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From: andrew@stone.com (Andrew Stone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.announce
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Stone Design ships Reality 1.4 for NEXTSTEP
Date: 2 Aug 1993 19:37:57 -0400
Organization: Next Announcements
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News
For immediate release	
For more information, write info@stone.com or
call Carla Kay Barlow at (505) 345-4800


STONE DESIGN ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF 3D REALITY VERSION 1.4


ALBUQUERQUE, NM, August 2, 1993 - Stone Design, maker of the 3D
modelling and rendering package 3D Reality, released a maintenance
upgrade to the program today for NEXTSTEP and NEXTSTEP Intel.

3D Reality 1.4, which provides a number of bug fixes and kicks off
a multiphase revamp of the program's lighting implementation, is
available to registered users via FTP at no charge, or for $25 on
floppies; and is available at normal cost to others.

"We've gotten an incredible amount of feedback since the release
of Reality last Halloween," said Andrew Stone, CEO of the Albuquerque,
NM-based software company. "We were the first to hit the market
with a modeller/renderer for NEXTSTEP, and our experience there
has paid off in the form of a better offering with this release."

Reality 1.4 gives users the first glimpse of a full-scale rewrite
in the works for the program's Lights UI. With one intuitive,
logical method of adding lights to a scene, the user can now more
easily create and define Light sources, either associated with a
particular shape in the shape hierarchy, or as global entities that
impact all shapes in the 3D document.

"We're looking toward a truly _reality-based' method of working
with lights-for example, updating a light shader's aim per translation
of the Light shape to which it's applied," said Carla Kay Barlow,
who heads up Stone's technical support for Reality users.

Among the features that users can expect in version 1.4:
* NSFIP compatibility - Reality 1.4 offers full compatibility with
NEXTSTEP for Intel Processors and NeXT-qualified Intel-based hardware
configurations.
* Standard axis colors - XYZ axes' colors are now RGB (red, green
and blue, respectively, per industry convention).
* Help link for dynamically loaded bundles - User-created bundles
now support NEXTSTEP Help.
* New Lights UI - New Lights UI simplifies addition and definition
of light sources.
* Dynamic loading - External menu allows dynamic loading of external,
custom bundles.
* Additional Help files - Several new help files cover requested
topics such as Composite Solid Geometries.

"Our testers really deserve huge thanks from us; they've been a
constant source of great ideas and astute bug reports," Barlow said.
Among the bugs fixed in version 1.4:
* Operations continue at normal pace with 20+ shapes in one document.
* Operations continue after click on Constraints Pie with no document open.
* Save command is always available.
* Color well in Shaders inspector is not cleared by application of new shader.
* nextText connections function properly in the Lights inspector.

Like all Stone Design products, Reality is available directly from
the company and at the ftp sites orst.edu, sonata.cc.purdue.edu and
ftp.cs.unm.edu. Students who ftp the package and submit proof of
current student status can purchase Reality at a special rate. No
technical support is provided with this purchase option, but easy
entry for students is a firm commitment of Stone Design. Call or
write for more information about Stone's Student Discount program
and for regular prices. Trade-ups to Intel versions of all Stone
software purchased between February 12, 1993 and May 21, 1993 are
available free of charge to end users.

##
Stone Design Corporation of Albuquerque, New Mexico, founded in 1984, develops a variety of business productivity applications for NEXTSTEP. DataPhile is a trademark of Stone Design Corporation. All other brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Marcel Waldvogel and Netfuture.ch.