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$549? omg! for that price you could get Softimage XSI Foundation,$200 is more reasonable.




i wouldn't touch xsi even if you'd give it away for free. i tried to get into xsi several times, but failed due to the misconceptions of the interface. imo, it's even more confusing than blender.
carrara's interface may look childish and playful, but it's well structured and has some serious power under the hood.

about the exporters: i didn't test em with 3dgs, but i can tell you that fbx seems to fulfil what i expect: anims, mesh, textures, skinning. note that fbx and x are only available in the pro version.