Toronto, Canada. March 2, 1998. Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. today released v2.1 of its award winning NuGraf Rendering System and PolyTrans software products. Coming on the 10^th birthday of the NuGraf software (January 28^th 1988-1998), this release marks the culmination of many development projects at Okino, including animation conversion amongst 3D Studio, Lightwave & DirectX; full support for trimmed NURBS internally and in various import/export converters (IGES, Wavefront and SoftImage); licensing of ACIS SAT for importing & viewing solid models; more import/export converters (ACIS SAT, OpenFlight, IGES 5.3, Renderware, Lightscape, Imagine and Detailer); native support for 3D Studio MAX and multi-threaded ray tracing for NuGraf. NuGraf and PolyTrans are identical products except for the added rendering and visualization capabilities of NuGraf.

"Before NuGraf came along, I was unable to render my Pro-E models easily and so interactively as I do now with NuGraf," said Dean Amir Depay, Industrial Product Designer, IDE, Inc. "Now, with their new SAT translator, I can do the same for my AutoCad solid models as well. I have used many different rendering and translation packages. NuGraf is the easiest, most accurate and reasonably priced package available in my opinion, and their staff is committed to providing technical support, and to improving the product continually."

"Version 2 of NuGraf and PolyTrans represent a milestone in 3D scene composition and conversion software," said Robert Lansdale, President & CEO of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. "At Okino we have aggressively pursued and realized many developments for inclusion into this release, such as a state-of-the-art "animation conversion engine" and keyframe resampler/reducer algorithms, full double precision trimmed NURBS support throughout the software (with inclusion of two licensed NURBS toolkits), licensing of the ACIS SAT kernel for import and display of solid models, the addition of multi-threaded ray tracing to the tried-and-tested NuGraf rendering core, the release of our newly revised IGES 5.3 import/export converters, the release of the 3DS Studio MAX interface plug-ins, and many new import/export converter modules. These products now provide an unsurpassed combination of 3D file format support, animation conversion, bitmap conversion, scene composition tools and multi-threaded rendering capabilities all in a single package."

Notable features of the v2 release include:

• A new multi-threaded ray tracer for NuGraf. Handles very large scene files in a minimal amount of memory.



• Native 3D Studio MAX plug-ins. Now all the Okino I/O converters can be accessed from within MAX.



• Camera and object animation conversion support among 3D Studio, Lightwave and DirectX.



• Development and release of the "animation conversion engine" (click here to read the press release).



• Inclusion of a cutting-edge "keyframe resampler" & "keyframe reducer" for optimal animation conversions.



• A full implementation of the IGES 5.3 CAD specification (surfacing, NURBS, parametrics). Handles Pro/E, CATIA and many IGES flavors.



• Development and release of the "NURBS internal engine" which allows trimmed NURBS data to be imported, cleansed, triangulated to polygon meshes, displayed on the user interface and exported.



• Trimmed NURBS for SoftImage (great for reading IGES 5.3 into SoftImage).



• NURBS support for the Wavefront OBJ file reader (for import & conversion of RhinoÒ & AliasÒ NURBS).



• Native ACISÒ SAT & Solid EdgeÒ (solid model) import converters, licensed from Spatial Technology.



• A complete implementation of the "OpenFlightÒ " file format. Developed in cooperation with MultiGen, Inc. Click here to read the press release.



• Full IGES 5.3 export, RenderwareÒ .rwx export, LightscapeÒ .lp export, ImagineÒ export and DetailerÒ import/export converters.



• The unique ability to read and write SoftImage database scenes directly from the 3DS MAX user interface.



• Automatic 2D bitmap conversion to and from the most popular 2D bitmap file formats. For example, when importing scenes from Lightwave files, all Amiga IFF bitmaps are converted to MAX compatible formats.
  
  
• Coming in the next release: Electric Image FACT format and more animation conversion support.

