July 19, 1999 - Paris, France

Virtools S.A Announces Integration of Virtools 3D Authoring Tool With Macromedia Director.

Free Update of Virtools Allows Synchronized 3D Playback Within Director .EXE files; Free Update Includes Windows NT Support, New Web Playback Engine for IE and Netscape, Plus Support for Lightwave, Maya, Amapi Software. See Virtools at Siggraph '99, Digimation Booth #2200, August 10-12, Los Angeles, CA.

Virtools S.A - Europe's leading developer of authoring tools for 3D interactive game development - today announced a significant upgrade to its acclaimed Virtools 3D interactive authoring solutions for Microsoft Windows. The new version includes support for synchronized integration with Macromedia's award-winning Director software -- enabling high-quality 3D interactivity to be seamlessly accessed within Director for the first time.

The free Virtools update includes Windows NT support with an OpenGL engine. This update also includes new support for importing 3D models created in NewTek's Lightwave, Alias|Wavefront's Maya and Template Graphics Software's Amapi content creation packages - Version 1.0 supported only Discreet's 3D Studio MAX and Avid's Sotimage. The new update also includes a lightweight (under 1 megabyte) Web playback engine for both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator to allow 3D games, presentations and projects created in Virtools to be played back over the Web in a fully interactive fashion.

The new version will be demonstrated for the first time at the SIGGRAPH 99 show (Los Angeles, CA) in Digimation's booth, #2200 (Digimation is the North American distributor for Virtools S.A products).

The Virtools product line allows any developer - regardless of 3D programming expertise - to easily prototype or simulate behaviors associated with any 3D object used in a game or presentation. This eliminates months of tedious, time-consuming code development and allows developers to concentrate on storylines, artwork and other programming milestones.

Virtools speeds up the overall development cycle by enabling a seamless transition from prototyping to production. Using Virtools, team members can control and test a product or game's interactivity from the earliest prototyping stages, allowing gameplay to be immediately evaluated and refined throughout the development process.

Virtools Product Line
The Virtools product family is made up of two software solutions: Virtools Dev™ and Virtools Creation™. Virtools Creation is a package targeted at independent multimedia authors and companies seeking to integrate real-time interactive 3D into their content.

	The Virtools core engine, the foundation of the Virtools technology.
	The Virtools application (the end user graphic interface).
	The standard behavior building blocks library (including more than 300 behavior building blocks).
	The Virtools Player (as a stand-alone exe file and as an Internet Explorer/Netscape plug-in for Web deployment).

Unlike Virtools Creation, Virtools Dev is specifically designed to meet the needs of cutting-edge 3D game development. It comes with all of the features of Virtools Creation, and also includes the Virtools SDK, giving developers low-level access to Virtools technology.

	Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98 or Windows 95
	A Pentium 200 or faster CPU (Pentium II recommended)
	48 MB of RAM (64 MB recommended)
	60 MB Hard Disk Space
	Direct3D™ or OpenGL™ compatible 3D accelerator card

About Virtools S.A.
Virtools SA develops and markets interactive 3D content development tools accessible to both programmers and artists. Virtools SA was founded in 1993 with the mission to develop software solutions for real-time 3D interactivity. Virtools SA is funded by leading French venture capitalists and Boston-based Lafayette Development.

Press Contact:
Francois Dujardin
Virtools SA/Virtools SA
011 33 1 42 71 46 86
dujardin@virtools.com
www.virtools.com