SINI PROXSI
| | PRICE £60 (Annually) COMPANY Sini Software website www.sinisoftware.com
Find out if this new 3ds Max plug-in from Sini Software could help with your scenes
S oftware such as 3ds Max has made some incredible leaps forward in recent years, and one of those advances has most definitely been in the area of handling large scenes. If you’ve ever worked on even a reasonably large scene, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Models that I created a few years back which ground 3ds Max 2013 to a halt can now be handled with optimum ease in version 2017. During these challenges of model size, we have seen the rise of the proxy, which is a brilliant way to package up geometry and make it take up less RAM.
proxy problems
One of the inherent problems with proxies, though, is that they are locked to the renderer that you created them in. That’s where Sini’s Proxsi comes in. With this plug-in, Sini has created a universal proxy that works in a variety of different renderers, including V-ray, Mental Ray and Iray. I guess the first thing to mention is that it works! So in that sense it’s good. Sini Proxsi is a massive timesaver for visualisers who want to have the flexibility to use multiple rendering engines. Different renderers are good at specific things, and so as visualisers we want to be able to swap between them at will. Sini Proxsi makes it much easier to do this.
The most impressive thing about Proxsi is that you can store your proxies both inside the 3ds Max file, or they can be referenced out to external files. Having this option is incredibly useful! Proxsi is the only proxy to allow you to convert back to mesh, make modifications and save back to proxy, retaining all instances and position. Again, having this flexibility and twoway compatibility is impressive.
One of the other things that I think artists will really find useful is the ability to add variation to textures within a proxy. On Sini’s website there is an example of a car park with many cars, each with different body paint. This is all powered through the plug-in.
Data protection
Proxsi also includes the ability to protect your data. When working with other studios or different contractors, it is often essential to pass on your models to third parties. Proxsi cleverly helps you avoid this by putting a time limit on the file so that it becomes void after a set period of time.
Something to keep in mind is that you have to apply render-specific shaders to the proxy if you want to switch up renders. This is not Sini’s fault in essence, and I know that it is developing a material converter plug-in which would remove this problem entirely. The team truly are developing an extensive suite of plug-ins.
With all that in mind, I think this plug-in is well worth £60.