Wave Issue 9603 7/19/96 Article 1-01

***QuickNews

Communications Industry Transaction Report

Veronis, Suhler & Associates has released "The Communications Industry
Transaction Report." It contains information on 2,500 communications
industry transactions from 1990 to 11/95. Coverage includes: television &
radio broadcasting, filmed entertainment, book publishing, advertising
agencies and interactive digital media. The 662 page report costs $1,395
and complements the widely regarded "The Communications Industry
Forecast" and "The Communications Industry Report." Contact (212)935-
4990, www.vsacomm.com.

Diamond: $10 Million Loss on Edge 3D Boards

Diamond's quarterly report released 7/18 (Q1 sales $120.2 million, up 26%
from last year), states: "The company recorded a charge for the quarter
of $10 million reflecting increased inventory reserves and customer price
protection related to the Edge 3D product. As a result, Diamond reported
a loss from operations of $7.3 million". The Edge 3D board is powered by
NVidia's 3D chip. Contact www.diamondmm.com.

Ray Dream 4.1 Ships with D3D, QD3D, VRML

Fractal Design has begun shipping Ray Dream 4.1 for Windows with support
for Microsoft's Direct3D, Apple's QuickDraw3D (Rave), and VRML export.

Fractal Design claims that it is the first 3D application to support
Direct3D. This is noteworthy because to date Microsoft has promoted
Direct3D as a 3D game engine, and only secondarily as a general purpose
3D interface. Other 3D tool makers in the under $500 category have
indicated to WAVE their intention to use Direct3D as a method to access
mass market 3D accelerators, rather than rely solely on special purpose
OpenGL boards for hw acceleration.

Also, Fractal's use of Apple's Rave and 3DMF file format indicates that
Apple may indeed be able to make inroads for its 3D technologies on the
PC platform. Contact www.fractal.com.

Pixar Shuts Down Commercials

Pixar has announced that it has shut down its television-commercial unit,
prompting a generally negative article in the SF Chron on 7/14 (Pixar, On
the Right Path?). With Pixar's previous discontinuance of PC and Mac
support for its Renderman products, Pixar continues to put all its eggs
in the film and CD-ROM production business.

Final Draft of VRML 2.0 Spec Released

Perhaps it is not too surprising that VRML news tends to arrive chez WAVE
via the Net. For those who are not mail-list-aholics, here is the VRML
latest:

The third and final draft of the VRML 2.0 specification, according to
Rikk Carey, at http://vrml.sgi.com/moving-worlds or

vag.vrml.org/VRML2.0/DRAFT3/.

Toni Parisi, founder of Intervista and co-author on the VRML 1.0 spec,
logged onto the VRML mailing list to praise 2.0:

"Having worked with Moving Worlds in some form or another for eight (!)
months now, I have found a tremendous amount of power and elegance in
it. It's unbelievable what can be done, for example, just with
PROTOs and ROUTEs (no scripting or JavaC). On technical merits, MW is
beyond "good enough" -- it's *damn* good."

Caligari president Roman Ormandy defended the company's VRML efforts
(Fountain and Pioneer) on the trueSpace mailing list, where some users
complain that VRML has drawn attention away from trueSpace (Ormandy
asserts that trueSpace development is continuing apace):

"First time in the evolution of technology we can store knowledge of the
outside world in the same way human perception does. Instead of
describing fleeting image based appearance of the reality, we can
describe underlying structure of it. This structure is viewer independent
and more fundamental."

ActiveMovie to be included in Internet Explorer

Microsoft announced that the ActiveMovie API for digital video and audio
technology will be included as part of Microsoft Internet Explorer
version 3.0. Says MS: "with ActiveMovie runtime components built into
Microsoft Internet Explorer, consumers will have an easy and quick way to
download and play video and audio in all major formats on the Internet."

Inside 3D Studio MAX Contest

This from Max-enthusiast Alicia Buckley at book publisher New Riders:

"Inside 3D Studio MAX by Steven Elliott and Phillip Miller is coming
this fall!

"Have your work published in Inside 3D Studio MAX! We're looking for
high-quality, professional textures, images, and animations to be
showcased throughout the book and on the CD. If your work is chosen,
you'll receive a credit in the book and a free copy of Inside 3D
Studio MAX. One outstanding image will be chosen for the front cover.
This piece must be eye-catching, have cutting-edge appeal, and
illustrate the power of MAX. To enter send a color hard copy and an
electronic copy of any work illustrating the power of MAX.
To enter send a color hard copy and an electronic copy of any work
you want to be considered by July 31, 1996 to:

Alicia Buckley
New Riders
Macmillan Publishing USA
201 W. 103rd St.
Indianapolis, IN 46290-1097"

And if you can't wait, New Riders has already released "3D Studio MAX
Fundamentals" by Michael Todd Peterson ($45, ISBN 1-56205-625-5).
Contact www.mcp.com/newriders.

Softimage Opens LA Facility

Softimage is opening an LA studio in Santa Monica which will house
sales and special projects staff as well as a motion capture studio.
Contact: www.softimage.com, 800 576-3846