Discreet and Alias/Wavefront show off new packages aimed at game designers

At the recent Siggraph show, a convention for computer graphics and design, companies were vying for the attention of computer artists from all over the world. While this happens every year, at least two of these companies were aiming that attention solely at those who create graphics and art for computer games.

Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc., were busy showing off the latest revision of their 3D Studio MAX, 3D Studio MAX Release 3, a program that's already amazingly popular with game artists everywhere. Already used to produce titles like Need for Speed, RayMan and the Tomb Raider series, the latest version promises to give designers even more flexibility to recreate realism, with new core animation tools that support skin deformation, secondary dynamic motion and morphing. These tools give designers the power to create incredibly realistic motion in their animated characters that would have been impossible even five years ago.

SGI company Alias/Wavefront were also showing off their latest wares. Maya Builder is a new design package that, according to the product's developers, "has been optimised to address the specific needs of level designers and programmers in the game and interactive title development community". The new package allows developers to build and texture map "virtually any polygonal object or game level". Better still, the package allows developers to animate objects within the design maps. Examples cited by the company included elevators, doors and cranes.

While it takes a lot more than good tools to create a great game, the software being shown at Siggraph is opening up the high-end possibilities of what can be created.

Courtesy of IGN.com