From LuxRender Wiki

LuXSI interface

Supported Softimage / XSI Versions

Following Softimage / XSI versions are supported:

• 7.x (Windows / Linux)
• 6.x (Windows / Linux)
• 5.x (Windows)
• ModTool (Windows)

Installation

To install the plug-in you need to load it in the plug-in manager.

File -> Plug-in Manager -> Plug-ins -> Load, browse to the file and select it.

To install the Luxrender Shaders do the following:

File -> Plug-in Manager -> SPDLs -> Install, and select all the lux_*.spdl files

Run it

You find the plug-in in the File -> Export -> LuXSI.

If you click on it the LuXSI PPG will appear. Select a output filename (Main tab – filename).

and click “export all” to create the .lxs file which you can load in Luxrender.

Manual

Main options

In the “Main” tab of LuXSI you can set the basic settings of your lxs file. It allows you to change the screen size, gamma, filter,... and has special check boxes to export hidden objects/cameras/lights in the scene.

Render options

In the “Render settings” tab you can change the Luxrender render settings. Be sure to read the Luxrender documentation to get more details about this settings.

Materials

The concept of the plug-in is that you don't need to change anything in your Softimage scene before you export it. LuXSI exports the Softimage settings into Luxrender settings. At the moment following materials are supported:

Texture support is still in a testing stage. It only exports textures which are directly attached to the diffuse slot at the moment!

Lights

Following lights are supported:

When you use SunSky you can set portals in your scene (e.g. If your camera is in a room an the light is coming through a window you can set the window as a portal so Luxrender knows where the light comes in [less noise]). To do that you need to rename the objects in the scene which should become a portal. Just add “PORTAL” to the name.

Environment

If you want to use environment lighting in Luxrender you have to add an environment shader in the current Softimage pass and load an “.exr” file (no HDRI support in Luxrender atm).

Camera

The normal Softimage perspective camera will be exported to Luxrender. To add a Depth of Field (DOF) effect you need to add a “Depth_of_field” shader to the camera lens (Lens Shader tab in the camera PPG).

Contact

The plug-in is written by Michael Gangolf. For more information / updates visit: http://www.migaweb.de

If you have comments / critic / bug reports / sample images please email them to: miga@migaweb.de

Tutorial

soon

Development

Source code

The LuXSI source code is available here: http://src.luxrender.net/luxsi

Current bugs

Textures only work in diffuse slot, not deeper in the tree

Change log

• Version 0.6.1:
  • compatible with Luxrender 0.6
  • start luxrender from LuXSI
  • updated presets
  • resume button
  • fixed spotlight export
  • set temp filename
  • set luxrender path through ini (LuXSI.ini in the Userpath)
  • fixed paths on windows
  • updated exr string in lxs file (no more warnings)
  • removed IGN
  • added PNG
  • only add one LuXSI instance in the scene
  • objects exported with locale coordinates and transformation
  • instances

• Version 0.6:
  • fixed material export (no more redefinitions)
  • smaller lxs files (luball 0.5: 13 MB, luxball 0.6: 3 MB)
  • faster/better subdivision export (using loopsubd object in luxrender; luxball 0.5: 10 sec, luxball 0.6: 5 sec)
  • fixed point export

• Version 0.5:
  • updated scene file format
  • surface integrators
  • presets
  • error message if no camera/object is exported
  • mirror is now plastic
  • NamedMaterials
  • cleaned up the PPG
  • fixed sunlight (by exchanging X and Z in the whole scene)
  • fixed portals
  • added resume option (hidden, switched off by default, edit lxs file to switch it on)
  • now saves untonemapped images too
  • IGI and EXR setting is back
  • Display Interval setting
  • started Luxrender shaders

• Version 0.4:
  • car shader
  • fix in glass shader
  • PixelSampler
  • rough glass (frosted glass)
  • camera fixed! now it matches the XSI camera
  • erpt sampler

• Version 0.3:
  • many more render settings
  • filename has now a correct filetype
  • tone mapping settings
  • bloom
  • camera dof
  • ambient color as background
  • this readme file :)

• Version 0.2:
  • point light / spotlight as infinite lights
  • meshlight
  • exr support
  • glass/metal support for arch shader
  • Portals (name has to include PORTAL)
  • Object name as a comment in the file

• Version 0.1:
  • basic mesh support
  • infinite light = sunlight
  • phong / arch / lamber shader support