Interoperability with 3ds Max^®

You can easily transfer scene elements from 3ds Max to Softimage, then use ICE to create particle effects, and finally send the data back to 3ds Max for rendering. You can transfer data back and forth as often as you like as you tweak the results.

For more information, see Interoperability with 3ds Max.

Interoperability with Maya^®

Interoperability with Maya has been improved.

• You can now start in Softimage and send data to Maya, as well as vice versa.
• Changes to transformations and animation made in either program can be sent to the other one.
• Objects, including polygon meshes, curves, cameras, and lights, that are created in Softimage can now be sent to Maya.
• The geometry of objects in sets or groups is cached automatically. You do not need to apply caches manually.
• You can send any deformation from Softimage using a cache.
• You no longer need to select a user-created camera to send to Softimage.
• It now works on Linux operating systems.

For more information, see ICE Interoperability for Maya.

Interoperability with Mudbox^™

The "Send to" commands let you transfer data between Softimage and Autodesk Mudbox™. You can send a polygon mesh from Softimage to Mudbox, then paint textures and sculpt, and finally send the result back to Softimage. The following map types are supported:

• normal
• displacement
• vector displacement
• ambient occlusion
• specular
• shiny
• incandescence
• bump
• reflectivity
• diffuse

For more information, see Interoperability with Mudbox.

FBX Import and Export

There are a number of updates to the FBX plug-in for Softimage.

• It uses version 2012 of the FBXSDK.
• Stereo cameras are supported for import and export.
• Multiple UV sets are supported for import and export, even if they are not used by textures.
• CgFx materials are supported for import and export.
• Animation of the focal length, as well as the near and far camera clipping planes, is supported for import and export.
• The FBX exporter now supports neutral poses.
• The FBX importer can now import .3ds, .dxf., .obj, and .dae formats.
• FBX now stores the values for Incandescent color and intensity even when there is no map.
• When exporting, you can specify the FBX version for compatibility with other software.
• Commands were added to the File Import and File Export menus. The same commands are still available on the File Crosswalk menu.

For more information, see Importing and Exporting FBX Files.

Crosswalk

Softimage 2012 ships with Crosswalk 2012. This version of Crosswalk features many bug fixes and improvements.

Quicktime Support

Softimage can now use 32-bit versions of Quicktime on 64-bit versions of Windows.

Image Clip Preview

You can set the size for preview images in property pages in your Display preferences.

Analyzing Scene Performance

The scene debugger now shows time spent processing events.

Caching

The Cache Manager has the following new options:

• The Dump Header button on the Read tab dumps the selected cache file's header and attribute description in an .xml file, then opens the result in the Netview. This works for cache files that are in ICEcache or nCache format. This is a handy tool to inform you of what's in the cache file that you're reading!

• The Reset Animation - All Transforms option on the Read tab: Before the cache file is applied to the target object, this option resets all its transformation values to their default values (0 for translation and rotation, 1 for scaling). This is useful for reading cache files that have been written using global space (by selecting the Baked Animation - All Transforms option on the Write tab).

There are also several new options in the Cache on File node - see ICE Simulations.