DX Studio
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| DX Studio | |
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| Developed by | Worldweaver Ltd. |
| Latest release | 2.3 / February 19th, 2008 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows |
| Genre | Multimedia Content Creator |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.dxstudio.com |
DX Studio is an integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics.
Using DX Studio users can build complete real-time interactive applications, simulations or games, for standalone use or for embedding in Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office or Visual Studio applications.
The system includes both 2D & 3D layout editors, and allows JavaScript control of scenes, objects and media in real-time. Documents can also be controlled from outside of the player using the ActiveX/COM interface or a TCP/IP port.
The engine behind DX Studio uses DirectX 9.0c, and includes support for the latest pixel and vertex shader effects found on the more powerful 3D graphics cards.
The playback engine in both EXE and ActiveX DLL forms is free to distribute.
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[edit] 3D modeling
To use DX Studio, it needs to be supplied with 3D models. These can be purchased from model libraries, downloaded from the web, or created from scratch using the built-in modeller.
The modelling tools provided include shape extrusion, lathing, face splitting, vertex and edge manipulation, uv mapping, and boolean operations (where you add/subtract shapes to form new ones).
[edit] Visual scene editing
The DX Studio 2D and 3D editors can be used to build interactive layers and sequences, which are combined to produce a complete interactive document. The top level editor can be used just to drag and drop scenes together at a high level, or can 'drill down' to edit 3D and 2D scenes. Inside each scene, users can drill down further to edit the individual 3D models, textures, backgrounds and sounds.
[edit] Embedding
Using ActiveX technology users can build their own C++, C# or VB.Net applications and drop the DX Studio Player in as a component.
A complete interactive document can be compiled into a single redistributable EXE. This can then be pressed to CD, emailed, placed on a website or in another archive. The EXE also performs system checks and will download and install any DirectX upgrades that may be necessary.
[edit] Networking
DX Studio comes with a network server application that can be installed as a service on any Windows 2000/2003 server machine. Projects created with DX Studio can then connect to the server and communicate with all the other documents through simple script. This allows for a 'master' and 'control panel' arrangement, where you may want to control action on a plasma screen from a laptop or kiosk terminal, or for a multi-user website where visitors can see each other in the same virtual world.
[edit] File formats
The files produced by DX Studio use standard XML to describe the entire scenes. The files also contain all the resources needed to display the 3D world, compressed into the same file using standard ZIP compatible algorithms. A security option allows this data to be encrypted if necessary.
[edit] Effects
Built-in special effects include full lens flares, water ripples, particle systems, real-time shadows, 3D video projection (in MPEG or AVI format), 3D positioned sound, and post-production effects (such as 'sepia', 'bloom' and 'corona').
For advanced users a plug-in SDK is available which, with some DirectX/C++ or HLSL knowledge, users can code their effects.
