Softimage|XSI Updated With New Game Development Features

Today at GDC SoftImage showcased the new elements of its product line, starting with the new version of its popular SoftImage|XSI animation package. Sporting a wealth of general-purpose improvements, the new release also adds plenty game-specific features, designed to make artist's work in PC and next-gen console games more streamlined & efficient. To begin with, this new release adds support to real-time shader technology, which the user can configure by combining nodes in a shader tree. This allows for greater flexibility over currently existing fixed-pipeline shaders. Also new in this release is the fur simulator, which allows the grooming and dynamic simulation of hair. Finally, the brand-new crowd engine allows the representation of large groups of agents, which realistically interact with each other and the environment. In addition, SoftImage presented the Platform Development Kits (PDKs), designed to allow artists to work directly with their target platform of choice, producing target-specific content efficiently. The kits are tightly integrated within the main SoftImage|XSI interface and allow interactive tuning and previewing of the created assets, as well as platform-specific file output. They also include a host of tools designing to make the creation of platform-specific effects and surfaces easier. Currently the Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft XBox are supported.