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XSI 7 was announced on monday.
It features a new particle system that goes beyond just particles and offers a glimpse of the direction they are taking the software. (Houdini style node-based programming - make new tools without a single line of code).

"Visual programming" could be something the gamecreators might want to consider in the future!

http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/ice/default.aspx

XSI Foundation has unfortunately been discontinued, but the upgrade price from FND to Ess offers a 66% saving which makes it the best value 3d package on the market right now.

Yeah I noticed this, just when I had the money to spend on a new program, XSI Foundation was within my budget, only to find that its been discontinued, my luck eh?

But SI 7 looks great and I'm sure its users are going to love it. ICE sounds like a groovy feature and a pretty good idea, it'll be interesting to see who utilise the idea in the future (if they haven't already)

Apparently, Maya and Houdini already do ICE-like stuff already and are more extensive. But I've a feeling the SI's stab at this type of system will be the easiest of the lot to pick up and it will continue to expand until then entire software can be modified using node trees.

If I were you, I'd just consider the spending the extra dollars/pounds on an upgrade to XSI Ess 7. What you get extra:-

- ICE
- Hair sim
- Delta referencing
- Syflex cloth
- Gator (transfer of animations from one rig to another)
- Motor (transfer of animations from one rig to another)
- Compositing (very nice - perhaps more limited - but most compositors cost £1000s on their own)
- Command line rendering through mr standalone and ability to write out mr files
- rigid body dynamics (Physx based)
- upgraded BA volumetric particle effects - 375 euros alone to buy on their own. http://www.binaryalchemy.de/index_dev.htm
- ability to do scripted ops and run them now
- more render nodes
- a 32bit and 64bit version
- multi-threading on more than just renders!
- Polygon reduction tools

For the upgrade price being offered, half of this is essentially FREE - I'm going to bite the bullet.

I would, but what if I took that route I'd:

Buy the Student Version: £180
Then when I've got the money, Upgrade to Essentials: The RRP being £1745 (Don't know what the upgrade cost is, but for £180 for student, I doubt they'd take a huge chunk off if they had an upgrade price) I would be paying full, because I will not be able to make that offer by September 30th.

So it ends up being quite expensive in the end, I'm not the kind of person who could afford such a purchase, especially as this is a hobby (And possibly a source of extra income), my alternative route is, well probably my favourite:

Student Version of Cinema 4D: £65 (for the base, about £150 for the mid range and about £220 for the high range)
Full Version of Cinema 4D (Base): £645
Mid Range Version of Cinema 4D: £1585

So, it'd work out cheaper for me to stick with a student version of C4D and upgrade later, now why I'd prefer that route simply is because my 3 favourite applications are 1. Cinema4D, 2. Softimage 3. Lightwave, with Cinema 4D at the top of my list, I was heading towards XSI foundation, because it was a cheap solution that meant whatever content I made could be used commercially, (Which could be likely) and I generally like it. Plus I can gradually upgrade Cinema 4D by the module, so instead of saving up for the next one up, I could buy the feature I need.

Ah, so you didn't buy Foundation then?

Sorry for that; the upgrade from FND to essentials 7 is £495 ex VAT (EDIT: until 30th September 2008).

Yeah, I was planning to buy XSI Foundation now that I have the money. Nevermind eh? I'll stick to student software as I'm a student, might work out better in the end (plus I'll have more money to spend on other software)