by , 12:00 PM EDT, July 12th, 2001
Corel has released their popular and powerful 3D landscape and animation tool, Bryce 5, for Mac OS X. Bryce allows users to create breathtaking 3D landscapes by including editors for trees, terrain, and other visual aspects. Bryce is a major application in the 3D market, and we are delighted to see it come to Mac OS X. According to Corel:
Create breathtakingly realistic 3D landscapes and animations with Bryce 5. Striking an optimum balance between power and ease of use, this innovative software is an ideal way to integrate 3D technology into your creative process. Smooth Network Rendering as well as new Light and Tree Labs let you open whole new worlds of creativity.
New! Network Rendering
Crucial for designers working in production environments or with multiple computers, this powerful feature allows you to render a series of images from an animation or render tiles of a single frame across a network. Of course, exponentially faster rendering translates into less time and money.New! Tree Lab
When you want to create and incorporate highly realistic trees into your landscapes, you can specify details such as tree type, branch density, leaf or needle density, and coloration. You can even generate tree roots for greater detail.Enhanced! Terrain Editor
With large monitors becoming more common, it's ideal that the Terrain Editor now includes floating panels and fully scalable 2D Terrain Canvas and 3D previews. This enables you to take full advantage of your screen�s real estate. The improved look and feel not only simplifies and enhances the design process, but visually, it will amaze.Texture Editing
The Bryce 5 Texture Editor is second to none, letting you easily import, create and edit preset textures, then save them as new textures for future use.Enhanced!Rendering Options
New high-quality rendering options include Soft Shadows, Blurry Reflections, Blurry Transmissions (frosted glass), True Ambient Lighting and Depth of Field as well as new optimizations designed to speed up architectural scenes. These features help you achieve a whole new level of realism.New! Metaballs Support
Metaballs technology gives you the ability to create organic shapes without having to resort to high-polygon modeling, which helps save you hours of rendering time.New! Presets
An integral element of Bryce, new presets help speed up and simplify the creative process. Vast new collections, including terrains, waters, skies, rocks, clouds and fog, let you explore a virtually infinite number of textures and landscapes.Animation and Web capabilities
Quickly and easily create animations for use on the Web. Generate thumbnails or preview images frame-by-frame in a storyboard format. Make HTML image maps of your scenes with Web URLs embedded in specific objects, and create virtual tours using QuickTime VR.Enhanced! Intuitive Interface
The most distinctive and innovative UI of any 3D software, Bryce 5 lets users take advantage of handy palettes to create and edit objects, design scenes and render final images quickly - a great way for new users to learn Bryce!New! Light LabNow you can enjoy more robust control over lighting on objects and in landscapes. Control the direction, intensity and tinting from one or more sources to ensure a more accurate depiction of real-world environments.
Bryce 5 is available for US$299. You can find more information at the Corel Web site.
The next six months are extremely important to Apple and OS X. The iMac and G4 line could both stand an overhaul, OS X is coming into its own, and the retail strategy will be underway with full force. The more applications like Bryce that we see come to OS X, the more secure the operating system's future is.