The Component Man Group, a division of Paradigma Software (http://www.paradigmasoft.com), says Franklin 3D is available in a public beta with support for REAL Studio (formerly REALbasic), the cross-platform BASIC language development environment from
REAL Software.

Franklin 3D is a professional 3D game and simulation engine available for Mac OS X and Windows. It includes over 400 methods, including support for display control, model loading and callbacks. Franklin 3D includes the engine plus a collection of example projects.

Utilizing an open source core engine, Franklin 3D lets developers use the optimal 3D rendering engine depending on the platform: OpenGL on Mac OS X or Windows, and DirectX
on Windows. Features include:

° Multiple rendering support: the Franklin 3D engine can utilize OpenGL and DirectX 9 (and Direct X 8) rendering, with two back up, software only renderers;

° Hardware acceleration for 3D and 2D: users can leverage native driver support for OpenGL and Direct X hardware acceleration and utilize the built in 2D sprite engine for your 2D game as well;

° Character animation: it supports morph-based character animation and skeletal animation, as well as importing animated and rigged character;

° A single window, full screen user experience;

° Support for features like a 2D sprite engine, an internal graphic user interface with call backs and up to four split screens;

° A complete particle effects system that gives you programmatic control over your smoke, flames and other effect;

° Scene control: you can work with a hierarchical scene graph for programmatic adding of cameras, objects, effects and more

Franklin 3D for REAL Studio is 50% off during the beta period and available immediately for purchase through the Franklin 3D web site at http://www.franklin3d.com . The Franklin 3D game engine is also available for Mac OS X and Windows for use with Runtime Revolution.