Avid Technology has announced version 4.2 of SOFTIMAGE|XSI software, offering a series of enhancements designed to streamline the creative process for complex CG productions including games, films, broadcast, and post-production projects. Now, advanced features, such as crowd simulation and compositing and paint capabilities, are included with different versions of SOFTIMAGE|XSI 4.2 software.
“This new version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI software offers a more robust production pipeline, enabling 3D artists and technical directors to work with greater ease to deliver the outstanding CG content that consumers have come to expect from the entertainment industry,” said Gareth Morgan, senior product manager for Softimage. “We have extended our 3-Democracy campaign even further with the latest version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI by incorporating powerful high-end features like crowd simulation software into XSI Advanced, and compositing and paint functionality within XSI Essentials. These additional tools empower our customers to push new creative boundaries when producing CG content.”
XSI Essentials now comes with the resolution-independent professional compositing and paint features, previously only included in the XSI Advanced package. In addition, XSI Advanced is now bundled with version 2.0 of SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR, the company’s behavioral crowd simulation software, which offers tight integration with SOFTIMAGE|XSI software and mental ray rendering as well as an integrated development environment (IDE) with debugging functionalities. Users can now build CG crowd scenes with SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR software and independently control any of the characters created in SOFTIMAGE|XSI software as part of a complex crowd consisting of more than 100,000 characters. Other highlights include terrain following, obstacle avoidance, dynamic path-planning, automatic motion blending, character rag doll and stunt force creation.
Softimage customers who purchased any of the three packages of SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.0 software--Foundation, Essentials and Advanced--can immediately download the upgrade to v.4.2 at http://www.softimage.com/download.
New customers can purchase SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 in the following configurations:
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Foundation is available for $495 from the Softimage website: http://www.softimage.com/store or from authorized Softimage resellers.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Essentials is available for $1,995 from authorized Softimage resellers.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.2 Advanced + SOFTIMAGE|BEHAVIOR v.2.0 is now available for $6,995 from authorized Softimage resellers.
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