Discreet has announced that it is now shipping Character Studio 4. This latest version contains:
Quaternion-based function curves
Support for 3ds max native bones
Forearm segmentation for more realistic twisting
Integrates with 3ds max controllers
The Visual Clipboard enables more intuitive pose & track editing
Motion property analysis & visualization
A Non-linear Animation Mixer
Lock any animation down with the Animation Mixdown
Prop Retargeting (up to 3 systemic prop objects)
Sounds…
Thanks to Redwyre for letting me know of a Queensland games developer that wasn't on our list!
"Established in February 2001, Halfbrick Studios is one of Australia's newest game development studios. Halfbrick Studios is dedicated to combining the latest technology, proven gameplay and stream lined development processes in order to produce unrivaled gaming experiences on time and under budget. Our vision is to become one of Australia's leading game development studios."
Click here to jump over…
The awards keep coming for Irrational Games. They have just snapped up another one for Freedom Force, at the 2002 RPG Vault Awards.
Outstanding Achievement in Writing
Freedom Force
Irrational Games
Set in the 1960s during the so-called Silver Age of comics, Freedom Force successfully captured the spirit and the feel of those publications, creating a variety of superhero characters with diverse, interesting backgrounds and personal motivations, then placed them within a suitably heroic storyline…
There will be a competition for the best demo developed using the V1.20b version of Catapult when it is released. See http://nocturnal.proboards4.com/ or http://nocturnal-central.com for more details.
There will be a cash prize for the winner and runner-up.
Additionally, Nocturnal is pleased to announce they have licensed NEiM0D's NMod player for use in Catapult. It is expected V1.30b will be the first version to fully support NMod. NMod allows simultaneous playing of a 4 channel mod file and 2…
Gamespy has an article detailing the ten finalists, chosen from seventy three entries, to compete for the Seumas McNally Award at the The Independent Games Festival.
I know there are a few local independant game developers about on this site, so to find out what kind of games and ideas other indy devs have created, check out the gamespy article!
"GameCube sales in Australia "glaringly underperformed" during the holiday season, according to key retailers, taking just 3 percent of the games hardware market. Figures showed that 5846 GameCube units were sold in the three weeks to December 31, compared with 84,477 Sony PlayStation 2 and 45,939 Xbox units. Local retailers and distributors are getting increasingly frustrated with Nintendo's marketing efforts."
Only *3%* of the games hardware market sales!!!! Not good at all. Sourced from…
"With over 10,000 motion capture sequences, MOTEK offers the world's largest collection of motion capture sequences. This collection is being offered as a first tier solution for your animation projects. Easily convert your 3D motion data for use in 3D applications such as: SoftImage, FilmBox, Lightwave, Maya, and 3D Studio Max. Other formats include BVH (BioVision) and C header source code."
It does require registration, but it might be a worthwhile resource to have!
Thanks to Lachlan for letting me know that things are definately happening over at the Australian arm of Creative Assembly. Their website is finally up, and you can find all sorts of information about them, along with guides and details if you want to work in Brisbane :) www.creative-assembly.com.au
Torus is making news for bringing voxel technology to the Gameboy Advance...
"Torus Games, the Australian team responsible for Game Boy Advance titles such as Duke Nukem Advance, Doom II and The Invincible Iron Man has revealed that it has created a voxel engine for the GBA....
The company is currently putting this engine to use in an original motocross racer for the GBA: Moto-X."
The rest of the article over at Gameboy IGN.
