GameCODA 2.0 and ISACT Demonstrated at Game Developers Conference
MILPITAS, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Creative Technology
Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF), a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for
PC users, today announced GameCODA(R) 2.0, the newly enhanced comprehensive
cross platform audio middleware solution for console and PC game developers.
Creative also announced new enhancements to its Interactive Spatial Audio
Composition Tools (ISACT) for PC and console game development. Creative and
Sensaura, a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative, will demonstrate this new
system in exhibit #238 at the San Jose Convention Center and at the Hilton and
Towers Hotel, Suite 926, during the Game Developers Conference in San Jose,
California from March 24-26.
GameCODA 2.0 & GameCODA Plus
The original GameCODA 1.0 system was released by Sensaura at the 2002 Game
Developers Conference and quickly became a well-established cross platform
audio solution that aided in the development of published and future titles
from Lionhead Studios, Activision, Codemasters and SCi. GameCODA 2.0 builds
upon this scalable, modular solution by adding support for Dolby(R)
ProLogic(R) II encoding, OpenAL(R) compatibility and real-time auditioning, as
well as providing enhanced CAGE(TM) Producer content management tools.
GameCODA 2.0 will also have future support for DTS(R) Interactive encoding for
the Sony(R) PlayStation(R) 2 game console.
GameCODA 2.0 simplifies the challenge of managing audio assets and
rendering audio on all of the leading game consoles in the market today.
Instead of adopting a "lowest common denominator" approach, the CAGE Producer
content management tools that are built into GameCODA 2.0 enable audio to be
delivered consistently and optimally on each platform, with the minimum of
effort required on the part of the developer.
GameCODA 2.0 signals the first time that applications written in OpenAL
language can run on game consoles as well as the PC, and with advanced audio
functionality. For PC game development, GameCODA 2.0 is being optimized to
produce the most compelling audio playback on the award-winning Creative Sound
Blaster(R) Audigy(R) family of sound cards.
"We were very impressed with the depth of features that GameCODA provides
to the audio in our games," said Tim Rance, director at Lionhead Studios. "In
particular, its extremely full coverage at the hardware layer allowed us to
build a complex and rich audio environment for our first Xbox(R) game title,
'Fable(TM),' being published by Microsoft this summer."
GameCODA Plus allows developers to add on one or more modules that
complement GameCODA 2.0. Creative's ISACT Production Studio and Fonix voice
recognition technology are both available to choose from.
"Creative has long been the leader in audio on the PC, and our acquisition
of Sensaura enables us to broaden our expertise to game consoles," said
George Thorn, director of multimedia and developer relations at Creative.
"The union of Creative's ISACT audio composition and playback system together
with Sensaura's GameCODA 2.0 and CAGE Producer content management system
results in an extremely powerful cross-platform audio solution, enabling game
developers to create truly compelling interactive audio experiences on all the
leading game consoles as well as PCs."
"We are happy to be associating our voice recognition technology with
GameCODA, a product representative of high quality audio," said Tim K. Hong,
vice president of Fonix. "Our high-quality solution which allows game
developers to implement voice commands without requiring large amounts of
memory nicely complements Sensaura's offering."
GameCODA 2.0 is fully compatible with solutions from leading middleware
providers such as Criterion Software, NDL, Havok, Fonix and Vicarious Visions.
This powerful audio creation solution is available for major console gaming
platforms such as Microsoft(R) Xbox(R), Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo
GameCube(R) and for PCs, with support being extended to Macintosh OS X and
Pocket PC as well as to next generation gaming hardware.
ISACT
Originally announced at the 2003 Game Developers Conference, Creative
ISACT introduced a revolutionary way for composers to create and render
interactive 3D content. The ISACT Production Studio provides a powerful
authoring tool for creating interactive, multi-channel, 3D spatialized music
and sound effects for games and other multimedia applications. Creative has
enhanced ISACT for the 2004 Game Developers Conference by adding additional
run-time features and web page functionality.
The ISACT Production Studio places powerful audio creation capabilities in
the hands of sound designers, enabling them to interact directly with audio to
determine sound variables in a clean, professional and easy-to-use interface.
The web plug-in delivers interactive sound to websites, creating an immersive
web surfing experience for the end user.
ISACT is slated for availability in May of this year, either as a
stand-alone system for PC audio development, or as an add-on module with
GameCODA Plus for cross-platform audio capability. For more information about
Creative audio creation technologies, visit http://developer.creative.com .
About Sensaura
Sensaura (http://www.sensaura.com) is at the forefront of audio research, both in
the PC and the consumer electronics market. Over 60% of the PC audio chip
market worldwide license Sensaura's 3DPA technology. In addition, Sensaura
provides audio middleware to the game developer market, supporting all the
major platforms including the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo
GameCube platforms. Sensaura is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative
Technology Ltd.
About Creative
Creative is a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC
users. Famous for its Sound Blaster(R) sound cards and for launching the
multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC
platform with products like its highly acclaimed NOMAD(R) Jukebox MP3 player.
Creative's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and
services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality
digital entertainment -- anytime, anywhere.
This announcement relates to products launched in the United States. The
product names, prices and availability are subject to change without notice
and may differ elsewhere in the world according to local factors and
requirements. GameCODA, Sound Blaster, Audigy and OpenAL are registered
trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. in the United States and/or other
countries. NOMAD is a registered trademark of Aonix and is used under
license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective property
owners.
SOURCE Creative Technology Ltd.
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Related links:
http://www.creative.com
CONTACT:
Karen Hoskins of Creative Labs, Inc.,
+1-408-546-6275, or khoskins@creativelabs.com
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