Category Archives: Uncategorized

XSI 1.0 first shipped 10 years ago

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As Luc-Eric pointed out on the XSI list today, yesterday was XSI’s 10th anniversary.

Softimage Co. Announces First Customer Shipment of SOFTIMAGE/XSI Version 1.0

MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2000

Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), today announced the first shipment of its groundbreaking 3-D animation SOFTIMAGE(R)|XSI(TM) system. The next-generation of 3-D animation technology, the SOFTIMAGE|XSI system is a significant breakthrough in the international digital media industry because it allows animators in the broadcast, feature films and games industries to take advantage of a first-of-its-kind, truly non-linear animation system. Within the first few weeks of availability, Softimage anticipates delivering the new software to over 17,000 users worldwide.

“SOFTIMAGE|XSI represents a tremendous amount of hard work, talent and energy from Softimage and we are extremely proud of it,” said Marc Petit, vice president of 3-D products for Softimage. “This project has been an amazing challenge from day one. The mandate was simple: completely re-invent a piece of software that had set the standard in the industry and redefine the benchmark.

“The SOFTIMAGE|XSI system is a strong platform on which we’ll be able to quickly build the next generation of tools for media professionals. With SOFTIMAGE|XSI, the .xsi file format and the XSI viewer, Softimage is ideally positioned to extend its leadership into online 3-D interactive content.”

Here’s some vidcaps from the XSI launch tour:

Getting Python to show up in Softimage

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Notes

  • Softimage does not support Python 3, so install Python 2.6.x or earlier.
  • We recommend using pywin32 212 (there’s a problem with 214 can cause a crash on exit).

Three easy steps:

  1. Install Python.
  2. Install the corresponding version of pywin32.
    For example, if you installed Python 2.5 on 32-bit Windows, then install pywin32-212.win32-py2.5.exe.
  3. Check that the Python path is included in your PATH system environment variable.
    If your PATH doesn’t include the Python install folder, then Python won’t show up in Softimage.

You can get the 64-bit versions (Linux and Windows) of Python for Softimage here.

The most recent install of pywin32 determines which version of Python is available in Softimage. If your version of pywin32 doesn’t match up to an installed version of Python, then Python won’t show up in Softimage.

On vacation

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I’m off to Buenos Aires for two weeks, so there’ll be no blogging until I get back.
See you then!

Steve

PS – The forecast for tomorrow:

Montreal: high -12, low -17 (Celcius).
Buenos Aires: high 29, low 18.

The Softimage KB on autodesk.com

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on the Softimage KB at autodesk.com. I’ve also been working on Maya and Max KBs, as a reviewer.

Over the next few years we hope to see the KB become a big part of a more Web-based support community. For me, it feels a little bit like starting over; I think Softimage had a good start with the wiki and SOFTIMAGE|NET.

Here’s some of my recent KB articles:

13419971 Loading older scenes that contain volumic light effects
13550180 Softimage render licensing
13541487 audiodisplayfiles (.adf) files
13541480 dsprojectinfo file
13541455 Creating a Softimage project without running Softimage
13541449 Saving scenes outside of projects
13541215 Cannot add a project in the Project Manager
13525006 Invalid project error when saving a scene
13522800 Display problems in OpenGL viewports when using selection tools
13514010 Render Tree does not display shaders connected to Material node
13510724 Warning: objects were not saved normally
13498182 License Management Utility has stopped working
13487723 Product Support Video: Debugging scenes
13468716 Product Support Video: Troubleshooting startup crashes with Process Monitor
13473421 Error: No Interactive Network License Available
13443934 BA_Volume warning about lookup table size when rendering ICE particles
13414068 ERROR : ActiveX component can’t create object
13384366 Softimage crashes at startup when Digital Persona installed
13396844 Setting up network licenses
13386202 Setting up Softimage to use multiple license servers
13376704 Error: The serial number you entered is not valid
13285880 Satellite rendering causes fatal mental ray errors