Trying to mod with HL2 and XSI

[allyourbase]

What version of Softimage XSI can be used in conjuction with Half Life 2? Would you need the current orange box Half Life 2? Can I use any other version of XSI besides the mod tool version for creating Half Life 2 mods?
My project was on hold, when I went back to it the orange box came out and the XSI software was upgraded to 6.5. XSI Foundation was $500 now I don't know if I can use that or if I need a $3000 version of XSI.

 

[Au-heppa]

It doesn't have to be Orange Box. Any Source game is fine, depends what game you want to mod.

The only XSI model exporters I am aware of are for the XSI Modtool one and the ones in the Noesis Interactive's website. The bad thing about ModTool is that it doesn't allow facial expression exporting. Noesis has exporters for 5.11 and 6.0, but it might work with 6.5, too. You have to try out yourself.

http://www.noesisinteractive.com/index.php?x=media&y=extra