I have been trying out various 3D modelers for a few weeks now. I tried trueSpace 6.5, 3DS Max 6, Maya PLE, and I currently hae a 30 day trial of Softimage XSI. I am trying to see what modeler exports good DirectX X files. Unfortunately, I am having a few problems with Softimage. I found an exporter on the Softimage page but it doesn't appear to support shader instancing. I am wondering if there is a third-party exporter that does. Also, I am having problems with learning Softimage. The other packages were easy to learn, but Softimage is giving me problems. Is anyone else using Softimage for modeling? How did you learn it? So far I like Max 6 since it supports shader instancing but I was hoping to go with Softimage as they have the best price around.

Softimage rules

I export .x with xsi and I have a different problem: my animations are too fast... strange. what do you mean by "instancing shaders"?

To learn it? 2 ways: edharriss.com and xsibase.com

good luck