Polhemus, the industry leader in 6 Degree of Freedom (6DOF) motion capture, tracking and digitizing technologies, now offers MINUTEMAN, the new low cost (under $1,500) 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3DOF) tracking product.
The SCI FI Channel is premiering the original two-part, four-hour hour fantasy/adventure miniseries, DARK KINGDOM: THE DRAGON KING, with Part I on March 27, 2006, and Part II on March 28 at 9:00 pm. Based upon the epic tale that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS, the miniseries rebroadcasts Part I on March 28 at 6:57 p.m. and Part II the same night at 11:00 p.m., as well as on March 29 at 1:00 am and 7:00 pm
ARTVPS, developers of a unique graphics processor for photorealistic ray tracing, and mental images, the developers of the globally leading, Academy Award winning high-end rendering software mental ray, have concluded agreements that will further the evolution of advanced ray tracing solutions for 3D visualization.
A52 detailed its visual effects work for a new broadcast spot from Partizan director Olivier "Twist" Gondry, ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc. The:30 spot titled THROW IT IN THE TUNDRA debuted recently in the heartland of the U.S., and will air in other regions in the weeks ahead.
John Malkovich has been signed to play a 23rd Century corporate overlord opposite Thomas Jane in Simon Hunter's sci-fier, THE MUTANT CHRONICLES, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
ATI Technologies Inc. announced the industry's first one gigabyte (1GB) workstation graphics accelerator, the ATI FireGLT V7350, and also a 512 megabyte configuration, the FireGLT V7300. Featuring an extremely powerful ultra-threaded parallel processing GPU, and ATI's industry leading AvivoT video and display technology, these new ultra high-end graphics cards further extend ATI's workstation graphics line, delivering better performance, more advanced features and higher image quality.
Intel Corp. now offers the first lowvoltage Intel Xeon processor to combine dualcore technology with Intels innovative power management capabilities, helping to boost energyefficient price/performance with up to two to four times the performanceperwatt of previous Intel Xeon processors and platforms.
Maximum Throughput Inc., developers of ultra high performance software-based solutions for networked storage infrastructure and media management, announced that 1.1 VFX, a visual effects/creative finishing company in Venice, California, has deployed Xstoner v2 software throughout its facility to ease data management tasks and speed the flow of jobs through its production pipeline.
Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH, Oregon and Southwest Washingtons local SIGGRAPH chapter announced Bring Your Own Art (BYOA), scheduled to take place April 3 at 6:00 pm at The Art Institute, Exhibit Hall located at 1122 NW Davis in downtown Portland, Oregon. Equivalent to an open mic night, BYOA is a celebration of the Portland computer graphics community and offers artists a chance to share works in progress ranging from animation, 2D and 3D models to web and graphics design.
Emergent Game Technologies has launched Emergent Elements, a powerful new set of modular game development tools that brings together stand-alone metrics, automation and 3D graphics technologies into a flexible, integrated framework. Emergent Elements enables developers to focus on the craft of game development, arming them with powerful new tools for building, testing and managing their games with more flexibility and control than ever before.
Dell has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alienware to further satisfy the growing number of consumers and businesses, including those used for gaming and multimedia digital content management. Terms of the planned purchase will not be disclosed.
Universal Pictures U.K. will offer Peter Jacksons KING KONG and 34 other Universal movies on April 10 on a download-to-own basis, as part of a new broadband delivery model, various trades reported. The service allows viewers to download a Universal movie on the same day as the DVD release, allowing them to own the download permanently and watch it on a home computer or portable device.
AGEIA Technologies Inc., a pioneer in hardware-accelerated physics for games, announced the availability of its PhysX processor, the first physics processing unit (PPU) designed to power pervasive realtime physics in PC gaming. With immediate availability from the worlds leading gaming system and personal computer manufacturers Alienware, Dell and Falcon Northwest, the AGEIA PhysX Accelerator brings true physics interaction on a massive scale to serious gamers for the first time.
V FOR VENDETTA: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE debuted with impressive box office results this past weekend. The digitally re-mastered IMAX DMR release of V FOR VENDETTA from Warner Bros. Pictures opened in 56 North American IMAX theatres, grossing an estimated $1.36 million during the three-day period between March 17 and March 19 for a per-screen average of $24,341.
NVIDIA Corp. and Havok will demonstrate a physics effects solution that runs completely on a graphics processing unit (GPU) an industry first at this year's Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Jose, California (March 21 through 24).
Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Mystic Game Development announced that its latest next-gen product, EMotion FX 3 the realtime character animation SDK for multi-core processor systems will fully support the Xbox 360 videogame system from Microsoft.
Silicon Studio Corp., a leader in digital content development products targeted at the entertainment industry, is showcasing two of its latest products and sample technology at the Game Developers Conference 2006 (GDC 2006) to be held from March 20, 2006 in San Jose, California, at the booth # 1346. In addition, Silicon Studio is hosting a Happy Hour with complementary beverages and hors doeuvres from 5:00 pm on March 22, the first day of GDC, during the GDC Expo Booth Crawl.
Autodesk Inc. is heading to the 2006 Game Developers Conference (GDC) with arguably the worlds leading portfolio of animation tools for next-generation game development. Autodesk will showcase the latest versions of its 3D animation software products at booth #526. GDC will take place from March 22-24 at the San Jose Convention Center.
Pixel Corps, the global guild for aspiring and professional digital craftsman, and 2d3, a leading developer of professional 3D camera matchmoving software, announced boujou bullet PXC, a limited version of boujou bullet 2. With a scaled down image support function, boujou bullet PXC includes many of the same helpful features found in boujou bullet 2, including automated tracking, matchmoving and a comprehensive wizard-based help.
RE:Flex brings intuitive morphing and warping directly to eyeon Software's Fusion 5. Superior results are achieved using RE:Vision Effects' proprietary and sophisticated technology. RE:Flex is especially easy to learn because it uses the Fusion's own drawing and masking tools to direct the warping and morphing; as such, there is no need to learn a whole new user interface.
To celebrate the DVD release of King Kong on March 28, 2006, SCIFI.com will host the world premiere of KING KONG'S SKULL ISLAND, a fascinating look at the unforgettable setting of three-time Academy Award-winning picture on March 18. SCI FI Channel will broadcast the featurette, beginning March 21, making the website and the cable network the only places audiences can experience this intriguing behind-the-scenes look at KING KONG before the release of the two-disc special edition DVD.
Warner Home Video (WHV) announced it will launch its first titles on HD DVD. Clint Eastwood's four-time Academy Award-winning, Best Picture of 2004, MILLION DOLLAR BABY; four-time Oscar-nominated epic, THE LAST SAMURAI and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Joel Schumacher's movie adaptation of Broadway's longest running show will all be released on April 18, 2006. Each of these titles will be available for $28.99.
Soros Strategic Partners LP and Dune Ent. II Llc., an affiliate of Dune Capital Management LP, have signed a definitive agreement with Viacom Inc. to purchase the film library of Paramount Pictures' DreamWorks Llc. in a transaction that values the film library at $900 million. The library sale, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in April. The transaction completes the second stage of the DreamWorks acquisition.
Virtools, a Dassault Systèmes company, announced it will preview its upcoming framework for PSP development at GDC 2006, held March 20-24, 2006.
Virtools Dev is the prototyping software leader with an unparalleled and intuitive graphical scripting system and a library of more than 450 ready-to-use behavior building blocks that can be directly attributed to objects, characters, camera, game logic and any other prototype components.
SCI FI Channel will give audiences a sneak peek behind the mask of mysterious freedom fighter 'V' in V FOR VENDETTA: BEHIND THE MASK, airing at 11:00 pm tonight, March 16, 2006. This exclusive 30-minute behind-the-scenes special takes an in-depth look at the Wachowski brother's dark and uncompromising vision of the future, V FOR VENDETTA, which opens in theaters Friday. There will be a special a special encore broadcast of the special March 17 at 8:30 am.
