NEWS - Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Discreet helps out Microsoft
Discreet, a digital content tool provider, has joined in the greater cause of helping Microsoft with the development of the Xbox by suppling them with animation tools. Discreet has tweaked 3ds max 4 for Xbox developers, letting them unify state-of-the-art vertex and pixel shaders straight into the 3ds max viewport. The 3ds max 4 viewport will give game developers the ability to see hardware-rendered, textured models will be animated in realtime as they would appear in a completed Xbox game."The makers of Xbox have a goal of putting the artists and game designers in charge of development," said Drew Angeloff, Xbox tools program manager. "By doing this we hope to leverage the skills of these incredibly talented people so every game has awesome artwork and graphics, as well as fantastic gameplay. 3ds max 4 is a huge step forward in freeing artists from guesswork, and is an incredible tool to help these people create great games."
"While the advanced interactive graphics of 3ds max 4 benefit all 3D artists, the fact it delivers the DirectX 8 functionality with the full acceleration of nVidia hardware is an enormous boon to anyone developing for the Xbox," said Phillip Miller, senior director of Discreet software products. "Game programmers can implement custom vertex and pixel shaders directly within 3ds max 4, enabling artists to create their content within an environment that closely matches their Xbox game title, while the same shaders can live on within the respective Xbox game engine. The connection between the creator and the game has never been tighter."
Source: http://www.dailyradar.com/
