Bionatics announced the launch of natFX 3 for Maya at GDC 2005 (booth #924). Designed to accommodate the most challenging next generation animation and videogame production requirements, this major release of natFX has been developed with a performance-driven mind-set to facilitate fast creation and animation of massive plant datasets.
natFX 3.0 has been fully re-architected with a new interface to optimize production time and workflow. Specifically optimized for Maya 6.5 natFX combines the advantages of each tool to handle polygon-heavy models, large scenes and important animation data. natFX 3.0 is now available to download at www.bionatics.com/natFXmayaDownload.
natFX 3.0 brings new animation capabilities for videogame developers and animation studios. Among the key features, natFX offers new realtime animation capacities for heavy vegetation datasets and normal mapping on bark textures. In a few clicks of mouse, next generation consoles developers will be able to generate highly realistic vegetation that would take weeks to design otherwise. natFX 3 includes a multiple Level of Detail (LOD) generator allowing fast creation of several LODs from a high-resolution tree. Trees can also be fine-tuned automatically based on constraints such as: frame-rate, size, distance display, texture memory, etc.
"natFX for Maya is at the leading edge of exploiting the extensibility of Maya," said Geoff Foulds, Global Industry manager, Games at Alias. "natFX is seamlessly integrated with Maya's modelling, animation, dynamics and user interface. With a few mouse clicks artists can generate entire forests including seamless LOD blends. Just a few more mouse clicks and artists can simulate wind and seasonal effects. Given the demand for huge, interactive worlds the timing of this announcement is excellent."
This new version of natFX for Maya has been designed taking into consideration the feedback we received from our Maya partners and customers. They are looking forward to creating and animating both large and complex outdoor scenes, commented Stéphane Gourgout, Bionatics co-founder and vp for sales & marketing. Bionatics will continue to serve both Videogame and CG industries and design optimal solutions to overcome the challenges met by our partners and customers.
The pricing of natFX 3 for Maya remains unchanged from natFX 2 for Maya, starting at $1,890 (1,490 ). For customers outside subscription plan, upgrade to natFX 3 is $450 (450 ). natFX 3 for Maya is available on the Windows platform only.
Specializing in the technology of 3D simulation and modeling of plants, Bionatics (www.bionatics.com) develops a complete lineup of innovative solutions for architecture, videogames, 3D animation and synthetic images for virtual reality.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
