Download Autodesk Softimage 7.5

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Autodesk launched Autodesk Softimage 7.5 software for visual effects and game production. With this release, Autodesk has renamed the SOFTIMAGE|XSI software -- acquired from Avid Technology, Inc. -- Autodesk Softimage. The 7.5 version offers timesaving new features, such as UV unfolding technology, a multithreaded Syflex cloth simulator and an integrated mental ray 3.7+ renderer. Artists have used Softimage to create numerous movies, commercials and video games, including the Oscar-winning film "Happy Feet," Coca Cola's "Heist" Super Bowl ad, and the "Fable II" video game.

"Our mission at Autodesk is to deliver integrated pipelines for digital entertainment creation and Softimage is an important addition to our portfolio," said Marc Petit, Autodesk Media & Entertainment senior vice president. "It has been three months since we acquired substantially all of the assets of Softimage and its integration into Autodesk is going extremely well. The team has kept Softimage 7.5 on plan and it has shipped without delay. We remain committed to delivering solid future releases of the software."


Key New Features in Autodesk Softimage 7.5
UV Unfolding Technology: Softimage now features UV unfolding technology that enables artists to unwrap polygon models with just a few clicks. This technology works well on complex organic models, which would be difficult to unwrap manually. Softimage 7.5 also provides UV editing tools that help artists quickly create and edit UV maps.

mental ray 3.7+: Version 3.7+ of the mental ray renderer is now integrated into Softimage 7.5. Highlights include improvements to binary space partitioning for faster render times, multiple final gathering refinement passes and new motion-based displacement. These enhancements help users create high-fidelity images faster than ever before.


Multithreaded Syflex Cloth Simulator: The production-proven cloth simulator in Softimage is now multithreaded, enabling artists to use the cores on their machine to iterate faster.

Scene Compatibility with Version 7.0: Scenes saved in Softimage 7.5 will load into Softimage 7.0.

Pricing and Availability
Version 7.5 of Autodesk Softimage (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI Essentials) and Autodesk Softimage Advanced (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI Advanced) are now available. The Autodesk suggested retail price for Softimage 7.5 (Windows) is US$2,995* and $4,695* for Softimage Advanced 7.5 (Windows)*. SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7.0 customers with active Softimage maintenance contracts will be migrated to Autodesk Softimage 7.5 with Autodesk Subscription.

Autodesk Subscription is available for purchase with the product license purchase or upgrade. The Autodesk suggested retail price for Autodesk Subscription is $795* per year for Softimage and $1,235* per year for Softimage Advanced*.


Migration Promotion
Until April 15, 2009, existing SOFTIMAGE|XSI Essentials and Advanced customers, not on Softimage maintenance, can receive up to 50 percent discount and no back-subscription fees when migrating to Autodesk Softimage 7.5 with Autodesk Subscription.This offer is available only through Autodesk Value Added Resellers.

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Autodesk Softimage 7.5 (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI) is a complete 3D software for visual effects and game production. Built on a new, highly extensible architecture, Softimage gives you the power and flexibility to bring your creative visions to life quickly and profitably. Softimage features Interactive Creative Environment (ICE), a new platform for building effects and tools visually using a node-based paradigm. Powering ICE is a high-performance parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core workstations, giving you the utmost performance and scalability. The result is a giant leap forward in production efficiency and consistency that culminates in higher production standards.

Softimage features ICE (Interactive Creative Environment), a groundbreaking technology that transforms the software into a powerful and flexible open platform.

ICE greatly improves collaboration between artists and technical directors, enabling them to create custom tools and effects visually, see the results interactively, and do it all without scripting. Effects built or modified in ICE are performance tuned and multi-threaded, so they perform at maximum efficiency across all available processors.

Softimage Versions:

Autodesk Softimage (formerly SOFTIMAGE®|XSI Essentials software)

• Complete 3D software for games and visual effects (VFX) production
• ICE - node-based visual, interactive development platform
• 64-bit, multi-threaded, high performance architecture
• New UV unfolding technology

Autodesk Softimage Advanced (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI Advanced software)

• Everything in Softimage plus five Softimage Batch rendering licenses
• A quick and easy way to set up a render farm with Softimage
• Softimage Behavior software crowd simulator

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ICE - Overview
Imagine a version of the Autodesk Softimage software so flexible, that you could modify how any tool works. So intuitive, that you could create custom tools and effects visually, and see the results interactively, all without scripting a line of code. So collaborative, that artists, TDs and developers could work together to create solutions for the next generation of movies, games and television productions. So powerful, that it would use all the processor cores in your workstation and scale, with near-linear performance gains, when you add more cores.

Introducing ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) - an open, scalable platform that enables anyone to extend the capabilities of Softimage quickly and intuitively using a node-based dataflow diagram. This paradigm means that 3D artists can create complex 3D effects and tools extremely quickly without writing code. Powering ICE is a high performance parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core workstations – a first for a general 3D architecture – that gives you the utmost in performance and scalability. The result is a giant leap forward in production efficiency and consistency that is raising production standards for digital content creation.


How ICE works
The ICE environment represents Softimage functionality using a collection of nodes, each with its own specific capabilities. Developers and TDs can connect nodes together, visually representing the data flow, to create powerful tools and effects that can be packaged and distributed for use by artists.

This graph-based approach is far less limiting than traditional development using scripting and/or compiled code. It offers a cohesive development environment that large facilities can use to quickly develop complete tools from scratch. Smaller teams can use and modify tools provided by Autodesk and third party developers to suit the needs of a production.

