XSI EXP for Half-Life 2

KdjaCL

Minimum System Requirements


256 Mbytes RAM
200 - 300 MB Swap Space.
Minimum display resolution of 1280 X 1024
WHQL hardware openGL accelerator board (minimum 8Mbytes RAM)
CD-ROM drive.
Three-button mouse
Internet connection (recommended)

Minimum Software requirments

DirectX 8.0 +
Windows 2000 or higher
Supported browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer v.5.5 +
Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF's
Windows Media Player v.6.4 +



XSI EXP for Half-Life
http://www.softimage.com/products/EXP/HL2/download/
Tutorials
http://www.softimage.com/community/exp/hl2/default.asp?pg=/products/exp/hl2/quickstart/tutorials.htm
Key Feature Videos
http://www.softimage.com/community/exp/hl2/default.asp?pg=/products/exp/hl2/quickstart/kfvt.htm
Detailed Limitations

Licensing/Install

All licensing has been removed from the SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP for Half-Life 2.



Persistence

Saving of external models has been disabled.

Loading and merging of scenes from any SOFTIMAGE|XSI version is enabled, but once the scene has been saved to the special .exp file format, that scene will be accessible only via SOFTIMAGE|XSI EXP versions.

dotXSI™ files must be loaded through the File menu, they cannot be dragged and dropped into the XSI EXP interface.

Memocams contained in scenes built with the commercial version of SOFTIMAGE|XSI cannot be loaded in the XSI EXP.

The crash recovery mechanism has been disabled.

Models with 2000 triangles or less and Envelopes (skinned models) with 4000 triangles or less can exported to Valve's .SMD file format.



Customization

Workgroups – unavailable.

Add-ons - pre-existing add-ons can be loaded. Packaging and editing of add-ons has been disabled.

Layout - pre-existing layouts can be used. Creation of new layouts is allowed but saving these new layouts has been disabled.

Toolbars - pre-existing toolbars can be loaded. Creation of new toolbars is allowed but saving these new toolbars has been disabled.

Commands - pre-existing custom commands can be used. Creation of new custom command allowed but saving these new custom commands has been disabled.

Custom psets – pre-existing custom pset presets can be used. Dynamic custom psets created from within the UI and saved with the scene can also be used. Any spdl-based custom psets cannot be saved.

Synoptic - pre-existing synoptics can be loaded. Creating new synoptics is possible but saving these new synoptics has been disabled.

Key maps - pre-existing key maps can be loaded. Users can create new key maps but saving these new key maps has been disabled.

Presets - pre-existing presets can be loaded. Users can create new presets but saving these new presets has been disabled.

User Preferences - changes can be made to the User Preferences but these changes will not be persistent.



Editors

FCurve Editor - save and export fraw2 has been blocked.

ScriptedOp Editor - all interfaces that extract data are unavailable. Parameter connection has been disabled.

Expression Editor - saving expressions to a file as either expression files or fcurves has been disabled.

Texture Editor - Export Clip has been blocked.

Image Viewer - Export Clip has been blocked.

Weight Editor - Export Clip has been blocked.



Compositor

FX Tree - the File Output node has been blocked.



Simulation

All caching which creates files on disk has been disabled.



Rendering

The mental ray standalone renderer has been removed.

Thread and host parallelism (distributed rendering, multi-cpu) is unavailable.

.mi file export is unavailable.

Interactive rendering is allowed, but XSI batch processing has been disabled.

Command line options, xsi -script and xsi –r,have been removed.

Shadow, photon, and final gathering map files as well light mapping cannot be loaded or saved.

Interactive rendering is permitted up to a resolution no greater than 510px x 510px (even numbers only).

Preview/pass rendering is restricted to a resolution of 400px x 300px

Rendered images will be watermarked with a SOFTIMAGE|XSI and mental ray watermark.



Real-Time Shaders

All pre-existing shaders have been statically linked, there is no way to create custom shaders (inclusive of all shader types, such as: ogl, dx and cg).



OGL viewports

Viewport capture has been disabled.

Viewports all bear a watermark.



File Export

ExportAction has been disabled.

ExportdotXSIFile has been disabled.

ExportIGES has been disabled.

Both the standalone and built-in Flipbook executable has been removed, but the FX Tree will be able to provide this function in the XSI EXP.

Valve Half-Life 2-specific export functions and add-ons have been added



SDK API / Plugins / Addons


Scripting

Creation and traversal of a scene is allowed in the XSI EXP.

"getvalue()" has been blocked which may hinder the function of some pre-existing scripts.

The scripting log window has been limited to 10 lines at a time.



C++ API

SDK data accessor methods have been blocked which may hinder the function of most compiled plug-ins.



Events, Commands and ScriptedOps

Only built-in plugins will be able to get data.

Parameters cannot be connected as inputs to custom operators.

ScriptedOps cannot be saved to an SPDL.

Presets cannot be saved.

Custom commands cannot be saved.



SPDL

SPDLs cannot be installed directly.

SPDLs cannot be uninstalled.



Addons

Addons can be installed, but some might need to be re-installed when the XSI EXP is restarted.

Addons can be uninstalled.


kdjac

DRakE

Thats a long ass readme...

i gather that its for the modelling program?

Sir Random

Originally posted by DRakE
Thats a long ass readme...

i gather that its for the modelling program?

Yeah, that's the editor I posted a link to last month:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163770

Btw, Softimage XSI 3.5 + tuts are available on PCGamer DVD July edition.

DRakE

Originally posted by Sir Random
Btw, Softimage XSI 3.5 + tuts are available on PCGamer DVD July edition.

I was about to say "thank god, i cant download that it'll take ages "

Now i say, "Sh1t, I've no dvd drive :dunno:"

Sir Random

I think they're on the 2xCD version too .

neXus9

Minimum display resolution of 1280 X 1024

That's weird to put the resolution that high for a minimum. A lot of monitors couldn't give a decent refresh rate for that resolution.