***QuickNews
DeBabelizer Bundled With Apple Web Authoring
DeBabelizer Toolbox for Macintosh, Equilibrium's popular graphics
processing software, is now being bundled with Apple's Power Mac Web
Authoring Solution throughout Europe. DeBabelizer Toolbox is one of 15
applications being bundled with the WAS, chosen by Apple as one of the
"15 best applications on the Power Macintosh platform to author the
ultimate Web studio."
www.equil.com
New Imagine 128 Series 2 Accelerators
Number Nine Visual Technology Corp. has unveiled the Imagine 128 Series
2 for Power Macintosh:
Memory: 8 MB VRAM
Resolution: Up to 1920x1200
Video: MPEG at up to 1600x1200 at 16.8 million colors
3D: QuickDraw3D; Double-buffering, Z-buffering, Gouraud
shading at resolutions up to 1152x870
Cost: $799
Availability: March 1997
Number Nine also announced the H-VRAM Imagine 128 Series 2 for PCs:
mory: 8 MB H-VRAM
Resolution: Up to 1920x1200
Video: MPEG at up to 1600x1200 at 16.8 million colors
3D: OpenGL; Double-buffering, Z-buffering, Gouraud
shading at resolutions up to 1152x870 with 56K colors
Cost: $699
Availability: Now
www.nine.com
Toonz Version 4.1 for Windows NT
Softimage is now shipping Toonz version 4.1, their 2D cell animation
package, for Windows NT (formerly available only on SGI). It sports an
identical feature set to the SGI version, and supports full database
transparency between the two platforms. Version 4.1 also introduces a
number of new features, including real-time preview window while tuning
the exposure sheet, new devices and file format support and a file-
sensitive view feature that will show images, palettes and contents of
text files. Digital Video Srl, the Italy based developer of Toonz, will
become the first independent affiliate to develop a 2-D cel animation
plug-in for Softimage's forthcoming Digital Studio software suite,
giving full Toonz functionality within Digital Studio. Toonz version
4.1 for Windows NT is available now for $12,995 through the Softimage
network of value-added resellers.
www.softimage.com
Kinetix Hyperwire Web Authoring
This week Kintex released Hyperwire, a visual authoring tool for 2D and
3D Web titles in a Java environment. In addition to Java authoring,
Hyperwire also integrates content authored in 3D Studio MAX. It can be
used to visually connect modules consisting of many different media
types including 2D and 3D objects, data types, widgets and sequencers,
as well as support for adding behaviors. Hyperwire is available for
$249 for a single-user license via the Kinetix Web site or by calling:
1-888-HYPER4U
www.ktx.com
DreamWorks SKG Chooses Softimage
This week Softimage announced that DreamWorks SKG has chosen to use
Softimage and Mental Ray software to create their upcoming full-length
3D animated feature film "Shrek," due for release in 1999. DreamWorks
has also announced a plan to upgrade to Softimage 3.7 as well as
"Sumatra" when it becomes available.
www.softimage.com
Diamond To License WorldView
This week at the VRML Symposium, Diamond Multimedia announced that they
would license Intervista's WorldView 2.0 VRML browsing software, which
will be bundled with Diamond's forthcoming sound card. This move
further places WorldView at the forefront of the VRML browsing market,
following other recent agreements with Microsoft and S3.
www.diamondmm.com
www.intervista.com
Enhanced OpenGL for GLINT
3D Labs has "dramatically" enhanced the OpenGL performance of their
GLINT processors through enhancements to their OpenGL Installable
Client Driver (ICD), offering a reported 42% performance increase over
previous releases. These ICD enhancements have already been delivered
to some of 3Dlabs' OpenGL source licensees and are expected to be
delivered in binary form to all 3Dlabs OEMs and system customers in the
first half of 1997.
www.3dlabs.com
Shockwave Available Through Castanet
Macromedia's Shockwave can now be used to deliver content through
Marimba's Castanet channels due to a new alliance between the two
companies.
www.macromedia.com
www.marimba.com
VRML-Based Animated Series
Protozoa, an award-winning animation studio, has created a 10-part
animated series called "Driftwood" for the Web exclusively for the
Mediadome site. The series features two VRML 2.0 characters in a
virtual environment, and uses motion capture for realistic movement.
"Driftwood" has been optimized for Intervista's WorldView browser, but
is accessible with any VRML 2.0 browser.
www.mediadome.com
Canopus Releases NT Drivers
Canopus Corp. has released the first accelerated Windows NT 4.0 display
drivers for the Rendition Verite chipset. This beta release, which
works on all Canopus-manufactured Verite-based graphics boards, can be
download from Canopus' Web site at:
www.canopuscorp.com/software.htm
Wave Issue 9704 2/28/97 Article 1-01