Discreet Ships Max 6

Discreet has announced the immediate availibility of 3ds max 6—its latest 3d modeling, animation, and effects tool designed for game artists, CAD designers, film and TV animators, and other graphics professionals. New features of key interest to 3d game artists include support for DirectX 9.0 HLSL shaders, a new schematic view that makes the relationships between parts of the models easier to understand and manipulate, a new event-driven particle flow system, vertex painting, the Mental Ray 3.2 renderer, enhanced patch modeling with splines, and integration of Criterion viewers for Playstation and Xbox developers, among many other features. In addition to the main product information page, Discreet has a 3ds Max 6 page for game developers and a PDF brochure detailing the key features. 3ds max 6 is available for US $3,495. Localized international versions are expected to be available winter 2003.