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Link to:
Spectrum: Interactive Media & Online Developer News
January 19, 2001
- Maya 3 to Ship for Mac OS X in Q2
- Apple's Mac OS X to Ship March 24
- MultiGen-Paradigm Updates Vega, MultiGen Creator
- RemoteReality, IBM Team to Add Effects to Immersive Images
- Caligari Ships trueSpace 5
- Breeze Factor Updates XML Studio
See our Web3D 2000 Symposium Special Edition for
First Hand News on recent software tools and technologies!
Maya 3 to Ship for Mac OS X in Q2
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
SGI-owned Alias|Wavefront plans to ship Maya Complete 3 software (US$7,500) for Mac OS X in the second quarter of 2001. The Mac version of Maya 3 will be entering the beta phase of its development within the next 30 days.
The company is aiming its Mac marketing efforts at 2D artists. "Alias|Wavefront developed many of Maya's unique features with the needs of traditional 2D graphics professionals in mind," states Richard Kerris, Director of Maya Technologies at Alias|Wavefront. "We were considering 2D artists when we developed the ... brush-based techniques of Maya Artisan and created a 3D plug-in, based on Maya's ... Paint Effects technology, for Adobe's After Effects software."
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
Apple says its next-gen Mac OS X will ship on March 24, 2001 for a suggested retail price of US$129. Features include:
- an open source, UNIX-based foundation called Darwin, which offers memory protection, preemptive multi-tasking, and symmetric multiprocessing when running on the dual-processor Power Mac G4
- new Quartz graphics engine based on the PDF standard
- OpenGL for 3D graphics and gaming
- integrated QuickTime for streaming audio and video
- the Classic API, said to run most existing Mac applications "as is"
- the Carbon API, which runs "tuned-up" Mac applications with the full Mac OS X features
- the Cocoa API, which runs advanced object-oriented applications
- the full Java 2 API
- the Aqua user interface
More than 400 developers, including Adobe, Alias|Wavefront, Macromedia and Microsoft, have committed to delivering more than 1,200 applications built for Mac OS X. In addition, more than 100 developers announced new Mac OS X products last week at Macworld, including Newtek (3D graphics), Beatware (Web animation), Kaydara (real-time character animation), and PmG (3D character animation). A complete listing of applications built for Mac OS X is available at guide.apple.com/macosxlist.
Apple also has begun shipping Mac OS 9.1, the latest update of Mac OS 9. Designed to ensure a smooth transition to Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.1 serves as the basis for Classic, the technology in Mac OS X that ensures compatibility with today's application software.
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
MultiGen-Paradigm last week released MultiGen Creator 2.4.1, a software toolset for creating real-time 3D content for use in visual simulation, interactive games, urban simulation, and other visualization applications, and Vega 3.6 on Microsoft Windows NT and SGI IRIX, a software environment for running real-time visual and audio simulation, virtual reality, and general visualization applications.
MultiGen Creator 2.4.1 contains all improvements made in previous patch releases since version 2.4 was released in September, as well as new product improvements and fixes. Also available as a new option for Windows users is an exporter that takes OpenFlight files generated from Creator and converts them to the SEDRIS Transmittal File (.stf) format.
The release of Vega 3.6 reportedly provides increased overall functionality, improved special effects and light source compatibility, and enhanced sensor simulation capabilities on both the NT and IRIX platforms. It includes support for a number of partners including Evans & Sutherland's SimFusion sensor API, DI-GUY version 4.2 from Boston Dynamics, Inc., as well as frame-based texture sub-loading on Windows NT.
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
RemoteReality Corp. has partnered with IBM to enable Web designers and interactive agencies to add visual effects to 360-degree immersive image content created by the OneShot360 system. The solution combines RemoteReality's OneShot360 content together with IBM HotMedia effects that can be incorporated into the content.
Available options include:
- imbedding unlimited hot spots and links to offer closer looks at image details, create animations and add click-through options to other sites
- adding audio to specific images or scenes
- offering transactional capabilities
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
Just out from Caligari Corporation is trueSpace 5, the latest version of its 3D authoring tool. New features include NURBS-based modeling tools, physically realistic rendering, advanced surfacing features, and support for industry-standard IGES, SAT and STL formats.
A free demo version is available at www.Caligari.com.
(Spectrum Media, January 19)
The Breeze Factor last week released its XML data binding product: Breeze XML Studio. Release 2.2 adds XML structure display, code generation, and performance enhancements.
The product converts XML structure to Java classes in a process called data binding. Initially Breeze provided a visual display for the object relationships that would exist in the resultant Java classes. The new version provides a more detailed view of the actual DTD structure. With the associated editing functions of the visual environment, the user can edit default values, add typing information, and add constraints that will be validated in the generated code.
Release 2.2 also includes advanced code-generation techniques for handling complicated content models including nested choices and sequences. It also incorporates a SAX 2-compliant parser within its runtime framework, said to provide more robust and higher-performance XML and DTD parsing for both the Studio and the toolkits.