Alexandre worked on Softimage|3D, not sure if he's still with Autodesk.
I purchased Visual C++ 6.0 in the 1990's to learn programming. I still have
the discs and service packs which is why I'm considering this little mini
project. I just don't want to go through the effort of installing
everything only to find out I overlooked something critical. I'm mostly
worried about using the wrong operating system or installing on incompatible
hardware. But if you say CPU is not important, that makes me feel a little
better. BTW - you can still purchase Visual C++ 6.0 on Amazon.com as an
open box buy. Ironically, the price hasn't changed much in 15 years.
Meta clay does not translate. Each meta clay element is converted to a null
with scale values to match the influence settings (radius) of the meta
element. Many other settings such as isosurface resolution, magnetism, and
blending groups are lost. I have many scenes / projects which use meta clay
on IK chains to produce seamless skin for characters (because subdivision
surfaces and NURBS blending didn't exist at the time). If I write my own
exporter, I'd dump all meta clay settings and import as a custom property so
it can be read and converted to something else that maybe exocortex or a
blob shader could handle....or a dynamic re-meshing plugin I write myself.
Patch surfaces get converted to NURBS in the translation. Shape of the
surface is not considered, only the positions of the hull's control points.
The problem is BSpline patch phantom points lie outside the surface
boundaries while NURBS surface phantom points lie between the first and 2nd
row of points resulting in a really ugly conversion as point positions get
shifted. Since I am using the BSpline patches as skeletal envelopes and
those envelopes have a minimal number of control points (because they were
used for games development) the resulting conversion is nowhere near
acceptable. The only option I have with the SI3D --> XSI translator is to
go back into Softimage|3D and manually convert the patch envelopes to
polygons before exporting each and every scene. Since there's no scripting
in Softimage|3D (spreadsheet queries would be the closest thing to
automation), that would be a ton of manual labor and prone to human error.
Model > Effect > Convert will convert a patch to whatever you choose, but it
doesn't preserve meta data such as envelope weights in the process - or not
the way you'd like. You have to use GC Convert and a host of other plugins
which were introduced in v3.9. At least one of them had a bug resulting in
fatal crash, but I don't remember the specifics off the top of my head and I
don't have the patch for that particular bug.
I did the SI3D --> XSI conversion back in 2002 which took more than 4
months, but all that was lost when upgrading to a new computer earlier this
year. Looking over my old notes to review what worked and what didn't, I've
concluded writing a plugin to dump scene data would be a lot less work and
would likely deliver better results as there are more options available
today than 15 years ago.....assuming I can get a plugin to successfully
compile and function.
Matt
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:33:36 -0500
From: Luc-Eric Rousseau <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Compiling SAAphire plugins for Softimage|3D
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
We were all hired in 1997-1998 and never worked on Softimage|3D.
Your CPU is not relevant, but you should try to have the right
compiler, so Visual C++ 6 (which there is no way to get anymore).
Saaphire is a C API so it will likely work with other compilers, but..
your own your own. I thought you could just import the metaclay as
baked triangles and isn't there a function to convert bslines to nurbs
in the effects->convert.
On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 8:27 PM, Matt Lind <[email protected]> wrote:
Probably a question for Luc-Eric, Brent, Alexandre, Marc-Andre and the
other
long time Softimage developers who were around back in the day:
I want to write a SAAphire plugin for Softimage|3D to export my old scenes
as XML or some other text file format I can conjure up. Since my old data
uses Bspline patches, meta clay, and other features not supported by the
SI3D ?> XSI importer or dotXSI file format, I need to take matters into my
own hands by dumping as much data as possible so it can be reinterpreted
in
a modern day application. Why am I wanting to do this? Mostly to severe
ties with having to maintain a computer with with Softimage|3D and older
versions of Softimage|XSI, as well as make the data available for my
portfolio (such as for job interviews) without having to jump through tons
of hoops to show it off.
I have Softimage|3D 3.9.2 and associated SDK 1.9.2 installed on a computer
running Windows XP (Windows 2000 is available if needed). What I don?t
have
is an old computer with Pentium III processors. The best I can do is my
recently retired Dell Precision Workstation 470 w dual Xeons purchased new
in 2004. I can run Softimage|3D successfully on that computer, but not
mental ray 1.9 or SI|Particle. Not sure if that?s an issue with the
operating system or hardware.
My question is ? can I successfully compile functional SAAphire plugins on
a
modern day processor such as a Xeon? If so, must I use MSVC++ 6.0 or can
I
use a more modern compiler?
thanks,
Matt
