Director 8.5 Released

 

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Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio is now available.

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San Francisco, California —April 24, 2001—Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: MACR) today announced the immediate availability of Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio, the standard for creating interactive, rich media content, including 3D for the Web, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs and more. The studio includes a new version of the Shockwave Multiuser Server, Havok physics engine for 3D game behaviors, support for Macromedia Flash 5, and the ability to stream RealMedia content. In addition, through a joint effort with Intel Corporation, 3D support is now included, ensuring that developers can continue delivering the most magnetic Web experiences with the market-leading rich media creation solution. The studio can be purchased immediately from http://www.macromedia.com/store/. Macromedia Director 8.5 provides developers with an extensible, robust 3D content creation and publishing solution. Macromedia Director 8.5 is bringing 3D content online by working with leading 3D vendors to ensure developers can leverage their existing expertise with their 3D authoring software of choice (http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/3d/partners/). The 3D support in Director and Shockwave Player was jointly developed with Intel Corporation, and is built on the Intel Internet 3D Graphics software. "Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio enables Director users to create real world applications that deliver immersive 3D, while existing 3D developers can reach a new Web audience," said Peter Ryce, senior director of product marketing, Macromedia. "With the authoring prowess of Director and the power and penetration of Macromedia Shockwave Player, the platform for delivering high-impact 3D Web experiences is now here." Director users will not only benefit from the new 3D functionality, but also from other new features such as Macromedia Flash 5 integration - one of the most requested features from customers. Support for RealAudio and RealVideo in Director means developers can now deliver audio and video content using the leading streaming format on the Web. With Shockwave Multiuser Server 3, developers can now utilize server-side scripting capabilities, UDP networking, and can have 2000 users simultaneously using their Shockwave multiuser content (http://www.macromedia.com/software/director/productinfo/features/). Developers can continue to create and publish magnetic content with the confidence that the free Macromedia Shockwave Player is ready and waiting on a majority of Web desktops to deliver engaging Web experiences to more than 200 million Web users. "Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio is exciting, in that I can take the skills I already have to create sophisticated 3D games and applications," said Gary Rosenzweig, chief engineer, CleverMedia, a multimedia and game development company. "Adding support for Macromedia Flash 5 and a new, more powerful Shockwave Multiuser Server will let me create even more immersive Web experiences. When I think of the possibilities that 3D-enhanced Shockwave content offers, I can't wait to get started." PRICING AND AVAILABILITY Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio is immediately available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. The studio is priced at $1199 for new users, $199 for users upgrading from Director 8, and $399 for users upgrading from Director versions 5 through 7. French, German, Japanese, and Korean versions of the studio are expected to ship in June. The free, 3D-enhanced Shockwave Player is also available for immediate download from http://www.macromedia.com/software/shockwaveplayer/. ABOUT MACROMEDIA Macromedia is passionate about what the Web can be. Its award-winning products empower designers and developers to efficiently create and deliver the most engaging experiences on the Web, and enable innovative Internet business applications. Headquartered in San Francisco, Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR) has more than 1,600 employees worldwide and is available on the Internet at www.macromedia.com.