The idea is simple and I think it might produce the most effective results faster than anything else and with only a relatively minor commitment.

Have at least one of the actual Houdini developers at Side Effects Software, spend some dedicated time (I think one month will suffice nicely) just learning and understanding our beloved interface and the user interaction model of Softimage, with the power of it's menus, hotkeys and combined mouse interactions and how they all work together so brilliantly, etc. etc.

(probably a good dedicated single month with help from the exiled Softimage community would more than do the trick for this) and then just walk away from this experience with a bunch of new ideas and perspectives that can be put towards Houdini development by the very people who know what is best for Houdini.

This way one of their own internal developers can become an invaluable interpreter to the rest of the the Side Effects team, on our behalf, demonstrating - live and in real-time cool ideas they may be able to use and even improve upon.

I would focus near exclusively on Modeling, the Render Tree and Rigging/Animation tools and the interface in general (as a whole) and I think that, for one dedicated month, would be more than enough and quite a valuable Research and Development effort on Side Effects part.

Either way, I'm learning Houdini as is from the ground up, the Houdini way and any additions they officially bring in future versions is just going to be icing on the cake. Thank you so much for your interest and support to the exiled Softimage community, it means a great deal to all of us, and I suspect more will join over the next few years. Thank you so much.

I believe there already is Checkout the make Houdini a great modelling link:

http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=31040 [sidefx.com]

I know this is the SI User forum and the exiles will champion their way as better than gold, but I would hope it's standard practice that they experiment with all software just to avoid living in a bubble.

Nah, disagree Gyroscope, this is the normal reaction for elsewhere on the forum - the SI forum is protected. We are hear to listen

Derek Mondelli
This way one of their own internal developers can become an invaluable interpreter to the rest of the the Side Effects team, on our behalf, demonstrating - live and in real-time cool ideas they may be able to use and even improve upon.

Being a former Softimage developer myself, I can confidently state that I'm already in a fairly good position to handle the interpretation

There's a lot of good stuff in SI (and other apps too!) that we can translate to Houdini, while adding our own slant to it along the way.

I can only talk about the last year and seeing some of my feature requests in version 13 was a major highlight (may be a coincidence but there you go), these guys are on top of their game and I am sure this incredible opportunity won't be missed.

That is quite comforting to hear Halfdan.

i think having a more stable viewport will be a good start for houdini.

pardon if its too OT
but, one good addition is a better file browser that can preview alot more image formats and sizes and also the shader preview in cinema 4d is quite good too.small and stupid but the idea is there

Gyroscope
I know this is the SI User forum and the exiles will champion their way as better than gold, but I would hope it's standard practice that they experiment with all software just to avoid living in a bubble.

That's incredibly ironic because most Max/Maya users actually live in a bubble thinking “their” way is better than gold. I know plenty Max/Maya users that once swallowed the red pill (Softimage) wanted to never go back. I know of zero Softimage users that are anxious to work with Max/Maya.
Call it anecdotal evidence, but just go to a Softimage forum and you'll see most of the users are former Max/Maya and are currently XSI users for a reason.
Have you worked (not creating a cube, but finishing an actual project) in Softimage? My guess is you did not, otherwise you wouldn't be reciting this drivel.

Lol, personal vendetta's aside…

I started out with Softimage|3D believe it or not. And have had to use many a software at various locations for many different paid full projects, despite what you want to believe. XSI, regretfully isn't on that list, so you got me there. Though I never claimed anything negative about the software.

My statement was not to deface any Softimage user or the software but a hope for anyone wanting to improve things/solve a problem to approach it with as much information as possible.

Edit: The one time I had any say of what software to use at a company (my current) it was Houdini. No regrets there. Smaller place, and its a joy to work again.

I rarely hold grudges IRL, let alone on the internet, but I do tend to speak my mind more often than present day society seems to be able to handle so that can be interpreted as hostility I guess.

With that aside, Softimage|3D has few things in common with XSI, they're practically two very different apps, both at the core and on the surface.

Now, like I said, if you were to have the luck of working with XSI enough to know your bearings inside it, you would probably want to see many things borrowed from it in Houdini.
Oh, that and the fact that you'd hate your days when having to work in Max or Maya and given how often one has to do that these days you're lucky that you didn't get to know it I guess.

Fact is, there are aspects from Silo, C4D, Max, Maya, Lightwave, Modo, Fusion, Nuke, Vray, Arnold, Redshift, etc. (too much software) that I would like to see in Houdini. I'm sure there are things in XSI that I would love as well, if I got to know it, that's a no brainer. But, if your only metric is XSI, that is a bit shortsighted IMO.

You seem to have me pegged for a Maya/Max guy, I have never personally owned an Autodesk product so you couldn't be more wrong. I'm just forced to use it as that is where the work is. But I can recognize their strengths.

The world isn't black and white. Just because I find Houdini a joy to work in doesn't mean I hated my previous jobs.

Gyroscope
The world isn't black and white.

Aaah… the ever useful platitudes.

…..aaaand we're done. Play nice in these forums, please.