Yes, that would explain it. I had to use a cheap Matrox/ATI card or something in that class. I later switched to 3DLabs for my personal workstation. Did a better job with Softimage|3D, but I didn't touch the particle standalone anymore. PhoenixTools came up with some sort of an integrated particle solver inside Softimage|3D at that time. To replace the standalone particle system. If memory serves me right, this very old particle solution or at least the base code around it, was integrated in XSI until ICE came out? Just because of the .ptp cache files it spats out.
From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 8:59 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Friday Flashback #142 It started on SGI with Softimage|3D v3.0 (1995) and was later ported to Windows NT along with Softimage|3D v3.51 (1996) The SGI version was pretty stable. I personally didn't have issues with crashes on windows NT, but I also had a good Intergraph and/or 3DLabs Oxygen series card at the time. Intergraph was the king of the windows field until Intel screwed them over. 3DLabs worked really hard at providing good drivers and/or frequent updates. Maxon, Elsa, Matrox, ATI, and the other brands didn't do a very good job with drivers and seemed to focus more on the texture fill aspect for video and games. Anybody that made good cards back then usually had to do some proprietary hardware and drivers to get around windows' lack of graphics infrastructure. Anybody remember the SGI windows workstations? Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Sven Constable Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 11:47 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Friday Flashback #142 Fast and interactive yes, but it crashed a lot, didn't it? I'm curious, in 1998 I was a student learning Softimage|3D and the standalone particle system was really hard to use because of that. I remember saving my particle scene every 5 minutes. Maybe it was a driver/system/graphics cards issue back then. I was on NT back then. Did the particle standalone also exists on SGI? From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Matt Lind Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 8:33 PM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Friday Flashback #142 I remember the system being very fast and interactive compared to softimage|3D, but yeah, PITA to have to composite everything. The manipulators for SI Particle were actually pretty nice and intuitive. They needed to be as the software lacked the mouse driven manipulation found in most 3d packages. Matt From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Jeff McFall Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 11:29 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: RE: Friday Flashback #142 I remember that. I was sooo looking forward to having a particle system again after moving from a Wavefront system. It wasn't quite what I had hoped for but way better than nothing and I was able to make a lot of use it. Kind of ironic about how Soft was NOT known for its "Particle System" capabilities back then. I like this quote Render the particle animation. Then composite the particle animation using the depth information from the z-channel of the SOFTIMAGE 3D rendered images to create seamless three-dimensional animation with a particle effect." That was fine if you did not mind a fully aliased comp J Not to mention that I only had about a 500 MB hard drive if I remember correctly. Those Zpics were kind of heavy for the time and with that size of storage. Jeff From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com [mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Stephen Blair Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 11:17 AM To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com Subject: Friday Flashback #142 Friday Flashback #142 SOFTIMAGE|PARTICLE http://wp.me/powV4-2Sk
