ICE forum

[Leonard]

Hi all,

In preparation for the launch of XSI 7, we're starting this ICE forum. After launch, this will be the official help forum for ICE. In the meantime, we hope to give you as much information as we can about ICE and answer any questions that you may have.

Best,

Leo

[Spurv]

Can you post a link with the trial? hehehe...

[MichaelD]

XSI 7 sounds like a sweet app. I am hoping to upgrade my found 5. I would love to have the hair ability mostly.

Now with ICE, what particle effects can it do? i saw the fire etc vids. can it do nukes/explosions? Can it make ice cracking effects (eg ice age, xmen 2?). i checked the shatter vid, doesnt look like it can actually shatter an object tho. Can it, like maya and max?

For simulations how much more pc heavy is it? I havent upgraded in 3-4 years. Hoping it will all run fine still. I did check the sys requirements, but thats an overall XSI usage.

For importing and exporting, does it work any better then v5 with zbrush integration?

How is the realflow and render systems integration?

I read somewhere that ICE uses BA volume shaders? Will this be able to give similar/better results then BA shaders i have seen on their website?

I have been scouring the forums/threads, I may have missed some if they answer any/all of my questions.

Thanks

Mick

[scaron]

Can it make ice cracking effects (eg ice age, xmen 2?). i checked the shatter vid, doesnt look like it can actually shatter an object tho. Can it, like maya and max?
that video is showing how to fake shattering, ICE doesn't add new edges or polygons (yet?) so no you can't do blastcode type dynamic shattering.


How is the realflow and render systems integration?
these aren't softimage's responsibility now... contact realflow or the rendering solution you are referring to.


I read somewhere that ICE uses BA volume shaders? Will this be able to give similar/better results then BA shaders i have seen on their website?
it seems the BA shaders were licensed by softimage, and holger put more work into them so on average i would say they are better.

[nezumi]

Really noobie question I guess :sweatdrop:
I wish to know if ICE can be anyhow usefull in creating somekind of grass/flowers/bushes/trees, jungle-like environment. Some L-system? Something like Maya's paint effects?

[scaron]

i did a simple l-system the other day. phillip from softimage has also done one, more successfully than i did i might add. i expect you will see something next week for the online launch softimage is doing.

[nezumi]

Now thats a great news and a super fast answer as well. Waiting to see more then. Thx.

[MichaelD]

Thanks scaron for the response. I will check it out more when my copy comes :)

[Eferick]

Is this possible now with ICE to paint softbody after envelope (like in maya) ? Now if I want to make secondary animation I have to use jitters and deformers (a lot of additional stuffs). I just want to paint softbody after envelope and to work together.

[scaron]

yes, you can get softbody jiggle, using weightmaps as masks.

[Eferick]

Ok with these
http://softimage.wiki.avid.com/index.php/Softbody_and_Envelope_wiggle_(FAQ)
we can connect together softbody and envelope. But when you move joints the softbody is not affected (for example in maya this is not a problem)

[scaron]

yes you can get what you want using ICE... just wait and see

s

[Eferick]

This is good news :) tanks a lot

[rconover]

For our next lesson in ICE I would like to see say that flame thrower demo or explosion demo rebuilt from scatch using the new BA shaders applied to a particle system.

Put the emphasis on the particle rendered/shading abilities this time.

[redmotion]

For our next lesson in ICE I would like to see say that flame thrower demo or explosion demo rebuilt from scatch using the new BA shaders applied to a particle system.

Put the emphasis on the particle rendered/shading abilities this time.

I second this! :)

[Zac-Donald]

I'd like to see a scene example; of all the areas you could use ICE in one full scene :biggrin:

[Draco Dralion]

I would like to see something about muscle deformation with ICE or other useful things for riggers.

[trevlb]

I would like to see a video showing the new shaders.

I also like the idea of seeing a muscle setup.

