The first principle of learning XSI holds then: 'don't try and make XSI be
something else'
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM] On
> Behalf Of Ponthieux, Joey
> Sent: 01 February 2008 18:13
> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM
> Subject: Re: Coming back from Maya
>
> You asked.....
>
> 1. The XSI interaction model, as a whole, is far better for XSI than
> attempting to apply someone else's interaction model on top of XSI.
>
> 2. After just barely 5 years on Soft3D, for nearly 8 years I tried to
> shake ZOP on Maya, I just couldn't do it. The ALT-Key navigation system
> on Maya just didn't cut it. It just wasn't natural. Most importantly
> their system made it very difficult on people with wheel mice, zoom and
> orbit were always a a hairs hit away from being right on cue when you
> pressed the buttons, too many different mouse button combinations for
> something that should be really simple, and they don't make mice the
> way
> the used to(sans wheel), which is what they designed the nav keys for
> in
> Maya back in 96 on SGI. Without even considering the 1-2 years overlap
> where I was using Soft3D and Maya simultaneously, six years later I was
> still habitually, and erroneously, hit ZOP in Maya for navigation. I
> took that as a signal that the ALT key just wasn't as comfortable a
> fit.
> It wasn't until Maya ended up on Windows did they correct a major flaw
> with the ALT mouse worklfow where they assigned dolly to ALT-RMB.
> They couldn't do this on SGI, this was bound to a special XWindows
> command within Irix. But by the time I moved to PC about 3 years ago,
> Maya on Win vs XSI on Win.....well ....you be the judge of that.
>
> 3. The ALT Nav system on Maya also limited finer control, the mouse
> buttons were taken up with Pan, Dolly, Orbit. Zoom in Maya was embedded
> into the interface for the Camera's Attributes under Focal Length. In
> XSI it is exposed under Z. It was an extra step any time you wanted to
> limit Orbit to X, Y, or Z, slow Dolly vs Fast Dolly, etc. Roll was two
> tiers down under the viewport View command. On XSI, its just one key
> press, L.
>
> 4. For selections Spacebar,T,E,U is a lot more efficient than Q and a
> visual hunt for the right Component icon. You could assign any of these
> to keys which I did, but you shouldn't have to do this.
>
> 5. For transforms, there is Maya's WER(move,rotate,scale) and Soft's
> VCX(move, rotate scale). I always liked the fact that Space(select) was
> closer to VCX in Soft. In Maya it was nerve wracking to no absolute end
> why the heck did they assign Scale to R? Duh?
>
> 6. Hotbox and Marking menus? What can I say? Theyre both wonderful and
> a
> real headache at the same time. Theyre fast and elegant, but there's
> nothing more absolutely frustrating than to use a stroke on the HotBox
> because you used it as a Marking menu, and now your current view has
> disappeared because it been replaced with a new view. Admittedly the
> marking menus are faster, but only if your scene is simple and not as
> cluttered, if you have a real heavy scene, marking menus can be a real
> pain.
>
> 7. Manipulators, that was new to 3D, and quite revolutionary. But just
> about every app implements that now, it's no longer an issue.
>
> 8. Middle Click. Absolutely nothing like it Maya's arsenal. Not even
> the
> nonsacred tool(Y) or repeat key(G) come close.
>
> These are just interaction issues. I set up Max to behave like Soft
> once, got it pretty close. It was impossible to reengineer Maya's
> interface close enough to Soft to make it worthwhile. You could do this
> with Max. Frankly I don't buy the myth that Soft3D's mindset is old or
> out of date. It was good, clean, efficient, and didn't place things in
> conflict with each other. It exposed almost everything you needed for
> selection and navigation right on the keyboard. If that interaction
> model is bad, then I'll take bad.
>
> Joey Ponthieux
> NCI Information Systems Inc.
> NASA Langley Research Center
> ____________________________________________________________
> Opinions stated here-in are strictly those of the author and
> do not represent the opinions of NASA or any other party.
>
>
>
> Gene Crucean wrote:
> > Can I ask why you old school Soft users think the native interaction
> > model is better than every other piece of software out there that all
> > relatively mimics the same qwerty setup?
> >
> > I'm looking for solid reasons why it's /better/. Is it faster because
> > you guys are so hardcore that you don't even use a mouse... therefore
> > freeing up your right hand for O,P usage? ;)
> >
> > I'm calling you guys out. XSI dragging along the old Soft mindset
> just
> > further alienates potential users from hopping on board. IMO, SI
> would
> > be better off in the long run if in V7 they just dropped it and kept
> > the qwerty setup as default. Maybe drop it completely from the
> > software but offer the keymap as a download from the site... at least
> > until the "old dogs" retire.
> >
> >
> > $0.02 ching ching
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 1, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Julien Stiegler
> > <julien.stiegler(at)free.fr <mailto:julien.stiegler(at)free.fr>> wrote:
> >
> > Hey eric,
> >
> > it's a great initiative to host tested/working/quality scripts
> and
> > plugins on
> > your site.
> > What about contacting ALL the xsi addons authors and ask them the
> > permissions to
> > host it on your site ?
> > I have a good collection of them but the authors still need to be
> > contacted for
> > permissions ....
> >
> > regards
> >
> > Selon Eric Thivierge <eric(at)xsidatabase.com
> > <mailto:eric(at)xsidatabase.com>>:
> >
> > > Well Kim,
> > >
> > > It's a community based site. I don't script too well myself so
> it's
> > > pretty much up to the others on the list and in the community
> to put
> > > some things on the site. The site is for hosting the files of
> > various
> > > resources to get rid of the horrible "File not found" errors.
> So I
> > > counter your comment with, "Shouldn't YOU put some scripts in
> > it?" :)
> > >
> > > Cheers Kim. Hope all is well.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Eric Thivierge, XSI Database Admin
> > > www.xsidatabase.com <http://www.xsidatabase.com>
> > > eric(at)xsidatabase.com <mailto:eric(at)xsidatabase.com>
> > > Forum Username: EricTRocks
> > >
> > >
> > > kim aldis wrote:
> > > > Shouldn't you put some scripts into it? ;-)
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >> -----Original Message-----
> > > >> From: owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
> > <mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM> [mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM
> > <mailto:owner-xsi(at)Softimage.COM>] On
> > > >> Behalf Of Eric Thivierge
> > > >> Sent: 01 February 2008 03:32
> > > >> To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM <mailto:XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> > > >> Subject: Re: Coming back from Maya
> > > >>
> > > >> Right on Marcus! Don't forget we have a new scripts section
> > as well.
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ---
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> >
> >
> > --
> > Julien Stiegler
> > Réalisation de film d'animation, vidéo interactive,
> > pré-production, post-prodution.
> > http://animatic.no-ip.com/cv.html
> >
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