Hi Stefan,
Some things to add to what you said: in Houdini, afaik, all solvers
speak to everything and also, for those that don't know, the UI is
actually made ALL in Python and thus any programmers/master-scripters
out there can customize the hell out of it if they want, through
custom or modified code.
On another note:
> Primitives don't create a default UV layout. Ok, that's no big deal with
> most, but you tell me how to parametrically map a torus with the given
> toolset. Yeah, you can create another nurbs torus and GATOR the hell out of
> it, but...you have to do it.
I don't like it either, but uhmmm...
http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/4318/walkonmeshcanunwraptubukn8.jpg
This simple torus took about 5 or 8 seconds to unwrap with XSI's
built-in tools. You were saying? ;)
GATOR is overkill for a torus. It's much easier to do what I
illustrated above. I encourage that you try it yourself:
1. Press I and select your (edge) seams and rightclick-->Disconnect
components, like so:
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/7519/seamsanddisconnectcompoyw6.jpg
2. Give the object (in this case, the torus) a texture projection.
(Any simple one will do. We just need UVs to exist to begin with.)
3. Press I again, and do Ctrl+A to select all edges from the torus.
4. Do "Walk on mesh". It's a little button with an icon of a scroll
being unwrapped:
http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6931/walkonmeshgg6.jpg
5. Then it's gonna go in a picking session. For this case, we just let
it pick itself by going ahead and right clicking.
6. A little PPG pops up. (Play with the "Interior Smooth" to
straighten your UVs if you like.) Done! :D
7. When you're happy with it, select all edges again,
rightclick-->Weld Boundary Points/Edges, then Freeze M.
This method works great for unwrapping any tube-like geometry, too.
Back to XSI simulations... how come we have PhysX but we can't do this??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgWur7HaIks
I was playing with that demo the other day. It ran in realtime, super
smooth with dynamic tearing! :o (....and it's not even "new".)
Hope to see it someday,
-- Alan
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 7:40 AM, Stefan Kubicek <xsi(at)tidbit-images.com> wrote:
> I think it comes down to the fact that it's simply cheaper to implement
> third party software improvements
> (e.g. a new mental ray version or shaders) than developing everything from
> scratch.
> XSI benefits from this as well extensively through Shave, Mental Ray and
> Syflex.
>
> What I like in 2009 though is the Help Center search function, which ties
> many sources of help together.
> Also, I like the concept of relaxing the UV's by keeping the button pressed
> until it looks right, instead of having to crank some spinner up and down
> for iterations and hitting a "Relax" button several times, and then still
> not quite hitting the desired end result. Eliminates the guesswork.
>
> Commercial spline mapping solutions exist for quite some time, e.g. Texture
> Layers from www.mankua.com for 3dsmax.
>
> As far as open ends are concerned: Max is definitely the worst example
> overall (It started stagnating with Version 3 imho), but even XSI shows some
> signs of this.
>
> e.g. Cloth and Hair solvers "don't know each other", the same goes for
> fluids and rigid bodies. Now this is surely
> more a technical problem rather than a design problem on which both Houdini
> and Maya have their own take, and apparently available middleware that's
> capable of that (PhysX) doesn't seem to cut for high end packages..
>
> We have two cloth solvers in XSI. The standard version, and Syflex.
> There are 2 ways to achieve soft bodies: Syflex and the old built in
> version.
> None of them interacts with any of the other dynamics stuff like rigid
> bodies or fluids. (see above)
>
> There is no central facility for handling rc or pulldown menu contents and
> layout. Plugins tell the registrar at load time in which menu they want to
> appear and that's it. No easy/user friendly way of reorganising those that I
> know of.
> In Max you can completely customize the UI, pull down and quad menu entries
> with a simple drag and drop UI tool, which beats the crap out of XSI & Maya
> in this regard (don't know about Houdini and C4D).
>
> Small UI inconsistencies: The left command panel has bitmap buttons to
> switch between Weight Paint tools, Main Tools, Palette and Scripting tools.
> The MCP has tabs with text instead, which looks much tidier. (ok, that's
> probably a bit pedantic, but it simply doesn't look consistent, and the
> Icons (especially the Palette icon) seem to suffer from JPG artefacts).
>
> We're in version 6.5 now and the sculpting tools ("painting" deformations)
> are a joke.
> Primitives don't create a default UV layout. Ok, that's no big deal with
> most, but you tell me how to parametrically map a torus with the given
> toolset. Yeah, you can create another nurbs torus and GATOR the hell out of
> it, but...you have to do it.
>
> Other than that: I Love it :-)
>
> Stef
>
>
>
>
>
> > Raffaele Fragapane wrote:
> >
>
> > Looking into the release, there´s lots of mR functionality
> > implemented. This seems to become the biggest chunk of updates
> > with any of the major 3Dapp licensees. This is either because
> > there is nothing else to be developed (I doubt that) or because
> > implementing the latest mR version and keeping track of it´s
> > changes takes more and more time in the development cycle,
> > leaving not much room to actually implement other new features.
> >
> > The splineUV thing is also something a smart guy released for
> > Maya (using a NURBS surfaces as input) a while back, might
> > even have transfered over from the Maya Bonus tools, concept-wise.
> >
> > *The IES lightprofile stuff and viewport display is still great.
> >
> > *Softselections are about time, the implementation seems nice.
> >
> >
> > In general, regardless of the 3D app I´m looking at, I´d find
> > it about time the developers find the strenght to consolidate
> > existing functionality, update and weeding out where neccessary.
> >
> > Otherwise, with age, there comes an increased risk of bogging
> > down and falling flat on your face...especially if there´s all
> > sorts of open ends, nuissances and whatnot building up slowly...
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > tim
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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