PolyTrans & NuGraf, An Overview

Okino's stand-alone PolyTrans Model Translator for Windows and SGI was released in August 1996 and has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed and respected 3D geometry translators. Unlike most translation programs which only convert basic polygon geometry, hierarchy and some shading information, PolyTrans is unique in its ability to convert every aspect of a 3D model file; this includes all geometry (meshed polygons with recursive holes, NURB and bicubic patches, and quadrics), object hierarchy, pivot points, smoothing data (vertex normals), (u,v) texture coordinates, bump mapping information (tangent vectors), lights, cameras, all texture projection methods and animation (for specific formats). Okino's NuGraf Rendering System is the elder sibling of PolyTrans that includes, in addition to everything in PolyTrans, high-end scanline and multi-threaded ray tracing (for product visualization), material editing, bitmap and procedural texture mapping, texture projection methods, extended user interface and font editing. NuGraf received the "IEEE Technical Excellence Award" from IEEE CG&A Magazine in 1997.

Notable users of Okino's software include Acuris, ATI, Disney, DPS, Dreamworks, EDS, HP, Hughes, Infobyte, IBM, Intel, JPL, LEGO, MIT Media Labs, PIXAR, REM Infographica, Westwood Studios and major 3D game development companies such as Acclaim Entertainment, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Interplay, Lucas Arts, Microprose, Namco, Sierra Online, Stage 22, Virgin Interactive, Virtual World Entertainment, Williams/Bally/Midway and many others (more are listed at http://www.okino.com/conv/users.htm).

Supported Import and Export File Formats

Okino's NuGraf & PolyTrans programs support the following extensive list of 3D formats: 3D Studio, 3D Studio MAX (via native plug-ins), ACIS SAT, Alias PolySet, Apple 3DMF (Quickdraw-3D), DirectX, DXF, Fractal's Detailer, IGES 5.3, Imagine, Lightscape, full Lightwave, OpenGL C Code, OpenFlight, POV 2.0/3.0, Pro/Engineer .SLP, Renderman RIB, Renderware, SoftImage .hrc models and scene databases, Solid Edge, StereoLithography .STL, Strata StudioPro, trueSpace, USGS DEM, Vistapro, VRML 1.0/2.0 and Wavefront OBJ (both polygons and NURBS). The converters have been developed by Okino Computer Graphics over a period of 10 years and are complete implementations of their respective file formats.

Applicable WEB pages

The following are pertinent pages on the Okino WEB site relating to this press release:

• NuGraf home page
• PolyTrans home page
• Supported file formats
• List of notable users
• Customer testimonials
• Pictures of the Month
• Visual tour of NuGraf in operation
• IEEE Excellence Award description

NuGraf and PolyTrans are available through a growing number of Value Added Resellers (VARs) in the design, CAD and multimedia markets. The products are also available directly from Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. Fully functional demonstration versions (with minor limitations) are available through Okino's Internet WEB site at http://www.okino.com/nrs/demos.htm (NuGraf) and http://www.okino.com/conv/demos.htm (PolyTrans).

Product Pricing

To locate an authorized VAR or for customer inquiries, please contact Okino Computer Graphics at (905) 672-9328 or toll free at (888) 3D-OKINO (1-888-336-5466).

System Requirements

NuGraf and PolyTrans operate efficiently with Pentium®-based computers equipped with Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 95, 16MB or 32MB of RAM, a SVGA video card, and a hard disk with 25Mb of available space. 3D hardware accelerators are supported for Windows 95 and NT but are not required.

Company Background

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Okino Computer Graphics specializes in the development of 3D photo-realistic rendering, visualization and model translation technology. This technology is currently used within Okino's NuGraf Rendering System product, its PolyTrans data translation program (and byproducts) and its NuGraf Developer's 3D Toolkit. For more information on Okino Computer Graphics, please call 905-672-9328 or visit Okino Computer Graphics' Internet WEB site at http://www.okino.com.

Documents Available Electronically

Attention editors. This document, as well as screen snapshots and related documents for the Press (in Word for Windows format) can be obtained electronically by visiting http://www.okino.com/press/magpics.htm.

NuGraf and PolyTrans are registered trademarks of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. Okino is a trademark of Okino Computer Graphics, Inc. Microsoft, Windows and SoftImage are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Editorial Contact:

Robert Lansdale
Okino Computer Graphics
T: (905) 672 9328
F: (905) 672 2706
Email: lansd@okino.com
WEB: http://www.okino.com