Technology
SGI Ships Flat Panel Monitor For Macintosh.
SGI has begun volume shipments of the Silicon Graphics 1600SW digital
flat panel monitor for Apple Macintosh computers. The monitor is
bundled with the new Macintosh version of the Number Nine Revolution
IV-FP graphics accelerator in the Apple Macintosh version of the
Digital Flat Panel Solution Pack. The graphics card provides the
digital display interface, and features 32MB of graphics memory.
The monitor features a 19-inch CRT-equivalent, 17.3 inch 1600 x
1024 pixel screen. It offers three times the brightness and five
times the contrast of a comparably-sized CRT, with no flicker. The
monitor has previously been available for PC. The suggested retail
price is US$2,895.
Pixar Releases Photorealistic Renderman 3.9 And Renderman Artist
Tools 4.0. Point Richmond, California-based Pixar Animation
Studios has announced that it is releasing version 3.9 of PhotoRealistic
RenderMan, its Academy Award-winning visual effects software, and
version 4.0 of the complete RenderMan Artist Tools suite. The new
software version, scheduled for shipment in September, makes RenderMan
easier and more powerful for creative artists, and for the first
time provides support for rendering on render farms running the
Windows NT operating system. Some other advanced features of PhotoRealistic
RenderMan 3.9 are implicit surface geometric primitives (sometimes
known as blobs or metaballs) that support advanced features such
as user control of blending, texturing and motion blur; and memory
and speed improvements that allow for faster curves, area shadows
and texture mapping, and better performance on complex scenes. The
new RenderMan Artist Tools 4.0 software suite includes: SLIM, the
shader development system, which enables artists to create RenderMan
shaders; MTOR 2.0, the RenderMan Plugin to Maya 2.0, which associates
RenderMan shaders, lights and cameras with a Maya scene, as well
as supporting all Maya geometry types; ALFRED 4.0, a scriptable
network job distribution system, which is fully integrated into
MTOR 2.0 and available for custom applications; ALFSERVER, a new
companion server bundled with Alfred, which allows Alfred jobs to
launch renderers and other applications remotely on Windows NT,
with no additional software required, and also monitors site-defined
performance and server health metrics.
Alias|Wavefront Announces Maya Paint Effects And Maya Builder.
Alias/Wavefront has announced Maya Paint Effects. Paint Effects
is a tool for the instantaneous creation and animation of organic
and painterly effects. Completely integrated inside of Maya, Paint
Effects comes with a myriad of editable pressure-sensitive preset
brushes including: Effects Brushes which can create complete environments
with trees, grass, and flowers, characters with realistic hair,
eyebrows and beards, and special effects such as lightning, clouds,
rain, fire, fireworks, starfields and sparks; and Natural Media
Brushes which includes traditional painterly brushes. Paint Effects,
available this fall, will be a standard feature of Maya 2.5 software
in both Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited for Microsoft Windows NT
and Silicon Graphics IRIX workstations. Alias|Wavefront has also
announced Maya Builder. Maya Builder, a subset of Maya Complete,
has been optimized to address the specific needs of level designers
and programmers in the game and interactive title development community.
Maya Builder includes the polygonal modeling and texturing tools
that are also included in Maya Complete, Artisan features, MEL scripting
and the full Maya API. Priced at US$2,995, Maya Builder is a cost-effective
solution for games and interactive title developers looking to standardize
on Maya technology throughout their games production pipeline. Maya
Builder will be available for Microsoft Windows NT or IRIX as part
of the release of Maya 2.5 this fall. Maya Builder has a SRP of
US$2,995. Maya Complete 2.5, Maya Unlimited 2.5 and Maya Builder
2.5 are scheduled to ship in the fall of 1999. Maya Complete 2.5
has a SRP of US$7,500 and includes modeling, rendering, animation,
dynamics, and Maya Artisan.
