3delight for Softimage 3.0 beta

[Hirazi Blue]

Apparently DNA research has released "3Delight for Softimage 3.0".
Two interesting things to note:

This new release also unifies the Artist and Studio edition into a single powerful yet affordable version with unlimited multi-core capability. Artists and studios alike will have access to all the advanced RenderMan features such as RenderMan shaders and RIB import/export.

and

The downloaded software comes with one full license for free with no restriction for commercial use and is not time limited. A maximum of one free license is available per customer. This free version has all the features and is only limited in performance by using a maximum of 2 cores during rendering. Which means on computers with more than 2 cores (or CPUs), the software will not use all the computing power available.

The feature overview and all other info can be found here

edit: added the missing "beta" to the title

[origin]

I think it's awesome news. I mean if you ever had trouble rendering hair, now it's all gone and for free.

[Nizar]

3delight cost politic is a bit strange IMO:
I have a phenom x6, there is a dual core license (free?), a quad core license and a infinity core license. For my PC what is the right license?
Can I use, in any case, a dual core license for free?

[Mathaeus]

3delight cost politic is a bit strange IMO:
Can I use, in any case, a dual core license for free?

From what I understand, you can. It will use only 2 cores, that's all.

Still, as origin said, it's a *killer* when it comes to hair (including ICE strands).... as well as toon ink lines, subsurface, displacement, motion blur, DOF.
Finally there is a chance I'll put some decent renderings of hair stuff

[Nizar]

and a phenom or a i7 six core? The license is unlimited core license?
I think it is wrong

[origin]

i7 will use 2/4 cores (or 2/8 if you have HT enabled). If you want all 6 cores to render you need unlimited core licese

[Nizar]

i7 980 has 6 physical core and 12 thread in total (six physical and other six emulate). Phenom x6 has six physical core. Strange this processor are not contemplated by8 physical core) 3delight license system (Bulldozer will have 8 physical core and will be released this summer). The unlimited core license is really expensive

Actually I starting studying rendering, how is compared to mental ray? is It more or less userfriendly?

[Mathaeus]

Actually I starting studying rendering, how is compared to mental ray? is It more or less userfriendly?

Rendermans (3delight is "Pixar Renderman compatible"), never been known as user friendly. However, DNA team did a hard work to make SI plugin user friendly as much as possible. Just playing with 3.0, improvement is *huge*, compared to previous versions. 3delight for SI plugin is, probably, best integration ever, in 'public available' category.
Actually they tried to mimic the behavior of MR shaders as much as possible. Because it's completely different renderer, you can't expect the same look, also some sliders won't work.

On another side, features that I mentioned before, are much, much better than MR - as well as antialiasing - with Rendermans, AA settings are about your taste, with MR, it's a hard fight to avoid flicker and keep reasonable render time.
That is, there is an area where 3delight just rocks, and.... another area (almost all ray tracing) - where it doesn't shine. Imho, MR shows equal 'middle to low level quality' everywhere.

[Nizar]

I downloaded trial and install it. But when try run script for license I receive an error message and SI crash... Anyone has some issue?

[origin]

What license? You sure you downloaded version for softimage? You just install the .xsiaddon and use it, nothing more.

[Mathaeus]

There is no need for license for free version. However, it seems that lot of people experienced crashes, for some another reason.
Anyway, I hope I'll have a time to post some renders in this thread. Until now, all my time ICE research is canceled, in benefit for '3delight' case'

[Maximus]

I always wondered why there are so many differences between maya and softimage 3Delight
i was lookin for the architectural shader for 3delight but i couldnt find it, i guess maya have, you can also import a whole lot of renderman shaders into 3delight for maya using the folder where all the .sdl are stored

Didnt have time to learn this engine but i'm curious to know from more experienced users about the lack of those shaders, or i overlooked them?

Its a bit confusing for my taste, anyway yeah it crashes bad as soon as i install the free version.

[Nizar]

Hi Origin, sorry, I'm totally stupid...
http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php?pa ... umentation
in this link there is a license guide and I believed must run a free license script...

Ok, so don't need license, but in my machine (SI 2011) crash anytime I try to call 3delight option, or passes or anything related to 3delight...

[Mathaeus]

Didnt have time to learn this engine but i'm curious to know from more experienced users about the lack of those shaders, or i overlooked them?

Imho, equivalents of MR shaders is a bit strange idea, I can take it only as a 'practical' reason, keeping the same PPG, so on. 3dl is sooo different render engine, compared with MR.
First of all, Rendermans really doesn't shine with ray tracing (photo realistic archiviz and that stuff).

Also they prefer as much simple shaders - you can find some of them on internet, but these are just a 'parts' (example of blinn shading, example of environment look-up, example of texture mapping...) I think 3delight for XSI is still compiling on the fly from these small 'parts'.

[Nizar]

I try again. Now seem work.
I unistalled 3delight, then download and install this hotfix:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps ... D=12544121
install again 3delight and now seems work correctly

[Rez007]

This is awesome, awesome news!

Commercial use for free is really nice of DNA. As for the crashes, it is still beta, so some of that should be expected until it is fixed...Does the Hotfix released by Autodesk do anything to help with that issue?