From: "Mark Ferneau" Subject: ANNOUNCE: Substantially Enhanced World Up Release 4 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 22:15:47 -0800 Message-ID: <68fbni$m34$1@nntp2.ba.best.com> SENSE8 Announces Substantially Enhanced World Up Release 4 Users Report Dramatic Gains in 3D/VR Usability and Productivity MILL VALLEY, Calif. (December 2, 1997) - SENSE8 Corporation, the world's leader in providing real-time interactive 3D/Virtual Reality (3D/VR) solutions for business, today announced World Up Release 4. World Up R4 is a complete software development and delivery environment used to create prototypes and rich 3D applications quickly and powerfully and in only a fraction of the time required by other tools. "I have been doing real-time 3D work for more than six years now, and World Up is the easiest and quickest way that I have found to build actual and interesting interactive-3D applications," said Ari Hollander, principal member of Firsthand Learning Technology LLC. "We went from opening the World Up package to having our prototype virtual world in about three weeks!" stated Fernando Diaz, president and Vince Mitchell, vice president of 6D, Inc. ….."From our initial evaluation of a beta version, we have seen an improved interface, increased performance and networking capabilities that broaden the creative solutions we can offer our clients." Built on top of WorldToolKit (the industry's most widely used visual simulation/virtual reality toolkit), World Up presents WorldToolKit functionality in an interactive, easy-to-use environment. World Up contains an integrated modeler, a powerful interpreted environment that provides instant feedback, a free-of-charge delivery vehicle called the World Up Player and the Netscape/Internet Explorer Plug-In. "With Release 4, we see the evolution of World Up from a niche-market tool, to a mainstream consumer product," said Gavin Anderson, chief architect for World Up. "Power users will be able to appreciate the dozens of new tools which we've added, like the profiler and the debugger, which have rounded out World Up as a complete development environment." Hollander of Firsthand continued, "World Up Release 4 includes several improvements that make the programmer in me smile: ease-of- use, debugging, profiling, greater built-in functionality and extensibility. I am also impressed and excited about the addition of the World2World server architecture and browser integration, World Up R4 has a shot at making virtual environments something that they have never been before: practical." Feature Highlights Among the product's many new features are: * Supports the most popular 3D file formats: read and write VRML 1.0/2.0 and AutoCAD files, read 3D Studio, Wavefront, ProEngineer and MultiGen files * Netscape/Internet Explorer Plug-In supplied for delivering content over the Internet * Stereo and 3D sound support * Most complete support for interaction, tracking and viewing devices * Fast prototyping using an interactive GUI-based development environment interfaced to an interpreted Basic * Ability to interface to externally compiled modules (such as DLL,s/DSO,s) * Port applications to other platforms without recompiling * Free-of-charge World Up Player * Integrated modeler with tools for simplifying and editing geometry * Visual scene graph with drag/drop editing of nodes * Support for Level-of-detail, atmospherics, lights and geometry as nodes in the scene graph * Database connectivity via Basic Script SQL * Integrated Script Debugger to speed development * Performance profiler to fine-tune simulations * Special functions for creating optimized versions of geometry * Direct access to more than 20 years experience in 3D visual simulations through WorldToolKit functions Here's what one company had to say about using World Up. "When we first acquired World Up R3, we were going through a demanding time of building our company, creating a prototype of our product and staging extensive customer demonstrations," said Fernando Diaz, president and Vince Mitchell, vice president of 6D, Inc. "Our first challenge was to build a demonstration virtual world that would run on a large rear projection screen and would be experienced by hundreds of potential clients in a retail mall environment. It was imperative that our entire prototype system function flawlessly and deliver an impressive first look at our design capabilities." Diaz and Mitchell continue, "The important aspects of our virtual experiences include having the highest visual quality, fast response time and the ability to reconfigure our virtual worlds in a short amount of time. Using top-of-the-line Intergraph systems, we needed a development package that would allow us to get the most from their high-end hardware. It was immediately apparent that World Up offered these capabilities." "We went from opening the World Up package to having our prototype virtual world in about three weeks!" stated Diaz and Mitchell. "This amazing turn around time was largely due to World Up being a complete solution that can be implemented by using what we knew about Visual Basic, object-oriented programming, drag & drop metaphors and multimedia production." "As we begin development for a major client, we are anxiously awaiting the World Up Release 4," state Diaz and Mitchell. "From our initial evaluation of a beta version, we have seen an improved interface, increased performance and networking capabilities that broaden the creative solutions we can offer our clients." Price, Availability and System Requirements World Up is now available directly from SENSE8 (within the US), as well from a network of more than 20 authorized resellers worldwide. Pricing for World Up Release 4 starts at $4,500 U.S. for the Windows NT version, which includes the Netscape/Internet Explorer Plug-In and the World Up Player. World Up R4 is also available on all SGI workstations and Windows 95 systems beginning December 1997. Recommended minimum system configuration includes a 90 Mhz Pentium processor, 24 MB RAM and an OpenGL-based graphics accelerator board. Existing World Up customers can receive World Up R4 at special discount pricing by contacting their SENSE8 representative directly. About SENSE8 SENSE8 specializes in developing and applying 3D visualization technology and products that address the productivity, communication, education and entertainment needs of its more than 4,000 clients. The company's development tools WorldToolKit(TM) , World Up(TM), World2World(TM) are regarded as the industry standard and provide a unique integrated development system for multi-user and collaborative, Internet-based 3D/VR applications. SENSE8’s tools enable application developers to integrate 3D graphics technology with business solutions to provide intuitive, more effective and more "natural" user-interfaces. SENSE8's tools are easy-to-use and have a solutions focus, which for the customer reduces time to market, lowers product development costs and yields realistic, high quality interactive, real-time 3D visualization technology at a reasonable price within a short time frame. SENSE8 was founded in 1990 with the mission to commercialize 3D/VR technology. Since 1990, WorldToolKit and World Up have won numerous virtual reality industry awards including Computer Graphics World, CyberEdge Journal, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications and Meckler awards for technology. Ari J. Hollander is a principal member of Firsthand Learning Technology LLC, a company that builds virtual environments for education and training. Hollander has also been the Creative and Technical director of the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Laboratory's Learning Center. 6D, Inc. is a Honolulu-based corporation which designs virtual reality experiences for personalized entertainment and high-tech, interactive marketing. For more information, please contact 6D at 808-947-6600. SENSE8, WorldToolKit and World Up are registered trademarks of SENSE8 Corporation. World2World and Open VR are trademarks of SENSE8 Corporation. All other tradename or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. For more information contact: John McCrea SENSE8 Corporation Phone: 415-331-6318 Email: john@sense8.com http://www.sense8.com [MODERATOR'S NOTE: Commercial postings are offered on this newsgroup as a public service. Their appearance here does not indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or its administrators.]