VizWorld.com

Roman Ormandy has sent a letter out to customers of trueSpace and Caligari, telling the sad story that they’ve finally been forced to close the doors.

You may have heard that Microsoft Corporation, reacting to difficult business conditions, has been evaluating many of the products it produces and making the difficult decision to reduce investment in certain areas.

It is with regret that I have to tell you that trueSpace is one of the products affected. As a consequence, you will see reduction or elimination of services offered for trueSpace. For example, there will be no phone or email support offered for trueSpace by Microsoft, and our web site may also be affected. While the dates are not absolutely fixed, some services and contacts may come to an end as early as Friday May 22nd 2009, while others will continue as long as possible with no firm cutoff date available yet.

The rest of the letter goes on to state that people need to go ahead and download the software while they can, and use the company forums to share information on any other community websites that they might move to.

via CGDigg: Your daily fresh CG news – trueSpace story end.

Graphics caligari, microsoft, truespace

A new augmented reality toy is on the web, and this time it’s tied into the release of Eminem’s new album “Relapse”.  Using a webcam and marker to manipulate s simple geometric model “E”, the user can rotate the model in physical space, and “Tag” it with spraypaint in the browser.  The resulting creations can be shared and viewed by all.

Eminem – Relapse / Gallery / 40.

Science augmented reality

If you’re interesting in 3D visualization & Stereoscopic displays, you might want to check out a new bundle from Lightspeed Design and RealD.  For $7500, you can get a DepthQ HD3D Projector, 4 CrystalEyes 3 shutter glasses, and an EXXR IR Theatre Emitter (to sync the glasses).

DepthQ(R) HD 3D Projectors offer rock-solid, 120Hz stereo 3D at 1280×720 resolution. These bright, professional-level 3D projectors can easily display 9 ft (2.7m) wide 3D high-definition images using the latest Texas Instruments DLP(R) and BrilliantColor(TM) technologies for stunning colors and a 2000:1 contrast ratio.

CrystalEyes(R) 3 is the industry standard for engineers and scientists who develop, view and manipulate 3D computer graphics models in CAVEs, theaters and immersive environments. CrystalEyes(R) 3 is the leader for 3D visualization in molecular modeling, virtual prototyping, and aerial photography/mapping.

See the full press release after the break.

Read more…

Hardware 3d, crystaleyes, lightspeed, projector, reald, stereo

The VizThink group have two upcoming get-t0gethers coming up.  One is today (May 20) at 6pm in Milwaukee, and the other is May 27th at 6:30pm in Philadelphia.  If you’re looking to share ideas with other graphic designers and artists, here’s a great chance.

You need not be a great artist to attend, only an interest in using and improving your visual thinking skills is needed.

You may wish to bring paper or notebook and pens/pencils.

via VizThink Blog » Blog Archive » [Community] VizThink Milwaukee tomorrow! Philadelphia next week!.

Graphics conference, vizthink, workshop

Mark Barrenechea, the CEO of the New SGI, sat down with John West over at InsideHPC for a lengthy discussion of the merger.  Towards the bottom, John grills him on SGI’s previous big-vis offering: VUE.

Under CEO Bo Ewald’s leadership the company got back into visualization, and had just recently announced its VUE line of products (PowerVUE, RemoteVue, and FusionVue). Does visualization survive at the new company? Barrenechea says yes, but he describes this as a technology that is in “incubation.” I’ve spent some time with the VUE line, and I think it has potential, but Silicon Graphics didn’t seem to have a clear picture of the market for the product. Does Barrenechea have a better idea of where VUE fits into a viable market? Yes, but he’s not telling us. “I have a strong point of view, but I’m not ready to announce it except to say that it’s important, we’re committed to visualization…and watch this space.”

While I don’t share John’s enthusiasm for the VUE product, I do think it’s very important that SGI has an integrated visualization offering.  If VUE is gonna be it, they need to get the ball rolling.

via insideHPC exclusive: SGI’s CEO talks about why he did it, what technologies survive, and where he goes from here | insideHPC.com.

Hardware sgi, vue

Anyone who’s ever worked with Adobe InDesign to build publications has inevitably run into the final step, Pre-Flight, where you find a few hundred problems with your publication.  Then comes the arduous task of going down the list fixing each problem one-by-one.  Wouldn’t it be nice if InDesign could just tell you these things as you go along?  In CS4, it can thanks to “Live PreFlight”.  And today the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication (VIGC, Belgium) has released 13 standard profiles for various printing industry niches, at no cost.

“The Live Preflight function in Adobe InDesign CS4 is a blessing for the printing industry ” says Eddy Hagen managing director and trend watcher at VIGC. “You have to deal with problems at the source. Trying to fix them afterwards which is the traditional process not only leads to a loss of quality but also loss of precious time.”

The profiles are available for free download on the VIGC site.

Graphics adobe, indesign, print

With the economic decline popping up on CNN or MSNBC every few minutes, it’s no surprise that more and more people are looking into it.  Over at VisualizationBlog, they’ve gathered up some of the better visualizations of the state of the economy into a single place to read.

Visualizing the economy and its effects « Visualization Blog.

Graphics, Science economic, financial, infographics

At the InfoCom09 Tradeshow in Orlando, Florida from June 17-19, Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation (E&S) will be demonstrating a new Laser projector called the “ESLP 8K”.  It runs at an amazing 8K x 4K resolution, 32 Million Pixels at once), at 36-bit per pixel color (12-bits per channel).

The ESLP 8K laser projector system displays content the equivalent to sixteen times HD 1080p resolution, or the difference between 2 million pixels and 32 million. It is powered by a set of revolutionary laser light sources which offer multiple benefits, including low cost of operation. The hue of the lasers does not degrade or shift over time. Furthermore, the lasers yield a much wider useable color spectrum (200% of NTSC/HDTV) than is available in conventional LCoS, DLP, LCD, or other lamp-illuminated projectors.

In addition to the huge  framesizes for video, it can also do 4K Stereo.  No word on pricing.

via Evans & Sutherland to Debut New 8K x 4K Pixel Laser Projector at InfoComm09 – HomeToys Home Technology News.

Hardware display, E&S, projector

Not content with the Federal Reserve’s analysis of the US’s largest 19 banks, the Wall Street journal tested 940 smaller banks in a similar manner (uses the “more adverse” scenario) and built another great interactive tool visualizing the results.

The Journal’s stress-test analysis includes 940 bank-holding companies that filed financial reports with the Fed for the year ended Dec. 31. The companies range from large regional banks to mom-and-pop banks in rural towns. The financial reports also include U.S.-based subsidiaries of foreign banks.

The banks examined by the Journal had total assets of $2.8 trillion at year end. That is less than the combined assets of Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co., two of the nation’s largest banks. The 19 big banks that underwent a Fed stress test weren’t included in the Journal’s calculations.

via Local Banks Face Big Losses – WSJ.com.

Graphics, Science economic, financial, interactive

Mint.com, the popular personal finance site, has an interesting infographic exploring the trade deficit between the US and China.

What’s interesting is exactly what the US imports, stuff like machinery and toys and as much steel and iron as it does shoes. And what we export — high-tech stuff like airplanes and medical equipment and, for some reason, 7 billion dollars worth of oleaginous fruit which is used to make cooking oil, presumably for Chinese food.

via Visualizing the US and China Trade Relations – Exports & Imports | Mint.com Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice.

Science economic, government, infographic