Canadian Developer Releases ‘Wired Sprite’ Tool for Embedding Directional
Stereo Sound in QTVR
Squamish, British Columbia, Canada, September 21, 1998 – Squamish Media
Group, Inc., today announced the release of its newest product, soundsaVR,
a tool designed to allow content creators to accurately place directional
stereo sounds into QTVR panoramic movies.
soundsaVR is a fast and inexpensive way to add sound to photographic or
rendered single node and multi node QTVR movies. soundsaVR can import
sampled music, voice-overs, sound effects, MIDI tracks, or any file in
sound formats supported by QT3.0, to enhance the immersive experience of
QTVR with realistic directional stereo sound.
Using Apple’s ‘wired sprite’ technology and proprietary directional sound
enhancements developed by Squamish Media Group, soundsaVR allows the
embedding of directional stereo sounds directly into 1.0 or 2.0 QTVR
movies. The user can then assign multiple sounds to each node, set the
direction and volume of each sound individually, or make the sound ambient
on selected nodes. This power and flexibility allows complete creative
control over the sounds and music embedded in the pano.
“This is the first commercial product available to add directional stereo
sound to QTVR” says Doug DeRusha, CEO of Squamish Media Group. “We are
pleased to be able to provide an easy-to-use, cost effective enhancement to
Apple’s powerful VR technology, and contribute to helping QuickTime
maintain its status as the de facto industry standard.” “Sound in QTVR
significantly enhances the user experience”, he added. “It will help to
legitimize and popularize this technology.”
soundsaVR output movies are saved using the QuickTime 3.0 movie file
format – requiring no special plug-ins – for playback on computers running
the Mac OS, Windows 95, or Windows NT. Some of the product applications
might include: web site development, guided real estate tours, immersive
game development, enhanced (music) CD tracks, architectural walkthroughs,
and product advertising. Output can be published to the Internet, CD ROM,
or DVD.
Squamish Media Group has been working extensively with the new ‘wired
sprite’ technology in QT 3.0 to provide advanced features – such as 3D
location/direction indicators – in their soon-to-be-released QTVR authoring
tool for QuickDraw 3D, VRchitect. David Solomon, company Creative Director
says, “The flexibility of the QuickTime API’s allowed us to refine and
perfect our proprietary ‘wired sprite’ sound control enhancements. As a
result, we were able to introduce a powerful tool into the marketplace in
response to a high demand for products that can unleash the ‘hidden power’
of QuickTime.”
soundsaVR is available now at a limited introductory price of $70.00 (US),
and can be purchased through the Squamish Media Group, Inc., web site at:
www.smgVR.com.
Inquiries or comments can be sent to (biz@smgVR.com) Technical issues
should be directed to (dev@smgVR.com)