A quick question. Can ICE access a model's animation mixer? Could it trigger different clips on the mixer based on different inputs? I noticed in the crowd demo's it looked like there might have been two models, so I was wondering if you could have one model with a 'walk' and 'run' cycle on the mixer and then just trigger them.

Thanks.

[janimatic]

hey

a general question about using instancing , self object parameters, and access to context :
can you modify local properties of an instance (ex subd level) using the state machine or some other conditional system to implement LOD with a single model for example.
Accessing the mixer could be done that way, so i second the question, since only the anim is different in the "crowd sim" example, could you use the same model and only change data on instances using the state machine. Why are there 2 different models (it's also cool because these can be completely different models)

Is there a script execution node callable through ice to work around any scope or dynamic object creation limitations.

[scaron]

Is there a script execution node callable through ice to work around any scope or dynamic object creation limitations.

nope... i imagine that would be dog slow, and it would need to support all languages supported by the sdk ( vb, jscript, python, and perl ). multithreading would probably get thrown out the door

s

[rconover]

Anybody doing Bullet Impact rigs in ICE yet? I took a brief gander at the Blur opensource material and i don't think its part of the offer.

For chaotic battle scenes this has become a practical approach
do doing countless muzzle flashes, bullet impacts debris/flashes/lights, deforms, textures and dust in a more streamlined all-in-one rig. This is the most famous TD version I know of.
http://www.wonderslime.com/
check out the 'TECH2005' link. I believe done for max-via MaxScript-possibly Thinking Particles too-but who knows... (well maybe some of the Blur folks here might ).

Later the concept evolved to $250 plugin for MAX called Rayfire
http://www.mirvadim.com/

I saw an inspired individual do one in Houdini as well.
I'd think ICE could do a lot of it (Raytrace node I'm looking at you!)-although it might be limited by the topology shatter creations in the current incarnation. No matter - probably still useful with a sprite only solution. Still this is a great example of a compund that should exist!

[scaron]

I took a brief gander at the Blur opensource material and i don't think its part of the offer.

if its not in there, then we probably dont use it anymore.

no one on the beta has made a ballistics system, but there i still time before release.

[renderman]

if its not in there, then we probably dont use it anymore.

no one on the beta has made a ballistics system, but there i still time before release.

I might try my hand at this (it won't shatter the objects of course) because I did
do something similar in the alpha, but haven't tried it since then.

Basically what I did was install the Booltrace plugin, which is an
awesome plugin found here:

http://www.binaryiris.com/main/?id=BoolTrace

And assigned it to the instanced particles (which were irregular shapes). They were
given a stick to surface node so they wouldn't bounce, and I made the surface offset
such that it forced the instances to be about halfway into the wall surface. The booltrace
plugin allowed me to shoot particles at the wall, and when they stuck, the would
"dig out" a hole (the inside surface of which could be textured differently if desired, due to
the way Booltrace works). The only thing I never did was make debri particles be ejected
when the holes were created. This is trvial to do. I no longer have the scene (and since
it was in the alpha, it might not work anyway since so much has changed) so maybe
if I have time I will create a rig to do this. Sounds like a great way to spend a few hours!

I'll let you all know if I get anywhere with it. But in essence, it works (minus the shattering
of the wall geometry dynamically) just as you would want it to.

-Perry

[renderman]

So an update is in order:

I was able to get it to work, I am just having some issues with the
"holes" geometry sliding a bit. I don't have time today to play with it,
but will probably have time this weekend.

Nice thing about it is that the "gun" fires off shots, the holes are created,
and the chunks fly out as you would expect, but while I prototyped it, I used
spheres and torus' as my standins, and when the effect worked at I wanted it to,
I then made the real geometry objects, and just wired them up! Instantly, everything
worked using my detailed, hi-res stuff.

Truly a breeze to use.

More updates when I have something that works as I expect it to, and animation
when it looks cool (wouldn't want you all to see some openGL stuff, you want
shadows and textures and bumpmaps, right?)

Thats all for now.

Perry

[wailingmonkey]

oh stop it! [salivating now] :D