Is Collada 1.4 the best format for exporting meshes and animation from XSI 5.x to Unity? Any tips or tricks to making the transition seamless?
FBX is the way to go.
-Jeremy
If you have xsi 4.x FBX is the only way.
Version 5.11 has collada import/export, but some people experience problems with it.
However, there’s an unsupported patch available at the softimage site for 5.11 that would fix some previous problems with the collada format.
Would you happen to have a link to that patch? What about moving files from Maya over to XSI? It appears the couple of options, including FBX and Collada import, leave a lot to be desired (rigs are brought in as nulls). Is this true?
You can get the patch here: http://www.softimage.com/downloads/default.aspx
You need to login first though.
As for rigs turning into nulls, that’s normal. Essentially bones are nulls but with visual cues (and those cues are also used to make weighting easier of course).
You can always use the imported animated nulls to use as constraints for the effectors of a new rig.
And I think that if you recreate your rig with the same hierarchy you can merge the animation with fbx.
Maybe you can try to export from maya using the dotxsi format (there’s a plugin for that), but I don’t know if it would make a difference).
I saw that plugin, but I was distressed to find out it has to be compiled by the end user and isn’t supported by Softimage. I think the best bet are the Okino translators, but they’re very pricey.
Yea, but there are some compiled versions floating around the web.
I don’t know what version of Maya you’re using, but if you have 7: http://www.polygonmine.com/files/xsi/dotXSI4MayaSL.zip
And if it doesn’t work try Polytrans or DeepExploration, both have a trial (polytrans deletes every nth poly and DE lasts for 30days). I can’t say if it keeps the rig, but maybe worth a try (if I was at work I could’ve tested it with DE).
Thanks for the link!
Um, perhaps I missed something, but since when did Unity support collada? I know they were planning on it, but when?
-Jeremy
Since 1.5 release. FBX is still the preferred format, because most Collada tools still have some rough edges at the moment.
It’s in the release notes, under “Asset Importing” section.
Heh, thanks Aras, missed that somehow. You guys may want to update the Unity site docs too to add that import option. Couldn’t find it anywhere. 
-Jeremy