Pixels for 2/11/2010: Space Landscapes and Dungeon Defense
5:00 pm
Here’s todays pixels:Gräbert GmbH Launches ‘ARES’ cross-platform CAD
4:00 pm
A new player is in the CAD space, fighting against the heavyweights of AutoCAD and SolidWorks, coming from Berline. The new product ‘ARES” has been in development for 5 years and is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, with new versions for Windows Mobile, Apple iPad, and Google Android on the way. And more than just vaporware, the product has been out in testing by some big names, with good things to say:
“Several Fortune® 500 companies have been using ARES as part of our intensive beta test – to them, ARES really does represent the next-generation of CAD solution,” said Wilfried Graebert, Founder and CEO of Graebert, GmbH.
“Using ARES, they have been able to create designs in far less time than with competitive solutions – the feedback has been identical – ARES is an impressive product that lived up to their demanding expectations.”
Key features include:
- DWG native format – Graebert is a founding member of the Open Design Alliance and sits on the Board of Directors. ARES supports DWG Import (2.x -> 2009), Export (12->2009) and DWG 2009 Native format (DWG 2010 support coming in 2nd Quarter, 2010)
- AutoCAD-compatible command line and scripts
- More than 400 new commands
- Drawing recovery
- Latest ACIS 3D modeling support
- I/O Support for DWG 2.5 -> 2009, DWF, SAT, WMF, SLD, ESRI & SHP
- Exceptional print capabilities, including PDF, Raster & SVG
- UI optimized for each native operating system as well as an XML-based, fully customizable UI with a built-in designer
- Widest range of programming I/O support, including Lisp, C, Delphi, COM, .net (C#, VB.net), C++ and VSTA
Definately sounds like a power player in the market, guaranteed for a bit of upset on the cross-platform support if nothing else. Available for $495 ($995 for the ‘Commander Edition’ which includes the programmability features).
via Gräbert – Welcome.
Equalizer 0.9.1 for OpenGL Parallel Rendering Available
3:00 pm
Equalizer, after 7 months of development, has finally hit version 0.9.1, bringing new FSAA and distribution algorithms to the distributed rendering product. New features include:
- Subpixel compounds for full-scene anti-aliasing (FSAA) or depth-of-field (DOF) decomposition
- Data distribution and data updates using reliable UDP multicast
- Support for writing applications which are not using OpenGL
- Support for OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
- And more.
So go read the release notes, and download it now!
Sony’s “White Knight Chronicles” Videos
2:30 pm
A few videos have emerged of the new “White Knight Chronicles” multiplayer RPG from game studio Level-5 for the Sony PS3. Released in Japan back in 2008, the game will finally come to the english speaking world on February 26th making it the first cooperative multiplayer online RPG for the PS3. The videos show some multiplayer combat scenes.
See the second video after the break.
Read more…
Imagi Animation Studios Shut Down
2:00 pm
The little animation studio that could, can’t any more, as Imagi Animation Studios has laid off 300 of its employees and closed shop due to financial woes. If you’ve never heard of Imagi, you may have seen their work, with may being the operative word:
The studio launched in 2000 and after doing animation work for TV and in a supporting capacity with DreamWorks Animation’s Father of the Pride (2004), the studio had a moderate success in 2007 with TMNT. Unfortunately, their next film, last year’s Astro Boy opened to disappointing numbers, raking in only $23 million worldwide, which was less than a third of its budget.
Unfortunately, they did have another project in the works, Gatchaman, which is probably now dead.
via Imagi Animation Studios Shut Down; Is the Adaptation of GATCHAMAN Dead? – Collider.com.
3-D Interactive Map of Olympic Venues
1:00 pm
The New York TImes has created an interactive 3-D map of the Olympic venues that will be occurring soon in Vancouver, Canada. Like any 3-D application, you can rotate, pan, and zoom into the map. Clicking on one of the four sites will cause you to load up a more detailed map of the venue. You have four sites to choose from, including Whistler Olympic Park, Whistler Mountain, Cypress Mountain, and Vancouver. Once you navigate into one of these four sites, you are able to see the actual places where the events are occurring. For example, you can see the Richmond Olypic Oval building where the speed skating will be held on the second day of the competition.
Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short ‘Logorama’
12:00 pm
One entry you may not have heard of in this year’s lineup of nominations in the Oscar’s “Best Animated Short Film” category is “Logorama”.
One of those (arguably the favorite of the bunch) was an animated film called Logorama, written and directed by the French duo of François Alaux and Herve de Crecy. Now nominated for a Best Animated Short Oscar, Logorama takes place in a world full of corporate and brand logos (in which roughly 2,500 appear), and it follows a few different stories that all intertwine with one another. Honestly, it’s bloody brilliant, and I guarantee it’ll be the best thing you watch all week.
A little bit Training Day, Pulp Fiction, and 2012 all in one, it’s a great piece of motion graphics work. The video is a bit difficult to find online, but now it’s available in it’s entirety on FaceBook here, and you can find more on the original site for the movie here. The language is a bit NSFW, but if you’ve got headphones you should be ok.
Update: Sorry folks, it’s been taken down.. If anyone finds a replacement, post a link in the comments.
Update #2: I’ve just been contacted by H5 about a correction.
The film was directed by and should be credited to H5. The lead creatives on the project were Ludovic Houplain (H5 founder), François Alaux and Herve de Crecy.
Apparently it’s rather important to get this corrected, as the film is up for an Oscar.
via Watch This: Brilliant Oscar-Nominated Short ‘Logorama’ – Cinematical.
Interactive Visualization of Interconnected Risks
11:00 am
The World Economic Forum has posted an interactive infographic of risks to the world, and how they connect to one another. Each risk is assigned a probability of occurring over a ten year period. The higher the probability, the larger the circle. Each risk is also assigned a category to which is belongs. Thus economics risks are colored in blue, while technology risks are colored in pink. The border of each circle is wider based on the severity if the risk happened. Risks are connected to one another by lines. The thicker the line, the stronger the connection.
The most likely, and worst risk is if asset prices were to collapse. The circle is large, indicating a likelihood of 20% or more, colored blue because it is an economic issue, and has a wide border since the fallout could be in the trillions of dollars. The second most likely risk is for the Chinese economy to grow less than 6% per year. Hit the link below to learn more.
Beautiful Motion Graphics Created With Programming
10:00 am
Smashing Magazine has gathered a small collection of beautiful motion graphics created through mathematics and procedural algorithms.
We often turn to programmers to solve mathematical-related problems, but the concept of mathematics in programming is what powers programmers to innovate. When you think of mathematics you imagine numbers, expressions, and equations. But what about art, music, or even beautiful visuals? Those numbers and equations that we often view as mundane and overly-formulaic can generate beautiful visuals and music.
A great collection including such well-known entries as Radiohead’s “House of Cards” video and others. I think my personal favorite is the Zeno Visualization of Swan Lake (shown below).
Which is your favorite?
Tableau launches Tableau Public Free to the Masses
9:00 am
Those of you looking for a free data visualization and analysis tool and found Google Fusion Tables lacking have a new tool to check out : Tableau Public.
“Imagine if online data was as fun and accessible as online video,” said Christian Chabot, Tableau’s CEO and co-founder. “We created this product because we want to make data a first class citizen on the web. We want to change the way people interact with data online by letting them tell stories with flexibility and beauty.”
Already getting rave reviews from the folks in the beta, perhaps most notably Robert Kosara (eagereyes) who has been using it to visualize the massive Climate dataset released recently, it’s now freely available for the world to try via their website Tableaupublic.com. For some inspiration of how you can use it, check out Brad Feld’s visualization of his running data in the MIT Technology Review and the Funding Breakdown for the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.
See the full press release after the break, along with a sample visualization of The 2009 Investments of the Top 100 VC firms, from CrunchBase data..
VizWorld.com 
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