system. In fact - it worked out far better than any straight coding i've tried in the past.

It also debuts the first implementation of a system I've been developing since around mid-September, which I have pretentiously dubbed the X-engine. It allows me to use Softimage XSI to design, model, texture, animate and set up the basic physics properties for an entire level and then export as a single direct x file. The game code then picks it apart and assigns the correct attributes to the different elements. Currently, the level-specific mechanics/events have to be hard coded, but I intend to switch to a scripting system asap.

The X-engine was created to speed up my work flow and more importantly; for allowing users to create and add their own levels (with ease) in the future. As you never know who will take your game and do something you never thought of. It's the ultimate source of user feedback.

TGC Competition 2006 entry - The Grand Machines - 3 level demo

Yesterday I submitted v.1.00 of my 3 level gameplay demo of "The Grand Machines" to the TGC 2006 Ageia Physx competition. The game is kind-of-a cross between Head-over-Heels and Marble Madness. It takes the co-operative 3d puzzle/platform elements of the first and the rolling ball physics of the latter. Yes, there are probably too many rolling ball games in the world, but it's been on my list o' game-things to do for ages.

EDIT: (Just submitted v1.1 - which adds a music track I created a few years ago.)