ICE is also the internal development platform for new features being developed by Autodesk. Rather than developing ‘closed’ systems that are difficult to extend or edit, Autodesk gives you full control. If you are not obtaining a desired effect using the internal Softimage feature set, you no longer has to wait for someone to write a plug-in or for the next version of the software. Simply open it in ICE and modify it for the desired effect.

ICE Compounds
One of the most powerful aspects of ICE is compounds. Compounds are nodes that you group together to do specific things, all wrapped up in one container. Use compounds in the ICE tree the same way you would use nodes.

Compounds make it easy to encapsulate complex tools and effects for re-use later. For example, you can produce a compound of a complex particle effect and export it as a .xsicompound for other artists to use. At any time, you can open up the compound to modify it.

Advantages of ICE
ICE is fast, interactive and offers significant advantages over traditional scripting and coding:

• It’s visual – ICE uses a node-based graph for creating and modifying 3D tools and effects. You can see exactly what’s happening without examining code.
• It’s interactive – You can create and modify your effects, and see the results executing immediately.
• It’s fast – Tools developed in ICE run as fast as, or faster than compiled code. ICE takes full advantage of multi-core processing and scales almost linearly.
• It’s predictable – There’s no custom code or scripts, where a lot of time is spent debugging code and getting it to compile. ICE just works. You can see the results immediately and develop quickly.
• It’s flexible – Don’t like the way a feature works? Don’t wait for someone to write a plug-in, or for the next version of Softimage. Just open it in ICE and edit it.
• It’s safe - ICE comes complete with a versioning system, so that you can roll back changes easily.
• It integrates nicely – ICE comes with a full suite of import/export tools that support seamless data interoperability with current pipelines.
• It gives control – ICE also comes with a visual debugging system for solving complex problems. It also has performance analysis tools to help you optimize effects.
• It enables sharing – Once you’ve built your tools, it’s easy to package the compound and share it. Send it to your team, put it online, or even encrypt it and sell it.
• It's infinite - the creative possibilities are endless.

ICE PARTICLES
Out of the box in Softimage 7.5 is an entire particle system based on ICE. The new ICE particle toolset comes with over 200 presets that you can start using with drag and drop simplicity. Because it's built on ICE, you can open up these effects and modify them, or create entirely new effects with ICE. Simulating natural phenomena such as dust, sea salt, water droplets, sand, smoke, or sparks from a fire are easy as drag and drop.

ICE particles go far beyond the usual. You can make objects and even characters act like particles: rocks tumbling, pieces of paper scattered in the air, glass pieces breaking, leaves falling, grass growing, butterflies fluttering, bees buzzing, or humans walking about. Anything that you want to move like a particle can be animated using ICE particles.

Integrated PhysX rigid body dynamics enables you to create realistic motion using particles as rigid body objects. This means that the particles can collide with each other, based on their shape, and with other objects that are set as obstacles. Using particles as rigid bodies, especially in conjunction with instanced geometry, you can create effects that involve many small pieces that collide or accumulate, such as bricks, stones, or anything falling in a pile or being blasted apart.

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CODE LESS. CREATE MORE.
Autodesk Softimage 7.5 (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI) is a complete 3D software for visual effects and game production. Built on a new, highly extensible architecture, Softimage gives you the power and flexibility to bring your creative visions to life quickly and profitably. Softimage features Interactive Creative Environment (ICE), a new platform for building effects and tools visually using a node-based paradigm. Powering ICE is a high-performance parallel processing engine that takes advantage of multi-core workstations, giving you the utmost performance and scalability. The result is a giant leap forward in production efficiency and consistency that culminates in higher production standards.

SOFTIMAGE VERSIONS
Autodesk Softimage (formerly SOFTIMAGE|XSI Essentials software)

• Complete 3D software for games and visual effects (VFX) production
• ICE - node-based visual, interactive development platform
• 64-bit, multi-threaded, high performance architecture
• New UV unfolding technology

Autodesk Softimage Advanced (formerly SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® Advanced software)

• Everything in Softimage plus five Softimage Batch rendering licenses
• A quick and easy way to set up a render farm with Softimage
• Softimage Behavior software crowd simulator

NEW FEATURES IN AUTODESK SOFTIMAGE 7.5
UV Unfolding
Softimage now features UV unfolding. Save time by unwrapping polygon models with just a few clicks. UV unfolding works well on complex organic models, which would be difficult to unwrap manually. A wealth of UV editing tools enable you to create and edit UV maps quickly and easily with Softimage.

Benefits:

• Save time. Get to texturing as quickly as possible
• Avoid time-consuming manual unwrapping. Productivity gains are particularly noticeable on complex organic objects
• Produce high quality UV maps with just a few clicks

mental ray 3.7 + Integration
Softimage 7 integrates the award-winning mental ray renderer, now at version 3.7+. This latest release delivers enhanced performance through improvements to BSP, as well as a number of new options that help you precisely control the look of your render. Specific features include:

• Improvements to BSP for faster render times
• Custom Workgroup shaders now support separate categories in the Rendertree
• New Final Gathering option delivers support for multiple refinement passes
• New mental ray "Motion-Based Displacement Quality" optimization option
• SSS shader now supports light lists (include/exclude)
• Gamma Correction is now supported in Alpha Channel
• mental ray assemblies ("Stand-Ins") now support mi_point_to_object
• Color Correction respects the alpha channel when applied on rendered output

Backward Scene Compatibility with version 7.0
Softimage 7.5 scenes will load in version 7.0, which means that studios can use the new features in version 7.5 and be confident that 7.0 seats will be able to load these scenes.

Multi-Threaded Syflex Cloth
Syflex Cloth, integrated into Softimage, is now multi-threaded, resulting in faster cloth simulation with more CPU cores.