Other new features in SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7:

• Support for mental ray v.3.6 with new rendering ’stand-ins’ that will allow users to offload objects along with rigged and animated characters to the disk until render time, resulting in light-weight scene assembly for much larger rendered scenes, and optimized controls for final gathering and global illumination.
• Delta II a major update to the lightweight referencing system in SOFTIMAGE|XSI, with enhanced support for clusters and cluster properties, including materials, textures and UVs.
• RTS III - a new Real-Time Shading architecture that will allow fragment and vertex shaders to exist in one node, and will be programmable and controllable from any ICE attribute.
• Streamlined licensing process dongle-less, with a new temporary licensing fail-safe feature.

Additionally, Softimage will include new features and enhancements specifically influenced and requested by customers during their production cycles. SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7 will ship with a FREE Training DVD with Official Softimage Training Material provided exclusively for this newest version by Digital-Tutors. Softimage will also offer many ICE tutorials and demonstration videos that will be posted on the SOFTIIMAGE|NET community training page.

Availability

SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7 is expected to be available in Q3 2008. Pricing for SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7 Essentials will be USMSRP $2,995. Pricing for SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7 Advanced will be USMSRP $4,995.

More Information at: www.softimage.com