Luxology
Delivers modo 203
Free
Update Provides UV Editing Innovations, Faster Rendering Speed and
New DXF Plug-in
San
Mateo, Calif. — March 13, 2007 — Luxology® LLC,
an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D
content creation software, today announced the immediate availability
of modo 203. With enhancements to UV editing tools, faster rendering
speed and a new DXF translator plug-in, modo 203 offers significant
performance and workflow improvements to its worldwide base of modo
customers, and provides one of the fastest paths to creating
high-quality 3D content for game development, design visualization,
film visual effects, video production and graphic arts. Registered
modo 202 customers receive the modo 203 update free of charge, and a
free 30-day full-featured evaluation version is available for
immediate download from www.modo3d.com.
“This
is another shot of modo goodness that makes modo that much better,”
said Brad Peebler, president of Luxology. “The technology we
are introducing for UV editing really elevates modo to best in class
in this critically important phase of 3D workflow. We also added a
DXF translator for customers in the design and architectural
visualization fields and made our wicked-fast renderer even faster.”
“We
recently finished evaluating modo 203 and are frankly impressed,”
said Seneca Menard, 3D artist at id Software. “Not only are the
new UV tools hugely welcomed, we are delighted with the even quicker
rendering speed. It’s a sweet update to one of our favorite
tools and kudos to Luxology for making it free to modo users.”
New
and improved features in modo 203
modo
203 includes technology and user interface additions that combine to
make the rapid development of high-quality UVs even easier. The UV
unwrap tool has been improved so that UVs are laid out by the
software with less angular and proportional distortion as compared to
the geometric polygon volume. To help modo users interactively relax
the UV data, the UV pinning function has been improved. The seal hole
option in UV unwrap has also been overhauled for more reliability on
enclosed spaces in the mesh, such as eye sockets. UV editing is also
improved through the addition of a move and sew option – an
enhancement to the previous sew capability that makes the joining and
scaling of discontinuous UVs a one-step operation. Copying and
pasting a UV between polygons is now facilitated in modo, and a new
UV orient capability makes it very easy to have all UVs perfectly
lined up horizontally or vertically.
The
modo renderer - already one of the industry’s fastest renderers
for global illumination - gets two additional speed injections in
modo 203. The fundamental operation of ray tracing has been boosted
as much as 1.4 times in tests conducted by Luxology and even greater
speed has been reported by beta testers. In addition to faster
production rendering, ambient occlusion and full light “baking”
operations (often employed to further accelerate rendering in game
development and many other fields) also benefit from the ray-tracing
speed improvement. Irradiance caching has been optimized, further
cranking up global illumination performance on large resolution
renderings.
modo
203 also features a new DXF plug-in that reads and writes ASCII DXF
files from inside modo. Architects and designers can now use modo to
import a range of 2D and 3D entities from DXF files; including:
polymesh, arcs, circles, lines, points, polylines and more. Layers in
the incoming DXF files are automatically created as corresponding
layers in the modo scene to preserve file organization. On export
from modo, the new translator converts modo triangles and quads into
a polymesh, with vertex connectivity maintained. This further extends
modo’s pipeline integration capabilities, allowing it to be
used in partnership with many design software tools that also support
DXF.
For
a complete list of modo 203 improvements, please visit
www.modo3d.com.
About
modo
modo
is an award-winning 3D modeling, painting and rendering software
designed to accelerate the creation of world-class models, associated
color and normal maps, and ultra high-quality renderings. modo’s
modern workflow and advanced toolset deliver increased productivity
and performance for 3D artists working in a variety of disciplines.
modo’s innovative and powerful artist-friendly toolset offers one of the fastest
paths to creating great games content and is
a recipient of the renowned Game Developer Front Line Award.
Pricing
and Availability
modo
ships on a single disc supporting both Mac OSX and Windows, and sells
for a suggested retail price of USD $895. Current modo 202 users
receive the modo 203 update as an electronic download free of charge.
A free 30-day full-function evaluation version of modo 203 is also
available for immediate download from modo3d.com. The modo 203
evaluation version includes a starter pack of sample files and an
interactive exploration guide that provides an artful introduction to
modo’s most popular tools. Luxology also offers a wide
array of modo training videos and other educational materials
designed to enhance the modo learning process for novice and
experienced users.
To
purchase, learn more about modo 203 and see a gallery of stunning
user images, please visit www.modo3d.com or contact Luxology at (650)
378-8506.
About
Luxology
Based
in San Mateo, Calif., Luxology® LLC is an independent technology
company developing next-generation 3D content creation software that
enhances productivity via artist-friendly tools powered by a modern
underlying architecture. Founded in 2002 by Allen Hastings, Stuart
Ferguson and Brad Peebler, Luxology is home to some of the top 3D
engineering expertise in the industry. More information on Luxology,
its flagship product modo™, a gallery of artists’ images
and the active modo community is available online at www.modo3d.com.
######
©
Copyright
2007 Luxology LLC. modo is a trademark of Luxology LLC.,
in the USA and/or other countries. All products
or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective holders.
For more information, press only:
Liaison Inc.
Scotti
McGowan, (604) 929-8498, Press
Contact
Reader contact:
Luxology, LLC
1670
South Amphlett Blvd Suite 214
San
Mateo, CA 94402
(650)
378-8506
info@luxology.com
http://www.modo3d.com
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