Discreet to Produce Tools for Xbox

Discreet recently announced it has entered into a strategic development relationship with Microsoft to provide animation tools for the Xbox video game console. Discreet will provide architectural and feature changes to its 3D modeling, rendering and animation package, 3D Studio Max, for Xbox game developers. Discreet has engineered its recent release of 3D Studio Max 4 so that Xbox developers can integrate state-of-the-art vertex and pixel shaders directly into the 3D Studio Max viewport. This unique technology will allow Xbox artists and game designers to collaborate more closely to deliver high-impact Xbox games. Discreet says 3D Studio Max 4, as a next-generation game-development tool, will blur the line between the creation phase and finished product for Xbox game titles by removing redundant steps in a game's construction. The 3D Studio Max 4 viewport allows game developers to actually see hardware-rendered, textured models animating in real-time as they would appear in a finished Xbox game. This benefit represents a breakthrough in the production pipeline that delivers efficiency, accuracy and the ability for game producers and art directors to instantly see how a game will look, providing more time to make changes or to experiment with artistic variations. ``While the advanced interactive graphics of 3D Studio 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 3D Studio 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,'' continued Miller.