Week
of May 11 1998
|
May
15
|
 
MacWEEK
has announced that it is changing the name
of the print publication to e/media
Weekly [We're not sure of the
capitalization of the
e/media-Ed].
According to a short article on the
MacWEEK website, the MacWEEK website will
remain and continue to provide Mac only
news.
There will also be a new website for
e/media.
Further to the announcement
of Poser 3, some information has
been reveiled about how Poser 3 will
interact with Ray Dream Studio
5.
Two plug-ins will be included with Poser
3. One allows Ray Dream to open a Poser
file with all the keyframes, figure
geometry and texture information. A second
plug-in allows Ray Dream's vertex modeler
to open and customize Poser 3 figures.
Users can modify figure geometry or add
new morph target channels to an existing
model or even custom build new
figures.
Copyright
Looking for a source for information on
Copyright? The website of the
Copyright
Management
Center
is a good place to start.
|
|
May
14
|
 
MacWEEK
has a
report
covering Apple's QuickTime
announcements at the World Wide Developers
Conference. Of particular interest was a
demo of interactive movies that used an
"Object Track" which detected user mouse
clicks.
This technology already exists in
QuickTime 3, but Apple says they didn't
mention it because there are currently no
tools available for creating these
tracks.
MacWEEK
reports
that GoLive
Systems
Inc.
has shipped CyberStudio 3.0, their
Mac-only Web authoring tool. This release
adds support for Cascading Style Sheets
Level 1 (CSS1) and dynamic
HTML.
The World
Wide Web
Consortium
(W3C) has released the CSS2
(Cascading Style Sheets, level 2)
specification as a W3C Recommendation.
CSS2 builds upon W3C's earlier
Recommendation for CSS1, adding many new
features while remaining fully backwards
compatible. A W3C Recommendation indicates
that a specification is stable,
contributes to Web interoperability, and
has been reviewed by the W3C Membership,
who are in favor of its adoption by the
industry.
CSS2 includes all the capabilities of CSS1
and adds improved typographic control,
including dynamically downloadable fonts.
There are new positioning properties to
control layout; for example, to produce
sidebars and navigation areas. Images and
text can be layered and overlapped and can
be dynamically moved around the screen
with scripts. CSS2 also adds control over
table layout, particularly useful for XML
documents, and allows the automatic
numbering of headings and lists.
Further
information,
including a testing suite, are available
at the W3 website.
|
|
May
13
|
MetaCreations has
announced
Poser 3, a figure posing and
animation tool. This version adds
high-resolution human models, quadrupeds
(animal models), a walk-animator, custom
hand models and mouth and facial controls.
The programs now sports a user interface
that is more "Kai like" [We can hardly
wait-Ed]. Scheduled to be available in
the second quarter of '98, Poser 3 will
ship on a hybrid CD for Windows and
Macintosh at a suggested retail price of
US $299. An upgrade path from Poser 1 and
Poser 2 to Poser 3 will be available for
US $99. Information
about Poser
2
is available at MetaCreations web
site.
The
Walk Designer combine attributes such as
hip swing, head bounce and arm movements
with such styles as sneak, shuffle or run,
and then applies the automatic animation
loop created to motion paths for a
realistic animation. The program also
supports BVH motion capture files for
animation of Poser figures.
MetaCreations has also created a
web
site for
MetaStream,
their new streaming 3D format. A plug-in
is available for Windows browsers, and a
Macintosh plug-in is "in development."
There are some example files as well as
background
information
about MetaStream.
For developers, there's a section that
documents the EMBED tag, as well as Logo's
for the plug-in, an FAQ and plug-in
exporters for Ray Dream Studio
5.
Macintosh users should register at the
MetaStream
website (see
above) to get the MetaStream
plug-in.
|
|
May
11
|
Macromedia
has released Director 6.5, an
upgrade to their popular authoring tool.
This release adds support for QuickTime
3.0 (including improved support for
QuickTime VR.) Director can import and
play Flash files, and will import and
convert PowerPoint files.
The Save As Java function is now
officially released, and AfterShock, the
internet publishing utility, now supports
Shockwave. Upgrades from version 6.0 are
$199, while upgrading from previous
versions will cost $399.
Complete information
is
available
at Macromedia's website.
Not altogether unexpectedly, at Apple's
World
Wide Developer
Conference
Steve Jobs announced that Apple will
deliver QuickTime streaming
technology this fall, using the RTP (Real
Time Protocol) protocol.
Apple announced
today that since its March 30
introduction, over one million Macintosh
and Windows users are now using QuickTime
3 or QuickTime 3 Pro.
Apple Computer also announced
it has licensed the PowerPC version of
Symantec Corporation's Just In Time
(JIT) compiler for Java. Later this
summer Apple intends to integrate the JIT
compiler into Mac OS Runtime for Java
(MRJ), delivering a "significant"
performance enhancement to Apple's
Java-compatible virtual machine (VM).
|
