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THE graphics capabilities of PCs and Macs have developed, it would seem, to the point where it is often difficult to take advantage of them in a useful manner.

  Many multimedia packages, on CD-ROM and floppy disk, fail to take advantage of the resolution or colour depth provided by the graphics cards found on many computers.

   On the development side, many packages meant for high quality graphical images and presentations have become so difficult to use, they are beyond the access of an average user.

  Visual Reality, a 3-D graphics package from California-based Visual Software, has a suite of five Windows-based tools that form the basis for a relatively easy-to-use environment for developing graphics and animation.

  Visual Model, the first of the five components integrated into the package, provides a basic wire frame editor to create the models for 3-D images.

   Users can draw two-dimensional shapes and then easily create 3-D objects from them. Automatic tools provide for the easy creation of boxes, spheres, cylinders and cones.

  Visual Font allows creation of three-dimensional font effects reminiscent of the Pixar's Typestry.

  Any TrueType font can be extruded into three dimensions and saved as a 3-D wire frame model which can then be manipulated in Visual Model or rendered in Renderize Live.

  For image editing, Visual Image supports multiple resolutions and colour depths and provides cropping, cutting, resizing and collaging tools. Users can also define alpha channel matters to create background transparencies.

  Renderize Live can take input from Visual Model, Visual Font and Visual image and produce renderings and animation sequences. Models can be positioned in the 3-D environment along with lights.

   Camera optics can be controlled and material properties such as shininess and transparency can be set. For animation sequences, camera paths can be defined for use in fly-bys or walk-throughs.

  The fifth component tool in the Visual Reality package is Visual Player which can play animation sequences in FLI, FLC and AVI formats.

  In addition to the included applications, Visual 3-D ClipART provides a library of ready-to-render models.

  The included Business Objects ClipART library (volume III in the series) contains almost 500 images, including symbols, buildings, furniture and maps.

  Additional libraries are available.

   Visual Software recently released Volume II which includes architectural objects for interiors and exteriors.

  While Visual Reality can take advantage of the high-end graphics hardware now available, it can also be used on the systems commonly found on many people's desktops.

   It is possible to use the package, although its performance can suffer, on a 386/25, or greater, CPU with a maths co-processor, eight MB RAM, 800x600 SVGA graphics with 256 colours, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 and a 3.5-inch high density floppy drive.

  Visual Software can be reached in Woodland Hills, California, on 1-818-883-7900 or by fax on 1-818-593-3750.



Make images move with Visual Reality