Wow, that's awesome! I've always wondered when 3d application companies will bring out cut down versions of their programmes. This looks ideal for real time game modellers. Hurray for new pricing schemes! I remember a few years ago when Maya started dropping their software price, which caused the other companies to follow suit. Hopefully this will start a trend also!
Sure, there are personal learning editions, Gmax etc around, but they restrict you to their specific file format. I hope that Discreet follows suit and releases a cut down version of Max that has all the fancy polygon modelling and UV mapping/unwrapping tools.. That SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.0 Foundation would be ideal if it had that character rigging system in it too.
They hinted about 12 months ago that they'd be offering a product that would appeal to the game industry at very low cost, even the original price for Foundation of $US3000 was good, but this new pricing is insane :)
You might like to look check out the features pdf Souri (if you already haven't) to see if it has what you're looking for...
http://www.softimage.com/products/xsi/v4/features/XSI_v40_new_features…
I'm seriously considering investing in a copy of this program, has anybody here got a copy? I've only ever used softimage for a short time and it seems ok, can anybody let me know the pros and cons? That price is just too damn good, I put it through a currency converter and it seems to be around $689 australian.
Since I'm here, do we have any z-brush users here? Thats another program I'm seriously tempted to get.
I have only heard positive things about xsi so far. Seems to have the animation as good as and if not better than maya, and modelling tools better than lightwave or max. Download xsi for half-life 2 and check it out. http://www.softimage.com/products/EXP/HL2/
thats a pretty good price $495USD eventhough it is limited