Graphics toolmaker Spiral Graphics has announced an updated version of Genetica, its texture, animation and HDRI environment map editor. The new version, 3.5, is free to current Genetica 3.0 licensees, and the company will offer a 25 percent discount on preorders. New in 3.5 is a texture synthesis feature that enables texture creation from photograph sources. The company says the process is designed so that artists can tweak past changes and modify textures without being forced to make them permanent. There is also a new integrated online library where the company offers more than one thousand texture photos royalty free, with subjects including ancient mosaics, architectural debris and sea life. Other new features include texture bombing and an option to remove perspective and distortion from photos. The company has also introduced a re-worked multi-core rendering engine designed to boost speed. This new upgrade will release in the third quarter of 2009.