Viewpoint Corporation, a provider of digital marketing technologies, has launched the newest version of the Viewpoint Media Player. This latest version showcases Viewpoint's HyperView feature, which enables viewers to expand rich media content beyond the browser window and utilize the entire desktop as real estate for the content. The Viewpoint Media Player allows for the integration and interaction of rich media formats such as Flash, 3D, animation, text, audio and zoomable 2D graphics.

Caligari Corporation’s aniPak, a collection of 11 third-party animation plug-ins and libraries for Caligari trueSpace5 users is now available. aniPak includes three new plug-ins, DreaMotion PoseMixer, IK-Anchor 1.0 and SkeleTool 1.0. DreaMotion PoseMixer allows users to combine individual poses of characters into a seamless animation. The movements of all affected joints can be influenced simultaneously, without adjusting each element separately. IK-Anchor 1.0 keeps the constrained side or edge of the bounding box locked in position.

Activeworlds Corp, provider of three-dimensional technology on the Internet, has released Active Worlds' version 3.2, the most sophisticated addition to its 3D software. Version 3.2 will offer users many significant improvements including OpenGL support, software-rendering support, simplified modes for new users, skyboxes, cell grids, increased visibility ranges and additional firewall support. The new version is available for consumers to download free at http://www.activeworlds.com.

3D and multimedia software company Electric Rain, Inc. has released Swift 3D version 2.0, a stand alone application allowing users to design and render 3D scenes to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as Adobe Illustrator EPS and the latest XML-based SVG. Swift 3D V2 includes many new modeling tools that empower designers of all levels of 3D experience to quickly build and animate complex 3D scenes.

Ascension Technology Corporation, manufacturer of motion tracking devices, has introduced winBIRD, a versatile program that allows users to experiment with Ascension’s products in a standard Windows environment. For use with single and multi-sensor or multi-transmitter configurations, winBIRD lets users change all major device and system options while monitoring how the changes affect returned data.

Plazmic, creator of the Mobile Media Platform, which enables the creation and distribution of rich mobile media to wireless devices worldwide has partnered with Walt Disney Internet Group Japan to launch an enhanced rich mobile media entertainment service on NTT DoCoMo's i-mode network. Disney-i customers can access a graphically enhanced, interactive and animated version of the entertainment service Magical Fortune using the Plazmic Media Engine, an interactive wireless media player based on Java technology.

Anark Corporation is seeking beta testers for its public beta program of Anark Studio, an integrated media platform that combines 3D and 2D graphics, video, audio, text and data into an interactive, television-quality presentation.

The Macromedia Flash Player has been integrated into Liberate's open, standards-based interactive television platform for commercial deployment. The integration of the Macromedia Flash Player makes it possible for the more than one million Macromedia Flash developers to create compelling content and applications for interactive TV on the Liberate TV Platform software.

Graphics studio and publisher Marlin Studios has released PANORAMICA - LAND & SKY, a 2 CD-Rom set created by artist and photographer David Campbell. The product is the twelfth in a series of texture libraries created for use by 2D and 3D graphics artists. PANORAMICA is a collection of beautifully photographed and post-processed panoramic land and sky backgrounds, in full hemispherical and 180/240/360-degree formats. Matching 3D models are included for the various size textures. Also included is a set of six stop-action animated cloud formations, suitable for video and other applications.

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of 3D animation and video products, has released a maintenance update for the immensely popular LightWave 3D version [7]. LightWave [7] was announced and released on August 13, 2001 during SIGGRAPH, and has been embraced by the 3D-user community since that announcement. Only a month later, the LightWave development team has completed massive speed increases and optimizations for both the Intel SSE2 instruction set and the Apple AltiVec instruction set (also known as the Velocity Engine), allowing for an unprecedented performance improvement.