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New Softimage|XSI 3.0 Leverages Cg Shader Language

Nvidia and Softimage have announced that Softimage|XSI 3.0 is the first digital content creation application to take advantage of Nvidia's Cg programming language.

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Game Developer, Staff

November 8, 2002

1 Min Read
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Nvidia and Softimage have announced that Softimage|XSI 3.0 is the first digital content creation application to take advantage of Nvidia's Cg programming language. Softimage|XSI 3.0, the company's animation environment which started shipping a week ago, leverages its Cg underpinnings to allow users to drag and drop shader nodes or material presets from XSI's NetView directly into a scene's Render Tree window. You can use XSI's interface to fine tune shaders to control shader variable such as effect intensity, location, material properties and other variables. Other Softimage|XSI 3.0 features include:

  • Performance boosts -- Softimage states that operations on polygon meshes are an average of 94% faster, and "typical" deformations are an average of 31% faster

    • Lightweight model instances and instanced hierarchies reduce memory consumption in scenes containing many similar characters

    • Interactive camera navigation tools allow you to experiment with and test different camera moves interactively directly within XSI, using simple first-person game-style controls

    • A variety of setups for building simple or complex character rigs, tailored to fit game requirements

    • Game-style "shadow rigs" constrain null hierarchies, Box hierarchies, or simple Softimage|3D-style skeletons to a master rig, letting you animate with XSI and then export the appropriate data to your game engine

    • A motion-deform tool ensures that there is no foot slippage when animating characters around tight corners

    • A redesigned particle dynamics system that features dynamic particle instancing, a new library of shaders, and sub-frame emission for fast moving partical emitters

    • Full support for DirectX shaders, including a DirectX custom viewer Softimage|XSI 3.0 licenses start at $6750, with upgrade pricing available.

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