The face of the new normal is coming in more clearly. PTC has wrapped up its first all-virtual LiveWorx conference, and we’ve gotten a look into quite a few East Coast homes. We also got updates on PTC’s plans for the future. You won’t be surprised to hear that the cloud is a big part of those plans, but so … Read more
The latest update to the Cesium SaaS platform is a global layer of the world’s 3D buildings. In addition, Cesium collaborates with Epic to make geospatial data available within Unreal Engine. Cesium, as we have written, provides a platform for 3D GIS data which are organized as Global Base Layers and include worldwide data for terrain, aerial imagery, and … Read more
Before there were raster-scan TV-like screens on computers, we had vectorscopes, also known as stroke writers and calligraphic screens. They drew straight lines, one at a time, and were used for early warning systems, FAA monitoring, and CAD back in the 1960s and up till about 1990. A near cousin was the first oscilloscopes, and one of the most popular … Read more
(Source: Vectorworks) One of the side benefits of the Coronavirus lockdown is that we now get an inside look at people’s offices. Biplab Sarkar, the CEO of Vectorworks, presented his keynote for the Vectorworks Design Summit, from his home office and we were able to chat with him later about the company. The conference was originally planned for April … Read more
Smell-O-Vision was a system that released odor during the projection of a film so that the viewer could “smell” what was happening in the movie. The technique was created by Hans Laube and made its only appearance in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery, produced by Mike Todd Jr, The process injected 30 odors into a movie theater's seats when … Read more
Taipei-based XRSpace says its single goal is to take XR to the masses by redefining how people connect, socialize, and collaborate in the virtual world. The company claims it enables consumers to socialize, work and play together in both private and public spaces that are contextual, familiar, and expandable. Toward that lofty goal, the company has announced its Mova headset … Read more
Don’t lose your marbles It hasn’t been too many years since the siloed effects of specialists in the graphics production pipeline drove up a studio or company’s costs, and delayed projects because they used incompatible programs. At GDC 2020 Nvidia introduced Omniverse, its open collaboration platform to simplify workflows for real-time graphics. Nvidia has built its Omniverse platform on … Read more
Big projects need big solutions: AECOM stays with the plan for its infrastructure projects with the help of established BIM practices at the company. (Source: AECOM) There probably is no good time for a pandemic, but this particular Coronavirus shutdown hits the construction industry at a particularly bad time. Spring means construction, but for most of the U.S. construction … Read more
Forty years ago, PAC-MAN appeared in arcades in Japan and munched a path to global stardom. Now the retro classic has been reborn and delivered courtesy of AI. Trained on 50,000 episodes of the game, a new AI model created by Nvidia Research called GameGAN, can generate a fully functional version of PAC-MAN—without an underlying game engine. That means that … Read more
UK-based GPU designer Imagination Technologies has been in the news of late over a riff with its owner Canyon Bridge Partners, a Chinese government-backed VC firm that bought Imagination in 2017. The disagreement, which caused the company’s noted CEO to resign, had to do with the Canyon Bridge Partners trying to reconstitute the BOD with the goal of moving the … Read more
From a strategic standpoint, Intel is intentionally not in the business of making money from selling systems. And for good reason, as doing so — at least on any kind of consistent basis —would alienate its OEM customers, whose existence does depend on making money from selling systems. However, to help seed demand, especially for novel products, Intel will create … Read more
The new release of Cinema 4D for subscribers has an updated viewport with new visualization features including colored glass reflections as shown, realistic representations for hair and fur, and improvements to shadows. Maxon was planning for a bang-up NAB 2020, but it all went up in a cloud of Coronavirus. It’s too bad because Maxon was coming to the … Read more
