Microsoft Buys Caligari Corp
A brief announcement on the Virtual Earth team blog pointed me to a very exciting news fact. Microsoft took over Caligari Corp. It might not seem such a big deal if you’re on really up to speed with Virtual Earth and 3D worlds, but I can assure you that this acquisition is very cool!
A small search on the Microsoft presspass site reveals that Caligari and Microsoft’s first encounter was back in 1996 when they supported Windows 95 as a gaming platform. Since then the paths have crossed quite a few times already. And now the Virtual Earth team can add this wonderful company and all their knowledge of 3D modeling and animation to theirs and produce an even better experience than they already have.
Caligari, makers of the amazing trueSpace, joined the Virtual Earth team here at Microsoft this week. Roman Ormandy heads the team that is based in California and Slovakia that has brought trueSpace through many releases over its 20 year history going back to its birth on the Amiga computer in the late 80’s. Here’s a great timeline that takes you through the history of the company and their software.
Read the announcement on Roman Ormandy’s bulletin board.
TrueSpace and TruePlace, two of Caligari’s premium products, have a lot in common with SecondLife, a virtual world I’ve been active in for the past two years. That’s one of the main reasons why I am so very excited to have this knowledge on board. I really hope we’re going to maximize this and take a few more steps in the direction of our own virtual world. But that’s just me, dreaming out loud. The one thing we’re sure of right now is that when you hit the 3D button on Live Maps, for the deployed regions you’ll see Caligari’s technology at work already.
Examples of truePlace:
February 8th, 2008 at 10:23 am
[…] Micromiel , beter bekend als Miel van Opstal (in-world C00lzor) schreef zojuist een interessante post omtrent de overname van Caligari door Microsoft. Caligari zijn de ontwikkelaars van de 3D-modeling software TrueSpace & TruePlace. Met deze overname verdiept Microsoft zich verder in de ontwikkeling van virtuele werelden en het 3D Web. […]
February 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
[…] Maps, for the deployed regions you’ll see Caligari’s technology at work already,” said Miel Van Opstal, Enthusiast Evangelist Microsoft. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites […]
February 9th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Hello there mighty Z0r, I know we planned to explore it together, just to let you know my experience was…*Grumble, Grumble bah humbug*
Ok in all honesty, I never got to live trueplay to its full potential. In fact, the application rendered…then upon every load not even 5 seconds later then BAM! There was no application, well there was, however the visual content just turned into a blank app. Yummy!
Then upon trying to log into the forums, it basically prompted me that my account and password were WRONG, yet I could sign in through the client.
I was so excited to see within the install it had a C++ SDK, as I have a Visual C++ book to christen after my C# book. You knoe get the learning pumping as so to say.
I really hope the Virtual earth will go further than the google earth planned for Second Life. I got so excited of being able to play with Visual Apps whilst in a virtual environment.
Imagine a microsoft island, no blimp, no weird open spaced building, yet full on functionality to the fingers, and all your geeky inspirers with you.
February 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Jammer eigenlijk dat je hoopt dat MS ooit haar eigen virtuele wereld start, tuurlijk een virtuele afspiegeling middels Virtual Earth is leuk, maar het blijft een afspiegeling van de reele wereld. Is de kracht van het internet juist niet dat afstanden er niet meer toe doen?
Afgezien van het feit dat een virtuele wereld als SL nog in de kinder schoenen staat, zou het niet fantastisch zijn als MS zich daar meer mee bezig ging houden? Niet middels overname maar middels partnerschap. Als in Q3 2008 je eindelijk in staat bent lokaal je SL-server te draaien en te verbinden met het backoffice-grid van SL, zou het toch super zijn als MS haar producten daarop heeft voorbereid. Integratie in Windows server, Messenger functionaliteit, Texture/Snapshot beheer middels Live fotogallerij…
Wellicht dat we dan een stap kunnen zetten naar een reele virtuele ervaring, web x.0 in plaats van fixatie op geografische locatie. Misschien zie ik de functionaliteit ook wel niet maar persoonlijk boeit het me weinig of Amazon of BOL nu in Amsterdam of London zitten, ik bestel er toch wel…