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Softimage XSI EXP for Half-Life 2

Call me a nostalgic fool but as I was digging through some of my old Modding tools i came accross one I hadnt seen before, Sadly it was a little before my time. Nonetheless it got me excited. Softimage XSI EXP (Experience) for Half-Life 2.

It is basically the origin of the Softimage Mod Tool. You see, Valve, Softimage and ATi were good buddies back in the day and strived to push the boundaries of not only the game engine but also the tools used to create content.

Since then we have seen many tools released that greatly ease the ability of mod authors getting content in the Source Engine. To Name a few we have the WallWorm 3dsMax plugin, the Maya Mesa Plugin, the Blender Source Tools, Modo Indie and of course the last good version of the Softimage Mod Tool (7.5).

Why bother even bring this up I hear you ask?

Well I just think its really cool to have a copy of XSI that was pretty much solely dedicated to Half-Life 2. During the installation you see the splash screens below.

After this version the ModTool was born and Valve distributed the XSI Source Tools as an xsiaddon.
There were also 4 Tutorials created by Valve artists & engineers at the time covering how XSI EXP integrates with the Source SDK.

You can download the videos through the following links. Part1, Part2, Part3 & Part4.

Pics or it didn’t happen!

Unlocking the SMD Exporter for XSI EXP (Mod Tool 3.5)

I was not aware that at the time the Valve source tools (at least the SMD Export function) were serial locked. You had to register for a free unlock key to enable the SMD export function. In the latest versions of the addon this requirement has been removed. Since Autodesk bought Softimage and then killed it… you have had no option for unlocking the SMD export feature in any of these earlier tools. until now 🙂

Thanks to some help from Ollydbg, IDA and x64dbg we figured out some keys for you to use if you ever felt like using these older versions of the ModTool with their Valve Source Addons.

You can download Softimage EXP for Half-Life 2 here.

You can use the following to unlock the SMD Exporter:

Email: xsi4life@sourcemodding.com
Key: CMEEECDCFGDKRFnI

Normally you would add the key in the GUI that pops up when trying to Export an SMD

However this method will not work as the adding of keys via the GUI are based on time locked Keys, and I do not have the skills or time to create a keygen ^^

Fortunately I found a workaround by adding the key provided above through the Windows Registry.

It is a relatively straightforward process.

Start Regedit and then navigate to the following path depending on your system architecture:

X64

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Softimage\SOFTIMAGE|SICORE Engine\C:|Softimage|XSI_EXP-for-HL2|Application|bin\

X32

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Softimage\SOFTIMAGE|SICORE Engine\C:|Softimage|XSI_EXP-for-HL2|Application|bin\

Note: These paths are accurate for an installation to the default path of “C:\Softimage\XSI_EXP-for-HL2\Application\bin\” If you installed to an alternative location you will need to check the path yourself in Regedit.

Create a Registry key under your selected path above called “MODKey” (Case Sensitive!) by Right Clicking -> New -> Key

Within this new Registry Key Create two new String Values. Right Click -> New -> String Value

Create a String Value called “Email” and another called “Key” (Both Case Sensitive!) Set the Values of each to those provided above.

Try to export an SMD, you should no longer see the Registration GUI and your SMDs will export as expected.

Unlocking the SMD Exporter for XSI Mod Tool 4.2

As I mentioned before after that version Valve released their tools as an addon for the XSI Modtool.

You can download Softimage Mod Tool 4.2 here.
The addons which are compatible for this can be found here.

And the key you can use for both v4 plugins is as follows:

Email: xsi4life@sourcemodding.com
Key: ZGKEKFUDZQLDJQEO

When you try to Export an SMD with the Valve Source Addon you will be greeted with the following:

Simply adding the Values above will not work due to a timelock.

Unlocking the SMD Exporter requires us to enter the Windows Registry and adding the Values Manually.

Start Regedit

Depending on your System Architecture navigate to the relevant path.

X64

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Softimage\SOFTIMAGE|SICORE Engine\C:|Softimage|XSI_4.2_ModTool|Application|bin\

X32

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Softimage\SOFTIMAGE|SICORE Engine\C:|Softimage|XSI_4.2_ModTool|Application|bin\

Note: These paths are accurate for an installation to the default path of “C:\Softimage\XSI_4.2_ModTool\Application\bin\” If you installed to an alternative location you will need to check the path yourself in Regedit.

Create a Registry key under your selected path above called “ModTool” (Case Sensitive!) by Right Clicking -> New -> Key

Within this new Registry Key Create two new String Values. Right Click -> New -> String Value

Create a String Value called “Email” and another called “Key” (Both Case Sensitive!) Set the Values of each to those provided above.

Try to export an SMD, you should no longer see the Registration GUI and your SMDs will export as expected.

There was a version of the Valve Source addon geared towards version 5 & 6 of the Commercial Softimage Package. If you still use or have access to these versions you can use that plugin without any need to enter an Unlock key. You can download that plugin here.

After that the next Mod Tool (version 6 and 6.1) integrated the Valve Source Addon with netview and was directly geared towards those wanting to mod with the Source SDK Content.
This is one of my favaorite versions of Softimage simply for how well the tools and netview integrate with the sdk_content and the Noesis Interactive tutorials. That said the next ModTool (7.5) was considerably more stable and feature rich as it didnt contain as many of the limitations earlier versions of ModTool were crippled by.

Here is Mod Tool 6’s Netview integration for the Source SDK.


You can download Version 6.0 here and version 6.01 here.
The addons can be downloaded here.

The final version of the ModTool to be released was 7.5 which used the same addon as 6.
Unfortunately netview was not as well integrated as in version 6.

You can download version 7.5 here.
The addon can be found here and again does not require that the SMD Export be unlocked.

Thats pretty much it, I just wanted to have something here for those who are still interested in modding Half-Life with XSI.

Note: I have no idea how compatible these programs are with windows 10. I think windows 7 is mostly compatibile with XP being the Operating system they were originally developed for. Take with a pinch of salt.

As the software in question is both free and techincally classified as abandonware the keys i provided above are legally O.K to distribute and use. They could have been obtained originally for free if you registered with softimage and since this service no longer exists I provide them as a service to the community. If anyone from Autodesk or Valve dispute this get in contact with me via E-Mail