Director Sydney Pollack used Virtus WalkThrough to develop sets and plan shots for The Firm. Now Virtus VR, the "consumer" version of WalkThrough, lets graphics novices visualize and model their own 3-D environments.
Virtus VR presents a cubic mile of virtual space in which you build structures from a generous geometric shape library and add 3-D objects from the "samplers" (home, office, vehicle, outer space, and more), changing colors and textures as you go. You drag objects into one window, where you edit in 2-D. In the adjacent window you use the mouse to "walk through" the resulting 3-D environment in real-time.
Virtus VR comes with six sample scenes to explore or modify, including Dealey Plaza (blocky figures represent Jackie and JFK), the Hindenburg, an ocean floor, and the White House. The program lets you import PICT files as textures, so you might map a self-portrait onto a wall in the president's residence - although complex scenes scarf RAM and retard navigation. Virtus also sells separate object libraries and texture collections.
I just wish they'd chosen another title. Virtus VR is not virtual reality. Pushing the trendoid label this far confuses people for whom VR is a new concept. Virtus VR doesn't let you program objects to respond to input or events, and, in the 3-D window, the only thing you control is viewpoint. Still, it's a fun, effective tool for building scenic models and visualizing spatial relationships.
Virtus VR for DOS and Macintosh: US$99. Virtus Corporation: (800) 847 8871, +1 (919) 467 9700, virtustech@aol.com.
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