May 2, 2000 - Paris, France

Announcing the Finalists of the Virtools Arena Game Design Competition - Vote for your Favorite Demo and Win a 3dfx Voodoo5 Card and more!

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Virtools SA/Virtools SA would like to extend a hearty thanks to all the competition entrants. We were mightily impressed by the quantity and quality of the submissions received. Sponsored by Virtools SA, 3dfx and Ipion Virtual Physics GmbH, the Virtools Arena Game Design Competition illustrates the potential of real-time physics simulation within the Virtools product family, through Virtools's collaboration with Ipion Virtual Physics GmbH.

Jurist noted the particularly impressive demos made with the Virtools Trial Version and its 50 behavior building block limit. The overall quality and number of entries did not facilitate the task of narrowing down the finalists, but here they are! The 10 finalists come from seven different countries - and are evenly represented by university students and professionals. Now the choice of Grand Prize winners is up to the public!

The People's Choice Jury runs from May 2-31. Vote for your favorite demo and register to win a 3dfx Voodoo5™ board and five Virtools T-shirts by random draw. Limit one vote per person per demo (You may vote for more than one demo). Judging Criteria: Gameplay 'addictiveness' - Fun - Visual impact.

Finalists in Category: Made with Virtools Trial Version™

	Alex Verlhac, Ludovic Iochem and Cedric Alet - Univesity of Paris 8 - France
	Christie Delanoue - University of Milano - Italy
	Morten S. Fog - Aarhus School of Architecture - Denmark
	Demond Rogers - Double D Productions - North Carolina, USA
	Jorge Zapata - University of Lima - Peru

Finalists in Category: Made with Virtools Creation™ or Virtools Dev™

	ABernd Bachman - Lunatic Interactive - Germany
	Adam Burns - Cerro Coso College - California, USA
	Andres Carrera - Ace-3D - Florida, USA and Ecuador
	Peter Montemayor - Cerro Coso College - California, USA
	Dave Polcino - Digital Complete - California, USA

Congratulations and best of luck to all the finalists.

Winners in each category receive:

	Grand Prize Winner: 1 copy of Virtools Dev™ + 1 3Dfx Voodoo5™ board
	2nd Place: 1 copy of Virtools Creation™ + 1 3Dfx Voodoo5™ board
	3nd Place: 1 copy of Virtools Creation™

Sponsors: Virtools SA, Ipion Virtual Physics GMBH, and 3dfx

About Virtools/ Virtools SA
Headquartered in Paris, Virtools/Virtools S.A. is the leading providers of 3D interactive media authoring tools, serving the game development, post-production and presentation markets with the company's flagship product, Virtools™ Creation. Virtools allows non-technical users to graphically and intuitively add behaviors and interactivity to 3D models, scenes and environments without any programming skills. Virtools has received a number of industry accolades and is in use throughout Europe and North America.

About Ipion Virtual Physics GmbH
Based in Munich, Ipion is the Developer of the Ipion Virtual Physics Engine. Using a C++ Software Development Kit, game developers can easily enrich their virtual worlds by real-time capable and physically correct interactivity. The high-performance physics SDK includes super-fast and robust collision detection, rigid-body simulation, buoyancy, constraints, actuators like springs or forces, vehicle dynamics and much more. Top game developers like Valve Llc. (Halflife) rely on the groundbreaking Ipion technology.

About 3dfx Interactive
Established in 1994 by graphics pioneers from such companies as Silicon Graphics, Digital Equipment Corporation, MIPS Computer Systems and Pellucid, 3dfx Interactive has kept its sights firmly set on delivering the worldâs fastest 3D game performance at a price that makes it accessible to consumers. With every generation of its award-winning graphics technology, 3dfx continually tackles the two critical factors of game performance: graphics quality/realism and interactivity. These two factors make games immersive, believable and fun.