Hardware

• Pentium III or equivalent
• 128 MB of RAM
• DVD ROM drive
• Monitor capable of displaying 1024 by 768 in 16 bit color (65536 color/Hi-color)
• Pointing device (mouse, trackball, etc.)
• Direct3D or OpenGL compatible 3D graphic accelerator card with 8 MB of RAM
• DirectSound compatible sound card (not a requirement but recommended) You should ensure you have thelatest official drivers for your graphics card.

Software

• Microsoft Windows (2000, XP)
• Microsoft DirectX 7.0, 8.0 or 9.0C for DirectX compatible 3D graphic accelerator cards
• For OpenGL, an OpenGL 1.5-compatible graphics card and driver
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 (for the Online Reference)

The User Interface

The Virtools 4 graphical user interface is used throughout every stage of development. It includes:

• A 3D Layout to display content in a real-time environment.
• Graphical tools for navigating, creating, editing, selecting and manipulating 3D objects, lights, cameras and curves.
• Creating and editing lights, cameras, materials, textures, grids and paths.
• Translation, rotation, scaling of 3D entities and navigation within the virtual environment.
• Drag-and-drop of behaviors onto 2D and 3D objects.
• Creation of new, reusable behaviors by graphically combining existing ones.
• A Schematic View to graphically assemble and fine-tune behavior building blocks for creation of interactive content.
• A Script Debugger to fine-tune applications.
• Entity Setup Tools to edit the parameters of any object that has associated behaviors.
• An Attribute Manager for quick visualization and modification of attribute values for multiple objects.
• An Action Manager to create scripts for frequently used functions, which performs a predefined task on a selection or parameter and accesses them in just a few keystrokes.
• A Hierarchy Manager to display a tree view of all the objects present in any level.

The Behavior Engine

The behavior engine runs both custom and out-of-the-box behaviors. Virtools 4 includes standard behaviors in the following categories: Cameras, Characters, Collisions, Controllers, Grids, Interface, Lights, Logics, Materials- Textures, Mesh modifications, Narratives, Optimizations, Particles, Sounds, Shaders, Visuals, Web, World Environments and more.

The Virtools Behavior Library can be extended with custom behaviors developed with the SDK, with the Behavior Pack or with third-party behaviors created by the Virtools user community.

The Render Engine

The render engine provides high-quality, real-time rendering of 3D images and animations. It includes the following features:

• Support for key industry standards: DirectX and OpenGL.
• Support for programmable Vertex and Pixel Shaders (DX9.c, OpenGL 2.0, HLSL, CgFX, Shader Model 3)
• Support for 3D modeling objects and animation from 3ds MaxR, MayaR, XSIR , LightwaveR and ColladaR.
• Optional access to render engine source code.

Virtools Scripting Language (VSL)

The Virtools Scripting Language is a powerful scripting language that complements the Virtools 4 Schematic editor and the Virtools SDK with an intelligent coloring system, context-sensitive completion and function arguments display. VSL scripts can be processed at run-time or in Author mode.

VSL offers full debugging mode with breakpoint support, variables with value editing that can be monitored, and step by step debugging (also step into/ out support).

Open Architecture

Virtools offers an open and flexible architecture that is compatible with the following standard technology formats:

• 3D files: 3D XML, 3ds MaxR, MayaR, XSIR, LightwaveR, ColladaR.
• Images: JPG, PNG, TIFF, TGA, BMP, PCX.
• Sounds: MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI.

The Software Development Kit (SDK) English Manual

The Virtools SDK is a suite of development tools (libraries, DLLs, header files) that provide access to all the low-level functionality used by Virtools software. Developers can write the following application components:

• Custom application executables using the Virtools engines as underlying technology.
• Extensions to the Virtools engines such as Behaviors, Media Importer,
• Manager, Render Engines Plugins, Rasterizers and Extension Plugins (specific Parameter Types).