Press release: 1995-05-11: Nichimen Graphics Announces New Generation of Game Development Tools

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.nichimen.com (archived)

May 11, 1995

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-Nichimen Graphics Incorporated today announced details of its new generation game development environment at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition. The suite includes both 2D- and 3D-animation tools for professionals building products for the latest generation of video game hardware.

Nichimen's close relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (Japan) has led to the creation of tools that shorten the development time needed to build games for the PlayStation, which is scheduled for release in North America during the second half of 1995. These tools are designed to run on Silicon Graphics Workstations, and fully utilize their graphics and processing power.

The cornerstone product in this new games-oriented development effort is the Nichimen Action Editor. 3D computer animation has traditionally been created using keyframes, to produce sequences of a fixed length. However, the new generation of video game hardware (such as the PlayStation) has fueled the need for tools that can generate interactive 3D action.

The Action Editor generates such motion by translating the displacements developed in the 3D modeler into individual actions (such as a punch, kick or facial expression) that can be associated with selected buttons on the PlayStation.

The game developer can edit actions interactively, changing their speed, beginning and ending positions, and duration. These actions can then be saved and used again and again in different projects, so game-development time decreases as you build a library of actions.

The Skeletal Animation System (SAS) lets the game developer fine tune motion capture files interactively by layering displacement based actions and motion capture data. Skeletons can be built from scratch or imported (with associated motion capture data) from leading suppliers like Acclaim and BioVision. Using N-Dynamics, one can begin animating in a matter of minutes.

N-Geometry is Nichimen's polygonal and patch modeler. Its intuitive interface provides a full range of object generation and sculpting tools and is directly coupled to a "winged-edge" database, which ensures that models are created in an error-free manner. The modeler also includes a number of operations particularly useful for the game developer including triangularization, polygon reduction, and the direct assignment of color to faces using GL render. N-Geometry supports export of Wavefront, Renderman, and DXF formats.

N-Paint is a resolution independent, object oriented paint and animation system which provides an extensive number of 2D tools for use in the video game, film, or broadcast markets. N-Paint supports NTSC, D1, Cineon, and other standard file formats.

For more information about Nichimen Graphics, contact:

Matt Navach at corporate headquarters (310)577-0500 
Or visit our world-wide web page at http://www.nichimen.com.