Systems in Motion releases SIM Voleon version 2.0.0

Oslo, Norway, 2004-10-10

SIM Voleon is a software development system for aiding in writing 3D
graphics application containing so-called "volumetric data", as is
often used in applications targeted at analysis tasks within the oil &
gas industry (e.g. from seismic measurements), in medical imaging (for
data generated by e.g. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Computer
Tomography, or ultrasound equipment), and for many other purposes.

SIM Voleon is an add-on library to Systems in Motion's visualization
platform technology, known as "Coin3D". Coin3D is a set of high-level
3D graphics libraries with C++ Application Programming Interfaces. Its
target audience is developers of 3D graphics applications worldwide.

SIM Voleon 2.0.0 is now available from www.coin3d.org. The software
has the following major features:

  - It is fully portable over the full range of platforms also
    supported by the other Coin3D libraries, including all versions of
    Microsoft Windows, Apple's Mac OS X, Linux, Sun Solaris, SGI IRIX,
    and most other UNIX variants.

  - Integrates smoothly with traditional polygonal 3D data
    visualization from the Coin3D libraries, in a manner which is
    effortless for the application programmer.

  - Provides interaction possibilities for direct queries in the 3D
    scene on the volumetric data.

  - Volumes are visualized by using functionality which is assisted by
    dedicated 3D hardware on most modern graphics cards, namely 2D
    texture mapping.

  - Higher quality and better performance visualization is
    automatically done on graphics card which supports hardware
    assisted 3D texture mapping.

For a full overview of the API, see http://doc.coin3d.org

Major new features for version 2.0.0:

  - SoObliqueSlice node: for rendering planes slicing through the
    volume at any orientation. (This node complements the SoOrthoSlice
    node, which does slicing perpendicular to the principal axes.)

  - SoVolumeFaceSet, SoVolumeIndexedFaceSet, SoVolumeTriangleStripSet
    and SoVolumeIndexedTriangleStripSet nodes: these nodes renders any
    polygon geometry in the volume, textured with the voxels' color
    mappings. They are useful for implementing features like the
    "fence diagrams" in seismic modeling and interpretation, and for
    numerous other tasks.

  - SoVolumeSkin node: for quick rendering of the outer "shell" of a
    volume, useful for e.g. optimized rendering of fully opaque
    volumes, or for quick rendering during camera movement.

In addition to the new features, there have many bug fixes since the
last release. A few of these are important, as they will likely affect
application programs written for SIM Voleon 1.0:

  - Volumes set directly from memory or read from VOL files were
    previously set up in world space unit coordinate dimensions
    matching their voxel dimensions. These are now instead normalized
    to be within a 2x2x2 bounding box, unless explicitly overridden
    with SoVolumeData::setVolumeSize(). See RELNOTES document for
    additional information.

  - Data was previously rendered the other way on the Y axis. We have
    changed this to what is generally considered a more consistent
    order. Note that this is a major semantic change which needs
    client code to be updated, see the RELNOTES document.



Licenses and pricing

SIM Voleon is Free Software released publicly under the GNU General
Public License ("GPL"), and is also available for any proprietary use
under a Professional Edition License (the "SIM Voleon PEL"). The price
for becoming a SIM Voleon PEL holder is EUR $3,220 per developer per
year. There are no royalties or hidden extra costs.


About Coin3D

Coin3D has at its core an independent implementation of the Open
Inventor API, originally designed by SGI. Open Inventor has long since
become the de facto standard graphics library for 3D visualization and
visual simulation software in the scientific and engineering
community. It has proved its worth over a period of more than 10
years, its maturity contributing to its success as a major building
block in thousands of large-scale engineering applications around the
world.

Coin3D uses scene graph data structures to render real-time graphics
suitable for mostly all kinds of scientific and engineering
visualization applications.

Coin3D is portable over a wide range of platforms: any UNIX / Linux /
*BSD platform, Microsoft Windows operating systems, and Mac OS X.

Coin3D is built on the industry-standard OpenGL immediate-mode
rendering library, and adds abstractions for higher-level primitives,
provides 3D interactivity, immensely increases programmer convenience
and productivity, and contains many complex optimization features for
fast rendering that are transparent for the application programmer.

For more information about Coin3D and source and binary downloads,
please visit http:://www.coin3d.org

About Systems in Motion

Systems in Motion is a global supplier of advanced 3D visualization
software. Our customers range from NASA as a part of Mars-missions, to
Shell deep down in the North Sea, - from car manufacturer Toyota in
Japan, to the military simulating battlefield scenarios.

SIM's most recognized product besides Coin3D is Rational Reducer
Professional 3.1. Rational Reducer reduces the number of polygons in
3D models, while keeping the visual quality, thus reducing the
rendering time and file size.

In addition to the products Coin3D and Rational Reducer, SIM
contribute with custom-made software and consulting services, or
complete project solutions for 3D visualization systems.

For more information on Systems in Motion, please visit www.sim.no

PR Contact for Press:

Oyvind Rideng
Phone: +47 23 27 25 10
Email: rideng@sim.no
Cell phone: +47 90 64 12 81
