Press release: 1996-11-12: NICHIMEN GRAPHICS STRENGTHENS PRESENCE IN EUROPE WITH U.K. OFFICE

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)

New Office Enables Nichimen to Better Serve the Global 3D Market


LOS ANGELES, CA, November 12, 1996 -- Nichimen Graphics Inc. announced today the opening of its European office in Cambridge, England in order to meet the specific needs of the growing 3D Interactive Market in Europe. The new office, located at Quern House, Mill Court, Great Shelford, Cambridge, UH, CB2 5LD, will be responsible for providing sales and technical support to prospects and current customers in the European market.

"We have enjoyed significant success by focusing on the video game market in the United States, as our sister company, Nichimen Graphics Corporation, has done in Japan. We are confident that our new Cambridge office will play a key role in helping us expand our international presence, " said Koichi Kobayashi, president of Nichimen Graphics Inc.

Nichimen Graphics has focused its development and support on the 3D interactive market which consists of arcade, console, computer, and on-line games, and 3D web and virtual reality applications. Since its introduction in July of 1995, N· World, Nichimen’s suite of development tools has been adopted by some of the largest game companies in Japan and the United States, including, Sega, Square and Nintendo. Square’s highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII for the Sony Playstation and Nintendo’s highly successful Super Mario 64, the first N64 game, were developed with Nichimen’s N· World. Nichimen’s European customers include such game industry leaders as Acclaim, Electronic Arts, Millennium Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment. The complete family of products will be demonstrated at the upcoming Digital Media World in London, November 19-21, in Booth #530.

Nichimen’s N· World version 3 provides a complete set of tools for developers of interactive 3D graphics. Developers can create, animate and export data to a variety of 3D platforms using a truly integrated environment. N· World 3 includes N-Geometry (polygonal modeler), N-Dynamics (scripting), Skeletal Animation System (motion capture editing tools and animation tools, plus skeletal posing using both IK and traditional methods), N-Render (photorealistic ray tracing renderer), N-Paint & N-Paint 3D (2D and 3D paint systems), and Game Express (for artists to preview data directly on a 3D game platform, such as, the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, M2 and PC). Release 3 significantly enhances N· World’s functionality by including:

Color Reduction System: Complete palette management tools, bit depth selection, imagery indexing, and other features have been incorporated into N-Paint. Artists and programmers can use this tool to reduce the size of texture maps before sending them to various target platforms.^M

VRAM Editor: Pre-assign texture maps to specific areas in the Sony PlayStation’s VRAM memory before converting objects for use on that platform. The VRAM Editor is completely integrated with the Color Reduction System; textures can be selected, modified and reduced while retaining their location in memory. Users can place textures by hand or let the VRAM Editor pack textures using an optimal placement algorithm.^M

Per-Face-Mapper: Nichimen developed a unique tool which allows an artist to apply a single mapper to an irregularly shaped object where a planar, cylindrical, or spherical mapper would not be give the artist the best results. This tool empowers the artist with the flexibility to paint directly onto the irregularly shaped 3D object, accelerating their workflow.^M

UV Editor. Allows artist to adjust texture maps to 3D objects by editing mapper’s UV coordinates instead of needing to repaint the texture maps or remodel the 3D objects.

Browser. A visual, hierarchical interface into the N· World environment. Traversal modes for files, objects, materials, skeletons, animation scripts, give the user point, click and drag control over his or her environment.

Enhanced Performance. N· World is now Open GL native, and has been optimized for increased overall performance. Other enhancements include the addition of a ray tracing renderer, icon-based materials editor, object selection mode, and numerous improvements made to tools based on customer input.

In addition to N· World, the company offers programmers Nichimen’s Game Exchange to export objects, animation, and textures to multiple platforms from a single set of common files. Programmers can further specialize those files and ultimately their game play by utilizing Nichimen’s C++ API for writing custom converters to the desired game platform. Nichimen provides the ultimate in flexibility with Nichimen’s Wide Open World, the completely open development system for not only customizing but also extending the functionality of N· World as needed.

With an extensive history in the computer graphics industry, Nichimen Graphics Inc. focuses its efforts exclusively on supporting the game market, providing artists and developers with the industry’s most open system, leading-edge technology, and unparalleled support. The company’s suite of tools is truly integrated, dramatically simplifying game content generation. Nichimen Graphics Inc. is owned by Nichimen Corporation of Japan, a $62.54 billion trading company.

For more information about Nichimen Graphics, contact:

Pinakin "PK" Katbamna (Corporate Headquarters)

Or visit our home page at http://www.nichimen.com.