Hamburg/Montreal, February 2001: The new functions of the second major release of the next-generation animation environment Softimage|XSI focus entirely on the needs of game designers and three-dimensional web worlds.
Softimage|XSI and its predecessor Softimage|3D can be used to create and prepare geometries for games on Microsoft’s X-Box or Sony’s Playstation 2.
The new functions of XSI 1.5 include a comprehensive polygon modeller with complete modelling history, which integrates seamlessly into XSI’s graphical user interface.
The newly available .xsi metafile file format allows game developers to export extensive, detailed 3D scenes as ASCII files that can be exchanged across platforms, while user-defined filters can make the desired adjustments to the file export in parallel. This provides a configurable interface for transferring 3D data to any render/game engine.
The new NetView tool, with which Internet content can be accessed directly within the animation software, is conducive to working speed. While the user is working with XSI 1.5, the web can be searched with an HTML browser for new surface materials or prefabricated objects, for example, which can then be used directly in the user’s own scene using drag & drop.
The Softimage|XSI SDK is also about to be released – the developer package for XSI will make it possible to integrate highly specialised tools from third-party providers directly into the XSI interface, so that proprietary algorithms can also find their way into XSI, for example. In addition, an FTK (File Tool Kit) will also be available that allows the integration of the .xsi metafile file format in own applications.
Avid/Softimage announces the availability of a Softimage version for Linux in the second quarter – all features and functions of Softimage|3D v3.92 and later also XSI are to be supported just as comprehensively as currently under Windows and SGI/IRIX.
