There's a bunch of new stuff at the QuickTime 3.0 Preview site:
Apple released a new beta of QuickTime 3.0 this week (b7), available at the Download page. The most significant thing in this release is the addition of the QuickTime GS Instruments, a 2MB extension that contains many more musical instruments than were previously available for the QuickTime music track. (Read more info at a press release on Internet Music The installer also includes QuickDraw 3D 1.5.4 (PowerMac only).
The Utilities page has updated and new tools, including updated MoviePlayer plug-ins, a new cool tool called MakeEffectsMovie that lets you add filters and transitions that get generated in real-time, QTVR Flattener, and QTVR Converter (for going between QTVR 1.0 and 2.0) In addition, a very techie tool called Dumpster has been released for 3.0
The whole preview site has a new look, plus there's a couple of new sections: Making Fast-start VR movies and Creating QuickTime Effects.
You may also want to check the What's new on the Site page.
Apple has also posted a page called QuickTime at the Movies, with links to sites that contain clips from current feature films (Titanic, Scream 2, Postman, and Tomorrow Never Dies), as well as a VR tour of the Titanic.
There's a 12/22 post from William Donelson on the QTVR list, in which he details how to add custom cursors to QTVR 1.0 movies, for both Mac and Windows.
The past weekend QuickTime VR enthusiasts all over the world shot panos at exactly the same time, and are posting them at the A Wrinkle in Time page.
Bill Meikle (the guy who's doing all the cool stuff with VRScript) recently posted a; message on the QTVR list saying that Jon Summers (the who's developed all the cool and useful VR shareware tools) is having financial problems and may be out of business by Christmas because nobody is paying the shareware fee. So, PLEASE, if you use Summers' tools, go to his VRTools site and pay your shareware fee. (You should do the same for any shareware you use, of course.)
We'll be on vacation for the next couple of weeks, and will return on January 13th. Hope to see some of you at Macworld.
Judy and Robert
Bill Meikle has released two new cool VRScript demos (#4 and #5; scroll to the bottom of the page) at his Unofficial VRScript Support Page. Check out the page also for some simple instructions on getting started with VRScript yourself.
Panimation announced the release of their Widgetizer software for creating QuickTime VR Object movies. Get product and ordering information at Panimation's Widgetizer page.
Just in case you're about to purchase a Power Macintosh 6500, 8600, or PowerBook 3400, you might want to know about a bundle mentioned in a 12/9 message titled "QTVR MicroAge Web Publishing Promotion" on the QuickTime VR list: you can get the QuickTime VR Authoring Studio, a QuickTake 200 and Claris Home Page 2.0 for $399 when you purchase a 6500, 8600, or 3400 .
Alberto Ricci has two new Contextual Menu Manager plug-ins (for System 8). With the ImageUtilities CMM installed, when you control-click on just about any image file, the contextual menu that appears allows you to view the image or convert it to a QuickTime movie. The MovieUtilities CMM allows you to convert a variety of files into QuickTime movies, movies into other movies and also merge movies together. You can read more and download these plug-ins at Ricci's Contextual Menu Plug-ins page
Some software updates:
Strata has an update to VideoShop 4/3D to 4.0.1.Get it at a Strata ftp site.
ATI has released new drivers, version 3.0, for their XClaim VR and TV cards; they can be downloaded from ATI's driver page.
Lari software has a new rev of LightingDraw/WEB, version 1.1.1. You can read more about it and download it from Lari's Updates page.
There's a slightly new rev of QuickTime 3 (version 3.0b2c4) at the QuickTime 3 Preview site Download page. (It fixes international system support problems.)
Macworld Editors Choice Awards (Eddys) have gone to the QuickTime VR Authoring Studio and Terran's Media Cleaner Pro, among many others.
The version of the Mac QuickTime 3.0 beta now at the QuickTime 3 Preview site Download page is b2c3. This is newer than what was available last week, and fixes some glitches related to the Sound Manager.
There are two articles about QuickTime 3.0 at MacWeek. One is a review of QuickTime 3, and the other is an article about developers taking advantage of QuickTime.
There's a free trial version of Lari Software's LightningDrawWEB, the first product to take advantage of QuickTime 3's vector compressor, which lets you create really small graphics. Get the trial version at Lari's LightningDrawWEB page. Lari Software also has a QuickTime 3.0 for Fast Web Multimedia page, which has links sample clips that make use of some of QuickTime 3.0's new features.
Looks like there's going to be a Windows version of Terran Interactive's MediaCleaner Pro, given that Terran's web site is advertising for Windows programmers.
The QuickTime Gazette has the transcript of an interview with Mitchell Weinstock, QuickTime Product Manager.
If you downloaded the QuickTime 3 beta from Apple's ftp site last week (before Apple put up their Preview site), you should know that there's a newer version at the Preview site QuickTime 3 Preview site Download page ; the installer there fixes a bug with international Mac OS systems.
The Strata News page says they're finally shipping VideoShop 4/3D; this is a video editing program that supports most of the QuickTime architecture, particularly the 3D track. And, if you've ever owned any version of VideoShop in the past, it's only $89 for the upgrade.
There will be an online chat about Apple's QuickTime VR Authoring Studio today, December 2, at 5 pm pacific time. Go to the World Without Borders home page.
YAV Interactive Media has released a new version of Spike. Spike analyzes QuickTime movies to find data spikes (which are bad for CD-ROM and Web playback). You can learn more about this tool and find links to downloads at the Spike Introduction page.
Terran Interactive, GoLive Systems and PaceWorks have teamed up to offer Media Cleaner Pro 2.0, CyberStudio and ObjectDancer for just $699 (a savings of about $200 if purchased separately). Get the details at Terran's Web Site Creation Suite page.
Apple has released a beta of QuickTime 3. It's been very stable for us, and we think it's well worth your while to check out now. Go to Apple's QuickTime 3.0 Preview site, where you'll find all sorts of goodies. Here's our must-see list: