From: Pierre duPont Subject: PROD: VR Software dVISE v3.1 Now Shipping Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 14:03:13 +-100 Message-ID: <01BB3C66.623FCDE0@dialin-ppp.division.co.uk> Division Launches New Version of dVISE Latest software release from Division enhances usability of Virtual Reality for design engineering and supports more realistic virtual body representations. 7 May 1996 -- Bristol UK - Division Limited has today started customer shipments of version 3.1 of its dVISE? virtual reality software for interactive virtual prototyping. Designed entirely to meet new customer requirements in the engineering community, this is the first update to the world's "hottest" VR product since the initial launch of dVISE v3.0 in August 1995. dVISE v3.1 has been developed with a number of new features and enhancements required by existing customers who use dVISE for building virtual prototypes of engineering designs. These new features include: Improved Wide Area Networking: multiple remote sites can now link together using the Internet or Intranet so that users can see each other and work together in a shared virtual environment. dVISE is the only commercial VR product for engineering design which supports this capability. Human Modeling: a new virtual "body" capability which allows participants in the virtual world to have articulated arms, bodies, and legs. Each participant is represented as a movable mannequin using inverse kinematics to accurately model the natural movement of the participant. This enables the study of human factors problems such as reach analysis, viewpoint/visibility analysis, and accessibility analysis by allowing participants to reach or sight along viewlines while in VR. The use of such an animated mannequin also increases dramatically the sense of "participation" in the virtual environment, thus increasing the value of the entire virtual experience. . Environment Mapping: dVISE now supports environment mapping which allows visual models to appear more realistic with virtual reflections on shiny surfaces. Improved Data Importing: new data conversion capabilities which allow tighter linking of dVISE to the computer-aided design and prototyping tools already in use by engineers, including: new converters for the Silicon Graphics Inventor file format, version 14.2 of the Multigen Flight format, and the STL format for stereolithography; support for importing animations from Autodesk 3D Studio, so that animations can be experienced in real-time within dVISE; and, substantial improvements to the existing converters and industry-leading data optimization tools for use with Computervision, Pro/Engineer, Intergraph, CATIA, Wavefront, AutoCAD, IGES, and STEP, which demonstrate further Division's commitment to providing sophisticated tools for the engineering community. New Graphics Support: full support for the Silicon Graphics Onyx Infinite Reality system. dVISE Developer Interface: a high-level programmer's interface is now available for developing extensions to dVISE. This capability allows developers to modify their existing programs to include dVISE's virtual reality capabilities. Examples could include linking to a factory operations control system for real- time monitoring and control of a factory in VR, or linking to a finite-element analysis package for real-time stress analysis. Other Improvements: Additional enhancements to the physics, audio, collision detection, and graphics modules of dVISE for increased performance and interoperability. dVISE, Division's virtual reality software for end-users built on top of Division's dVS distributed virtual reality runtime software, is the leading tool for interactive virtual prototyping in the engineering design industry. In use at over 250 sites world-wide, dVISE allows virtual prototypes to be built quickly and easily, in conjunction with the computer-aided design software already used by engineering designers. Among other capabilities, dVISE can transparently link together multiple computers at multiple sites, so that remote engineering teams can come together effortlessly for multi-participant reviews of their designs. dVISE is available today for the Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard ranges of engineering workstations, and is now in beta-test for the Microsoft Windows NT? platform. Notes to Editors: Division's dVISE v3.0 software has been awarded first place as the "hottest" VR product of 1995 by the US-based Computer Graphics World, the largest- circulation graphics journal world-wide. The Division Group of companies (http://www.division.com), the world's leading professional virtual reality group, specializes in providing virtual reality technology, products, and services for advanced engineering, design, and training applications. Headquartered in Bristol, Division has seven offices in the US and Europe, and distributors across Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. The Company has sold integrated virtual reality systems and services to a world-wide customer base of blue chip users that includes BT, Ford, ABB, British Aerospace, BBC, Glaxo, US DoD, UK DRA, McDonnell Douglas, Bechtel, NASA, EDS, and Matsushita. Its shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. Pictures available on request. For more information, contact: Pierre duPont, Marketing Director Division Limited, Bristol, UK phone: +44 1454 615554 email: pierre.dupont@division.co.uk http://www.division.com