Believe me, it has been a common request to Softimage that they try to make their releases forward compatible. The folks who had a better understanding of the pitfalls of software development scolded the people who were more focused on their production needs. But since then, Softimage has been doing a really great job of making their bug fix releases for the companies on advanced support forward compatible.
For everyone else, and for the major releases, it is unrealistic to expect complete forward compatibility, otherwise the huge datasets that make up our software can never progress. There is a substantial difference in the amount and type of information that Photoshop or MSword has to store to rebuild a file, versus something like XSI.
That said, there are still pipeline techniques we can use that help ourselves in case of emergency. Use enough 3D software in enough shows over time, hit enough snags, and eventually you come to a point where investment in rescue strategy is worth the payoff. In recent threads we've talked about Point Oven and mesh caching. For years we've talked about modularizing, transferring, and rebuilding animation via Action Sources and property sets. Apply these metaphors to how you model, how you rig, how you animate, how you set up scenes for lighting, how you piece together your assets, how you develop your pipelines. As much as you can, evolve your production techniques towards application independance, even if you are only using XSI (consider each version a different application).
At the end of the day, levels of forward compatibility are necessary and possible, as long as you prepare for it and practice for it. Your ability to do this, I find, more than anything, establishes your ability to rescue broken or failing assets, minimize repeated work, and rapidly adapt to the kinds of changes we see on a regular bases from the start of a show, to the end of it. Fortunately, we also have more tools now such as GATOR that help facilitate this metaphor, and I predict there will be yet more to come along these lines. Certainly if I have any influence over it. :-)
-Brad
> -------Original Message-------
> Ah thanks for the tip Brad. So yeah, I guess not having forward
> compatability kind of stinks...but as Robert pointed out....I guess that
> really isn't possible if progression is to occur in the software. Isn't it
> possible to open up files from Photoshop CS in PS7 if the maximize
> compatability option is toggled on when saving out a file though? I'm sure
> there are certain things that wouldn't translate back and forth due to
> advancements in the software...but it does open up doesn't it? I don't have
> an older version of Photoshop to test with otherwise I would. What I mean to
> say is that if there hasn't been anything "touched" by the new version you
> "should" be able to open it back up in xsi 5.0 ya? If I just open the scene
> in 5.1, do nothing, save it, then try and open in 5.0 it doesn't work. Seems
> like quite a few kittens to toss at this one though so forget I even
> replied! Carry on. :-)
> -Wayne-
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf Of
> brad
> Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:36 PM
> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> Subject: Re: backward compatibility
>
> I think the terminology you mean to express is that XSI 5.1 is not "forward
> compatible" with 5.01. Sorry to have to be pedantic, but "backward
> compatible" means the data created in older versions can be read by newer
> versions. This is common in the world of computer software, and XSI has been
> very good about backward compatibility from the beginning. ;-)
>
>
> > Unfortunately I don't think so Daniel. Come to think of it, I don't ever
> > remember there being backward compatability which kind of stinks.
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On Behalf
> Of
> > Daniel Fortin
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 9:29 AM
> > To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> > Subject: backward compatibility
> >
> > Can I open a file in XSI 5.01 after it as been saved in 5.1?
> >
> >
> > Daniel Fortin, tech.
> > fortin.daniel(at)cegertec.qc.ca
> > CEGERTEC INC.
> > 255, rue Racine Est, Case postale 1000
> > Chicoutimi (Québec) G7H 5G4
> > Tél.: (418) 549-6680 - Téléc.: (418) 549-7105
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
> body:
> > unsubscribe xsi
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
> body:
> > unsubscribe xsi
> >
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
> unsubscribe xsi
>
>
> ---
> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
> unsubscribe xsi
>
---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi
