Anyone modeling with XSI|EXP for HL2?

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Triggerhappy41

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Im seeing what I can do. Trying to get done with the boombox tutorial. Im amazed that such a good program is free. Of course, there are the poly limits, but if I like this enough, I might buy the real prog.

Is anyone else out there trying this? Any models to boast?

If you look in the gallery for XSI the first place winner of the contest modeled a face. Its almost like reality my god.
 
I hope not becuase its on my list of "i really ******* want it!!!" list like hl2 is:) (this is the time for you to reply fenric) How much is it and could a 16 yr old highschool student get a discount on it?!?!??!
 
ok here's the deal,,

go to http://www.softimage.com/Products/EXP/HL2/


grab a copy of the FREE XSI|HL2

as far as I can tell it's fully functional only you're restricted to exporting only to the Halflife2 smd format, and it has a watermark when working, but it's not nearly as annoying as maya PLE's....

XSI has an interesting interface,, I'm still dealing with it, but I'm gonna kay off it since I'm learning the other big 2 right now
 
Is this face editor program a part f XSI or is that coming under the SDK bundle?
 
operative x said:
I hope not becuase its on my list of "i really ******* want it!!!" list like hl2 is:) (this is the time for you to reply fenric) How much is it and could a 16 yr old highschool student get a discount on it?!?!??!
Click to expand...
It's a professional app used in Hollywood. It's not cheap (to a 16 year old) but its now dead cheap to a studio or a pro.

You don't need the full app for HL2 work, EXP will work just fine for HL2 modding. and you don't need the full app unless your gonna do it as a proper career. In that case it quickly pays for itself like all the good apps, plugins and extra's do.
 
im using xsi to model the althou im not very at ease whit it so i somethimes use 3ds, althou i think xsi is a great tool
 
you sure it doesn't come with them, or you just can't find them, or your video card doesn't work correctly with them/support them.?
 
I believe you can get gpu surface effects from the softimage website,, haven't tried myself, EXP|HL2 might restrict plugin use,,,



might be something like valve is releasing their own normal map plugin with the SDK,, I guess we'll just have to wait and see
 
i would love to use this program but my monitor sucks it is 15" and it doesn't support the resolution that is required :(
 
I can't see it being restricted in that way, being as its that stuff HL2 modelers will be using. It's probably a case of him just not being able to find them.
 
weel, I checked at the net view link and it's not there as it is in the video
 
yea, nothing there either. Did you guys check your XSIs for the gpu add-ons?
 
There are a number of updates coming through for HL2|EXP. Just run the program every once and a while and it will flash on the front page.

Did you guys check your XSIs for the gpu add-ons?
Click to expand...

I noticed the GPU Surface FX addon is not in the HL2 EXP. Its not available on XSINET. Um, I check what's up with this and report back. It could be we are making some modifications - I'll have to check.
On the other hand, you do have all the face setup tools in the Valve Tools.

Is this face editor program a part f XSI or is that coming under the SDK bundle?
Click to expand...

The Face Poser software shown in the vids on softimage.com is a standalone app that loads mdl files. It's very close to the animation mixer in XSI, so getting to grip with that first is a good idea. It will be part of the SDK.
 
softmonkey said:
There are a number of updates coming through for HL2|EXP. Just run the program every once and a while and it will flash on the front page.



I noticed the GPU Surface FX addon is not in the HL2 EXP. Its not available on XSINET. Um, I check what's up with this and report back. It could be we are making some modifications - I'll have to check.
On the other hand, you do have all the face setup tools in the Valve Tools.



The Face Poser software shown in the vids on softimage.com is a standalone app that loads mdl files. It's very close to the animation mixer in XSI, so getting to grip with that first is a good idea. It will be part of the SDK.
Click to expand...


Finally, thx Softmonkey. So, the gpu addons will do be available for HL2 EXP? That wall effect made me go nuts!!!!!
 
operative x said:
I hope not becuase its on my list of "i really ******* want it!!!" list like hl2 is:) (this is the time for you to reply fenric) How much is it and could a 16 yr old highschool student get a discount on it?!?!??!
Click to expand...

The educational version of SoftImage XSI Essentials is $500 and Advance is $800 which is around the same as 3ds Max's student version.
 
Im just using 3d Studio max 5.1 and hten importing into XSI so then I can export it to HL2 format, so I don't have to learn howto use XSI, becuase I do not like the interface AT ALL!
oldfaq
 
oldfaq said:
Im just using 3d Studio max 5.1 and hten importing into XSI so then I can export it to HL2 format, so I don't have to learn howto use XSI, becuase I do not like the interface AT ALL!
oldfaq
Click to expand...

The interface is a little freaky and overdone, but I'm having an easier time learning and modeling in XSI than in 3ds Max.
 
Is 3DSM the one that requires a fee to export for games? Or was that something else? If it wasn't 3DSM then you should be able to just export into HL2 without ever using XSI.
 
I'm just interested in some of the XSI features, most of all, the texture effect that uses light instead of polygons. You can create surfaces with light information (respond to light), such as rock walls, with just one poly!!!! Crazy stuff!!!!
 
i like xsi, but i thought the tutorials sucked really bad. the boombox one esp. something was wrong where it wouldn't let me duplicate those two frontal polygons.. so when i got to the end of the tut and i delete the one in the far front, i would have a speaker floating there

it just really frustrated me... and i'm using maya and liking it a lot =)
 
Brazooka said:
I'm just interested in some of the XSI features, most of all, the texture effect that uses light instead of polygons. You can create surfaces with light information (respond to light), such as rock walls, with just one poly!!!! Crazy stuff!!!!
Click to expand...
It's called normal mapping and it doesn't contain any light information, it contains polygon normal direction information, hence normal map. The direction of the normal of each polygon, which gives those funky shades of colors, each one represents a direction of a polygon. Regular bump mapping was simply height map info, black being 0 height, pure white being 100% height. Normal maps offer far better quality for obvious reasons.
 
Aye normal mapping is very impressive. I'm actually trying to do it in Maya, but so far I'm not having luck. Followed some instructions but part the way through it says to scroll down in the attribute editor for the shader I made and put in the normal map etc. but when I try that stuff isn't there!

Btw. Fenric, what is the difference between normal mapping and displacement mapping? I know normal mapping is have a texture with the colour on it indicating the direction of the normal at that point, but not sure about displacement. From the pictures I've seen it seems to end up with pretty much the same result.
 
Lupus said:
Aye normal mapping is very impressive. I'm actually trying to do it in Maya, but so far I'm not having luck. Followed some instructions but part the way through it says to scroll down in the attribute editor for the shader I made and put in the normal map etc. but when I try that stuff isn't there!

Btw. Fenric, what is the difference between normal mapping and displacement mapping? I know normal mapping is have a texture with the colour on it indicating the direction of the normal at that point, but not sure about displacement. From the pictures I've seen it seems to end up with pretty much the same result.
Click to expand...
normal mapping - basically fake detail, making a single poly look like 300 poly's, but its only fake, if you look at it straight on its still completely flat, so kinda like a hologram (as I believe the guys making the unreal3 engine are calling the effect) its normal mapping

displacement mapping - actually displaces the polygons, so the more detail you want, the more polygons you need to have. displacement mapping just uses a height map, and once mapped to an object, any polygons in the whiter area's are moved higher than those in the darker area's. So if you look at a surface straight on, it has actual geometry displaced and isn't a faked surface effect like normal mapping

Because of the amount of detail possible with displacement mapping, and because of the amount of polygons required to make it look good and not look all smooth or jagged, you'd use NURBS, which handle it far better.
 
Ah ok, I think I understand. Cheers :) Not really used nurbs yet, I'll have to get round to that.
 
lupus have you found any good tutorials on normal mapping for Maya? links?
 
XSI V4 has been announced, head on over to www.softimage.com for more info, and you'll be glad to know that the V4 student lisence is super cheap. As for normal mapping in XSI and advanced techniques just post yer question here and i'll see what i can do.
 
The interface is a little freaky and overdone, but I'm having an easier time learning and modeling in XSI than in 3ds Max
Click to expand...

I can't stand hte interface in XSI, I just have to learn howto use all the tools and I have a feeking I would like it :)
oldfaq
 
xsi's interface is horrible, I feel like i'm trapped. in maya without any tutorials i'm allready animating, playing around the dynamics, creating displacement maps, bump maps of mars terrain. Its like with maya they broke the interface down to the simplest level so u can perfom complex tasks alot easier. I dont know, i'm new to both so i'll have to give xsi time.
 
yes i feel traped in XSI to.... i have no idea what im doing or how to do it... my aim is Sunliger im allways on
 
I would like to dig deeper into modeling, knowing a bit 3dMax and a very little bit Maya. But XSI confuse me quite much. The interface dosen't look logical to me.
I would like to go on with 3Dmax but if Valve pushes ahead with XSI, like the face-animator and stuff I'd prefer knowing XSI and not have to learn it the very last minute...
Anyone knows how deep the face-animator(speech-synchronisator) is linked to real XSI ??
I hope not too much. I simply hate like XSI looks. But Iam still noob.
 
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