June 8, 2000 - Paris, France

Virtools SA/Virtools SA announces web plug-in and player for the Macintosh platform; pledges support for Mac OS X.

Virtools, makers of powerful authoring tools for interactive real-time 3D, today announced the development of their web plug-in and player for the Macintosh platform, including Mac OS X, Apple's next generation operating system. With this announcement, Virtools is opening up new territory for developers and content producers, allowing them to quickly and easily create richly interactive real-time 3D environments to be viewed on the Macintosh platform.

"We are very excited about bringing Virtools content to Macintosh users," said Bertrand Duplat, Virtools CEO and founder. "The Mac platform is an important opportunity for us. With Virtools's flexibility and openness, Virtools content developers will be able to create real-time interactive 3D games, multimedia and web sites for Macintosh users as well as for the PC."

"Macintosh is the best platform for graphics and multimedia, and its only getting better with Mac OS X," said Clent Richardson, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "We're thrilled that Virtools's powerful plug-in and player will allow Mac users to get immersed in the exciting new 3D worlds created with Virtools."

Virtools produces a suite of interactive 3D development tools and is swiftly earning a strong reputation for itself. Virtools Creation allows users to create interactive applications through a building-block, object-oriented paradigm. While the more elaborate Virtools Dev, with its open source model, enables high level programmers to create new building blocks that fit into the Virtools graphical interface. Virtools applications cover an impressively wide range of products. Some game creators exploit only the prototyping capabilities, while others use Virtools to its full production potential. Other designers have implemented Virtools in their interactive science exhibits or storyboards for movies and television. Add to that web based tamagotchi-like environments, interactive training modules and financial presentations, and you begin to imagine the wealth of possibilities Virtools offers.

An early version of the Virtools web plug-in and player was shown on Mac OS 9 at the Apple Worldwide Developer's Conference. The final version will also run on Mac OS X, and is planned for Q4 2000.

About Virtools/ Virtools
Headquartered in Paris, Virtools is the leading provider of 3D interactive media authoring tools, providing the game development, post-production and presentation markets with a suite of tools to create richly interactive 3D environments. Surpassing other real-time 3D packages, Virtools Creation allows non-technical users to graphically and intuitively add behaviors and interactivity to 3D models, scenes and environments with no programming skills. Virtools has been selected by numerous industry leaders including Havas Interactive, Microïds and TerraTools GmbH.

For more information, please contact:

Virtools S.A.
+33 (0) 1 42 71 46 86
info@virtools.com