CS射擊游戲制作公司 Valvesoftware 選擇 XSI為主要游戲發展工具

[aj]

[轉貼至 www.softimage.com]

PRESS RELEASE: SOFTIMAGE TOOLSET ADOPTED BY VALVE


-- SOFTIMAGE|XSI selected for superior creative toolset
and highly productive workflow capabilities --


Montreal, Quebec, Canada – August 12 2002 - Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVID), today announced that leading entertainment software company, Valve is migrating its current 3-D pipeline mid-production, to the SOFTIMAGE®|XSI® software, the industry-renowned 3-D nonlinear production environment, for the development of its current and next-generation series of games.

Known to gamers worldwide as the creators of the best selling and critically acclaimed games Half-Life, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike, Valve has chosen the SOFTIMAGE|XSI system for its superior creative toolset, highly productive workflow capabilities and for the unmatched level of support Softimage provides. To deliver the games that will define future success, Valve is placing the SOFTIMAGE|XSI system at the core of its 3-D production pipeline.

[以Half-Life, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike,游戲聞名於世的Value公司,因為XSI提供了高效率的制作流程與無可批敵的技術支援,所以選擇了 XSI作為游戲制作工具, 為何確保往後能做出成功的游戲,VALUE公司 將XSI放入公司的核心制作工具.]

“The games market has eclipsed the box office in gross annual revenue and with an average of 3.5 billion player minutes per month, games such as Counter-Strike are demanding more consumer time than most mainstream television shows,” said Gabe Newell, managing director and co-founder of Valve. “With this proliferation of digital content comes a more demanding
audience, one that requires extremely high presentation values in entertainment. As we continue to move our products forward, the tools our artists have used thus far are quickly losing their relevance. We’ve evaluated all competitors and found XSI to be a superior offering that will allow us to take our productions to the next level.”

The SOFTIMAGE|XSI system includes a wealth of core features designed specifically for gaming environments. It delivers the industry’s only integrated real-time visual effects creation and editing environment available today – a key feature designed specifically for game development. The Real-Time Shader architecture in the XSI system allows artists to view and edit shader effects from game engines directly in the XSI Viewports, and export those effects to their game engine along with models and animation. This revolutionary functionality provides artists with complete flexibility and boosts productivity by allowing them to construct custom real-time multipass rendering effects, leveraging the full power of modern graphics hardware.

With version 3.0, the SOFTIMAGE|XSI system also offers a new Software Development Kit (SDK), enhanced polygonal modeling and character animation tools, as well as a superior data pipeline providing games artists and developers with sophisticated, open content creation and validation tools supporting every stage of the game development process – from creation through final export.

Softimage’s managing director, Michael Stojda comments: “Throughout our history, Softimage has worked with the leaders in interactive entertainment to deliver new technologies and innovations. Valve is one of the most accomplished and sophisticated entertainment software companies today and we’re very pleased they have chosen to make SOFTIMAGE|XSI the core of their 3-D pipeline. It is further validation of the superior workflow and production capabilities developed within XSI through close collaboration between companies such as Valve and our games team.”

SOFTIMAGE|XSI was sold to Valve Software by Washington based SLK Technologies Inc.


-ENDS-

About Valve
Founded in 1996, Valve develops entertainment software titles such as Half-Life, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike. Half-Life, Valve’s debut title was first released in November 1998 and has won over 50 Game of the Year Awards, was named “Best Game Ever” by PC Gamer and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. More information about Valve is available through the company’s website at www.valvesoftware.com.


About Softimage Co.
Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc., is an industry leader in 3-D animation, 2-D cel animation, compositing and special effects software, designed to address the demands of the film and commercial/broadcast and games/interactive industries. SOFTIMAGE|XSI software, an integral player in Avid's Make, Manage and Move Media? strategy, is the flagship product offering from Softimage. It is the industry's first 3-D nonlinear production environment providing animators and digital artists the freedom to make professional animation, visual effects and games - from major motion pictures, to cartoons and commercials, to animated content for video games and Web sites. Softimage is proud to count amongst its customers: ILM, R!OT, The Mill, Pixel Liberation Front, Blue Sky Studios, Hybride, Mainframe, Janimation, Quiet Man, PSYOP, Cinepix and Framestore. The Softimage product family is designed to help users innovate, create and collaborate throughout the production process. For more information about Softimage visit www.softimage.com. For more information about Avid visit www.avid.com.