What's New in Softimage Mod Tool 7.5
Saturday, April 18 2009 - autodesk, softimage, mod-tool
Autodesk has released the Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 Application, from the list of new features you will see that a lot of time has been spent on the product to allow it to be used as a good support tool for your XNA Games or applications.
What’s New…
- Export to Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3 - Autodesk Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 is able to export 3D models and animation for use with Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3 framework.
- Commercial version for Microsoft Xbox LIVE Community Games available - Autodesk Softimage Mod Tool Pro 7.5 software is functionally identical to the Mod Tool, but has an End User License Agreement that allows users to produce assets for games sold via Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Community Games.
- Free Training by Noesis Interactive – Character Creation for Microsoft XNA - Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 comes with training from Noesis Interactive covering the creation of a character in Softimage Mod Tool and exporting it for use in Microsoft XNA.
- Game engine add-ons available for modding - Users can download add-ons that help enable content export to Crytek CryENGINE 2, Epic Unreal Engine 3 and Valve Source game engines.
- New real-time shading API for WYSIWYG shader development - Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 supports the Realtime Shader application processing interface (API) version 3.0.
- Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) - ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) is an open, scalable platform that helps enable you to extend the capabilities of Softimage more quickly and intuitively using a node-based dataflow diagram.
- Supports Windows Vista operating system - Autodesk Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 now officially supports Windows Vista® Business (and higher) operating system.
But on the other side of things, with every free product there are limitations… and you should really look at these when considering the product for you projects.
- Non-Commercial End User License Agreement – Softimage Mod Tool can only be used for non-commercial games – the only exception to this is the Softimage Mod Tool Pro designed exclusively for Microsoft XNA Creator’s Club Premium members.
- Exported geometry is limited to 64,000 triangles per object.
- Cannot write .scn files.
- Uses .exp file format which cannot be opened in a commercial version of Autodesk Softimage.
- Watermark on render output.
- Watermark on viewports.
- Watermark on FXTree.
- Ultimapper/Rendermap image size limitation of 2048x2048 (no watermark).
- ICE compound export using XML only.
- No geometry shaders.
- Point cache – No PC2 or ICECache support.
- Cannot generate .mi files.
- No support for third 3rd party rendering engines.
- No software developer kit (SDK) support. Scripting within Softimage software only.
- No Batch capabilities.
- Cannot reference models.
Looking at the limitations, the product is still worth using for most of your XNA Applications. But if you do wish to use video in your XNA Games you will need to use another program so that you do not end up with the watermark in your production videos.
