Cycore Computers Gives the 3D Cult A Voice

Latest version of award winning Cult3D web-animation technology adds voice compression, advanced sound, and customized object and polygon compression

UPPSALA, SWEDEN, July 28, 1999 - Cycore, the Sweden-based company that is changing the "shape" of e-commerce, today announced Cult3D 4.0, a new sound-enhanced version of its 3D animation technology for the Web. Cult3D 4.0 is now bringing a voice to e-commerce by allowing interactive 3D objects to "speak" to users on the Web and allowing e-commerce vendors to "turn up" their sales and profits. In addition, the new version also includes an entirely new Cult3D Exporter that makes it possible for 3D modelers or Web developers to customize object compression levels and polygon reduction.

Targeted toward e-commerce, engineering, gaming, education and distance learning applications, Cult3D's real-time, multi-platform 3D rendering engine offers companies a low bandwidth, easy-to-use solution for creating and displaying high-quality interactive 3D products on their web sites. With Cult3D, web users can virtually interact with 3D products online. Now, Cult3D 4.0 has taken the technology a step further by adding sound into the mix.

Pump Up the Volume
Web surfers and e-commerce vendors alike won't believe their ears when they hear what Cult3D 4.0 does for Web sound! Cult3D 4.0 is creating a little noise by now including the most efficient voice-compression technology on the market. Licensed from VoxWare, a division of Lucent Technologies, this compression technology makes it possible to include voiceovers, product explanations, and recorded training instructions with any Cult3D object posted on the Web without jamming the airwaves.

"Cult3D 4.0's superior sound compression allows web designers to compress one minute of recorded voice to less than 25 kB, which is less than half the size of what can be achieved with other Internet sound technologies," said Jerry Pettersson, vice president of product development for Cycore.

"Cult3D 4.0's unique sound compression not only means that product companies can significantly improve their product presentations, it's a quantum leap toward making extensive distance learning on the web a reality," said Bengt Starke, CEO for Cycore.

Speaking of Compression…
Also featured in Cult3D 4.0 is a completely new Cult3D Exporter for exporting 3D models from Discreet's (formerly Kinetix) 3D Studio Max. 3D mavens can now have even greater control over how an object is compressed and how much bandwidth it requires. Compression levels and polygon reduction can be individually set for each part in a model, making it possible to zoom even further into product or object detail while retaining high image quality and visual appearance. For example, a 3D model of a video camera can be compressed to a size that makes it acceptable for a Web page, and it can still retain the quality of important details such as the text "Play" on the play button.